The two of them escape to the bathroom, so of course I follow. I’m not the only one, though. When I round the corner, I see Bex has ditched Molly and has her ear pressed to the bathroom door. She puts a single finger to her mouth and then slides it across her throat.
She’ll kill me if I speak. Got it.
“When did you get so scary?” I mouth. But it’s pointless because Bex has failed me by never learning how to read lips.
I lean my ear against the door, matching my mischievous little sister. Thea and Cole’s words are garbled, but I can hear it clear as day when Thea asks, “What’s wrong with you? Why are you being weird?”
“I’m not being weird.” Cole replies, and I can practically see the way her arms cross under her perfect tits and her hip juts out to the side with those four words.
“Yes,” Thea hisses, “you are! It is eighty degrees outside and you’re wearing a scarf. We were rearranging the nursery earlier and I thought you were going to pass out.”
“It’s fashionable,” Cole argues, and I have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. Cole has worn the same uniform including some variation of sweaters and plaid skirts since high school. The last thing Colette Russell is worried about is what is currently considered fashionable.
I hear a gasp and a smacking noise. Bex raises her eyebrow at me as if to askShould we intervene?
“Quit it!” Cole says at the same time Thea exclaims, “You’re burning up!”
There seems to be a bit of a struggle between the women before everything gets quiet and Thea cries out, “Is that a hickey!”
It’s not really a question, more like an observation because after one look there’s no mistaking the mark on Cole’s neck for anything other than what it is. Bex’s eyes widen as she looks back and forth between me and the closed bathroom door.
“Who gave that to you?” Thea’s tone is incredulous.
Cole answers but she’s too quiet for me to hear, but Bex smooshes her face against the door even harder in the hopes of catching the name of the perpetrator.
Except I don’t need to know who did it. I was there.
“Excuse me?” Thea’s voice is shrill. “I thought you didn’t like him! Y’all hate each other!”
Now that catches my attention. I lean in closer to hear how Cole is going to reply when Bex—fucking Bex—runs out of luck, knocking her elbow hard against the doorknob. The interior of the bathroom falls silent, and I haul ass out of there.
“Apologies ladies! Need to use the restroom when you’re finished,” I hear Bex telling whoever had the misfortune of opening the door. Unfortunately, her follow through isn’t great because she follows Thea and Cole around the corner, earning confused looks from all three of us. “What?” Bex asks after catching the look on my face. “Oh! Bathroom, right…” And she turns on her heel and leaves.
Thea eyes the two of us, ultimately throwing her hands into the air. “I’m not getting involved in this! You two”—she points at Cole and me—“figure your shit out.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I salute to an answering eye roll from Cole. And then Thea leaves too, and I’m finally alone with Cole for the first time since we got here.
“Hey, Red,” I murmur, taking a step toward her. “I noticed you didn’t have your ring on. You had it on when I picked you up.”
“Of course I don’t have the ring on,” she hisses. “I put it in my purse. We are with your entire family. You don’t think one of them would have noticed? Your mom has already tried to get me out of this scarf fifteen times tonight.”
With another step, I’m close enough to run my fingers down the curve of her neck, pushing the stupid scarf down to see what she’s hiding. “You should take it off. Let them talk.” I shrug.
Cole answers with a scoff. “I would threaten to turn your neck into one giant hickey but something tells me you’d get them permanently tattooed there.”
“Damn straight I would. I already have a?—”
“Dinner’s ready!” Jules calls from the kitchen, and thank fuck because I was not ready to admit what I almost let slip. Something I’ve held close to my chest for so many years. I can—I should—wait a little while longer before I play all my cards.
Cole gives me a quizzical look, seeing too much, but I catch the moment she decides to drop it, heading for the cramped dining room instead of asking questions.
We all settle around Jules and Thea’s dining table—the entire Bardot family, including Chloe and Hank. They’ve been a welcome addition to the Bardot chaos. Thea and Chloe especially were exactly what Jules needed—a family of his own to nurture and love. One thing that’s always been different between me and my twin. Jules has always desired to be a dad, to have a family of his own.
I would be exceptionally happy with one singular person to call my own.
And she happens to be sitting right across the table from me.
Dinner is excellent, per usual, and conversation flows around the table. I watch Cole more than I probably should. She’s beginning to relax around my family. I know she’s slow to trust, slow to open up, and it does something inside my chest seeing how seamlessly she fits into my world.
