Page 49 of Mates: Posy

"Oh."

I didn’t know what to say. I hated it, too, but there was nothing anyone could do to change the past.

With a soft sigh, Cole threaded his fingers into my hair as his other hand went around my back to hold my opposite hip. His shoulders curved down so his body enveloped me like a warm blanket.

"I am so sorry about what happened earlier." His warm breath tickled my ear. "I never meant to hurt you or make you feel unwanted. You are the only girl I willeverlove. Can you forgive me?"

"I already have. I overreacted, too. I need to learn to trust you all more."

"With your past, it’s understandable why you don’t. Plus, we’ve only known each other for a few days. And you didn’t overreact. Don’t you dare feel like you’re at fault in any way here. Like Wyatt said, we have a plan to prevent this from happening again. We’ll tell you more about it after dinner, okay, honey?"

I nodded and raised my head to give him a happy smile.

"Look at those dimples! You’re so cute, cupcake!" Ash hopped up and down next to us, making me giggle and my dimples deepen. "All right, Cole, it’s my turn!"

Rolling his eyes, Cole handed me over to Ash, who swung me up in a bear hug and twirled me around.

"Ash!" I squeaked in surprise and clung to his neck. The ground was alongway down.

He laughed.

"Hey! What happened to your space buns?" He stopped spinning me, but still held me off the floor.

"Quartz took them down. He wanted to pet me, I think."

"Oh, no! Did he pull any chunks out?" Setting me down, Ash started to look over my head and lift sections of hair. "Did he hurt you?"

"Of course not." I batted his hands away. "He was very careful."

Ash studied my face with a frown, then shrugged.

"Anyway, I have another surprise for you, princess."

He reached over to grab a flat, white box from the little table. When he held it out to me, I shook my head.

"I don’t need anything else. This," I whirled in a circle to indicate my balcony garden, "is more than I ever dreamed of having. I can’t believe you did this for me."

"Well,this," he shook the box, "is to bribe you into forgiving me for being such a neglectful jerk today."

Cole’s hand whacked the back of Ash’s head.

"Owie!"

"Hurts, doesn’t it?" Wyatt taunted.

"Yeah, but I don’t deserve it like you do."

"You admitted that you’re bribing your mate because you screwed up!" Wyatt squawked. "How is that not worthy of a slap upside the head?"

To prevent one of them from tackling the other, I took the box with both hands, which brought their attention back to me.

"Thank you," I said. "You don’t have to keep buying me things. I don’t want you to think I’m after your money or anything like that."

They both cracked up at that, and I frowned in confusion.

"We know you're not a golddigger. It was painful to watch you check every price tag and browse the clearance racks this afternoon." Cole ran his hand down my hair. "We want to get you little gifts, honey. We’ve been dreaming about spoiling our mate for years, so please let us."

"Okay, but don’t spoil me too much. I don’t want to become conceited or anything."

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