Another stilted silence.
I lean forward and rest an elbow on my knee, forcing Charlotte to readjust a bit. Cole’s gaze locks on our entwinedhands, and for a heartbeat, I feel his confusion just under my sternum like a gnawing ache.
“Charlotte and I have been together for just under two years,” I explain into the quiet. “Megan’s been a close friend since college, but we didn’t reconnect until I took a job with the New York Philharmonic at the beginning of the last season.”
Nothing comes through the bond, but something about his posture tells me he’s not as worried anymore.
“You’re in Seattle?” Megan asks before Cole can say anything else. “Are you in school there?”
Cole shakes his head. “I’m not currently studying.”
“All right, so there’s not a school start we need to try and navigate around,” Megan says. “That will simplify some of this, at least. Cross country moves are labor intensive as it is.”
Cole’s lips curve into a small smile. “Yeah, for most people I imagine they are.” He clears his throat again and then says in a rush, “Listen. My father is Johnathan Fallon.”
“What?” I don’t mean to utter the question. And then, because apparently I’ve lost all control of my mouth, I say, “That’s why you were at that hotel. You were there with your parents.”
Charlotte looks up at me, but I can’t pull my focus away from the screen.
Cole shifts, clearly uncomfortable. “Yeah. It’s not something…” He blows out a breath and shrugs. “Cameras follow me. They have since I was a teen, and the events of the last six weeks have made it notably worse.”
What’s happened the last couple months to make the spotlight worse for him?
Charlotte sucks in a breath.
“Wait. Fallon as in Fallon Capital?” Charlotte asks. “The pack that’s going through a nasty dissolution right now? They’re your parents?”
Dissolutions are the pack equivalent of a divorce. They are messy and a logistical nightmare in even the best scenarios, involving both the Unified Council and the local governments of where the pack lives. Add in any kind of public-facing persona or significant assets? I can’t even imagine how much of a headache it must be.
“I have that honor, though I’m only in contact with my dads,” Cole says dryly. “Look, fame sounds exciting in the abstract, but in reality it’s pretty invasive even just in the periphery. Choices made by my mother have made it to where I’m on the periphery way more than I’d like. I’d understand if it’s not something you’d want to navigate.”
We’re all silent. Nerves sit in my stomach like a stone, and I can’t even tell if they’re his or mine. Mine, right? I can hardly feel him anymore. Even that bit of confusion was short-lived. But then it doubles, and I realize it must be his, too.
God, I want to comfort him, crawl through the screen until I can run my hand down his arm and scent-mark him so he knows I’ll do anything for him. Which I will. But the girls?
I force my gaze away from the screen and look at them, trying to figure out how they’re feeling about it. Megan’s lips are pursed, her eyebrows furrowed, as she looks first at Charlotte and then me. When she turns back to Cole, she says, “We’re not opposed.”
There’s uncertainty in her voice, though, and Cole notices.
He grimaces again. “The cameras are probably going to be worse this weekend because it’s the final hearing for their dissolution, at least for the Council portion of it.”
“That’s some kind of timing,” Charlotte says, her voice lighter now. “The Council must have a sick sense of humor.”
“Something like that.” Cole laughs and then shrugs. “Anyway, I was thinking maybe you could come out here for the weekend? It’s a lot easier for me to hide from the cameras outhere than in New York City. I’d happily pay for it all, so don’t worry about that.”
Fly out to him? It never occurred to me to meet him where he lives, where he’s most comfortable, and that’s shameful. I berate the Council putting the Omegas in such a stressful environment at those damn galas but then immediately assumed he’d bend for us instead of the other way around. Charlotte and Megan both look at me, trying to gauge how I’m feeling.
“Yeah, of course,” I say, focusing on Cole. His shirt shifts again, and I see the edge of the silver scar. My gut tightens in anticipation. “What’s your number? I can figure out the logistics on this side. We’d be happy to fly out and spend the weekend with you.”
Twelve
CHARLOTTE
“Wait, our tickets are first class? Really?” Megan frowns and focuses on Marcus rather than her phone. “But those are disgustingly expensive.”
Marcus shrugs. “Cole booked them.”
Megan shakes her head even as the security line moves slowly forward. I glance at my own ticket now loaded on my phone, realizing I hadn’t even bothered to check what my seat number was. There, in the corner, is an F instead of an E.
