“Your…daughter?” My brain went offline. Cole was a tech bro whose only responsibility was perfecting his physique. He couldn’t be a dad. That’d force me to rebuild my image of him.
“Her mother Zara and I have been divorced for four years. I haven’t dated anyone seriously since, and I don’t have a girlfriend now.”
“You’re divorced? And a…a dad? But you’re so young.” He’d flipped everything I thought I knew on its head. I grabbed my wine and glugged it. The gears in my brain were grinding.
His expression turned serious. “Zara and I started dating our junior year in college. She was nothing like the type of woman my parents wanted me to date. She didn’t come from a wealthy family. She wasn’t pre-law or pre-med or even in the business school. She’s artistic, smart, and determined, and she was studying to be an industrial designer. I was fascinated by the world she showed me, and I’ll admit, enough of a shit to want to rebel against my parents’ advice. They tried to talk me out of our engagement, but I thought she was the one.” He lined up the two forks on the left of his plate.
“Everything seemed to be going well,” he continued, “and a few years later, we decided to start our family. We had Caitlyn.” He rubbed his palm over his chin. “And…and it flipped a switch for me. I’d always been a hard worker, but suddenly I was providing for my family, you know?” At last, he met my gaze, and I nodded. That sounded familiar. “With my new focus and dedication, my career took off. But things at home crumbled. According to her, I spent too much time at work and too little time at home. A couple years later, she realized being married to me wasn’t the life she wanted.”
I rubbed at the tightness in my chest. “My family and friends hate my job too. I’m unreliable.” I waved at the restaurant, at the lantanas growing in planters outside the screened window. “I’m late for dinner. I cancel plans. I work all the time. I haven’tdated anyone for more than a few weeks because everyone I meet is the same way. They think they want someone like themselves, but they’re really looking for someone who’s home with dinner on the table when they get there. It’s exhausting.”
He winced. “Yeah, that’s how I treated Zara.”
“I’m sorry about your divorce,” I said. “That had to be hard. I assume you share custody?”
“I get Caitlyn every other weekend, and we alternate holidays. I was supposed to have her for Thanksgiving.”
A chill washed through me. “Shit, if I’d known that, I’d have insisted that you go home. Why’d you stay?”
“You needed me more than she did.”
“Me? I don’t need you.”
He leaned forward and covered my hand with his. His eyes were bottomless in the dim light. “Don’t you?”
“No.” It didn’t come out as forcefully as I’d intended, and goose bumps rose on my forearms. I slid my hand from under his and tucked both my hands into my lap.
He saw through my lie, but he didn’t argue. Instead, he changed the subject, and we talked about some ideas he had for leveraging the Costa Rican office to take on some tasks for the finance department. We ate our meal, we finished the bottle of wine, and for the first time ever, we didn’t argue. It was…pleasant. Unexpected.
Cole Campion was a dad. And single. Maybe a better person than I’d given him credit for being. He was more like me than I cared to admit. Plus, he was interested in me. He’d called us inevitable.
I knew better. We were an inevitable disaster.
No matter the attraction I felt, rivals didn’t become lovers. If they did, they ended up as a nightmare Stan and his HR team would have to unravel, with paperwork and pink slips.
My brain knew this, but my libido didn’t care. It wanted one thing: Cole.
After dinner, as he walked me to my room, I was careful not to let our arms brush. I ignored the flutters in my belly when he looked at me with those deep-blue eyes. We were all wrong for each other, and I had to ignore—no, reject—the sexual tension that simmered between us.
So after I unlocked my door, as Cole leaned against the doorframe, clearly waiting for me to invite him inside, I crossed my arms. “Inevitable, huh?”
I shut the door on his smirking face.
18
BETTER TOGETHER
Favorite way to spend a free day?
Cole:If I had a free day, I’d spend it catching up on work.
Bridget:Jesus, Finley’s not interviewing us for a job here. I’d spend an hour each with my nieces and nephews, and we’d gorge on popcorn and watch all their favorite Disney movies.
COLE
Like my dreams turned corporeal, Bridget was standing on the beach in front of our hotel when I returned from my run. I could make out the shadow of that infernal bikini under the loose linen dress that teased the tops of her thighs. Eyes closed, she let the ocean breeze stroke her palms as the pink sunrise gilded her back. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and the ends danced around her head, kissing her shoulders and cheeks. I’d never been jealous of hair before, but this was my new reality.
I slowed to a walk and tried to regulate my breathing, so I didn’t huff up to her like a bull. I’d felt as angry as one last nightwhen she’d shut her door in my face, laughing that I’d called us inevitable.
