Page 124 of Just Like Home

He held her differently now, his face dipped down toward hers, both of them enveloped by an intimate darkness. She clung to him more tightly, and as they moved, the rest of the world seemed to melt away.

“I wasn’t completely honest with you.” His voice in her ear tickled the skin on her neck.

She didn’t move when she asked, “You weren’t?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t only ask if anyone ever kissed you because I was curious.”

She looked up, her face so close to his they nearly touched. His eyes were squarely on her, sending a shock of nervous energy down her spine. “Why did you ask?”

She’d seen hundreds of movies with moments exactly like this one, but standing there in his arms, unaware of anything else happening around them, she begged her knees not to buckle, her palms to stop sweating. How surreal that she found herself in this space at this moment with this man. Perhaps Cole was the biggest surprise that had come her way since quitting the ballet.

“Because I was too chicken to tell you what I was really thinking.”

She found his eyes, leveled his gaze, stopped moving. “Which was?”

“Well.” He slipped a hand up her arm, letting it rest on the back of her neck. “That I want to kiss you.”

The air between them sparked, and she forced herself not to run away. She’d been putting up a wall between them every time they almost reached this point, and now, here it was, out in the open. There was no running away from what he’d just said.

“You do?” Her voice was thin and small.

He nodded. “But not here in front of everyone. Can we go?”

She nodded. He clung to her hand, but as they turned to go, Cole came to an abrupt halt. She peered out from behind him and saw they were standing face-to-face with Gemma, whose cheeks were streaked black with tears that had cut through her mascara.

“Cole, can we talk?” she asked.

His hand tightened around Charlotte’s, but it felt more like an involuntary motion than a purposeful one. He glanced down at her, but she didn’t say anything.

She had no right to tell him to ignore Gemma and leave with her, and if there was one thing she’d learned about Cole Turner, it was that if someone needed him—even someone who’d treated him as badly as Gemma had—he was going to bend over backward to help.

She loved that about him.

Except right now, knowing that he was about to leave her alone at a fair she hadn’t exactly wanted to come to, she also hated it.

“Will you wait for me?” he asked. “I’ll be right back.”

Charlotte looked at Gemma, who wiped her cheeks dry with the back of her hand. “I’ll just see you later,” she said. “I’ll go home with Lucy.”

“Charlotte, no.” He turned to her. “I’ll be right back.”

She looked him square in the face and forced herself to smile. “No, you won’t.”

And then she turned and walked away.

39

Cole followed Gemma out of the noisy tent and into the warm summer air, kicking himself for choosing her over Charlotte. It was soGemmato show up at that exact moment.

A few yards away from the tent was a playground and, beyond that, a makeshift parking lot. They reached the swing set and Cole stopped. “What is this about, Gemma?”

She sat down on a swing, and Cole’s mind wandered back to the day she told him she was pregnant. They’d only been dating three months, and sleeping with her had never been the plan. But Gemma could be very persuasive, and even though Cole tried to resist, his flesh was weak.

Somehow, her getting pregnant felt like a punishment he deserved. He’d never forget the moment she told him. His heart twisted into a ball of regret, followed by a healthy dose of fear. Because Cole was certain, that while he was a pretty great uncle, he wasn’t ready to be a dad.

It had never occurred to him to ask if the baby was his. Of course it was. Gemma wasn’t the type of girl to sleep around. So, he proposed. It was the right thing to do. They planned their wedding in record speed, as if that would stop people from talking, but three weeks after they got married, Gemma miscarried.

Cole got a call at work, and he rushed out without telling anyone where he was going. He arrived at the hospital in a matter of minutes, hurried in, and found her laying in a bed, covered with a sheet, staring off at the ceiling.

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