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Cole steeled himself anyway.
“Did I just see what I thought I saw on TalkieTalk?” West hissed.
Cole was dumbfounded. “You saw… what?”
“I’m not an idiot, Cole. That little video of you and Eva is going viral as we speak.” He held up his phone.
“What? How?”
“It’s this little thing called social media.” A fuzzy video played on West’s phone. Cole could barely make anything out of it. “I know you’re a caveman, butthisis what is called a livestream.”
“I know what a livestream is,” Cole snapped back.
“Do you? Well, Eva can do them in her sleep. She probably thought that she was so generous sharing herlove lifewith her closest two hundred million friends!”
Great! He’d underestimated Eva’s addiction to her phone. The thought that she was some TalkieTalk influencer desperate to give her life meaning by feeding the rabid followers stalking her every move slightly diminished that strange spell that she’d cast over him earlier, at least for a second, then his emotions flooded over him again when he remembered the feel of holding her close. Cole needed to dunk his head in the horse trough. He wassonot in his right mind.
Cole held his hands up in his defense. “That was not my fault.”
“Big strong man like you and it isn’t your fault?” West snarled. “You couldn’t hold her back,babybrother?”
There was no getting out of this. Cole would be the next brother to feel West’s wrath. He probably deserved it, at least way more than Hudson ever did.
“She said she was waiting forme,” West snarled. He consulted the video on his phone. “She told all of hertwo hundred millionviewersso far that she was waiting for me.”
“I’m sorry. I…”
“You realize it doesn’t matter if she kissed you,” West said. “It’s me that Trout’s going to go after. Do you know what he’s going to do?”
This didn’t sound like jealousy in the least bit. It almost sounded like… West didn’t really care about her at all! He only cared about getting into trouble with his boss.
“What are you doing, man?” Cole let his temper take over. He might be in the wrong, but West was involved in some weird game if he was playing with Eva’s emotions while walking a tightrope with her father; almost like he was trying to transport a live bomb by bringing her home. “You threw all your responsibilities on me—your kids, your dog,andyour–your…” Fake girlfriend? Cole didn’t know anymore, but none of this would’ve happened if West had just cared enough to keep an eye on all the dynamite that he was juggling. “What did you think would happen?”
“Notthis! I couldn’t trust you for an hour?”
“I messed up, okay?” Cole said. “I’m just as stupid as you think that I am, but you’re using everybody. You treat your family worse than your staff—we’re not even people to you, are we? And what game are you playing with Eva? Do you even see yourself?”
West’s phone vibrated with a call. His brother’s eyes narrowed on Cole before he pointed a warning finger at him. “Don’t say anything.” He picked up the call. “Trout!” His voice immediately transformed to the smooth businessman. “What can I do for you?”
The complaints on the other end were muffled, but it was clear that Trout was angry.
West swallowed. “You saw that, huh? I didn’t take you for a TalkieTalk follower. Oh, Miriam showed you, huh, interesting.”
Was that Cole’s imagination or was West sweating?
His brother pulled at his tie. “Yes, you got me. I… love her.” He’d practically choked that out. Cole’s mouth dropped, even as West’s eyes shifted to him with a warning glare. “Well, I’m glad you feel that way. Me too. Yeah, yeah, just waiting on her to–to… yeah. You know how she is, wants everything perfect.”
He waited while the angry voice chewed him out again.
“It will be,” West agreed. “We want the same thing—I want your little girl to be happy more than anything.”
West hung up the phone, staring at it wordlessly.
“Did he sack you?” Cole asked quietly.
“Shut up,” West muttered. He slid his phone into his pocket and turned. “Eva?” he called. “Eva?”
It was like he was calling a dog. “What are you doing?” Cole asked under his breath.
