Page 134 of Cole

Annie had never considered that Julian wasn’t one hundred percent behind what their mom had done.

“But you keep trying to force me to see her,” Annie said. “And I don’t want to.”

Julian sighed, a puff of white cloud forming in front of his face. “It’s just that over the years, she’s become more and more insistent about seeing you. It drives me nuts. I just figured if I could get you to see her, she’d lay off me.”

A selfish motivation that fit what she knew of Julian.

“Well, stop trying,” Annie said. “If I decide I want to meet with her, I’ll let you know.”

“And if Angelica wants to meet her?”

“I’m not trying to control anyone else,” Annie told him. “If she wants to meet her, I have no issue with that.”

“Okay.”

They’d reached her cabin by then. But when Annie invited Julian in, he shook his head.

“I need to get back to the house,” he said, setting her bag on the floor of her foyer.

“Hopefully to apologize to Benji,” Annie said as she unwound the scarf from around her neck.

Julian rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. I’ll do that too.”

Annie wasn’t going to bug him about it, but just like her mom was an adult responsible for her actions, so was he. Benji shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of whatever issues Julian had with their dad.

Once he’d left, Annie settled at her desk with a cup of tea. She’d been neglecting her work, and focusing on sewing might help distract her from constantly checking her phone for updates from her father or from Cole.

Hours slipped by as she lost herself in fabrics and patterns, the familiar rhythm of creation soothing her racing thoughts. It wasn’t until her stomach growled that she realized she’d worked through lunch.

She was just debating going down to the kitchen to make herself a sandwich when her phone chimed with an incoming video call. Cole was pretty much the only person who communicated with her that way, so she was already smiling when she accepted it.

“Hey, love,” Cole said, and Annie could see by the angle of the phone that he was in his car. “Just on the way to practice.”

Annie leaned forward on her worktable, propping her chin on her hands so she could stare at her phone where it was attached to the stand she’d placed it on. “How was the flight?”

“Great,” he said with a grin. “Your dad is going to spoil me for commercial flights.”

“Don’t your team charter planes already do that?”

“Oh, your dad’s plane is far more comfortable than those flights.” He looked over at her as the scenery beyond the windows of the vehicle came to a standstill. “How has your day been?”

Annie gave him the details of the meeting with her dad, then showed him the projects she’d been working on.

“Well, I’m here, babe,” Cole said as he turned off his car a few minutes later. “I’ll try to give you a call when I get home later,but Marcus asked if I’d go to his place for dinner with him and his family, so it might be late.”

Annie felt a pang of regret at not being included in his social life when he was in LA. He had people in his life who were important to him that she hadn’t met yet. Hopefully soon that would change.

“That’s fine. We can chat tomorrow.”

Cole smiled at her. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

After they said goodbye, the screen went dark. Annie stayed where she was, blankly staring out the large window over her worktable.

How long would it be before she and Cole didn’t have to constantly say goodbye? Before they could live closer together? What would that even look like? Because she had a hard time imagining herself living in LA, especially on her own, since there would be no living together until they were married.

When her stomach growled again, Annie sighed and got up from her chair. She removed the phone from the stand and headed down to the main floor.

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