Page 27 of Unspoken Rules

“I’ll have one of the guys pick me up.”

“I couldn’t do that,” I say with a shake of my head, putting my coffee mug down.

“Better than wasting money on a cab or rideshare, Bryson.” He pulls his phone from his pocket, presses something on it and brings it to his ear. After a moment, he says, “Can you pick me up in the morning? Yeah, normal time. Thanks.” He pulls the phone from his ear and puts it on the table. He turns to me with a smirk. “All set.”

My jaw drops open. “Cole—you really did not have to do that.”

“Well, I wanted to.” He holds my gaze, his tense and gives me no room to argue with him. I finally pull away and look at Chris, who is on his phone, not paying attention to anything going on over here.

He finishes up what he’s doing, puts his phone down and says, “There’s a new place that opened up on one of the side streets. Third, maybe. They may need some stuff done. Logo or website or something. Freelance is better than nothing.”

Did he just miss the entire conversation between me and his father? I blink a few times, opening my mouth to ask, but Cole speaks before I can.

“Wait, you’re doing website stuff?” he asks, as if he didn’t know this. He knows I went for my BFA.

I nod. “My major was in graphic design.”

“Shit, I didn’t know that. I’ve been looking for someone to redo my business stuff. Okay, maybe not actively looking, but I’ve been wanting to do it.”

I chuckle, as Chris says, “There you go,” pointing at his father. “You got your first gig.”

Uh…

“We can talk about it this afternoon. I’ve got a few things to do after breakfast, but I’ll be home around two,” Cole tells me.

“We’re going to Mark’s,” Chris says, looking through his phone again.

“We are?” I ask. This is news to me.

Chris looks up. “Yeah, don’t you remember telling him we’d go by today?”

“No, but I think talking about a job is more important.”

“You can talk to him about it later,” Chris says with a wave of his hand.

I glance at Cole, who’s staring ahead with a blank look on his face. Okay, this is awkward.

I look back at Chris. “I’ll meet you at Mark’s when we’re done.”

“Whatever,” Chris says, resting back against the booth. He grabs his drink and finishes it. When Tori walks by, he asks for another. I pay special attention to the way he and Cole interact, only to realize they don’t. Not a single word is shared between them directly.

When the food comes, my eyes practically pop out of my head with how big the stack of pancakes is. It has to be at least six inches tall—damn.

Cole chuckles at my reaction and leans close. He lowers his voice and says, “I told you I’d help you finish.”

Christ, my dick likes those words.

But there’s no way he meant them the way they came out.

Cole is not flirting with me.

He’s just not.

I eat maybe a third of the pancakes and all my bacon. Cole finishes what I don’t eat after his full meal, which is impressive. And oddly attractive. A man who can eat and still look the way he does?

It’s about ten when we get back to their house and Chris hurries upstairs, but I follow Cole into the kitchen.

“You really don’t have to do stuff for me,” I tell him, still bothered by the truck thing.

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