Page 57 of Cole

“I hate to interrupt the gossip, but my ears are burning,” Isabelle called from the stairs as she made her way back down.

She’d folded the borrowed clothes she’d put back on after we’d fallen back into bed earlier, and had them in a neatly piled stack in her hands.

“Should I take these and wash them?” she wondered.

I shook my head and tugged them away from her. Those wouldn’t be getting washed again. They were my souvenirs of our time together.

“Don’t worry about it. I know how to do laundry. I am an adult,” I told her.

She scoffed dismissively. “I know plenty of adult men who couldn’t say the same, my father included.”

“She’s talking about you,” Maddox muttered to Gage, and received a middle finger in return.

“I guess introductions are in order. Gage, Maddox, this is Isabelle.”

Isabelle, somehow ballsy and naive at the same time, walked right over to Maddox first and extended her hand to shake his. He complied with a surprised look on his face. Gage actually stood up to shake her hand next, points to him, grinning all the while.

“Nice to meet you, Isabelle. We’ve seen you at the clubhouse, though something tells me we’re about to see a lot more of you. What?” Gage protested as Maddox slapped him on the shoulder to shut him up.

“I’m walking her out. Alone,” I told Gage and Maddox as we passed them. Arianna headed upstairs to grab whatever she’d left, and I took Isabelle out onto the deck.

I tugged her toward me and slid my hands down her body, squeezing her ass as I went. She sank into my arms with satisfying abandon. She might have a wicked little tongue, but I knew she felt what I did when we touched. This kind of chemistry was undeniable, once-in-a-lifetime kind of shit.

“You don’t take care of me, Goldilocks. I take care of you. That’s how I work.” I leaned in and inhaled the hollow between her shoulder and ear. Fuck, that was good.

“Does that mean you’d do my laundry too?” she mused, and giggled when I sank my teeth lightly into her shoulder.

“Move in and see,” I heard myself murmur before I knew what I was saying.

What the fuck?

“Very funny,” Isabelle said, pulling back to look up at me. “I didn’t know you were a comedian.”

“I’m not. I’m really not,” I muttered, struck by my own words. What the hell was I even thinking?

“Sorry, I really need to get back to town.” Arianna’s voice was an anchor, dragging me back to the ground, sending me stepping back from Isabelle and the wild direction of my thoughts.

Isabelle turned to see her friend, her cheeks redder than ever.

“Me too! We were just… saying goodbye,” she said lamely, avoiding my eyes. Hell, it was awkward. I’d made it that way by losing my mind for a hot second.

As she turned away, I reached out and tugged her cell from the back pocket of her jeans.

I held it to her surprised face to unlock it, then quickly called my own number. My phone rang somewhere in my room. I saved my number to Isabelle’s phone and then handed it back to her.

She was watching me with narrowed eyes. “Most people ask if they want someone’s number.” Her tone was tart.

“I am not most people,” I told her firmly. I looked over at Arianna. “Get this girl back to campus. I’m sure she’s stressing about missing class,” I told Ari. My future sister-in-law raised an eyebrow at me, her smile far too knowing. It should annoy me, but strangely, it didn’t. I wanted her to know, I realized as I watched them leaving. I wanted someone to know what had happened here the last eighteen hours.

It made it more real.

nineteen

ISABELLE

Lily: I’m coming to pick you up. We need to get to the rink early.

Me: I can’t come. I think I’m sick.