Page 30 of To Have and To Hold

“Two months ago. When Jacob was searching for Sierra.” Matt’s face suddenly closed off, leaving Colin suspicious. Matt had been acting strange for the past couple of months, and he attributed it to Nova not agreeing to his marriage proposal and freezing him out.

“Did anything happen with the client, because how come we are now just hearing about it.”

“No, everything went fine.”

“Did anything else happen in London. You have been giving me weird vibes lately.” Abbott piped up.

“No, there was just one night when Nova was ignoring my calls. I started drinking at the hotel and then didn’t want tobe alone, so I went to the nearest bar down the street from the hotel. Everything is a blur. I had too much to drink and I—”

The limousine came to a stop.

“We’re here.” Colin said, looking outside the window at the V hotel and admired the architecture; he spotted an attendant heading their way.

“We can talk more about this later.” Colin said as he reached for the door handle.

“Never mind, there is nothing else to discuss. I just drank too much and went back to the hotel to sleep it off.” Matt’s voice was clipped. Colin moved and glanced at him, but quickly became distracted when the door opened for him and the attendant stood to the side for him to get out.

“Welcome to the V, Mr. Norris.” Colin went to the back to help the limousine driver get the carry-on bags out of the boot while his siblings exited the limo. The second car stopped next to theirs and Colin’s friends poured out.

Then he turned to face another attendant. “Sir, Mr. Brooks wanted me to let you know that your suite is next to your fiancée’s. And you have already been checked in. Here are your keys. We will bring your bags up to your rooms, and here are some complimentary starter chips from Mr. Brooks for you to use in the casino. Enjoy your stay.” The attendant smiled.

He felt the firm grip of his friend’s Thomas hand on his shoulder. “Let the bachelor partying begin.”

Colin shook his head because he knew that some of his friends and siblings were about to get into some fun trouble. What was the saying?What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

He wondered which one of these crazy people was going to get a tattoo of some random chick or end up visiting Elvis in a chapel.

Chapter 15

Coco hung up the phone from her mother, relief pouring through her that now her parents both knew what was going on with Reena. Her parents had hopped on the quickest flight they could get to London when Reena called, telling them she was sick. Coco had almost cancelled her bachelorette party when her sister called crying that she thought she was losing the baby and she’d finally been able to convince her sister to tell their parents she was pregnant. They’d been upset and Coco had heard an earful from her mother and father and rightly so, but now they were there for Reena when she needed them the most. Putting aside their shock, anger, and sadness over the fact that their baby was now pregnant and could possibly be losing it.

Her mother had just called, waking her up to let her know that they were back from the hospital and that both babies were doing fine. The spotting was just her uterus adjusting to their growth.Twins. Wow. She was happy and a little jealous because she thought she would be the first to marry and have children but running a business, she had put that behind her for a bit longer. But now she was getting married, and it wasn’t the real thing. Coco closed her mind to that thought, but it was getting hard to ignore her growing feelings for Colin, the ones she thought she’d buried.

Coco’s mind drifted to the first time she’d spoken to Colin instead of seeing him pass her in the hallway with his arm wrapped around a different girl. They had met in the high school library after school for them to talk about the subjects he needed tutoring for. He had been at the table first with his feet propped on the table, chair arched back and resting on one of thebookcases. She’d glanced at it, worried the structure wouldn’t hold and he would fall back, but he didn’t seem to be concerned.

She put her stuff down and offered him a gentle smile. He’d eyed her for a second, then went back to looking into space, listening to his music and drumming a pencil on the table. Coco stiffened at the rudeness and was about to walk out when she caught a glint of humor in his eyes. She realized he was testing her, so she put her stuff down. Notebooks labelled for each class were spread onto the table, then she grabbed two more for Colin and another girl she was tutoring. Blue for him and pink for her other student. She took her pencil and jotted down some notes in his book when a shadow fell across the white paper. She sat back now that she had his full attention.

He grinned at what he saw on the pages. “You think I’m arrogant and lazy and going to be a waste of time, hmm. And you will give me five more minutes before walking away.” His blue eyes now focused on her had her sinking into them. He switched his gaze to the watch on his wrist. “It is now six minutes, one minute past the time you said you would leave.”

“I give you a minute grace period.” She said, tongue in cheek.

He laughed. And she tried not to be affected by it like all the other girls in the school did when he walked by or laughed or talked.

He suddenly took his feet off the table and lowered his chair to the floor, standing up and Coco took it as a sign that he was going to be a pain and walk out. No skin off her nose; she came here to tutor and if he didn’t want the help, then she was sure there was another student who wanted her help. Not that she needed the money; it just felt nice to earn her own pocket funds that her parents couldn’t tell her what to spend it on orsave for her to go to school with. As she gathered her books, Colin pulled out a chair right next to hers.

“Where are you going?” he questioned as he sat down now looking up at her.

She sat down. “I thought you were leaving.”

“One thing you are going to learn about me is that I never give up on anything I want.”

She sat there for a second, feeling nervous and excited at the same time. Having him so close was affecting her, especially the light cologne he was wearing. She liked it; a lot of boys thought it was cool to douse themselves in heavy scents but if she was right, it was just the brand of soap he was using.

She tried to play it cool and not respond because she knew that all his life, he’d had everything easy and handed to him. She didn’t want to be one of those people that would let him get away with everything and planned on making him work hard for those A’s. The time was now as soon they would all have to start applying to universities and get their final grades in.

He leaned over as she opened her books, his face close to hers. She swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling dry.

“Do you need to sit so close?” She turned, facing him and if she moved an inch closer, their noses would be touching.

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