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Cole smiled slightly, then positioned the final stool along the bar. Aria couldn’t understand why he looked at her like that, as though he was a puppy dog. She walked around the bar and glared at him, wanting to demand what was going on. Maybe the girl in the miniskirt had abandoned him.
“Do you want to get pizza later?” Cole asked, palming the back of his neck.
Aria shrugged. “Do you?”
Cole dropped his gaze, clearly disappointed. Aria wavered between wanting to show how hurt she’d been and wanting to throw herself over the bar and hug him.
But before she could do either of those things, Aria found herself tugging the mysterious envelope from her back pocket and placing it on the counter between them. “I got this in the mail. No return address. It’s really weird.”
Cole frowned and removed the newspaper clipping from within.
“It’s my mom,” Aria explained, pointing to the young woman in the photograph. “But she never told me she went to my university nor that she was an architect. I’ve never even heard her mention she liked the look of a building!”
Cole furrowed his brow, curious. “Did you call and ask her about it?”
Aria blushed. “We’re not really talking.” The truth was that Aria just wasn’t up to talking to her mother, not after everything that had happened. “I researched online, but there’s nothing.”
“I bet they have records at the university,” Cole said simply.
“Yeah. But what would I get out of seeing them? Just more proof that my mother was withholding information from me all these years?”
“I don’t know,” Cole said. “Don’t you want to see what your mom used to work on? Who she used to be before she became a mother?”
Aria softened at the sentiment. In truth, she’d never really gotten to know who her mother was behind the dark shadow of her father, who ruled everything.
“I haven’t been back to campus since before the sailing trip,” Aria said.
“Weren’t you supposed to…” Cole trailed off, not sure if he should finish.
“Yeah. I was supposed to graduate last weekend,” Aria muttered. “I feel conflicted about the whole thing, to tell you the truth.”
Aria’s heart swelled at the admittance. It was a rare thing for her to tell anyone the truth.
Cole’s face broke open with his smile. “I’m up for an adventure if you are.”
“What do you mean?” Aria gaped at him.
“Savannah is just down the coast.”
“It’s not just down the coast. It’s way down there,” Aria said. “And I haven’t been back on a boat since everything that happened.”
Cole waved his hand. “I promise that what happened in the Caribbean won’t happen again. The circumstances are different now. And it’ll just be the two of us. We can stop when we’re tired and sleep in whatever harbor we please.”
What Cole described was perhaps the most romantic expedition Aria had ever heard of. She peered into his eyes, trying to find something in there— something that proved he loved her. But after seven months of seeing one another nearly every day, she felt even further from being able to read him than ever before.
“I have to work,” Aria heard herself protest.
“Ask for it off,” Cole insisted, then lowered his voice, glancing around. “And, Aria. It’s not like your future is in this bar, anyway. Don’t cling to it.”
Aria knew he was right.
That evening, she requested a week off of work and called Carmella to ensure she had a babysitter to cover her shifts. When Carmella asked Aria where she was headed, Aria explained, “Cole and I are going on a sailing trip,” and Carmella shrieked with excitement.
“I’m sorry,” Carmella said. “It just sounds so romantic.”
“We’re just friends,” Aria corrected, her cheeks burning.
“Right. I know that. But being out in the wind and the sun, surrounded by all that ocean, sounds romantic. That’s all I mean,” Carmella said hurriedly.
