Page 34 of Hard Focus
In the space of an evening he’d gone from “Icouldlike her” to “I definitely like her a lot,” and he wasn’t certain what to do with that. Her intuition was spot onandshe’d called him on it, surprising him with the way she tackled ithead-on.Not shy, this one. He smiled. The “not yet” part of her statement had hung there like a promise, and Cole had latched onto the words like a lifeline. She might not know it yet, but she’d become important to him.
It didn’t take much to imagine her facing off with Jonas in her kitchen, handing him his marching orders and kicking his ass to the curb. Cole liked the way she owned her own confusion about Jonas, too. She was looking for answers, just like he was, and she might have found a few of them tonight as they talked through things.
There’d be work to do before he could saywith confidencehis demons were exorcized, but Connie had helped him lay the groundwork.
“Do you believe in fate?”
She tipped her head to the side and looked up at him, lips pursed in a puzzledmoue. “Maybe? Sometimes. I believe in karma, which is another name for fate, I think. Do you think I met Jonasasa lesson?”
“Not for you. Maybe him meeting you was his lesson?” She grinned at that, shaking her head in amusement. Cole laughed. “There’s a lot of connections between us.” He reached out and stroked up her arm with the backs of his fingers,covetingthe feel of her soft skin against his. “Maybe my shift selection wasfate,because it meant Audrey called me most often when asshole would come to pick up Addy. That gave me a chance to watch you.”
“You watched me?” Her cheeks pinked, something he’d enjoyed seeing several times tonight.
“I did. I looked for you. I didn’t know why, until now.” His hand reached her shoulderandhe reversed his touch, trailing his fingertips along the curves of her bicep. “Remember what you said earlier? Not yet?” She nodded. “I meant it when I said I’ll wait.”
***
Connie
She settled the door into the frame, turning to look at her empty apartment. Cole had just left, laughing as she’d argued she wasn’t tired, trying to fight through massive yawns to reassure him. After their conversation in the kitchen, they’d retired to the living room, and he’d quizzed her on various topics. Not making her feel under a microscope so much as making it clear he was interested in everything about her from her favorite foods to movies, books, and a thousand things in between.
She walked to the couch and sat, leaning back to stare at the ceiling for a moment.
He hadn’t been shy about sharing his own thoughts and ideas, and she’d ended the evening feeling as if they’d been friends for years. He was so comfortable to be around. She smiled. From what he’d said as he left, she’d get a chance to see if that feeling wouldstick,because he asked for a date. A real one, as he’d said, “I wanna do it right. Let’s have dinner and everything. The works. I want to see you again and soon, Connie.”
The door rattledandshe looked up in time to see Nelly coming in, a broad smile on her face. “Hey, you. Guess who I just saw at the elevators.”
Connie rolled her eyes. “Let me guess. Cole Stewart?”
“Yup. He said he made you dinner?” Connie nodded. “Sweet. Did you invite him over?”
“No, he wanted to talk about something and took a chance I’d be up. I nearly wasn’t. I’d gotten home and was bushed, so I was going to just fall into bed. He proved a distracting visitor.” She gestured towards the kitchen. “Leftovers are in the fridge. He’s a good cook. I don’t even know how he put together anything from what we had, but it was delicious.”
“Too bad you let him distract you and didn’t just fall into bed.” Nelly waggled her eyebrowsandConnie laughed as she stood. “Food sounds good. I’ll check it out.” She opened her arms as Connie got near, wrapping her up in a tight hug. “Headed to bed?”
“Yeah. The day’s catching up with me.” She stretched. “See you tomorrow? I’ll be working late again, but that should be it for a while. Just have to get caught up on typing out the filings.”
“See you. Love you, sister of mine.”
“Love you, too.” It didn’t even feel strange or forced now to voice those emotions to Nelly. They’d gone from not speaking for months tospendingat least part of every day together, and Connie realized she wouldn’t have it any other way. “Don’t move.” She blurted the words and shook her head. “I mean, I know you’re looking for a place, but I’d like it if you stayed here.”
“Okay.” Nelly took a paper plate from the cabinet and spooned some of the food onto it, covered it with another plate and shoved it in the microwave, pushing buttons until it beeped and started working.
“Okay? Just like that?”
“Yeah. Why would I argue? I love this place, and the eye candy in the rec room is sweet.” Nelly waggled her eyebrows again. “You might have hooked a hot fireman, but I’m still fishing.”
“Jesus, you’re incorrigible. I’m going to bed.”
“Sweet dreams.”
