Fall Back Skyward (Fall Back #1)(46)

Crap!

It’s nine-thirty in the morning. I’m starting my job at my grandma’s shop today and I’m supposed to be there in ten minutes.

I slip on knee-length sky blue dress and adjust the straps on my shoulders, my mind on last night. Last night’s star-gazing session was incredible. Cole held my hand in his the entire time and when we finally climbed down from the roof, he kissed me so long, so soft, so hard that I stayed up for hours just thinking about it. It’s as if the kiss behind the shelves at the book nook unlocked something in me, in us. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other when we were close.

A tap on the window pulls me out of my thoughts. I turn around to find Cole standing there. My heart drums its usual thud thud thud inside my chest and heat fills my cheeks, absorbing the way his gaze travels down my body like he wants to crawl through the window and ravish me.

“Hey,” I wave, wondering why my knees feel like jelly but I’m still standing here.

“Come here,” he says. Somehow, I float across the room to the window, and he enters my room.

As soon as I reach his side, he takes my face into his hands, and stares into my eyes for long seconds before dipping his head and pressing his lips to mine. My eyes automatically fall shut as the soft innocent kiss quickly changes into a passionate one as our tongues tangle and teeth clash. My hands find their way to his neck, and further up, to tug the beanie aside a bit and sink my fingers into his thick, soft hair.

The kiss ends too soon. The sound of our ragged breathing fills the room. I open my eyes and watch as he takes a deep breath, before his eyes slowly open.

“Do you want me to drop you at Phoebe’s? I looked out my window and saw your mom’s car still parked outside. I figured you hadn’t left and so I am here to offer my chauffeur services.”

I nod, thoroughly excited about sharing space with him in the car. “Let me just get my purse and phone.”

His fingers linger on mine a little longer before he shakes his head as if he is lost in a dream and pulls them away. Cole crawls out the window again to wait for me in his car. He has been using the window since the confrontation with my dad. If there’s something I’m grateful for, it’s that my dad is rarely home, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t careful.

After quickly checking on mom in her room and find her sleeping, I pop in to say bye to Elon and Elise, letting them know how long I’ll be gone and to call me if they need anything. I bound downstairs and out the door. Cole is waiting next to his car in his usual parking spot, holding the passenger door open for me. Once I’m seated, he rounds the car to his side and slides in on his seat. Seconds later, he pulls out of the spot and drives off, with our fingers already linked together on his thigh.

When we arrive at Phoebe’s, he walks me to the door and we stop. I turn around to face him.

“What time will you be done? Maybe we can continue with those sign language classes I promised you.”

Yes! More Cole time. “In four hours. Or. . .” I pull out my phone from my purse. “You can give me your number and I’ll text you.”

He glances down at the phone and says, “Right, why didn’t I think of that?” Then he chuckles. The sound is breathy, sexy, husky.

After exchanging numbers, I turn, heading for the glass door with the “Open” sign on it, but a hand wraps around my wrist, spinning me around. I gasp and before I can say a word, his mouth is once again on mine, parting my mouth and exploring me in a gentle sweep of his tongue. Reminding me of what I’m looking forward to when my shift here is done.

Then he nips my bottom lip before he pulls back, straightening to his full height. “See you in four hours.”

God.

Cole. I have no words, really.

As soon as he leaves, I push open the door and float inside the shop.

“Now that is what I call a good bye kiss,” Grandma says with a chuckle. I glance up and see her sitting in a chair next to her desk.

I stop next to her and toss my purse on the chair across from the desk, suddenly feeling shy. I lean down to kiss her cheek and straighten. “I’m happy.”

“Is that the Holloway boy?”

I nod, taking in my surroundings and breathing in the mixed scents of roses, lilacs, gardenia and some flowers I don’t even know, placed strategically around the room.

“Yep. That’s Cole.” Even his name makes me shiver.

She is quiet for a few seconds, and I turn to face her. “Do you know him?”

She nods. “His mother and your father were inseparable in their teens. They grew up together. Maggie lived a few houses away from ours.”

Oh wow. This explains the way he was looking at Cole’s mom on the day we arrived. It doesn’t answer why he hates Cole though, a thought that makes my head hurt every time I think about it.

“What happened? Why did they break up?”

She shrugs. “I’m not entirely sure. Maggie came to see me before she went off to college. She wanted to talk. She told me that she couldn’t handle Stephen’s ‘obsessive ways’. Her words, not mine. Your father can be quite intense.”

Don’t I know it.

She inhales deeply as though she is about to let me in on a secret. “Cole is a good boy. Very hardworking. He reminds me of my Thomas.”

I stare at her, confused.

“My son.”