Page 6 of Purity

But pointless. If Cole says no, I’ll be too dejected for anything other than going home and writing about it in my journal. I’ll have to start my hunt for someone else after I’ve had some time to recover.

When she steps out of the car, I take a deep, calming breath before following her. We walk around the side of the house until we spot a group of people at the edge of the property, near Cole’s guesthouse.

“I’m going to go find us a drink,” Mari says before turning toward the keg on the patio.

I glance around, looking for Cole. Tall as he is, it takes me only a moment before I spot him. He’s standing near the Koi pond with a red cup in his hand and is surrounded by a few girls I vaguely remember from high school. One of them looks like she’s in the middle of telling a story. She gestures wildly while she talks, and Cole’s eyes are fixed on her face. Riveted.

Goodness, she’s so pretty. They always are. Pretty and outgoing, just like him.

I take a deep breath. I can do this. I don’t have to be the textbook shy girl who stands silently in a group conversation, patiently waiting for a turn to talk that will never come—that she’ll never take, even if it does.

I can be bold.

Boldness is a choice, not a feeling.

I walk steadily in his direction, trying to make my strides large and confident. As if sensing my presence, he looks in my direction. His eyes widen for a moment before his ruggedly handsome face melts into an almost boyish smile. Goodness, he’s so beautiful, with his broad shoulders and square jaw and those kind brown eyes. He’s everything I was taught to want in a husband—strong and confident on the outside, but soft and caring within.

That’s where the delusion started. I’d been so sure that I couldn’t love him so much, that he couldn’t be the embodiment of all my husband fantasies, if God weren’t trying to tell me we were meant to be.

It’s sad.

So sad.

As soon as I get close, he opens his arms wide. I quicken my steps and am startled when he pulls me into a tight embrace. He hums as his mouth grazes my head.

Wow. This is different. He rarely hugs me like this, and it tugs at that familiar ache in my belly.

“I missed you,” he whispers.

“I missed you too.”

“Never again. We’re never doing long distance ever again.” He squeezes me so tightly that I can’t take a breath for a moment. Goodness, he’s in a strange mood.

When he finally lets me go, I smile up at him. “I don’t know if LA to Santa Barbara could really be called a long distance.” Because we’re not in a relationship, I add silently.

“Well, it was too long for me.” He sets his hand on my shoulder before turning to the two girls. “Do you guys remember my best friend, Livvy? She was a year behind us at San Marcos.”

One of the girls only nods, but the vivacious one who was telling a story earlier grins mischievously at me before looking at Cole. “I remember you punching Zac in the face for hugging Livvy, and then getting suspended from the baseball team for it.”

An adorable little smile tugs at Cole’s lips. “Yeah, I was a little overprotective of her, but that particular story gets wilder every year since we graduated. I swear by our ten-year reunion, it’ll be that I beat him within an inch of his life and went to jail for it. I didn’t even punch him. I shoved him a little bit.”

“Not a little bit,” I say. “You shoved him really hard.”

He narrows his eyes playfully on my face before turning to the other two. “For the record, it was much more than a hug. He was getting handsy with her, and she didn’t like it. I was really just trying to push him away, and I didn’t mean to do it that hard.”

“Zac wasn’t being that handsy,” I say to the girls and then grin saucily at Cole. When his eyes widen, my stomach flutters.

I think I’m actually flirting, and in front of a group of people!

“I believe her side of the story, Cole,” the vivacious girl says.

He shakes his head. “Your loyalty goes out the window if someone gets hurt.” He turns to the girls. “She only gets mad at me when I hurt someone, even if it’s only their feelings. I remember one time she wouldn’t talk to me for two days straight because she thought I’d hurt Noah’s feelings, and she’d never even talked to the guy. I had to send this long text apology to him, which was awkward as fuck, but that was the only way she’d talk to me again, and—” he turns to me, and his eyes grow hooded, “—how did Noah respond to my apology, Livvy?”

I smile sheepishly. “He said he didn’t have any idea what you were talking about.”

“Yep, that’s right. You wouldn’t talk to me for two days over imaginary hurt feelings.”

I purse my lips. “I still think he was too embarrassed to admit he was hurt. I saw the look on his face when you teased him.”

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