Page 7 of Second Chance Wedding
“Cole, please. Do not call the police. I’llfixthis. I’ll pay for the damages. I’ll help you explain it to your boss. Just…please. He’s a child.”
After he’d let go of her, she’d wrapped her arms around her front and now stood shivering in the evening breeze.
Cole fought the gentlemanly urge to give her his suit jacket and took in the damage instead, swearing softly. Gage and Alec would take turns torturing him if he didn’t get a police report for the insurance company because while the damage might only be to the fender, it was to the fender of a six-figure vehicle. “This isn’t going to be a cheap fix, Ana. And your son deserves to be punished for what he did.”
“I know. I’ll take care of it,” she said.
A door slammed behind them, and Cole turned a wary gaze on the punk Ana called her own. In the dim light of the alley, Cole noted the boy looked nothing like her.
He towered over her shorter frame with a lean, lanky build that made it clear he wasn’t done growing yet. He had dark hair and dark eyes, which is why he’d wondered if the boy could be his.
But if not his—whose?
His brothers had been freshmen at the time, turning sophomores, and they hadn’t recognized the guy they’d seen her with. When they’d asked around, no one else seemed to know, either.
“Benji can work for me. Work off the payment as punishment.”
If Cole hadn’t been looking at Benji, he wouldn’t have caught the kid’s dismissive smirk.
But he was looking.
And even while he told himself he didn’t care what kind of nightmare Ana had birthed and raised, because she’d brought it on herself and deserved it for her handling of their breakup, he was angry enough to stick his nose in where it didn’t belong.
The boy’s attitude and entitlement topped the charts, and Cole ached to bring it down a few notches. “That’s not good enough. He can work off what you have to pay for repairs, but he’ll also have to work for us and learn not to take things that don’t belong to him.”
The punk started swearing at Cole and told him what he could do with his suggestion. Ana’s gasps and orders to stop fell on deaf ears as Cole grabbed the teen and pinned him against the wall of the building.
“That’s assault,” Benji said, squirming to break free. “Do you see this? It’s assault!”
Cole blinked at the ridiculous accusation before leaning closer and smiling.Chuckling. His anger threatened to tip the scales, and he barely reined in his temper. “Call the cops,” he said. “By all means, call them.”
“No, no,no!” Ana pulled at Cole’s hold to no avail.
Somehow she then squeezed under his arm between them and glared up at Cole.
He could feel her hands on him trying to press him back and vaguely heard her pleading with them both to calm down.
Cole held the boy’s gaze until the punk broke and looked away like Cole knew he would. Bluster and bluff and too much stupidity combined and made the boy a time bomb.
“Whatever,” Benji said in a mutter. “Mom, chill.”
Cole finally shifted his gaze and locked it on Ana’s pale face and glittering gaze. He wanted to demand how she could ever be with a man who’d spawn a punk like hers and not take the boy to task. But then he stepped away from her to clear his head and lungs of her perfume and saw her ringless left hand fall to her side. He shook his head again.
Ana wasn’t the type of woman who wouldn’t wear her wedding band. His gut told him she was a single mom raising the boy alone.
And that she’d lost all control.
Cole had seen it plenty of times before in the Marines. Troubled teens coming in because they’d been court ordered to do so. If Ana’s son was stealing cars at fifteen, what would he be doing in another year? What had he already done?
The teenager’s mouth and poor decisions destined him for trouble. And he’d drag Ana along for the ride with her kicking up a mama-bear defense that would leave her hurting worse in the end.
But that was none of his business. Cole locked his thoughts down to the moment at hand. He didn’t care what Ana did or who she did it with. He only cared that the damages were paid for, and his business wouldn’t suffer. Period. “Be in the office tomorrow at noon. We’ll discuss payment.”
“Your office?” Ana asked.
“Blackwell’s,” he said.
“You’re working with your brothers now,” she said softly. “I hadn’t heard.”
