Page 29 of This December

“Can I talk now?” Cole brushed my hair out of my face, not letting me hide from his searching eyes. “I’m not breaking up with you. I’m fucking embarrassed. Ashamed. I don’t even know how to label it.”

“What? Why? You haven’t done anything to be ashamed about.”

“I brought all this insanity down on you and your family. Your life is about to blow up, and I can’t protect you. People will say shit. Make you feel bad about yourself because they’re assholes. I just…I’m so fucking sorry, baby.”

“Cole.” I finally wrapped my arms around him and held him. I could hear the pain and frustration in his voice. “I had no idea you felt like this. I don’t blame you.”

“You say that now. But it’ll get ugly. And I can’t stop it from happening. We should probably break up to protect you, but I’m a greedy son of a bitch. I want to keep you.”

“Whoa.” It was my turn to protest and take a step back. “What the hell are you talking about? Keep me? Like for longer than a holiday fling?”

Red tinged his cheeks, and he shoved his hands in his front pants pockets. “I mean, you don’t have a regular nine-to-five job. And if you take my commission for album art, you can make your own schedule. Maybe go on the road with me? Tour the states and see the world?”

“Holy crap. We’ve gone from you leaving in a few days to me going on the road with you? I just—how? I don’t think I can just put my life on hold like that. I’ve got student loans. I’ve got to find a job. I’ve got to get back to my life.”

“Maybe you don’t. I, uh, kinda paid off your student loans a few days back.”

“You what?” I boggled. “When?How?”

“A few days ago, I had Jace find out how much you owed and paid it off. I didn’t want you having that hang over your head. You obviously hated your job, and I wanted you to be able to be free moving forward. So you don’t have to take the first job that came your way. You should be doing something you love, that feeds your soul, not grinding for a paycheck.”

“I don’t…I don’t know what to say.” I sighed as so many emotions coursed through me. Confusion. Indignation. Maybe some shame. “That wasn’t your call to make.”

“I didn’t make any calls—Jace did.” When I didn’t laugh at his weak joke, he groaned and scrubbed the back of his head. “I’m not making any calls about your future. That’s your decision to make. And now you have the freedom to do whatever you want.”

“I just…I don’t…” I had nothing. “That still wasn’t up to you. This…thing between us isn’t transactional. I don’t like the idea of you paying any money for anything of mine. I don’t do that with guys.”

Cole groaned again. “I know. And it wasn’t meant that way. I have more money than I know what to do with. Your student loans aren’t even a blip to my bank balance. I know it’s shitty to admit, but it’s true. So let me do this for you. Even if you don’t end up coming on tour with me—which would be a mistake by the way. Let me do this for you.”

My groan rivaled his. “Fine. I’ll accept if it’ll make you happy.”

“Wait…”

I laughed and jumped back into his arms, wrapping mine around his broad shoulders. “Thank you.” I pressed a kiss against his soft, lush lips. “You’re an amazing man. Whatever happens, I won’t ever regret meeting you and being with you.”

“I really fucking hope it stays that way. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you keep believing it.”

Then he kissed me, and it felt different than any time before. Like we were connecting on a different level. More emotional. More…everything.

Things got a little hazy after that.

And horizontal.

But I remember thinking that I was falling for this man. Hard.

Chapter 10

“You guys sort everything out?” Jace asked with a bland expression when we came back down the hall a bit—okay, thirty minutes—later.

I just knew my face was on fire. There was no way he didn’t know what we’d been up to. So I buried my face in the fridge, pulling out ingredients for breakfast.

“Yeah, we’re mostly good,” Cole answered. “But clearly we still need to have that talk.”

“Right.” Jace put his phone down and rested his elbows on the counter, leaning forward. “I think we need to come up with a statement. No comment is just going to make them more ravenous. And it wouldn’t hurt if you take a selfie of the two of you, post it on your socials. Take some of the mystery out of your relationship. Be the ones to officially break the news, and come out swinging so to speak.”

Nausea burbled in my stomach. We’d gone from holiday fling to official in a heartbeat. And I still wasn’t so sure I was onboard. This wasn’t a little thing. This was the kinda thing that would follow me around for the rest of my life. I’d always be the former love of Cole Jackson if this went sideways.

But it was already too late to stop that from happening. I’d been outed, and there was no running away from that.

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