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“Why?” I stopped with my hand on the railing. “I just saw her at the beach. She had her car.” And I wasn’t interested in her. Sure, we messed around sometimes, but it was casual. She kept trying to make a play for something serious, and I’d told her more than once I didn’t want to date her or anyone else.
“I don’t know. Something about dropping it off for an oil change, I think. I heard that secondhand from Jess.”
“Whatever.” It seemed as though I would have to tell Piper that I wasn’t interested in a committed relationship with her again. “But yeah. I’ll go too.”
Damon showered and changed, and I did the same. Fifteen minutes later, we were back in my SUV and on our way to Piper’s. How I got talked into picking her up was beyond me. I attributed it to desperation to escape the house, a coping mechanism Damon and I used when our parents fought.
I turned left onto the block where Piper lived, and my phone rang. I hit the button to connect the call, and we both flinched as Mom’s hysterical voice blared through the speakers.
“Cole”—she hiccupped through my name—“h-he left.”
“He has a conference, Mom. He said he would be back on Sunday.”Goddammit. What a prick. “Isn’t Janelle there?”
“N-no.”
What the hell?“Dad said she would be here this weekend.”
“It’s just me in the house.”
I could already see how the night would go. If I went to the Coffee Cabana, she would call me nonstop, and to be honest, I was worried that her mental health was declining. “I’m coming home.” I disconnected the call and turned the car around.
“What the hell, man?” Damon groused. “I don’t want to go home. All she’s going to do is whine about Dad. It’s the same thing every time he has to work outside regular nine-to-five hours.”
“She’s losing her shit again. I’m going back to deal with this, even if you and Dad can’t be bothered.”
We were still arguing when I pulled into the driveway of our house.
“Seriously? You’re bailing on me when I need a ride? That’s bullshit.”
“It’s not my fault you’re not old enough to drive.”
“Fuck you. I am old enough. It’s Mom’s fault I don’t have my license. She hasn’t added me to the car insurance policy and won’t take me to sign the DMV form because she’s too busy making everything about herself.”
Christ. I wasn’t going to insist that he stay home. Mom didn’t need his shitty attitude. “Why didn’t you ask Dad, then?” That was on him. Dad’s secretary would have handled it.
Damon shoved his way out of the car and stormed over to the front steps, angrily texting someone, probably asking for a ride. Whatever. I went into the house, taking the stairs two at a time to Mom’s room. I found her crumpled on her bed, sobbing amidst a sea of used Kleenex.
Grabbing a clean tissue, I gathered the others and swept them into the wastebasket by the side of her bed before sitting beside her and pulling her into my arms. “It’s gonna be okay.” I held her for a few minutes while she cried and eventually calmed down.
“I hate that he leaves me and goes to whoever she is.”
“It’s only work, Mom. He’s not with anyone else.” But we both knew that he was. I had to maintain his lie because she was too fragile to handle me telling her she should leave him. No one deserved to be in a marriage where their partner cheated.
My parents’ relationship was one of the reasons I had broken things off with Piper. I didn’t love her, but I knew she loved me. Our situation reminded me too much of the hell Mom and Dad were trapped in because he did not return her feelings. I’d always been able to see that, and I had no doubt Mom could as well.
“Let’s watch a movie.” When she didn’t protest, I turned on the TV, got a comedy in the queue, and told her I would be back with drinks and snacks. I left her room and descended the stairs to the kitchen. While I made her favorite chamomile tea, I couldn’t shake my worry over her state of mind. If Dad didn’t come through this time, making changes so he could be present and faithful, things would get even uglier.
CHAPTER NINE
RILEY
The bell chimed as a large group of people entered the Coffee Cabana, where I worked the evening shift. I recognized a few from the beach party I’d crashed. The group of them still looked like they belonged to the Barbie and Ken Club.
“What can I get for you?” I asked when the girls approached the counter. I was supposed to smile and be friendly, but why? These chicks wouldn’t notice.
Just like I thought, not a single one of the girls spared me a glance while they rattled off their complicated drink orders at a rapid-fire pace. I plugged in the orders while George, the barista, started making the drinks behind me. Then a guy who looked remarkably like Cole, but with black instead of dark-brown hair and blue rather than green eyes, stepped forward. His gaze drilled into mine, and I stiffened. An intense aura vibrated around him, and I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me or if it was something else. All the hairs on my body stood at attention, and my skin itched with that too-familiar fight-or-flight response.
“What can I get for you?” I wanted him to stop looking at me. His intensity was too much.
