Page 43 of Raise Up, Heart
“Yes,” Michael says, and he sounds absolutely certain, which surprises Cole a little.
“You’re sure?”
“For you, I’m sure.”
“Thank you. Here’s what I’m risking by trusting you,” Cole says. “My life, his life, and any connection I might have with my family or my past. I don’t want to lose everything, Michael. Call me greedy. I guess I am. I want to have him, and I want to have my family, and without someone like you to watch my back, the chances of that are nil.”
“You’ve had enough grief in your life,” Michael says. “You deserve to have it all.”
Cole smiles, fond and tired, and shakes his head. “I won’t have it all. I will have everything that matters, though.”
Michael nods and stands up to shake his hand. “You have my word. I’ll protect you no matter what.”
“Thank you,” Cole says, and he pulls Michael into a hug. “You’re a good man. I told Emily, too, you know.”
Walking to the parking lot, Cole’s amazed at how quickly things have changed. He hopes he’s chosen the right person to trust. If not, then the aggressive option might not be avoidable after all, and Cole is so tired of being the one to lose.
You touch thebrown paper envelope that Cole brought back. Inside there’s new name for you, along with a passport and a birth certificate to verify it. There’s a new set of educational credentials that make you grind your teeth and snarl about inferior institutions, and a long line of rewritten history that will allow you to do something with your life other than screw Cole silly, so long as no one checks too closely.
“Which they won’t,” Cole says.
And since people are usually idiots, you agree.
“Tomorrow,” Cole murmurs with a tone of awe in his voice.
“Yep,” you say, reading over the information again, committing it to memory. “Dr. Red Alistair and Cole Hart. Did you have to reference my ginger childhood?”
“I didn’t choose the name, Damon,” Cole says. He’s distracted. You can see that he’s not happy, not as eager to press into this unknown future as he was this morning curled in your arms. He’s got the stone you left for him in his hand, and he’s flipping it over and over, back and forth, studying it intensely.
He says, “Do you ever think that maybe none of this is real?”
“About every ten seconds,” you say. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” Cole says, and he puts the rock down on the table. “I just wonder if it will ever start to feel real.”
“When you’re at work and someone’s made a multi-million dollar mess of something, and I call to say that you need to come home to give me a blow job before my next lecture at whatever community college I’m teaching at, it’ll seem real enough.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“We’ll be unreal together?” you ask, aiming for romantic. It’s a stretch, but Cole makes you want to try.
Cole grins, so it’s worth it, and he says, “Sounds like a plan.”
He’s adorable, and that makes you want to do dirty things to him. You want to teach him how to be even more depraved with you.
“You know what you haven’t done yet?” you say, walking toward him with slow, predatory intent.
“Um, no?” Cole says and he kind of squeaks the words, so you know he’s already half-hard for you.
“Dr. Red Alistair,” Damon says.
“Oh, right.”
“And he’s never done Cole Hart. What will Red think of him? Hmm?”
Cole’s mouth twists into a smirk, and he says, “He’s kinda pushy.”
“Yeah? Show me,” you say.
