In This Moment(58)

We’re met with a chorus of greetings. “Everly!”

Everyone here seems to know Cole and the attention brings him to life. He makes an effort to introduce me to a few of the guys from the track team but I think it’s clear that I’m not part of this world—his world. There’s a lot of backslapping, talk of races, and inside jokes that I don’t understand.

Cole gets roped into a game of beer pong and I hang back, preferring to be where thoughts can needle around my head without anyone noticing. After each throw he looks over his shoulder and winks at me, sending a rush of chills to my toes. A couple of nearby girls make a partial attempt to include me in their conversation, but I’m distracted and eventually they give up and leave me to myself.

Right after Cole sinks his last shot, his phone beeps with an incoming text. I glance down to where he left it on the top of the tiki bar. The sender is someone named Christine.



Are you coming back to Gainesville soon? My bed is lonely.



Instantly, I know that he must have seen this girl when he went to Gainesville to race in the triathlon a couple weeks ago and my heart seizes frantically. I can hardly breathe over the sensation of betrayal swimming in my belly. That was the same weekend that I was thinking about him obsessively.

“Hey.” Cole is at my shoulder. He slips one arm around my waist and slides his palm across my lower back to my hip. When I feel his lips against my ear, a surge of heat burns its way down my spine.

“Hey.” I jerk my head away, pretending to be distracted by my phone.

Cole steps around me so that he can see my face. He pulls on the ends of his blond hair and frowns. “Is everything okay?”

The lump in my throat expands, threatening to suffocate me. I attempt to smile but I’m pretty sure that it comes off closer to a grimace. “Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t it be okay?”

“You seem…” He twists his fingers farther into his hair. “I don’t know… You seem like you’re irritated or something.”

“Maybe you just don’t know me very well,” I spit out a lot harder than I intend.

His head moves back in surprise. He clenches his jaw and narrows his eyes like he’s wondering what the hell my problem is. Well, good for him because I’m wondering the same thing.

I take a shallow breath and turn to watch the progress of the current beer pong matchup. After a few minutes of silence I hear Cole reach around me for his phone.

“Aimee?” His tone is cautious.

I release a breath that I didn’t realize that I’d been holding, but I keep my eyes on the game.

“Aimee.” This time his voice is stronger, demanding my attention.

I keep my face relaxed and neutral despite the torrent of emotions swirling inside of me. “What?”

“Something is obviously bothering you.” Cole holds up his phone, his gaze direct under the straight line of his eyebrows. “Is this text the problem?”

“No.” I lie stubbornly.

A flash of green tells me that he’s not buying it. “It’s not?”

“No.” I close my eyes and sigh. My heart is throbbing with nervous energy, sending blood to my cheeks. “I mean, yes, it’s bothering me. But…but… you don’t have to explain.” Maybe I’m overreacting. Cole has made no secret of his history with other girls. I knew the score the day that I met him. It’s old news. “She was from before, right? It’s in the past and none of my business and even if…” I quickly amend my words. “And even now, it’s not like—well, we don’t owe each other anything yet. What’s happening between us doesn’t have to be official or… whatever.”

“Or whatever?” Cole pauses, scrapes his hands over his mouth. When he speaks again, his words come out slow and I feel every crack in his voice like a prick against my skin. “I don’t even know what to say to you right now. If I claim that when I was with that girl, I was pissed and hurting over you, I sound like even more of a jerk. If I could just…” He squeezes his eyes closed. “You have every right to be mad and I wouldn’t blame you if you hate me right now, but… I…”

“God. I don’t hate you. I-I don’t know what I’m feeling but it’s not hate.” I look up at the night sky to keep tears from rolling down my face. “We weren’t together then and I-I think more than anything I want us to start from now. From this moment. I don’t want my past to drag us down and I don’t want yours to either.”

Cole cups my face and wipes his thumb over a tear. “Do you mean that? Because I swear that you’re it for me. I’m all in this thing if you are.”