Page 56 of My Return to the Walter Boys
It was comical the way her jaw slackened, but what actually made me laugh was Alex’s expression—a combination of wonder andwhat the hell have you done with the real Cole Walter?
“What?” Cole said as his brother stared at him. “Danny listens to the audiobooks on rotation before bed. Every. Single. Night. Says nothing can lull him to sleep the way Jim Dale’s voice does, so it was inevitable I picked up a thing or two.”
“I suppose you can stay,” Kim said grudgingly after regaining her composure. Then she lunged across the table and snatched the score sheet away from Cole. “Still can’t name our team, though.”
An amplifiedthump thumpsounded through the pub. Someone at the front of the room, it was impossible to see who considering the size of the crowd, called for attention over a mic. Trivia would start in five minutes, and everyone who wanted to participate was instructed to form teams if they hadn’t already done so. Heather spent every second of the downtime interviewing Cole like he was on a late-night talk show, asking inappropriate and intrusive questions. He took her brazenness in stride, and the too-honest explanations he offered her left me blushing; it wasn’t until he grinned, eyes following the path of red spreading from my cheeks down to the collar of my shirt, that I realized he was doing it on purpose to fluster me. I sagged against the back of the booth when the quiz finally started, grateful for the reprieve.
Since I’d only seen the first three movies, I settled in for the show, knowing I wouldn’t be able to offer any assistance. Kim performed as expected, speedily scribbling down answers as if we’d get bonus points for responding first. What little she didn’t know was covered by the rest of our team. The only time Cole spoke up was to correct Kim’s response to what species of dragon guarded the Gringotts high-security vaults.
He reached over and tapped a calloused finger against the score sheet. “That’s wrong.”
Kim’s head jerked up. “Excuse me?”
“The correct answer is Ukrainian Ironbelly. The Hungarian Horntail was Harry’s tournament dragon.”
Alex shot Cole anotherwho the hell are you?look while Kim frowned in consideration. After a brief moment, she muttered something under her breath, crossed out what she previously wrote, and jotted down the correct response.
In the end, our team lost by one point to the cosplayers because Kim mixed up fanon with official canon. This gave Alex an excuse to tease her for reading one too many stories about gay wizards from the 1970s, which made Kim launch into a dissertation-length lecture on the importance of fan fiction. By the five-minute mark, most of the table had tuned her out and broken off into smaller conversations with the exception of Alex. He continued nodding along with her rant like a dutiful boyfriend, though it was clear to anyone who spared a glance at his pained expression that he regretted his earlier comment. I tookthe opportunity to catch up with Riley, who’d been spending all of her time with Marcus since the dance. While we spoke, Cole sat back and listened in silence, his thumb tracing circles up and down my leg. I was so engrossed in our discussion, I nearly forgot he was there.
“Nick?” Cole said suddenly, making me jump.
Following his gaze, I located his friend standing by the secondary hostess station at the back entrance. He glanced up from his phone at the sound of his name.
“Cole, hey!” Nick strolled up to the table. He seemed unsurprised to see me as he scanned our group, but his brows rose when he spotted Alex. Which, fair. “Doesn’t this look…fun,” he added before returning his attention to Cole. “I wish I’d known you were in town this weekend. We could have caught the game together.”
The expression on Cole’s face was open and easygoing, but Nick’s comment made his hand freeze on my thigh. “Well, let me know next time you’re home. I’m not visiting. I decided to defer for a year.”
“What?” Nick exclaimed, his gaze momentarily flicking to mine. “Why?”
“I need to save up money for tuition. Not all of us have surgeons for daddies.” The tone Cole used was teasing, but I found the remark unnecessarily pointed. Then again, I didn’t know much about their friendship, only that they’d been on the football team together. Maybe this was how they joked around with each other? There was also the possibility I’d overestimated how close they were, because why hadn’t Cole shared his deferment plans?
Regardless, Nick laughed and launched into a detailed breakdown of his first month at college. My eyes glazed over as he went on about girls and partying and more girls, so I took the opportunity to use the bathroom. When I returned a few minutes later, Nick and Cole were missing.
“Where’d they disappear to?” I asked as I slid back into the booth. I scanned the pub—first the pool table section, then the bar—but even though O’Brady’s had cleared out significantly since trivia finished, I couldn’t locate either of them amid the thinning crowd.
“Nick was only here to pick up a to-go order,” Heather said but didn’t answer my question.
“Okay…” As I glanced around the table, nobody met my gaze. There was a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach, so I turned to the one person who would never make excuses for his brother. “Alex?” I prompted. “Where’s Cole?”
He shifted in his seat, mouth drawn into a tight line as he dragged a finger through the puddle of condensation left behind by his empty water glass. After a tense moment where I thought he wouldn’t respond, Alex reluctantly looked up at me. “I don’t know, okay? After Nick left, Cole muttered something about forgetting to lock up the shop and took off.”
My mind ground to a halt. Five full seconds passed before the wheels started turning again, and the gist of the situation dawned on me. “Are you saying heleftme here?”
No, absolutely not. There was no way Cole would do that to me…right?
The awkward and sympathetic expressions on all my friends’ faces told a different story.
“It’s okay,” Alex said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “I can give you a ride home.”
That was so far from the issue, I almost laughed. Obviously, Alex or one of my friends would make sure I got back to the ranch safely. But how could Cole abandon me without explaining where he was going or saying goodbye? Had I done something wrong? I thought back on the past hour, but nothing came to mind. Sure, I didn’t participate in trivia, but Cole made it clear he didn’t give a damn about the pub quiz; the only reason he came tonight was me. Whatever happened to make him leave had to have taken place while I was in the bathroom.
“Did Nick say something to him?” Thinking about it now, it occurred to me that Cole started acting strange the moment his friend showed up.
Alex hesitated, his throat flexing as he swallowed. “Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?” I asked stoically. It was difficult not to snap at him, but I wouldn’t take my anger out on Alex. This wasn’t his fault.
“Well…Nick asked if Cole deferred school because of you.”
