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What part makes him an introvert?
Being king of the entire academy?
Public exposure?
Or perhaps the dirty talking he enjoyed so much?
‘I know he doesn’t show it.’ Mrs. Clayborne interrupted my thoughts. ‘Cole very rarely bonds with people, but when he does, he’s like a wolf. He does it for life. He’s very careful when it comes to the ones close to him, and even though he’s always surrounded by a lot of so-called friends, he doesn’t let anyone in. But you got in, haven’t you?’ She caught my hand in her own, giving it a little squeeze.
Maybe she was right, and he was an introvert from certain points of view. Not as much of an introvert as Ferris, but still one in his own way. Just because people were around him didn’t make them a part of his life.
Hearing her talk about the hospital took me back to the day I first woke up there. I didn’t like to think of that moment, but there was something I was forgetting about that day — Cole’s face. His beautiful cobalt eyes were so tired that he could hardly keep them open as the dark circles beneath them betrayed all the sleepless nights.
That made me special.
And that made me his.
The sacrifice he made to look after me was making his mother’s words true. I got into the very depths of his soul.
Mrs. Clayborne was right, Cole didn’t return until evening, and when he finally did, he was supporting a very intoxicated man on his shoulders— his father.
‘I’ll put him in the guest’s room,’ he muttered, dragging Mr. Clayborne a few feet along the hallway, then helping him get on the bed.
‘I’ll take it from here.’ His mother hurried to follow in his steps and take care of her husband.
‘Cole, go ahead and have dinner; you must be starving.’
‘I’m not hungry,’ he groaned, returning to the living room and throwing himself on the couch in a hopeless attempt to find some relief.
‘Are you okay?’ I sat down on the floor next to him.
I wanted to know what was wrong. And mostly, I wanted to help him fix whatever it may be.
‘I’m okay. I just need to time out for a second.’ He brought his palms over his forehead, trying to process what had just happened.
I had an idea about what was going on but couldn’t tell for sure. Most chances were, his father was gambling again.
‘Fucking bastard,’ he muttered a few minutes later, then quickly flashed me an uncomfortable look, like he even forgot I was there. Maybe it was best to leave, but he would never leave me that way if the situation was reversed.
Cole needed me, and I wasn’t going to let him down.
With gentle moves, I lifted my body to hover over him, catching him in an embrace. An embrace that turned into a trip to the couch.
Cole’s arms lifted me to join him, keeping me tightly fused to his taut chest.
‘Want to talk about?’ I asked, knowing that the chances that he would say anything about what just happened were slim.
Yet once again, Cole surprised me, and his words began spilling, trying to share with me a part of his pain. ‘What could I talk about? It’s always the same subject and the same person responsible— my father.’
‘What did he do?’
‘Nothing, except ruin us. I found him with a fake ID in one of Brax’s casinos.’
‘Why would he fake an ID? I’m pretty sure he’s over twenty-one.’ I tried to make fun of the circumstances since I couldn’t understand why he would fake his identity.
‘Brax gave a gambling interdiction on my father’s name in all of his casinos. So my dad got a fake ID. I found him wasted, without a single dime in his pockets. Not that he had much money to begin with. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that he can’t help himself. And that endangers both our family and our plan.’
‘Is there anything you could do about it?’
