Page 90 of Tight Spot

“Not sure I have that in me.”

“You do if you stop being a stubborn dumbass.”

“It’s not nice to call people names, Cole.”

I smirked behind the mouth of my bottle and ended up with a pillow thrown at my face. I deflected it, barely, and tossed it back to the couch.

“Talk to me. You’re here. You called. You drove all this way dressed all nice with a look on your face that says you’re fucking miserable.”

“Make a guy feel nice and welcome, why don’t you.”

“Tell me what happened and how you fucked it up with Hailey.”

“It was temporary.”

“If it was, then you wouldn’t look like you kicked a dog while it was down.”

“It was temporary, and then I wasn’t sure I wanted to be that anymore, but when she asked me to tell her what she meant to me, I froze.”

Cole pressed his lips together, nodding like he knew that was how I fucked up, and then sucked in a breath through his teeth.

“Walk me through it.”

I did. I told him about the award, the event, how proud of her I was, how I’d already decided I was going to end it tonight before she got hurt and then I told him about Darrick fucking showing up, treating her and his new woman like trash. Although as hurt as Bianca was, the bitch had been flirting with me as soon as I got up to go to the bar, get Hailey and me drinks, so I didn’t feel all that bad for her.

I told her about confronting Darrick, about what she said to me.

How she looked like I’d taken a knife and stabbed her straight through her gut right before she walked away.

“How are you going to fix it?”

“I’m still not sure I should. She can find better. Someone more ready for all these feelings and shit than me.”

“Probably,” Cole agreed, and my blood started boiling.

“Thanks, man. Lotta fucking help.”

I shoved off the couch and went straight to the fridge for another beer. Normally, I would have grabbed two, but Cole could get his own damn beer in his own damn house after that.

When I turned around, Cole was glaring at me, leaning forward, forearms on his thighs.

“I’m not saying she should, I’m saying she could. And yet it sounds like she wants your pathetic, emotionally stunted self anyway. Why are you taking that choice from her?”

Possibly, because I was a full-grown adult with not only mommy and daddy issues, there were probably some abandonment issues as well. An inability to trust. Typical bullshit I’d never examined too much before because I’d never cared enough to.

“I knew the moment I saw Eden, all those years ago in high school, I was going to marry her. Seven years I lived without her. Got Jasper out of it, so I can’t say it all sucked, but I can tell you that I didn’t start living until Eden walked right back into it. Pissed, so damn pissed at her the first time I showed up to yell at her, and still, even that night, all I thought about was how much I’d missed her and wanted her. Scared, I was so damn scared she’d walk away again, but even with that fear, I made sure I gave her a reason to stay. You think you tell Hailey this, any of what’s going on with you, she’s not the kind of woman who would give you a reason to stay? Then she’s not the one for you anyway.”

“I’m glad you had that with Eden. I just don’t know…”

“She’s pregnant.”

“What?”

“Eden. Found out a couple of weeks ago but she wants to wait until after Maggie and Davis’s wedding to say anything. But yeah, she’s pregnant.”

A rush of something uncomfortable squeezed my chest. Hailey, swollen, hands on a large round stomach, filled with my child, hit me hard and fast.

Fuck.

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