Page 92 of Bad & Bossy

He pushed further, and the door slammed against the wall beside it as Lottie’s arm gave out. She didn’t move from her spot, though, keeping herself between me, Drew, and the man before us. “You have no idea how easy it was to get him to cave,” he said. A line of drool leaked from the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the neatly pressed dark grey suit. “He’s weak. He doesn’t deserve shit.”

You have no idea how easy it was to get him to cave.

Oh, fuck. “You’re Bobby?”

“Bobby Morgans, at your service,” he chuckled, doing a little bow before nearly losing his balance.

“Leave,” I hissed.

“I’m not leaving until you understand.” The cut of his words almost gave me whiplash. It was terrifying how easily he slid from anger and disgust to being lighthearted and cheerful. It had terrified me the first time it happened, and now it was so much fucking worse. “You need someone who has their shit together, Dana.”

“And that’s you?”

“That’s me.”

“You look worse than Cole the last time I saw him,” Lottie scolded, grabbing ahold of the door frame and trying to shut it before losing once again.

“I can guarantee he looks worse than I do right now,” Bobby laughed. My stomach churned. “Don’t you see, Dana? He caved. He caved so easily when he had so much to fucking live for. He can’t handle himself. A few choice words, a few shitty situations, and he fell the moment I pulled out a bottle. Do you really want someone like that around your son?”

God, I couldn’t keep up. He’d thrown Cole into his relapse?

“You think she’d want someone capable of doing that to a friend around her son?” Lottie shot back, and I couldn’t think anymore. I couldn’t process it all. I wanted him gone, wanted him fucking dead, and instead I had bickering at my front door the day we’d come home from the hospital.

I slipped my phone from my pocket, pushing the three little digits I needed before holding it up in plain sight. “Leave. Now.”

“For fucks sake, Dana, I’m here to help you.”

“Please don’t make me call them.”

A chunk of wood fell from my door as he released it, swearing under his breath. “Fine. Whatever. Fucking bitch.” He stepped down off the threshold of my front door, wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth as he staggered back. “Maybe I was wrong about you. You’re so goddamn blind you couldn’t even see the signs.”

My thumb hovered over the green call button, my hand shaking violently. He snorted a laugh as he walked down my pathway, every second feeling like hours until he stepped down the road, unlocking a car I knew for certain was Coles. His BMW.

Lottie shut the door and locked it, and it was like the room came to life. Drew began to cry, my phone dropped to the ground, Lottie started freaking out, saying we needed to call the police anyway, she needed to check on Cole, about how this was insane and we needed to go to him.

I shut it all out. Everything but Drew. I wrapped my arms around him, soothing him, dragging my fingers across the top of his dark blonde hair. It had started sprouting weeks ago, and as I looked at him, as I really took it all in, I had a hard time not seeing Cole in him anymore. I couldn’t block out the green eyes, the little dimple, the hair.

If Bobby was the one that drove him…

No. I’d made my decision. It didn’t matter what the straw was that broke the camel’s back. If I was okay taking him back after this, I would have been weeks ago. It didn’t matter. I felt for him, truly, achingly, and as much as it would hurt me, destroy me, break me apart, I couldn’t. For Drew, I had to keep myself away from him.

No matter how much it broke my heart.

Chapter 33

Cole

Everything hurt. My body, my mind, my fucking soul, if I had one. The whiskey in my pocket barely kept it under control. I’d found a happy medium that allowed me to cover up enough of the pain that I could try to be a normal person without debilitating me into a full-blown wreck.

If I didn’t drink enough, I couldn’t stop thinking about her and Drew.

If I drank too much, I couldn’t stop thinking about her and Drew.

If I drank the perfect amount, I couldn’t stop thinking about her and Drew, but it wouldn’t leave me sobbing and clutching my chest in the middle of the bathroom floor.

It was the only option.

Even if it meant barely being able to function at work.

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