“Oh, you caught that sarcasm, did you.” Icaress his smooth, firm face. “Cole, you know I love that you want to be herewith me and that you’re worried. I’m okay here in the villa if you need to gointo the office.”
“Kate, I know, but I’m feelingoverprotective. I want to be here.”
“Okay, in that case, I’m glad you’rehere. Now where’s my present?” I bounce up and down.
Cole pinches my ass again. “Hey ooh,unless that has to do with my gift.”
“Cookie…” Cole rumbles.
“Okay, okay.”
Cole pulls a gift bag out from under thetable, placing it on my lap. “It’s heavy.” I take the tissue paper out and peerinside the bag. “Cole, oh my heck.” I chime, pulling a sleek silver laptop fromthe bag.
“Do you like it?”
“Do I like it, I love it. Thank you somuch.”
“I’ve wanted to take you shopping, butthings have been hectic. Your mom said she was going to email you stuff aboutthe wedding and I decided to go ahead and get you one. If you don’t like thisone, or it doesn’t have the features you want, we can trade it for one that’llwork for you.”
I give him a look that says, huh? “You’retalking to the girl that likes old things. I barely manage my smart phone. Thisis perfect.” I sit the laptop down on the table, wrapping my arms around hisneck. “Thank you so much. I don’t know if I will ever get used to you spoilingme.”
“Just accept it. It’s going to happen forthe rest of our lives.” Cole kisses me tenderly, but I pull back, and he frownsat me.
“I don’t want to get you sick.”
“I’ll take my chances.” And he covers hismouth with mine, our tongues tangling together.
I spend the rest of the afternoonsprawled out on the sofa, playing and figuring out my new grown-up toy,watching the AMC channel in the background. Annie emails me a list of weddingquestions that’s four pages long. ‘I need this by tomorrow,’ she writes.
The first questions are easy enough:‘What colors do you want?’ Hmm…I think. I guess I never really thought about itsince I didn’t think I had a choice.
Good grief, by the end of the fourth pagemy response is, I don’t care or you decide. I email her back, telling her Ihope this will work, that I love her and to let me know if she needs anythingelse.
The next two days pass like thisquestions about the wedding and Cole working from home. Cooper and Alan comeover one night and watch a movie with us, and Kit and Race bring us dinner thenext night. By Wednesday, I am feeling better and very restless. I’ve beeninstant messaging Annie about the wedding. She’s grumbling over my choice ofcolors: apparently tangerine is a hard color to find. I type:I did it justto make your life hard.
She types back:I have no doubt. Don’tforget to talk to Cole about the new list I sent. Got to go; the babes arehungry, TTYL.
“Hey Cole,” I yell from the sofa.
“Yeah baby.”
“What does TTYL mean?”
He laughs. “It means talk to you later.”
“Oh jeez of course it does.” I type:‘Yeahwhatever, TTYL’to Annie and then shut the computer off.
The idea of food sounds good and mystomach grumbles. I glance up and Cole is still working away on his computer.He must sense my eyes on him because he looks up. “How’s the laptop?”
“Fabulous, thank you again.”
“Anything for you.”
“I’m hungry.”
“Okay, what do you want to order?”
I walk over to the table and lean overit, propping myself up on my elbows. “I want to go out.”
