Page 56 of Muddy Messy Love

My cheeks flush, but I smother my embarrassment with annoyance. “Who exactly do you think you are?”

Cole hardens his jaw, and I hate that I imagine skimming my lips across the stubble. “A simple thank-you will suffice.” His sharp tone cuts, and I flinch. He notices, then looks down with a sigh, gripping the steering wheel with one hand, bleeding his knuckles white. “I care about you, okay? Way more than I should.”

Elation rushes me in a tsunami of liquid gold, and I fight the urge to climb into his lap, burrow in, and stay there forever. Safe. Cared for. Maybe even one day, loved.

You’re like a vine, Avery Lee. A vine that slowly creeps up and strangles people.

I wilt at that thought but manage to speak. “Stop following Slade. Promise me.”

Cole sighs but agrees. His pale gaze finds mine, but the vulnerability in it wrenches my heart. “I thought you broke up with him.”

The hurt in his voice stuns me. “I did. I… Well, I—” And then it all comes flooding back. Mini-Bees. Hannah. Ella. Him. Their trifecta of perfect love. I grind my molars. “Where is Hannah, anyway?”

Cole frowns. “Probably at home with Ella. Why?”

“Shouldn’t you be there with them—at home with your daughter rather than stalking me?”

Cole’s brows shoot up. “Excuse me?”

“What? Is it so common for you to gallivant around with other women no one’s ever questioned you?”

The confusion on Cole’s face settles into a smug smile. Throwing his head back, he laughs, and the sound booms through the car. “Oh, green reallyisyour colour.”

“I’m not jealous,” I grit out. “I’m angry. How can you do this to Hannah? Not to mention Ella. How can you mess with that sweet little girl’s life?”

Cole folds his arms, tilting his chin. “What exactly have I done?”

I meet his cocky gaze, the slight twist of his full lips, and my cheeks burn. Only a naïve twit like me would think a platonic lunch and a few flirty comments are anything of consequence. But here we sit at a picturesque fucking lookout after he swept in and saved my butt. That’s got to mean something, right?

“Oh, you’re jealous all right,” Cole says. “Jealous of my sister and niece.”

“Wait…what?” I whisper.

“Hannah is my sister, not my lover. And Ella is my niece.”

I stare at his glittering smirk. He’s loving every damn minute of this. “But she has your eyes.”

“She does.” He nods. “The same eyes as her uncle. And grandfather, for that matter,” he adds blackly. “Family resemblance, nothing more.”

I look away, shrinking into the supple leather seat, willing it to swallow me whole. No word adequately describes my humiliation, but at the same time, oh, the relief.

“Is that why you ran off on Friday?”

I don’t answer him. Rather, I stare at my lap, squeezing my hands.

“I thought Hannah would have mentioned it by now.”

“Well, she didn’t,” I say, picking at my fingernails.

Cole’s hand comes down over mine to still them, and I brave looking up. His intense gaze studies me, and he narrows his eyes. “So you were upset at my perceived betrayal. Is that why you went out with Slade?”

Am I that transparent? Fuck my life.

“Well?” he asks.

Looking away, I nod once.

Cole tuts. “Silly girl.”

---