“Oh, get over it. It’s not a big deal, Cole. Just trying to create publicity for the movie.” She flicks her hair over her shoulder, then places her open palm on my chest. Under typical circumstances, if a girl wanted to pretend to date me for show, wanted to touch me in front of anyone the way Mara is doing right now, I wouldn’t object to it.
The thrill of it would excite me.
Hell, I’m pretending to be Jenna’s boyfriend. I have been since the night we met to get her out of an uncomfortable situation, and I didn’t ask her permission to do so.
I just saw a girl in need, and acted on instinct.
I’d do it over and over again if it meant we’d be where we are now.
But these aren’t usual circumstances, and I have a girl at home who has finally agreed to exclusively see me, without any labels on it.
I told her I wouldn’t share her with anybody, and here Mara is…fuck.
I have a girl at home.
“Let me know in advance next time you pull something like that, OK?” I tell her, taking a step back to create some much needed space between us. It’s hypocritical of me to demand that from her, but I’m not a man in need of saving from an uncomfortable situation. I’m a man who doesn’t want to put his foot in his mouth by saying the wrong thing, but wasn’t given a chance to confirm or deny anything.
“Why?” She bats her eyelids. “Do you have to warn yourgirlfriend?” The word makes my stomach turn, but not in a way that would make you sick, more in the way that makes me nervous. My eyebrows pinch together, but I don’t say anything in response. “You got it, Big Guy.” She wiggles her brows, swaying her hips as she walks away, and there’s no part of me that wants to watch her leave.
Is she a beautiful girl? I’m not blind. Everyone can see that she is.
But these days, I’m realizing I have a type, and my type is one woman, and one woman only.
I have a girl at home.
***
We flew back into Grangewood Creek that night, and when we got back to our apartment building, I was too exhausted to do anything but sleep, and that’s exactly what I planned to do.
I greeted Marv—the man who seems to never leave—with a nod, before walking past all the rooms on the bottom floor on my way to the elevator. I force my eyes to remain firmly in place, refusing to let them wander.
Even when I see her apartment door open in the corner of my eye.
Even when I see the shadow of a person leave, closing the door behind him.
Even when I see her reopen that same door, notice me, and quickly rush back inside.
I don’t have the time or the energy to decipher what it all means and ask why she’s home way earlier than she planned to be.
I’ll knock on her door tomorrow and see if she feels like telling me.
Chapter twenty-nine
Cole
My phone buzzing onmy nightstand wakes me with a jolt. Iwasin a deep sleep, but apparently not deep enough to sleep through the sound of subtle vibrations against the small, marble table next to my head.
Groaning with my face still buried in my pillow, I reach out, fumbling for it with my eyes closed, tugging the charger cord out of the wall completely. “Great,” I mumble to myself, frustrated, exhausted, and still half asleep.
Tapping at the screen, I squint to lessen the blow of the brightness burning into my eyes, blinking rapidly, and forcing them to focus.
I see the time before I see the who and what caused the sound that woke me.
Midnight on the dot, and a text.
From Jenna.
I read it once, twice, three times, before what the text says registers with my drowsy state, and my heart is beating in my throat.
