Chapter 15
Colton
“If ya rile her up and still think she’s the cutest thing on two legs, she’s the one.”
~ Papa Duke
“Oh hey, Colton.” Bryson looked surprised to see me as he held the door open for me. “You’re early.”
I didn’t step inside. “What did you just say?”
His head flinched back slightly. “I said…you’re early?”
Bryson had had a crush on Bella since we were kids. He used to talk about her being at his house all the time. It didn’t surprise me to hear him asking her if things would have been easier if she’d been in love with him, but it did piss me off. Not that I had any right to feel the anger I was feeling. I didn’t. I had absolutely no right. And maybe part of the reason I was so upset was because he might have a point.
I had handled things all wrong when we were teenagers, but at least then I had an excuse. Since she’d been back, one could argue, I’d handled things even worse, and I’m a grown man. I have absolutely zero excuse for not being able to tell her how bad I feel about the past, how much I wish I could go back in time and fix it, and that I’d do anything to make things right between us. But instead I’ve been a man I don’t even recognize. I’ve been anxious, rude, and ready to walk off a show that I committed to. That wasn’t me. I needed to pull my head out of my ass and I needed to do it quick.
“Hey, Colton.”
Her sweet voice interrupted my internal spiral and I looked past Bryson to see Bella lifting her hand in a wave. I hadn’t seen her since I left her house two weeks ago. Not once.
A calm washed over me. The irritation that I’d been feeling just seconds ago evaporated. She wasn’t just my soul mate, she was my soul’s balance. She just made everything…right.
Which made the way I’d been acting even worse.
“You okay, man?” Bryson asked, pulling my attention back to him.
“Yeah,” I nodded at my friend as I took off my hat and stepped in the bar. “I just came by to talk to Bella.”
“Oh.” Bryson’s brows rose and he looked even more surprised about that than he had when he’d opened the door to find me. He looked back at Bella and I noticed that she nodded slightly, like she was giving him the okay to leave me alone with her.
“Okay, well,” Bryson pointed his thumbs towards the back of the bar. “I have some paperwork to catch up on. I’ll be in the office. If anyone comes in, just grab me and I’ll take care of it.”
“Will do.” Bella grinned.
We both watched Bryson as he disappeared down the hallway.
“What’s up?” Bella asked brightly.
A little too brightly.
“You two seem to be getting along really well.” That wasn’t what I’d come to talk about. I just opened my mouth and it came out.
She blinked several times before responding. “Yeah, we’re friends.”
“Is that all?” I tried to sound friendly. Curious even. It was none of my business if she and Bryson had anything going on, especially considering I was filming a reality dating show. She wasn’t mine, no matter how badly I wished things were different.
Her face scrunched in a way that I’d always thought was adorable. “Why?”
I walked up to the bar that she was standing behind and I watched her eyes widen slightly and saw her breathing pick up speed. I would bet anything that her pulse was racing just as much as mine. I lowered my voice, and leaned in a bit. Hoping that my charm would somehow camouflage my idiocy, I grinned the grin that had always helped my case whenever she was upset with me. “He’s always had a thing for you and I thought I heard him ask you if you ever wished it was him that you fell in love with instead of me. Do you?
I knew I was being an asshole. I could hear the words I was saying but I couldn’t stop them from coming out of my mouth. It felt like I was having an out of body experience.
Her eyes went from large and round to small and narrow. “Are you serious right now?”
“Yep.” I wasn’t an idiot. I knew that wasn’t the right thing to say. But I was going ninety on the Asshole Highway and for the life of me I couldn’t find an exit.
She clasped her hands behind her back and stretched her arms. It was something she’d done whenever she was mad for as long as I could remember. I remember I’d always thought it was cute, what I didn’t remember was what the stance did to her chest. I was acutely aware that if I looked down her cleavage would be spilling out of her black Tipsy Cow tank top, so I kept them laser focused on her gorgeous baby blues.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but no.” She emphasized the word. “I don’t.”
“Really?” I didn’t think that she’d lie to me, but I’d just found out from a reliable source, Tami Lynn, that Bella was getting divorced and I was going a little, or a lot, crazy.
That’s why she was here. In town. Because she was no longer with her husband. Which meant that I could tell her everything I wanted to. Not just about the past, but about the present. I could tell her how much I loved her, how much I’d always loved her.
I’d come straight here from The Spoon planning to do just that, or at least confirm that she wasn’t married anymore and before the door even opens I hear Bryson flirting with her.
“Yes. Really.” She released her arms from behind her back and started moving them as she spoke. She’d always gotten extra animated when she was mad. “We’re friends. Not that it’s any of your business. Why don’t you go worry about the twelve women you’re currently dating, huh? Why don’t you do that?”
Oh boy.
I knew when she started asking rhetorical questions, which only happened when she was gearing up to get good and mad, that things had gone horribly wrong. So I asked the question that I’d come here to ask. “Are you divorced?”
None of the rest of this crap mattered.
“What?!” She acted like my question gave her whiplash. “Why?!”
“Are you divorced?” I repeated calmly.
Her eyes closed for a moment and when she opened them again, she looked calmer. “I’m goi—” she started to speak but a group of about ten people came in, they sat in the large booth in the back of the room.
“Hey guys!” She lifted her hand in greeting. “I’ll be right with you.”
She leaned over the bar and spoke in a low voice, “I can’t talk right now.”
I wanted to kick my own ass for wasting so much time on bullshit that didn’t matter. My head dropped as she started moving around the bar. Before she made it to the table Bryson appeared from the back and beat her to it. “Can we talk?” I tried once more, knowing that if she told me to kick rocks she’d have every right.
Bella stared at me for a moment, sighed, and turned in the direction that Bryson had just come from. I followed my Pied Piper. My eyes, of their own accord, shot straight to her backside, this time I didn’t feel as guilty since she wasn’t a married woman. I wasn’t paying attention when she stopped up short in the middle of the hallway. I bumped into her, knocking her forward.
My arm reached out and wrapped her waist instinctively to catch her. When she straightened back up her body was pressed up against me and my thumb was brushing the skin on her belly just above her jeans.
I began moving it in a circular motion, I didn’t mean to, honestly. It’s just what my thumb did when I touched her. No one else. I’d never done that to any other girl I’d touched.
We both went completely still, other than the motion of my thumb. For a split second, she melted against me and I closed my eyes. But before I even shut my eyes completely, she pulled out of my grasp.
She was tugging her shirt pulling it back in place when she turned around. When she was facing me, she straightened her back, cleared her throat and took a step away from me. “We agreed that we would talk after the finale.”
“I agreed to that when I thought you were married.” I’d tried to be respectful but I hadn’t done a very good job. I was basically breaking the thou shall not covet another man’s wife commandment on a twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week basis, but I had tried.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Her hands flew up again as she boiled over with frustration.
I didn’t want her to be upset. I didn’t come here to upset her, especially right before her shift. I hated that I was the cause of her being unhappy. I took a step forward, “Bella, please don—”
“No.” She held her hand out, stopping me in my tracks. “Do not ‘Bella, please’ me. We had an agreement Colton. I said that I would talk to you in twenty-five days and you agreed to give me time. That was fourteen days ago. So just in case your math skills have gotten rusty, there are still eleven days left.”
With that, she pushed past me and as I watched her storm down the hall back to the front of the building all I could think was that she was counting the days, too. I just couldn’t tell if it was because she was dreading it or looking forward to it. It seemed like a little of both…I would take that. I would take anything Bella Connor offered.