Page 52 of Cole

“Don’t sell yourself short, Annie,” Dawn said. “You’re amazing.”

“Thanks,” Annie said with a roll of her eyes. “Do you know that the women Cole has dated in the past have also been amazing? Amazingly beautiful.”

Dawn snickered, then said, “You’re not chopped liver, you know.”

“I’m aware.”

Annie often wondered why she hadn’t inherited her mom’s beauty. She had been a model, which was no doubt why her dad had married her. But maybe he’d realized that there was more to beauty than just what he could see because Elizabeth wasn’t a model, though she certainly was attractive.

“Do you think there’s any chance Cole knows who Dad is?”

“What?”

Annie winced, realizing her mistake. “Just wondering if hedidstart to show an interest in me or started paying a lot more attention to Benji, if it might be because he knew who our dad is.”

“I don’t get that feeling from him,” Dawn said. “He really doesn’t strike me as that sort of guy.”

Annie didn’t get that feeling either, but she didn’t have a whole lot of experience with guys. It was one of the reasons she had a lot of trouble figuring out what Cole’s intentions might be. The last thing she wanted to do was misunderstand something and make their friendship awkward.

She wished that she had someone she could confide in. Unfortunately, at the moment, every woman in her life was either connected to her dad or to Cole.

In her mind, she’d always known that her life was incredibly insular. Her closest relationships, outside of her family, were with people her dad had paid to spend time with her.

Her tutors. Their housekeepers. The security personnel. She’d never had a relationship with someone who looked at her and said to themselves,hey, I want to spend more time with her because I think she’s a nice person.

Instead, they were spending time with her because they wanted a paycheck. Which, for the longest time, had been fine because she hadn’t realized what she was missing.

Now, however, she’d witnessed friendships and relationships that made her realize that she had a hole in her life that she hadn’t known was there.

She didn’t think she’d ever be a person who had tons of friends, but she was at the point in her life when she’d like to have at least one.

How could she even have that, though, when she couldn’t reveal much about her life to anyone?

When they got back to the property, Annie said goodbye to Dawn, then continued on to her house with Nyla. After she let herself into the house, she pressed the button on the app on her phone that secured the entire house. All the doors automatically locked, and the security blinds lowered over the windows.

It was overkill, in her estimation, but if she didn’t do it, someone at the security office would press a button and do it. She didn’t want that because such an action would feel like she was being robbed of what little control she had.

After checking that Nyla had water in her bowl, Annie made herself a cup of tea. Since she’d been sick, she’d been drinking more tea in hopes of strengthening her immune system.

Taking her mug, she made her way upstairs with Nyla on her heels. She didn’t always work in the evenings, but right then, her thoughts were in a bit of a muddle. Keeping her hands busy while she thought over things felt more productive than ignoring it all by watching television or crawling into bed to toss and turn.

Between sips of tea, she cut out a sleep sack from some beautifully soft material that she’d ordered that had come in while she was sick, while worship music played softly in the background. As she worked on the garment, she said a prayer for the child who would one day wear it, then set her thoughts free to work through what she was feeling.

Her phone chimed with an incoming video call, bringing a smile to her face. She answered on her tablet and set it up to the side of her project.

“Hey,” Cole said, as his face filled the screen. “How’s it going?”

“It’s going well.” She lifted the pieces she was pinning together. “I’m making a sleep sack.”

“Is that one of the things I bought?”

Annie smiled. “Yep. It’s for the baby to sleep in since they’re not supposed to use blankets in their cribs.”

“They’re not? Clearly I’m not as up-to-date on what babies need as other people.”

“You haven’t needed to be.”

“You haven’t needed to be either,” Cole pointed out. “And yet you know all about it.”

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