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Cole shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks as he leaned his tall frame against the wall. “And what would you do if you found out I wasn’t wrong and Warren loves you and wants you back?” he asked, his voice low and deep.
She frowned. “He doesn’t. Damn!”
“What if he did?” he countered. “Would you still take the job?”
“Yes,” she asserted.
He nodded in understanding. “At first, I hated the idea of you working for him because I was worried that something would happen. That you would betray me in a way I can swear I would never do to you...” he began. “But now, more than hating you being around him, I pity him because it’s cruel, Jillian, to be blind to his feelings for you and to continue to hang around him while actively ignoring the heart he wears on his sleeve. Hoping for more than friendship.”
“So now you’re looking out for Warren?” she asked in sarcasm and disbelief.
He shook his head. “I remembered the offer my mother made and how you had no clue that I had any feelings outside of sex for you,” he said, a chill entering his tone.
She swung between frustration with his assumptions and annoyance at him, clinging to the past. “I thought we were beyond that,” she said.
“So did I. I was wrong.”
Stunned.
That was the only word for how she felt at that moment.
They stared at one another. Cole looked away first.
That stung.
“Maybe I should give you some space,” she said, even as she desperately yearned for him to implore her not to go.
“Maybe we should give each other some space,” he countered.
That hurt.
It also spurred her to want to be away from him. Quickly.
She moved around the apartment, gathering her things and fighting not to let one single tear fall.
“What about the food?” he asked, still leaning against the wall from where he’d crushed her heart.
Jillian released a bitter laugh. “Please don’t push me to tell you what you can do with that food,” she snapped before snatching open the front door and leaving, wishing she could slam it closed.
She leaned against the door and hyperventilated, seeking control and not finding it.
The crash of dishes echoed through the solid wood and she froze at the shock. Turning, she pressed a hand to the door as she lowered her head.
What the hell just happened?
Ten
Two weeks later
“You ready, Cole?”
He looked up from the copies of Ionie’s medical bills for her care at the rehab facility. Bobbie Barnett had been able to retrieve the paperwork for him, along with the accurate information on where to send payment. “One sec,” he said as he opened his checkbook and paid in full the substantial bill that remained after the contribution by her medical insurance. He sealed the envelope and left it in his tray for outgoing mail that his assistant would ensure was handled.
In his and Jillian’s brief time in a formal relationship, Cole had forged a cute relationship with her grandmother, Ionie, and he no longer wanted that financial burden on her or her family. A minimal loss to him could change the very fiscal outlook of their lives, and that didn’t sit well with him.
And Jillian would be none the wiser. He had already included a request for anonymity.
They hadn’t spoken since that day in his condo, and the last thing he wanted was for her to believe his gesture was a move to reconcile. He missed her, but his doubts about her relationship with Warren lingered. Be it she was complicit in the man’s love for her or uncaring of it, neither was to his liking. Both hit too close to home with his own issues.
