Page 76 of Holding On to a Hero
Will choked out a laugh, then sobered. “Right. So, my date and I were leaving—”
“Wait, wait.” Cole made atime outgesture. “Go back. I want to hear about your date.”
“Cole,” I began.
“Jason, shut it. We’re going to be in this car for hours and hours. There’s plenty of time to hear about the shooting. But no one got hurt, so we can get the deets on Will’s date first.” He gasped. “Maybe there’s a clue that came up during the date!” I gave him an eyebrow. “You never know, Jason,” he huffed. “Will, please start with your date. Had you gone out with him before? Did you find him online? How did you meet?”
Will groaned but humored Cole. He told us about his date, Felix. Cole was riveted by Felix’s bad date stories. “That’s awful. How can one guy end up with so many weirdos? We’ll have to invite Felix out to the ranch sometime. I need to see how he’s choosing these assholes. It’s got to be him, right? He’s the common denominator.”
“Well, not last night, he wasn’t,” Will countered. “That was not his fault at all.” Will went on to tell us how the detectives had let slip about the coma and Felix’s reaction. Then he was finally able to get to the shooting. “At least Felix wasn’t hurt. But then when it was over I started realizing that the shooter was after me, not you, Cole.” He blew out a raspberry. “It’s hard to wrap my mind around it.”
“I know what you mean.” Cole twisted to look back at Will again. “I felt the same way when we thought I was the target.” He hesitated, then asked, “I know we said you shouldn’t feel guilty about any of this, but it’s hard to control your emotions. Are you feeling guilty? Because the only person to blame is the shooter.”
I tried to watch Will’s expression in the rearview mirror. He grimaced and then looked resolute. “I’m trying not to feel guilty. Malcolm, the guy who works for Brian, told me I needed to find my anger and replace the guilt with that. He said I should use my anger to fight back. So that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Cole and I made supportive comments, but I was honestly hung up on something else. “Tell me about Malcolm. I haven’t met him yet.”
“Uh, he seemed like he knew what he was doing. He used to work for the FBI, and I think he left because he messed his leg up pretty bad. His landlord volunteered to drive us to the airport since Malcolm had a cast. Craig, the landlord, was really nice.”
“Um, what? Brian sent a guy to pick you up who couldn’tdrive?” I was going to kill him.
Will got defensive. “I don’t think he had much choice. Brian said he was out of town and it sounded like the other people were on jobs.”
I shifted in my seat. “Sorry, I’m just frustrated not knowing this Malcolm guy and not having all the information.”
“If Captain Bossypants is done questioning Brian’s business management for now, Will, can you tell us what the cops said about last night? Did they find any evidence?”
He sighed and said, “No. I mean, I don’t think so. But they weren’t really sharing any information with me. They were more about asking me questions.”
“What did they ask you, Will?”
“Oh, they wanted to go through any possible enemies I might have, or motives that might make someone want to kill me.” He went through the questions he’d been asked.
“Okay, hold on.” I knew exactly what Cole had latched onto. “Jason and I haven’t heard your dating history. You can’t tell the cops and not us.” He paused significantly. “Since we’re your boyfriends.” I couldn’t see it, but I just knew he was wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
Instead of rolling his eyes, which is what I would have done, Will beamed – fucking beamed like the goddamned sun – at Cole. And then he proceeded to list all of his exes.
“Huh,” Cole mused. “I think I like this Felix guy for you better than any of your actual significant others.”
“Cole,” I started.
“Oh, except us of course. I meant the old ones. Obviously we’re the best choice for him now, not Felix.”
“Obviously,” I said repressively.
“It’s just that Felix would have been pretty grateful to have a guy like you after all the others he’s gone out with. And your exes sound like they didn’t put you first.”
Will scrunched his eyebrows together. “Okay.”
“Don’t worry, though,” Cole assured him. “Jason and I are going to treat you much better than even Felix would have.”
“Maybe we can just leave Felix out of the discussion going forward,” I suggested.
“Fine,” Cole sighed. “At least until we get back home and I can help Felix figure out his dating mistakes.”
“Hang on a minute,” Will exclaimed. “I told you all about my exes. I need the same from you two.”
Well, this should be fun.
