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I sat on the edge of the bed, waiting to hear from her.
Yep. Good morning.
Any chance you can go shopping?
When and where?
I smiled. Now and at Tassels
I’ll pick you up in ten minutes.
Thanks. See you soon. Room 23.
I walked over to the bathroom. I could at least brush my teeth and put on some makeup before facing the outside duo again. I had time to kill.
“So, you and Cole, really?” Sasha’s arms were weighted down with sundresses.
“Yeah, really.” I knew I was blushing. I held up the strapless black dress in the mirror I had eyed on my first trip to the store. It was cute and I was glad Lisa hadn’t sold out of my size.
“Now you girls just holler if you need anything. Anything.” Lisa sat behind the counter with a cup of coffee. Sasha informed me that the surf shop opened early every morning of spring break, eager to catch any break-of-dawn surfer customers.
My new friend pulled a purple sun hat from the wall. “I could tell the other night at the bonfire. You two had that look.”
“What look is that?” I pulled the dress away from my body.
“That we’re-going-to-devour-each-other look.” Sasha laughed.
Shit. It was that obvious?
“I’ve known Cole since he moved back.”
I turned toward her. I felt a little pit of jealousy starting to form. “Oh. Were you a couple or something?” I was praying her answer was no.
“Cole and me? No. He’s more like an older brother. A hot older brother.” She giggled.
I felt a pit in my stomach. “Ok. So I need to confess something.”
“What is it?”
“He’s actually my older brother’s best friend.” I cringed.
“What?” Sasha stared at me. “You two know each other?
I nodded. “Yeah, but he’d kill us.”
“You must really like him.” Sasha had switched from the purple hat to a purple pair of sunglasses.
“I don’t know what it is. But, yes. For the past ten years I’ve thought Cole Thomas was the hottest guy on the planet. I didn’t expect this.”
We were bonding over shopping, a common girl practice, but I didn’t think I could share with Sasha all of the little things Cole did that stole my breath. Like the way his eyes could change from stormy to sexy when he was trying to figure out how to fix something, or how he kissed the side of my neck and stirred the heat under my skin, or how he was so worried about me he followed me to Bottoms Up. I covered my mouth, realizing I had sighed audibly.
“Cole’s a good guy. He’s just hard to get to know sometimes. He can be sort of stubborn.”
“Tell me about it.” I thought about how many tries it took for me to convince him to let me help with the financials and how he held off giving in to the attraction between us.
“He’s a total sweetheart. However, he’s dealing with a lot right now. I think he just takes everything so seriously. It’s like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. To be honest, I haven’t seen him smile much since his grandfather died. It hit him really hard.”
I ducked into the dressing room with the dresses I had pulled from the racks. I thought about a world where Cole didn’t smile. That was an utterly depressing thought.
