“I could eat,” he said with a grin, watchingme as I threw on his T-shirt and my pajama shorts.
“What if I wasgonnause that?” he asked with a raised brow.
I looked down at the shirt and thenback up at him with a slow smile. “Then I’d say you’re out of luck,” I said andshrugged, squealing as he swatted my ass. He threw his jeans back on andfollowed me out to the kitchen and sat at the counter as I whipped us up somesandwiches.
“Were you always this feisty?” heasked, trying to suppress a laugh as I handed him his food.
I bit my lip thinking that over and heburst out laughing. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said as he chuckled.
“Well, it depends on who you ask,” Ianswered defensively. “If you could have asked my dad, he would have said yes.”I smiled fondly. “But with any guys I dated, then no,” I shook my head.
Cole’s brows rose incredulously. “SoI’m the lucky one then, huh?” he teased.
I blushed furiously and his expressionwarmed. “What?” he asked gently. “What’s with the blushing?”
I shrugged. “I guess with everyoneelse I just didn’t care enough or something,” I muttered feeling embarrassed.“I only ever threw attitude around my family or the guys in the club. People whoI knew would be around for a while,” I gulped, unable to believe I’d justadmitted that.
I prepared myself for him to freak outand run as quickly as possible out the front door.
Instead he smiled at me from acrossthe bar. “Well then I really am the lucky one aren’t I?” he winked.
God, was he for real?
“What was your dad like?” he asked asI remained across from him, eating my sandwich standing up.
There were so many ways to answer thatquestion I didn’t know how to start. “He was strong, loyal, and really fuckingstrict,” I said as I laughed. “Which is probably why I didn’t date much. Ithink the only reason he let Jake near me is that we’d known each other sincewe were in diapers,” I said thoughtfully. “When my mom died he took hisposition as a solo parent extremely seriously. He was really involved ineverything I did. Whenever I had a school play or a ballet recital he and mostof the guys from the club would show up.” I laughed again. “It was quite apicture, bikers and little ballerinas.”
“But I put him through his paces to besure. I had my own mind from a young age. He would holler at me that I wasmaking him prematurely gray,” I continued with a smile. I hadn’t talked about mydad in a while, and it felt nice even though it was sad. “He always said atleast he’d had plenty of practice because I’d learned from the master, mymother.”
“She was a feisty one too, huh?” heasked gently. He’d stopped eating and was watching me with great interest.
“Yeah, I don’t remember her well,” Iswallowed audibly. “Sorry, I don’t talk about this stuff much,” I apologizedfor my obvious emotion.
“Don’t apologize,” he said as he shookhis head, his eyes warm with compassion.
I visibly shook it off and continued. “Iwas just nine when she died. I remember bits and pieces. But mostly I rememberher hair. It was red and wild like mine, and it would fall all around me whenshe tucked me in,” I recalled, unable to stop tears from filling my eyes.
He stood immediately and came aroundthe bar, stopping in front of me and taking me in his arms.
“I just…I had a family, not just myparents but the club, too,” I whispered hoarsely. “I don’t think I’ll ever getused to the loss of it all,” I choked.
“You might not, but you have me,” hedecreed.
“We’ve known each other for a veryshort time Cole,” I reminded him.
“You have me,” he stated again,pulling me tighter.
I sighed and allowed myself toconsider the possibility that it might be true.I didn’t have a great history of luck andI wasn’t ready to consider that my luck might be changing since I’d met Cole.
After a few moments, I gently pushedhim away to collect myself and he went to sit back down, sensing that I neededmy space.
“Sal and Kat must be hitting it off,”I surmised, changing the subject. It was getting pretty late and I hadn’t heardfrom her.
“Must be,” he agreed.
“Is he someone I should be okay withmy best friend having a crush on?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he replied simply.
