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My forehead creases in confusion and I frown up at him with an expression of total bewilderment. “Why do you keep talking about Aiden?”
“Because he's your boyfriend?”
“Um, no.” I shake my head. “No, he isn't.”
Cole's mouth falls open, his expression now just as confused as my own. “But I read the article...”
“Goddamn Elena.” I drop my head into my hands as I curse out my manager. “She's been wanting Aiden and me to agree to a fake relationship for months. She thought it would be good for my image or whatever. I said no, but I guess she's taken things into her own hands.”
“Hold up.” Cole's hands find their way back onto my body, his touch noticeably less restrained than before. He holds me on either side of my ribcage, his thumbs stroking back and forth across the underside of my breasts. “You're really not dating that jackass?”
“No.”
“You dating anyone?”
I shake my head.
He seems to think on that for a moment, his tongue dipping out to trace the line of his lower lip. Then, his hands drop to his sides and he turns away, leaving me watching his back with a crushing kind of disappointment.
But he doesn’t leave the bathroom.
And I realize that I have it all wrong.
Because he tugs on the back of his t-shirt, pulling it over his head in the way only men know how to do. His pants go next as he shucks them down his legs. And then wordlessly, without even glancing back in my direction, he walks over to the bathtub and climbs in.
* * *
Water ebbs gentle and hot against my flesh as I lie between Cole's legs in the bathtub. We're both in our underwear, a stipulation he insisted upon since he didn't feel it appropriate to get naked with me after I'd just told him something so vulnerable. I told him I didn't want him to treat me with kid gloves, but alas, here we are.
It's dizzying, this change that's happened between us.
It's like tectonic plates shifting or a sudden change in the tide. Only an hour ago, we were yelling at each other across the living room and now our slippery bodies are pressed against each other, bare except for the thin scraps of sodden material between us. There's an unmistakable hardness digging into my back, but neither of us acknowledge it.
“What happens now?” Cole asks, his deep voice echoing like low rumbles of thunder.
“I don't know,” I whisper. “I fly to New York next week for a fundraising event. I'm filming a commercial while I'm out there too. Then I'll have some time off before the award season starts.”
He's quiet for a long while, his fingers tapping rhythmically against the side of the tub. It's a kind of unspoken truth we're both aware of that once I board that flight next week, there's no telling the next time I'll be back here. Especially now that my mom is staying with my grandmother for a while. With her gone and my daddy dead, there's no reason for me to return to Tupelo.
It's a fact that threatens to make me start sobbing again if I think too much about it.
“Thea?” My name is a breath of hesitance spoken softly into my ear. “I don't know what this means, but the idea of you getting on that plane and not coming back for another five years makes me really fucking sad.”
I screw my eyes shut. “I thought you hated me.”
He sighs. “I never hated you.”
“You acted like you did.”
“Because I was mad at you for leaving me behind.” He sucks in a sharp breath. “But that was before I knew what really happened.”
“So, you're not mad at me anymore?”
He releases a dark and quiet laugh. “Oh, princess, I'm still mad at you. You should have told me six years ago, but I understand why you didn't.”
“I'm sorry,” I whisper, saltwater stinging my eyes once more. I'm surprised I even have any tears left to cry.
“Don't be sorry.” He presses a kiss to the back of my head. “It ain't no one's fault but the bastard who touched you and your daddy for making you believe different.”
