Page 35 of Cole

Her stomach flipped at the name, but she kept her face expressionless. “What about him?”

“He’s not the one for you.”

Annie wanted to be furious at Dawn and Andrew for revealing that Cole was someone she was having more contact with recently. However, she understood they were just trying to keep their jobs, since reporting stuff like that was required. Still…

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He’s in the spotlight. Any woman he even looks at ends up in the spotlight too. That can’t happen with you.”

Annie knew that. “It’s irrelevant.”

“What do you mean it’s irrelevant?” her dad asked with a frown.

“Have you seen the women he usually dates?”

Her dad took a moment to consider her question. “Yeah. I’ve seen some pictures.”

It dawned on Annie then that it was a little weird her dad knew anything at all about Cole Halverson. He was Benji’s favorite player, but her dad seemed to mostly tune out Benji’s chatter when it was centered on basketball.

“Did Jude send you a file on Cole?” Annie asked as she hitched herself up onto one of the bar stools at the counter.

“No.” Her dad sat down on one of the other stools. “I already had info on him.”

“Why would you have info on him?”

Her dad hesitated, then said, “I wanted to make sure that the man Benjamin admired so much was worthy of that admiration.”

“And was he?”

Her dad lifted his brows at her. “He’s still Benjamin’s hero, right?”

“True.”

“I knew that one day, he might run into Cole here, so I needed to be sure that he was a good man.” He lifted a finger. “But not for you.”

“It’s a moot point,” Annie told him. “We’re just friends. There is no chance of anything more. I’m not the type of person who would fit into his world. Plus, there’s no chance I’d catch his eye that way. I’m sure he has a very specific type of woman in mind.”

“He’d be lucky to have you,” her dad said fiercely. “Any man would.”

Annie smiled at her dad, appreciating his defense of her. She was glad that he had confirmed what she’d already known about Cole—that he was a good man. But like she’d said, it was a moot point.

She hadn’t seen Cole after they’d left the boat the previous Sunday afternoon because he’d ended up leaving on Wednesday rather than the weekend. Something had come up that required his presence in LA.

Before they met, she’d thought that professional athletes practiced, played games, and occasionally did photoshoots.She’d since learned that there were lots of other things they did. So it wasn’t a big surprise when Cole had to head back to his home in LA.

She’d been a little sad, but he’d still been texting her, so they hadn’t completely lost contact. It was probably better that they had distance between them. It was definitely easier for her. Probably didn’t make much difference to Cole.

“How has everything else been?” her dad asked as he took the cup of coffee Elizabeth held out to him. “Thanks, love.”

Elizabeth had been present for the whole conversation, but she hadn’t said anything. Years ago, Elizabeth might have stepped in to advocate for Annie. But over time, Elizabeth had stepped back, encouraging Annie to find her own voice and relationship with her dad.

She was so grateful for Elizabeth and the way she’d stepped into the mother role in Annie’s life when her own mom had abandoned her.

Unfortunately, Julian hadn’t viewed Elizabeth the same way, but then he had clear memories of their mom that Annie didn’t have. And he’d not taken well to his mom leaving or Elizabeth stepping into her position, even though it hadn’t happened right away.

Annie’s immediate acceptance of Elizabeth—and later Benji—had meant that she wasn’t as close to Julian. He’d distanced himself from all of them. It wasn’t a great situation, but Annie wasn’t going to force a relationship on him.

“Everything else has been fine. I’ve been working on Christmas items for my shop, and I’ve been making mitten, scarf and hat sets for the shelter.”

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