Page 19 of To Have and To Hold

He nodded. “Thank you and from here on out I will be on my very best behaviour. Scout’s honor.”

She rolled her eyes. Colin was never a scout.

“No, seriously. Thank you for giving me comfort and being there for me.”

She nodded, then they headed down the hallway and back to the event. The music seemed to be muted a bit and Coco glanced at her watch, noting that guests probably started migrating toward the lawn where supper was going to be served.

She turned as a male voice addressed her.

“Oh, there you are. Coco, can I talk to you for a second before we sit down for dinner. Colin, you don’t mind, do you?” Keith gave them a smile. “I will escort her to dinner. You can follow the guests heading out.” Coco froze and turned to Colin, her mouth opening.

“Yes, I do mind. My fiancée is not going anywhere to talk with you.” He didn’t hesitate at all, just as the music stopped to allow the person with a mic about to announce something. The guests that were still in the room stopped talking and all eyes turned to them.

Chapter 8

Colin glanced up from his desk in his office and stared at Coco striding past, ignoring him. Then he sat back when Jackie followed but instead of ignoring him, she stared daggers until she was out of his eyeline.

He sighed. He was in the doghouse with Coco and her father, but he was hoping to change all that. He planned on taking all of them out for dinner, and afterward for a game of mini putt to try and break the glacier that had formed when he’d recklessly blurted out their engagement.

He remembered Coco had mentioned during one of their study sessions that their family liked to have fun and go mini-putting, where her father would have them all in stitches because he always liked to cheat and would try to be sneaky and feign innocence when they called him out on it. Her laughter as she would tell him stories would have him laughing along with her, but also feeling a bit jealous that she had both her parents with her. His mother was deceased and his father was off drinking, travelling, and bedding the next woman he’d meet. He couldn’t remember a time where they all went out and had a good laugh together. He wished he’d had that.

His phone buzzed and he glanced at the message, his mood picking up. He left to go downstairs to the main doors of the building.

What he just brought back up would hopefully make her day. He wanted private time with them and to see what it was like to be around her and her parents.

When she walked past again, he got up and followed her into her office.

“Coco, stop giving me the cold shoulder.”

She sat down and pulled her papers toward her.

“Coco, I mean it.”

She glanced up, giving him a glacial stare, then continued to ignore him.

“Okay, I am sorry about how I handled things with Keith.”

She snorted and then said in a snarky voice. “Scout’s honor, Coco.”

He swallowed a laugh. She was so cute when she was angry with him. “Yes, well you know fully well I was never a scout.”

Her glare sent him to be buried somewhere.

He pulled a paper bag from behind his back and held it out to her as a peace offering. He’d contacted the chef from that night and requested he prepare her favorites, hoping this would pacify her a little and also for what came with the gift.

She eyed him and the bag suspiciously, but when he opened it in front of her, Coco’s face lit up. Delighted, she took one of the salt fish cakes out of the bag and had it to her mouth when her eyes met his. Then she lowered it.

“What is this for?”

“A small peace offering from what occurred last weekend. I am really sorry the way it came out at the party. But Coco, it would have come out eventually.” He rationalized.

She handed him back the bag.

“All right, I am sorry. Let me make it up to you and your parents tonight. I will take you all to any restaurant you want to go and then we can go and play mini golf.”

Her eyebrows rose. “You remembered they liked to play?”

“Yes, I remember everything about our time together.”

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