Till Death(17)

Confused, I did what I felt like I’d been doing since I saw him in the dining room. I simply gaped at him.

He scooted toward me, stopping just short of his knees touching mine. Our gazes locked, and I held my breath. “I’m going to leave you my number.” He tilted his hips to the side and reached around, pulling out his wallet. A business card appeared. “This has my personal cell and my work cell. You change your mind, call me. Anytime.”

Untangling my fingers, I went to take the card from him, when our hands brushed. I swallowed a soft gasp as a shivery-hot sensation radiated up my arm. It always had been like that, an electric combustion whenever we touched, no matter how chaste the gesture. Shocked didn’t even cover how I felt when I realized that it was still there, at least for me.

“Okay?” he urged gently.

“Okay,” I repeated.

“Good.” Cole rose and then he was right there, his hands planted on the arms of the chair, caging me in. He lowered his head, and a moment later, I felt the brush of his lips against the curve of my cheek, the touch soft and fast. “I’m glad that you’re back,” he said, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the rush of messy, wet emotions. “Call me, Sasha. I’ll be waiting.”





Chapter 6




“You told Cole no?” Miranda sounded like I’d just told her the Ghost of Christmas Past had visited me Saturday night. “Are you completely out of your damn mind?”

There was a good chance that I was, because nearly two days later there was a part of me that wondered if I’d dreamt up Cole’s sudden appearance.

Except the business card I obsessively stared at whenever I was in my apartment proved that he had been here.

“I don’t know,” I said with a sigh, picking up a pillow. “I was just so caught off guard by his appearance.”

Miranda watched me fluff the pillow. It was Monday and she’d come straight from school as soon as she could. We were supposed to have dinner tonight with Jason, meeting at one of the restaurants down the street. “I can understand that, especially after we were just talking about him, and poof! He’s right in front of your face.”

That was kind of like how it felt.

“But this is Cole,” she continued as I grabbed the dirtied linen off the floor and balled it up. “You were all about Cole, Sasha.”

“That was ten years ago,” I pointed out as she followed me into the hallway. Stopping, I closed the door behind us. “That was a very long time ago.”

“So? Give me one good reason why you can’t go out to dinner with him,” she challenged in what I’d deemed was her teacher voice, which was an impressive combo with her demure black sweater and fitted slacks.

Easy. “I didn’t come home to get into a relationship.”

She rolled dark eyes. “And Cole asking you out to dinner to catch up signifies a relationship to you?”

I shot her a look as I headed down the hall. “You know what I mean.”

“Yes, I know what you mean.” We walked into the laundry room. “But you know what? You’re right. You didn’t come home to find a guy, even if that guy is extremely hot and told you he thought you were beautiful,” she said as I shoved the linens into the washer and grabbed the detergent. “You came home to start living your life.”

My hand jerked as I poured the detergent into the washer. You came home to start living your life. She was right, so damn right. I hated it when she was right.

Closing the washer door, I faced her. “I’m going out to dinner with you and Jason tonight—”

“And that’s awesome. I know seeing him is going to be hard for you,” Miranda cut in. “But you’ve got to step up your game. You can’t come home and live in the shadow of the past.”

“Besides the fact I just got home, like a few days ago, I’m trying.”

Miranda planted her hands on her hips. “I know, but I think trying harder would mean you’d take Cole up on his offer—and why are you doing this right now? Watching you wash laundry makes me feel like I should be helping or something.”

I smiled as I turned on the washer. “I’m done now.”

“Thank God,” she muttered. “My stomach is about to eat itself and I was actually about to fold some of those towels over there.”

Laughing, I led her out of the laundry room. We headed down the narrow staircase and by the time we hit the kitchen, tiny balls of nerves had formed in my stomach. “What time are we supposed to meet Jason?”

“In about twenty minutes.” Miranda placed her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “You’re going to have a good time.”

I straightened the hem of the sweater I’d changed into before Miranda showed up. “Do I look like I think I’m not going to have a good time?”

“You look a little pale.” She smiled faintly. “Like you may need to sit down.”

“Geez,” I murmured as we walked out to the front of the inn. Darkness loomed beyond the glass panels in the front door. The sun had already gone down.

“Your hair looks amazing though. It’s so pretty when it’s down.” Miranda winked when I looked at her. “It’s okay to be nervous. You haven’t seen Jason in a decade.”