Page 50 of The Moment I Knew

I hesitated, then glanced back at the froyo shop. “I’m sorry you got banned.”

That earned me a real smile. “I think I’ll survive. Now come on—you’re freezing.”

I looked down at my phone one last time. Calling Sebastian would be easier. Cleaner. But it would take time, and Cole was already here, waiting. Dragging my brother out on a Saturday night, likely away from his girlfriend, just to save myself an explanation felt… unnecessary.

So I stood and followed him toward the car.

“Yeah,” Cole said. “Let’s go.”

I stopped short at the passenger door, suddenly hyperaware of where I was about to sit. The front seat felt different. Like crossing some invisible line I hadn’t agreed to yet.

I hesitated too long. Cole stepped in smoothly, pulling the door open before I could make up my mind. He leaned against it casually, one arm resting along the top, looking down at me with raised eyebrows like this was the most obvious thing in the world.

“In,” he said.

I exhaled and did as I was told.

He closed the door gently and circled around to the driver’s side. A moment later, we were pulling away from the curb.

“You don’t know where I live,” I said.

“I know,” he replied. “I’ll park down the street and then I can walk you from there. Your family will probably have less questions if I’m pulling up into their driveway, right?”

It hadn’t even occurred to me that my family might have questions. I wondered whether they would’ve had the same ones if Mitch had dropped me off—if they’d seen the sleek black sports car instead of Cole’s beat-up sedan with the dented door and the rattling engine. I wasn’t sure if they would or not. I wasn’t even sure if they were home, but I nodded in response to Cole’s words anyway.

“Okay,” I said.

The ride to my street was mostly silent. I kept glancing over at Cole, half-expecting to realize this wasn’t real—that I’d somehow gotten mixed up in the fight and was actually unconscious on the pavement somewhere. That this was all just my brain trying to make sense of it. Something that would explain why none of this felt like it added up.

Cole’s knuckles were scraped raw where the skin had split, dried blood dark against his fingers. There was a cut along his cheekbone too, shallow but angry red, and his jaw was already starting to bruise. He didn’t seem to notice any of it. Or maybe he was just pretending not to.

We drove in comfortable silence until we got to my street. Cole put the car in park, then quickly came around to my door. I sat in silence for so long that he extended a hand to me.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s just… you opened the door for me.”

“I did.”

It was amazing to me that Mitch had tried for so long to get me to agree to a date only to not walk me to the car or open my door, and here was Cole, just giving me a ride home from said terrible date, and his instinct was to help me out of the car. I smiled slightly and slid my hand in his. And then it was just me and Cole standing alone on the sidewalk. It took me a second to realize that he had no idea which house was mine from here, so I started walking. He fell into step beside me almost immediately.

“Let me ask you something,” he said.

“Shoot,” I replied, keeping my eyes forward.

“I see you walking by the coffee shop all the time,” he said. “You always get out of some guy’s car in that parking lot across the street, then you walk past the shop. You’ve been doing it for months. Weeks.”

My heart jumped at the mention of that car. I glanced at him. “Weeks? You’ve been stalking me longer than I thought.”

He stared back at me flatly. “A little hard not to notice you, Imogen.”

Then, before I could decide whether to be flattered or annoyed, he kept going. “So what is it? Meeting up with the secret lover?” He waggled his eyebrows. I gagged.

“Absolutely not. And if I was, do you really think I’d be going out with Mitch?”

He shrugged. “Perfect cover story.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, that cover story is completely wrong. I’m just meeting up with a—” I paused, knowing I couldn’t exactly say my dad without opening an entirely different can of worms. “A friend my family doesn’t really support me seeing. We meet in the parking lot. Less questions.”