Rescue Me(44)

She called a cab, not even bothering to tell Brandon she was leaving. She would catch the first available flight. The further away she was from Sunset Bay, the sooner she could get back to her life and attempt to put the pieces back together.

***





"Where is she?" Cole demanded, bursting into Brandon's office early the next morning. He'd been unable to sleep all night, wondering how he could fix things. If he should even try to fix this.

He couldn't let her leave without at least telling her that their time together had meant more to him than just sex. Even if that's all it had meant to her.

But when he'd gone to her room just after sunrise, she hadn't answered the door, even though he'd banged on it so loudly that he feared the nearby occupants might call security on him.

Brandon lifted his head from his computer wearily, as if he hadn't slept much either. "She's gone."

"What do you mean she's gone?" he exploded.

"Exactly that. She didn't tell me either. I got a text from her early this morning saying she was back in New York and that she doesn't want to talk to me until she's ready."

Cole sank into the chair and dropped his head into his palms. He'd lost his chance to tell her. He didn't have any way to contact her and Brandon sure as hell wasn't going tell him.

After a moment, he lifted his head and stared at Brandon. "It's not what you think it was."

Brandon's jaw twitched, but he didn't say anything, studying Cole carefully.

"I care about her. Like, really care about her. I never wanted to hurt her."

Brandon drew his brows together and frowned. "You look terrible."

Cole bit out a harsh laugh. "Not nearly as bad as I feel," he said, rubbing his bruised jaw. "You pack a hell of a punch, man."

"I can't say that I'm sorry." He didn't look like he regretted it either.

"I deserved some of that. But, man, the things you said. Is that really what people think of me? What you think of me?"

"Yes and no."

"What the hell does that mean?"

Brandon sighed, leaning back with his hands behind his head. "You know your reputation as well as I do. And you can't deny that you've never spent more than a night with the same woman since Jessie."

"She did a number on me," he said, referring to Meredith. "And now I don't know that I'll ever be the same."

"You really do care about her." Brandon stated it as a fact, a curious expression crossing his face.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"What are you going to do about it?"

Cole shook his head. "Don't think there's much I can do at this point. I just wanted to tell her before she left." He paused, feeling ridiculous having this conversation with the man who'd wanted to kill him less than twelve hours earlier. "I wanted her to know that it meant something to me."

He got up to leave, stopping at the door and searching Brandon's face. "I guess that job offer is off the table."

Brandon pursed his lips and waited a long moment before responding. "No matter what happened or what was said, I'm always here for you. And the job is too."

Cole was stunned. He hadn't expected that. And he had no idea what to do with it.





CHAPTER TWELVE



Meredith reviewed what felt like the hundredth financial statement since she'd returned from Florida. She groaned and pushed the stack of files to the side of her desk. Staring at her computer screen, she watched old beach pictures scroll across.

She couldn't focus. It had been two weeks and her thoughts were still consumed with memories of Cole. He was even in her dreams, and they were frustratingly vivid. What was she supposed to do? How could she get back to real life when every waking moment was so full of what she'd had and lost?

But she'd never really had it. It was a fantasy, just as she'd told herself a million times. Their time together was a moment frozen in time in a perfect world that really had been a dream. Everything she'd imagined between them hadn't been based in reality. Except her feelings. They were fully alive and real, persistently stalking her through the mundane tasks of her job.

Tasks she was pointedly avoiding, but knew she had to deal with. She blew out her breath in a huff. This job. It was miserable. Somehow even more miserable than her previous one. She'd thought the promotion would take her further along the path she wanted, but she was starting to realize she wasn't even on the right path to begin with.

It was too late for regrets. This was where she was headed, her future spread before her in an endless cycle of monotony. Day in and day out of studying numbers and giving financial advice to people that were just as boring as the files with their names on them.

A knock on her office door brought her attention back to the moment. She attempted to give her assistant a smile, but she knew it was halfhearted.

"We're going out tonight after work and wondered if you wanted to join us," Lisa said.

Yet another round of superficial work friends that didn't really get her, wanting to have superficial relationships. But what else did she have to do? Go home and eat ice cream and be miserable by herself? At least if she went out with them, it would delay the inevitable climb into her empty bed with nothing but her memories.