Two Weeks (The Baxter Family #5)(45)

“But there was one thing I said just about every time.” Cole kept his eyes on her.

Ashley remembered. How could she forget? “You said you might not be a firefighter, but whatever job you did, you wanted to be just like your daddy.”

“Right.” Cole nodded. He paused and looked straight at her. “I still feel that way. I want to be like him.”

The thought gave Ashley a peace she desperately needed. Cole wasn’t going to do anything crazy. He just wanted to be like Landon. So Landon could talk to him and explain that if he’d been eighteen, even he wouldn’t have given up on his dreams of being a firefighter to support Ashley and Cole.

These things happened over years. Not weeks.

The conversation shifted to his classes, tests coming up, papers he had to write. Before he left to pick up Elise, Cole gathered the rose petals and scattered them on the porch. When he was gone, Ashley moved out onto the porch to put the finishing touches on a landscape painting for a client in Indianapolis.

Not long after, she saw Cole and Elise pull into the driveway. As they got closer, she could tell they were laughing about something. The rest of the family was still at the lake, so Ashley gathered her things and slipped inside. That way Cole wouldn’t know they had an audience.

From a discreet spot near the window, Ashley watched her son lead Elise to the front porch, a handkerchief tied around her eyes. She still looked young and waiflike, her stomach flat. Not at all like she was carrying a baby. She practically floated across the walkway, her hand in Cole’s.

When they reached the steps, Cole took off her blindfold. From inside the house Ashley could hear the girl’s gasp. Elise skipped up the steps and saw the message, the rose petals spelling out the one question Cole had for her. She squealed and put her hands over her mouth and then she turned and fell into Cole’s arms.

Ashley observed as they hugged for a long time and as they turned to leave, Cole looked straight at her window. As if he’d known she’d be watching them. He smiled and waved at her. Then he put his arm around Elise and they were off.

As he walked away she could see him at eight years old again, telling her for the thousandth time that he wanted to be like his daddy when he grew up. Ashley smiled. Cole didn’t need to wait until then to be like Landon.

He already was.

? ? ?

THEY WERE RIDING their bikes around the trail next to Clear Creek High, the wind in their hair and faces, sunshine on their shoulders. The whole afternoon Elise couldn’t stop thinking one thing.

She was falling hard for Cole Blake and there was nothing she could do to stop herself.

“I’m flying,” she yelled ahead to Cole.

“Me, too! I love it.” His short blond hair and tan arms made him look like a California boy—even now, more than halfway through March.

She caught up to him and grinned in his direction. This was Cole’s brother’s bike, and it was the perfect size for her. “Three straight wins this week in baseball and now this!”

“Yeah.” Cole had on sunglasses. They both did. He turned to her and laughed. “After all that snow we finally got to play. And this might even be better than that!”

Elise had sat in the stands and cheered him on for every game. The whole school thought they were a couple now, and Elise didn’t mind. They went everywhere together, did everything together. She would stay in the library and do homework during his baseball practice, and every afternoon he would drive her home.

They talked about everything, and last week his aunt Brooke connected her with an obstetrician who also volunteered with the crisis pregnancy center. The man offered to deliver Elise’s baby at no cost.

She lifted her face to the sun. The most wonderful thing was she still didn’t show. Her stomach was flat like always. Her new doctor said she probably wouldn’t look pregnant till her sixth month. Because she was so young and small.

Which meant she could enjoy this time with Cole without thinking about what was ahead. She’d already made the most important decision. The one she easily came to after talking to Cole’s mother. Her baby deserved life, of course. What happened once the baby was born, she wasn’t as sure. She had time to decide.

For now she didn’t want to think about any of it. These days with Cole were a chance to be free again. Maybe for the last time. Elise would pretend she’d never gotten mixed up with Randy in the first place and that Cole was her first love. Her only love. She would tell herself that this time around she would do things right. The way her mama had taught her.

No sex till she was married. Because that was God’s way and because His rules were for the good of His people. That’s what her mother always said, and her mama had been right. About everything.

Which made Elise’s heart drop a little. She still hadn’t told her mother about the baby. Every day that passed the weight of it pressed on Elise and made the truth harder to face. Cole told her all the time that she had to come clean with her mom.

Elise agreed. She would tell her mama at some point. Just not now.

They rode around the track another lap and then stopped at the bleachers. The sun was full on them, warming the metal seats. Cole parked his bike and she did the same. She followed him up six rows and they sat with their faces to the sun. For a long time they were quiet, just the sound of the wind through the trees at the far side of the football field.

“I’m going to miss this place.” Cole leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. “I can’t believe how fast the semester’s going.”