Page 31 of Riding the High

I make my way back into the room, searching for something to put on other than my wrinkled blue dress.

“We’ll go for the annulment,” I offer. “There has to be a clause for intoxication. I can’t even believe they let us get married in that state.”

“I left you a pair of my sweats and a t-shirt.” Cole points to the chair. “And it’s Vegas. Drunken weddings are their bread and butter.”

I gratefully grab the sweats and disappear behind the bathroom door to put them on. When I make my way back out to the main room, a knock makes my eyes flit to his. I expect to see them worried too, but instead they’re traveling slowly over my curves in his sweats.

“Thank you for the clothes,” I say, folding my hands in front of me at the same time as he says, “It’s room service.”

Oh God, this is going to be awkward.

He pulls his eyes away and lets the concierge in.

I pace the room and wait as Cole tips her. When the door is closed again, I make my way to the table and slump down across from him.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I promised we wouldn’t lose control and we—”

“It’s not your fault, Ginger. I chose to drink that much. I chose to come up with the bright idea of getting married. Clearly I wanted you last night. This is my fault. It was a drunken moment of weakness and I should have known better.”

“This doesn’t have to change anything …” I mutter, desperately wishing I could rewind time.

He sighs and reaches across the table to grab my forearm. He pulls it to him, sliding his hand down over mine and stroking my ring finger. He looks down at it then back up at me.

“My receipt says I got the gold package. There will be photos to prove it, so I’d sayeverythinghas changed,” Cole says in a tone I can’t place just before his eyes grow serious. “But Ginger, me and you, we’re in this together—and us? There’s not a shot in hell one reckless night could ever ruin that.”

I breathe out a sigh of relief.

“I’ll handle it all,” he continues, my hand still in his. “I’ll find out everything I can tomorrow. I’m going to text Bev in the morning, have her pull all our options together. I can’t have any scandal right now. It’s for the best that we keep this to ourselves.Everythingthat happened last night. We can’t tell a soul.”

I nod, grateful for him in this moment. The last thing I need is for news of this to get out and provide my father with the primary disruption he is so desperately trying to avoid. He’d never let me live it down, and would give me a lifetime of lectures Idon’t need. I’m twenty-seven years old and sometimes I still feel like I’m a kid when it comes to him.

I look around the room, taking the space in for the first time. It looks like a tornado has torn through it.

It was us. We were the tornado.

My phone starts to ring. Olivia’s ring tone. Looks like I’m about to get a lecture anyway.

When I return to our room, it takes me a half hour of lying to Olivia to get her to relax.

“So you two got drunk, slept together in his bed, and want me to believenothinghappened?”

“Cole and I have fallen asleep together before,” I say so I don’t have to lie to her.

I don’t like keeping this from Liv, but I can’t risk CeCe finding out about last night, at least not right now. I won’t cloud her wedding summer with my stupid life choices. Besides, there’s no point. It will all be a distant memory before we know it.

As we make our way to the plane, the heaviness of the weekend hits me.

I left Laurel Creek ready to blow off some steam with my girls, and I’m coming home Cole Ashby’s wife.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Cole

The drive home from the airport in Lexington is too quiet. My mind is racing and won’t fucking settle. How could I let this happen? I have a daughter to raise, a new position I just started. The uptight old betties in this town will have my nuts in a vise for this faster than I can blink. As will my deputy sheriff if he ever finds out.

But even though it was wrong, last night plays on repeat in my mind and I feel like I’m spiraling. I thought of nothing else during the silent plane ride home with Ginger beside me. For four fucking hours, I laid my head back in my seat with my eyes closed, pretending to be asleep with my headphones on. Pretending the feel of her so close to me was doing nothing to me. Pretending that burying myself deep inside her hadn’t felt like finding the Holy fucking Grail.

Turning into Silver Pines now to pick up Mabel, the gravel drive spits the occasional rock from my tires as I take in the evening sun. There are horses loose in the paddock, and one of the maintenance crew is cutting the lawn with a ride-on mower. I breathe deep as the smell of fresh-cut grass fills my senses. No matter what is happening in my life, no matter what challenges I face, the rollinghills of Silver Pines and Sugarland Mountain bring me a settled kind of peace. One I’ll never find anywhere else on earth.

---