Page 97 of Fallen Hearts

Or go to her apartment, as I had before.

The ache in my chest thinking of how good we were together was overshadowed only by the ache that developed when it hit me from time to time.

He was gone. Forever.

“You look like hell.”

My hand froze in midair. It wasn’t a voice I’d been expecting.

“Cole.” I put the paint roller down, the guest room looking much brighter with the perfect shade of gray Pia had chosen. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“A guy can’t come home for a weekend?”

“Sure,” I said. “But no notice?”

He shrugged. “Maybe I like to be mysterious.”

“You’re as mysterious as a simple math problem, Cole. What gives?”

Judging by his bag, when Cole said he was coming home for a weekend, he meant here, at the inn. All four of us together, again, for the second time in just a few weeks? I wasn’t complaining.

“I didn’t have any classes,” he said, tossing his duffle bag on the bed and sitting beside it. “I had plans to go out with a few colleagues. Just wasn’t feeling it.”

I picked the roller back up. “So you drove out of the city on a Friday? Bet that was fun.”

“Quite.” Cole adjusted his glasses. “So why do you look like you haven’t shaved in days?”

“Because I haven’t shaved in days,” I said, glad to be almost finished for the day.

“That’s not like you.”

He was right. It wasn’t.

“Guess I’ll have to ask Parker and Beck what’s up.”

It would take Cole all of five minutes to find out that Pia and I were having trouble.

“Short version. I got involved with Pia. Hinted I might be heading back to the city. And now we’re barely talking.”

I didn’t need to look at Cole to see his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

“Maybe a few more details?”

Sighing, I finished up a second coat in the corner of the room. “Fine. I got heavily involved with Pia. We agreed that if I went back to the city, we’d see other people. Since she agreed to take on a larger role if I didn’t sell, I wanted to talk to her about that but lost heart after I saw her face. Pia has a terrible… no, nonexistent poker face.”

With a few last rolls, this particular room was complete, and I surveyed the finished product. And finally looked at Cole, whose expression was a cross between confusion and disbelief.

“What?” I asked him.

“Heavily involved. Lost heart. Do you hear yourself?”

Clearly I was missing something. “Not copying you, Cole.”

“You like her.”

“Didn’t I already say that?”

“I mean,reallylike her.”

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