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It’s clear he’s had more than a few drinks tonight. I laugh, along with Hope and Harlow. The others immediately start teasing the big man. Which leads to them teasing Claire about taking a call from a boy during girls’ night out.
“You’re breaking the rules!” Quinn yells.
“I see Ronan,” Claire taunts.
“So?” Quinn says, acting unbothered.
“Who’s he talking to?” Claire squints at the screen. “She’s cute.”
“Hold up!” Quinn says, reaching for the phone. “Let me see this shit.”
Claire puts up a slight resistance, but she eventually lets Quinn have the phone, laughing as Garrett says something about motion sickness. Quinn ignores him and studies the screen for a moment before rolling her eyes.
“That’s just Wyatt,” she says.
Claire shrugs. “Must have been the long hair that threw me off.”
“Let me see,” Hope says, holding out a hand.
“You all do you know you live with them, right?” I say, shaking my head at their antics.
Harlow shrugs. “So? Let me know if you see Linc,” she tells Hope.
Soon, all the women are gathered around the phone in Hope’s hand as they shout instructions to Garrett to show them what each man is doing. Even Piper is in on it, waving and smiling at Luke when he shows up on the screen. I roll my eyes at them. A bunch of grown women making fools of themselves on a video call, trying to catch a glimpse of a man who’s already theirs. It’s silly. But I guess it’s sweet. They’re all so clearly in love. It makes me wonder if I’ll ever find something like that.
“Hey, there’s Cole!” Piper says.
“Who’s the blonde chick?” Quinn asks.
“Who knows?” Harlow says, laughing.
“Looks like someone might get lucky tonight,” Claire teases.
The words hit me like a bullet to the chest. Cole is with another woman. I know I don’t have any right to hate that fact, but I do. I hate that he’s with someone else. I hate that he might be attracted to her or that he might leave the bar with her. Would he sleep with someone else? It’s been six weeks since we ended our fling. That’s plenty of time to move on. Haven’t I been dating other people this whole time? It’s not fair of me to wonder if he’s moved on when that’s what I’ve been trying to do this whole time. It wasn’t until this morning that I realized how pointless it was. Because I know now that it didn’t work. I’m still not over Cole and whatever it is I feel for him. But I’m worried I realized it too late.
I tell myself not to look at the phone screen. It’s not my business. And anyway, it won’t change anything. If Cole is going to sleep with someone else tonight, I can’t stop him. And knowing about it won’t change a thing. It will only hurt me more. But what I know I should do wars with my need to see for myself and I give in, leaning over Piper’s shoulder to see the phone in her hand.
I spot Cole instantly. He’s standing near a bar with some tiny, blonde thing standing entirely too close to him. As I watch, he leans in close to her and I stop breathing. The pain flares in my chest, so fast and so intense that I wish I could look away. He’s going to kiss her. He’s going to kiss some random girl he met at a bar and I’m going to be stuck watching it. And there’s not a damned thing I can do about it. I ignore the little voice saying that he once did far more with me back when I was just some woman he met at a bar.
My eyes are glued to the phone screen as Cole says something to the girl and she smiles up at him adoringly. I’ve never been a violent person, but the urge to punch something is strong in my mind right now. My teeth are clenched so hard my jaw hurts and there’s a dull ache moving up the back of my neck from holding myself so rigid as I stand there watching. Cole’s hand wraps around the blonde’s and he lifts it to his lips. Then his eyes look beyond the woman to someone off to the left of the camera and his free hand comes up to flip the middle finger at someone. The men all erupt into laughter and jeers as the image on the screen begins to shake. I see the woman walk over to Luke and hold out her hand. He says something that makes her laugh as he reaches into his pocket and hands her something that looks like cash.
“What just happened?” Piper says. “Who is that?”
Garrett is still laughing as he tries to explain in a slightly slurred voice. “Luke bet that girl she couldn’t get Cole to kiss her.” He laughs again. “But he didn’t say where he had to kiss her.”
I take a deep breath and relax my jaw as I turn away from the phone and chug an entire bottle of water as the others laugh and talk about what we’d just seen. But I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it. I keep seeing Cole as he’d stood there, his mouth inches from hers, looking for all the world as if he was about to kiss her.
Get a grip, Layna,I tell myself.Why do you care who he kisses?
That question plays on repeat in my head for the rest of the night. It’s all I can think of as I smile and dance with the others, pretending everything is normal. I ponder it as I gather up everyone at the end of the night and make sure everyone is back on the bus. As we roll through the dark city streets on our way back to the hotel, it’s the only question in my mind. When I leave Piper in her hotel room to go back to mine, it’s still all I can think of.
Why do you care who he kisses?
As I strip off my clothes and reach for my pajamas, I finally let the answer follow. I finally let myself think the thought I’ve been hiding from for so long.
Because you still want him.
Chapter 29
