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I hope she’s wrong, but the look on his face when he sees us together is unmistakable. Cole has feelings for me.
Feelings that I can’t afford for him to have.
So I do the only thing I can.
“Thank you for the night, Mimi.”
Letting go of her hand, I walk right out the door.
And then I go home.
Without Cole.
10
COLE
Casper manages to avoid me for a week, and it’s turning me into a stalker.
She won’t answer the door or her phone either. All I get from her are the three little knocks against our shared wall when she wakes up and goes to bed.
Three little knocks to let me know she is okay, and like a fool, I wait for them every single day.
I finally resort to setting up shop in the backyard, hoping that she’ll run out of things to do to ignore me. Hoping that I’ll get a chance to talk to her. To find out what in the hell I did wrong. I’ve racked my brain over and over again about that night, but I’ve come up blank.
“Playing Peeping Tom again, I see.” Emmett is standing in my doorway with a beer in his hand and a scowl on his face. “Figured you’d enjoy some company.”
I cock an eyebrow at him before rolling my eyes and nodding toward the other Adirondack chair sitting on the cement slab that masquerades as a backyard.
“Her sister’s boyfriend is here,” he says needlessly.
As if there is a chance that I missed the other man’s arrival.
“Did you know Cassie?” The question comes out while I keep my eyes glued to Casper’s back door.
“Nope. Sori told me someone young had moved in about a year ago. But we never met her. I think she went to school or something, and she kept the strangest hours.”
“Huh.” I bite my lip, trying to put words to the thoughts running through my head. “Think we should buy out her townhouse to keep the neighborhood in the family?”
My cousin, the ever annoying businessman, just grunts. Despite that, I know he thinks it’s a good idea. Hell, he probably had it himself already but doesn’t want to admit that I might have had a good business thought.
“You’re really not gonna stop looking at that door, are you?”
Annoyed, I turn to look at him, showing all my irritation. “What do you want?”
“They’re not there.” He smiles. “I watched them leave when I was coming through the gate to head back here. They were talking about her sister’s bucket list and crossing another item off it.”
His words splash cold water on the frustration I’ve been holding on to since the night Casper walked out. I can’t blame her for that, nor can I find a way to be angry.
“You know it couldn’t go anywhere with her.” Emmett finishes his beer and then reaches into the cooler I have at my feet for another. “You’re leaving in, what? Gotta be less than two weeks now. Then what would happen?”
“I don’t know.” Admitting the truth burns, but Emmett is right. “I’m not used to being on this side of it.”
“Rejection, you mean?”
Emmett may have been joking, which is clear from his playful tone. Except his words cut deep.
“Yeah,” he keeps going when I don’t say anything in response. “That’s gotta be it. You’re just like the rest of us. You’ve never had to work for anything in your life when it comes to women. I think you needed this little wake-up call.”
