CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Cole
I hang up the phone from calling Lori, fully aware of what is bothering her. I felt, I feel what Lori did when we exited that hotel suite; the separation between us the minute we left a place where we’d freely been together, and when I ended that call with her, I fought the urge to make a few phone calls to deal with speeding up Lori’s program rather than wait on Ashley to handle this. Those calls are not for her, not now. There isn’t time to do it right without being rushed, and I intend to do it right.
I head for the shower and make fast work of tossing on a pair of dark jeans and a navy “Brooks Legal” shirt that I’ve lived in on weekends forever. I’m contemplating a shave when my phone rings and it’s Ashley. “Hey, boss man.”
“Oh fuck,” I say, hearing the hesitation in her voice that I know as dread. “You’re not coming.”
“I am,” she says. “Of course, I am. I just might need to go to Houston to wrap up some issues. Can I work from that office until I can move?”
“How long?”
“I don’t know. It could be a month. I’ll spare you the details, but I need to do this.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Okay this isn’t about Houston. God, Cole.” Her voice cracks. “I might need you to defend me.”
“What? Why?”
“My bastard fiancé was a con man. I signed some documents. I didn’t know what they were.”
“Stop talking,” I say. “We don’t—”
“Do this on the phone. I know.”
“When can you be back here?” I ask.
“I’m tied up with a visa issue.”
“Over those papers?”
“Yes. I don’t even know what they were. I don’t know what they say I did wrong. I can’t understand these people, literally can’t understand them. They keep talking in French. I swear I hate this bastard. He used me. I know to stop talking, but I’m in Europe, Cole. What do I do?”
“Are you safe?”
“Yes. I went to the embassy. They’re trying to help me, but even they barely speak good English.”
“I need a secure line to talk with you on. Can they provide it?”
“I’ll find out,” she says, but no one seems to be here today.
“Do you need money?” I ask.
“I don’t want to ask you for money.”
“That’s a yes,” I say. “I’ll wire you funds, find out the best way to get them to you, and call you back.”
“Thank you, Cole.”
“Don’t thank me. Stay safe.” I disconnect and forget the shave. I need to get us on the road. I work on packing while I dial my bank and inquire about the best way to get funds to Europe.
I’m done early, and I dial Lori. “Any chance you’re ready?”
“I am. I can meet you in the hallway.”
We disconnect and a minute later both of us exit to the hallway. Lori, now dressed in snug faded jeans, boots, and a V-neck pink lace top, casts me a look and frowns. “What’s wrong?”
I motion toward the elevator. “My assistant, Ashley. Apparently, the guy she was going to marry was a con artist. She’s in trouble. I’m going to wire her money and we’re going to have to help her get out of this.”
“What can I do?”
It’s the perfect answer, as my woman and as my associate. I update her, and we decide we have to get a temporary secretary into the office. We reach the airport, and I’ve dealt with calling Ashley, and her wire. Lori and I are just stepping on the plane when her phone rings. She digs it out as she claims the window seat in the center of the plane and answers. “Hey, mom.”
The flight attendant stops beside us, and I order us both coffee and breakfast. “Yes,” Lori says as I tune the conversation back in. “I’m with my boss,” she adds, looking at me. “Cole. Cole Brooks. Yes, he’s still arrogant.”
I laugh at what is obviously a reference to a conversation about me.
“Yes, that was him laughing,” Lori says, “and yes, I said it in front of him. No, mother, I’m not going to get fired. For an arrogant man he’s got a fairly decent sense of humor.”
This exchange goes on for a few minutes before she disconnects and sticks her phone in her purse. “She says hello.”
“You’re not going to tell her about us, are you?” I ask.
“This is one of those things, Cole,” she says. “She’ll worry, and her stroke was too recent for me to put that on her.”
“She’s an ER nurse,” I point out. “That’s real stress.”
The flight attendant brings our coffee and when Lori sips hers, she looks at me. “You remembered how I take it.”
“I remember everything about you. Back to your mother.”
“The ER is about saving lives. She lives for that, not the stress of paying bills.”
“You know—”
“Do not finish that sentence, Cole,” she warns. “I’m not letting you pay for anything.”
But I’m going to, I think, though the hard set of her jaw tells me now isn’t the time to press her. “What happened back there at the hotel?”
She looks away and sets her coffee down. “Nothing we can change.”
“The divide of your job and our relationship,” I assume.
“Yes,” she says, looking over at me. “I just—I felt it when we left that hotel room.”
“As did I,” I assure her. “I’m going to talk to the Merrick board and to Stanford about turning your nine-month program into six.”
Her eyes light. “Can you do that? Can they?”
“Let’s pull up your program on the flight, and talk about how to make that happen. If I present them a plan with my intent of hiring you full-time when you graduate, I don’t see why it can’t happen.”
“You want to hire me full-time?”
“Reese and I planned on hiring you full-time before I ever knew who you were. At what level is based on how you perform.”
“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“I know that is just one of the reasons Reese recommended the hire even before our re-introduction.”
“Which you’re telling me because you want me to know I’ve earned this.”
“Exactly. You have, and I have no doubt, you’ll earn the best possible position upon hire. I’ll send you the possible starting positions and pay. That way you can shoot high.” I then give her the only help I know she’ll let me give her right now by adding, “If we get this process approved, your money should be over six months, not nine.”
She breathes in and her lashes lower, and for just a moment I think she’s fighting tears. She blinks and focuses on me, composed now again. “That would be incredible.”
“You’re going to need to get started on the classroom curriculum now, in between cases.”
“I’m ready,” she says. “Can we look at the outline now?” She reaches for her MacBook.
“Now is how I like to work.” I say, reaching for my MacBook as well.
We start dissecting her requirements and since the flight attendant doesn’t force us to store our MacBooks, an interesting thing happens. Lori forgets about take-off. She’s that absorbed in the conversation about graduating early. And that tells me that control is what she’s missing. She needs to feel in control of her own destiny. I’m back to the dilemma that hasn’t changed. I can’t just save her and not lose her, which is going to kill me.
***
Lori
“You’re coming home with me,” is the first thing Cole says when the plane’s wheels touch ground.
I don’t argue. I want to go home with Cole. “I need to go home and check on things there, and grab a few extra items,” I say.
“We’ll swing by there on the way to my place.”
“No,” I say, turning to look at him. “I’ll go on my own.”
He cups my face and kisses me. “I’m taking you by your place.”
I’m coming to know him and there’s no arguing. If I go by my place, he’s taking me. “I don’t need to go. Let’s just go to your apartment.”
An hour later, the car Cole has hired stops in front of my apartment, because that’s Cole. Stubborn. Stubborn. Stubborn. And as I’d feared when I get out of the car, Cole gets out. I meet him at the rear of the vehicle. “I’m not letting you go up there.”
“I don’t care what your apartment looks like, Lori.”
“I do. And you will. You’ll do the bleeding-heart thing because as tough as you act, and are, you have a soft spot, which I love, I do, but it will work against our relationship. And this place is a big gossip hotel. My mother will find out you were here, and I told you I don’t want her to stress out.”
“We’re sharing a life now.”
“I’m also sharing a life with my mother.”
A muscle in his jaw ticks. “Which is why I should meet your mother.”
“Not yet. Please, Cole. Please just—”
He kisses me. “Don’t pack for one night. I’m not standing outside your apartment if we have to do this again tomorrow night.”
I press to my toes and kiss him again before I turn and run for the apartment when it hits me that maybe, I think, probably Cole just basically asked me to move in with him. Or more like, told me I am, but I can’t. He’s my boss, and my mother is here, and I won’t leave my mother behind. Cole won’t expect that. I know that. I quickly pack, and text my mother to let her know I’m back in town. Her reply: Tell me all about it over coffee in the morning.
I finish packing and then realize I have to be here when my mother gets home tomorrow. I leave behind my work clothes. I’ll change here in the morning. With that in mind, I hurry downstairs to find Cole leaning on the car. “I have to leave your place at six in the morning. I need to be here when my mother gets home from work. Any night I stay with you, I have to do that.”
He straightens and pulls me close. “If it means you stay with me, we’ll make it work.”
***
Twenty minutes later, we stop at the security desk of Cole’s place, and he registers me to be able come and go as I please. Another five minutes, and we walk into his apartment. The instant we’re in the foyer, he kisses me, but this time it’s not about lust and passion, and shoving me against the wall. There is tenderness in his eyes, in his voice. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too,” I whisper, amazed how true those words are when months ago, when I met him, I was certain that I couldn’t be with him and not lose me.
“Let’s put our bags upstairs and we can order dinner,” he suggests. “I’m starving. Are you starving?”
Starving for you, I think. “Yes,” I say. “That sounds nice.”
An hour later, we’re sitting on his living room floor, laughing and talking, waiting on news from Ashley that doesn’t arrive. Another hour later, we’re in his bed. Two hours later, I’m lying on his chest, listening to his heart beat, his fingers stroking my hair. “This is where I want you every night,” he says. “Here with me.”
I don’t reply. I can’t reply. I’m caught between two worlds. I love my mother. I belong with her, taking care of her, but on the other hand, here with Cole feels better than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’m in love with this man. He wants me with him. He’s not the obstacle. The rest of the world is the obstacle.