Chapter 4
Cole pulled his rental car up to his parents' house, then stopped to look at the long line of cars that stretched down the block on both sides of the street. He had never seen it this busy here before. The house was in the wealthier part of town—he'd bought his parents a new house with the money from his first big signing bonus, as a thank you for all of their support through his high school and college years. The neighborhood was far from crowded, and he didn't know what was going on.
When he walked into the house, he was greeted with applause. There were dozens of people there. Some of them were old high school friends, plus people he knew from his dad's country club, and others from his mom's book club. But there were many more he didn't know.
“Welcome home, son,” his dad said, shaking his hand and clapping him on the back.
“Thanks. What's all this?” He gestured around to the large crowd.
“Well, when word got around that you were coming home, there were a bunch of people that wanted to meet you. It started off as a small gathering, but I guess it grew into quite a party.”
He had little choice but to make the rounds and start greeting people. Most of them fawned over him, the men asking him about the latest game and whether he thought his team was going to the Superbowl. Men who had yelled at him when he was a boy—for smashing their pumpkins on Halloween or playing football in the street and blocking traffic—now shook his hand and treated him like he was a prince. His junior high English teacher, who'd once called him “a worthless little shit who was never going to go anywhere with his life,” came up to him, patted him on the back, and raved about how he'd always known that Cole was going to be a success.
And then there were the girls. He recognized a few of them from his high school days: girls who had never so much as given him the time of day. Now they wanted to talk to him and catch up on old times. Others he didn't know at all, though they all said they'd met him at some point or another. The younger sister of this girl he went to school with, the cousin of some other girl who had supposedly been on the cheerleading squad, and others with vaguer connections they used as an excuse to talk to him. More than one asked him if he had a date for the wedding, but he evaded the question every time. He wasn't sure what was going on with the wedding, but he wasn't interested in going with some random girl who only cared about him because his name had been on the news a few times.
By the time he'd made his way through most of the crowd, he realized there was one person that wasn't here. The one person he'd actually been looking forward to seeing again.
Eventually he decided to just bite the bullet and ask about her. He corralled his sister into Dad's study and shut the door behind them so they could have some privacy. “Hey,” he said. “Some party, huh?”
“Yeah.” She smirked and stuck her hands in her pockets. “It was supposed to be a wedding party for me, but I think most of these people just showed up to see you.”
Her tone was teasing and playful, but Cole couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. “Sorry about that. If I'd known they were planning something like this, I would have gotten them to cancel it.”
“Oh, sure. Like Dad would give up the chance to show off his famous son for the whole town to see.”
Cole laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, I guess he likes having the chance to live in the spotlight.”
He cleared his throat, then pushed forward onto the topic he really wanted to ask about. “So, hey, listen. How's your friend Amanda been? Is she coming to the wedding?”
Michelle's expression dropped into a cold stare. “What do you care? You haven't seen her in years.”
Cole shrugged, rubbing the back of his head and looking down at the carpet. “I dunno. I just wondered if she was going to be around. It'd be nice to catch up.”
Michelle crossed her arms, eyeing him suspiciously. “Well, she'll be in the wedding. But I'm sure she's going to be too busy to catch up. Bridesmaid duties and all that.”
“Hmm.” Cole rubbed his chin. “Well, maybe we can get together before the wedding. I've got nothing but free time this weekend. Any chance you can give me her number? I'd really like to get in touch with her.”
Michelle stared him down, chewing on her lip. “Well, she just got a new phone,” she said. “I don't have the new number yet. So, I guess you're out of luck.”
Michelle walked past him and out the door. Cole watched her go, frowning at her back. He had the feeling Michelle was lying to him, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. It wasn't like he could steal her phone and go through her contacts list.
But now he was more determined than ever to track Amanda down. How hard could it be? They lived in a small town, and there were plenty of other people he could ask. It shouldn't be too difficult, he figured, to find a way to get into touch with her.