Page 32 of Second Chance Wedding
“Analise?” Sophia asked. “Wait, Analise? From high school?”
Cole bit back a groan and lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “Yeah. Her kid got into a bit of trouble and is working at the station and rentals for a while to pay for damages.”
“What happened?” Dawson asked, his surprise apparent in his tone. “And how’s that going with you and Ana? You guys aren’t exactly friendly now. Or are you?”
Sophia’s head and attention shifted from staring up at her husband to staring up at him, and Cole crossed his arms over his chest.
The memory of Ana’s head resting there only moments ago left him as confused as Dawson and Sophia visibly looked. “Ana and I have made amends. We were just kids, and it was a long time ago. As to the boy, it’s a long story and one we’d like to keep on the downlow. He got into trouble, and to avoid the cops, we made a deal.”
“Interesting,” Dawson drawled.
“What does that mean?” Sophia asked.
Cole glared at his brother to silence him. “It means I need to get back to work. You guys enjoy your walk on the beach.”
Cole turned to leave but still heard Sophia’s sharp inhalation.
“Theydated? Oooh, I’d forgotten about that. Interesting, indeed.”
Cole walked faster despite the shifting sand beneath his feet and took the same path as Ana because it was the closest. Once he made it to the pier house, he paused, torn in where to go.
Ana was nowhere to be seen, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to head back to the store just yet. He needed time to process his conversation with Ana and…maybe a trip to the gym to work off some of the frustration he now felt when he thought of an eighteen-year-old Ana facing pregnancy alone.
And that comment she’d made about her parents being mad at him? Why? Had they thought he was Ben’s father? Thathehad abandoned her?
He’d thought their conversation would settle some unanswered questions, but now he had more than ever.
His phone buzzed, and he pulled it out to look at the face, grinning at the name and swiping to answer. “Hey, buddy. You know I don’t do bail calls.”
The man on the other end laughed. “Good thing I don’t need one then. What’s up, Blackwell? How’s business?”
“Going great,” he said, keeping it simple. “What’s up with you?”
“Wondering if you’ll meet up with the old crew? There’s a ball being held at that fancy new hotel in Carolina Cove, so the guys and I are all coming there.”
Cole shoved down a groan and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I…forgot about it.”
“Yeah, well, you might not do bail calls, but I got you. I picked up some extra tickets,” Jones said pointedly. “Come on, Blackwell. Surely there’s one girl in that town who’d tolerate your ugly mug enough to dress up and be your arm candy.”
Jones had texted a while back about attending one of the Marine balls being held all over the world to celebrate the birth of the corps.
Cole had managed to put it off at the time with the excuse of his new business, but with the limo out of service—which would’ve been a moneymaker and something else the boy nixed with his attempted theft—Cole wasn’t sure what to say. “Where is it again?”
“Uhhh, the Lachlan Hotel and Resort,” Jones said as though reading it off the ticket. “Come on, man. No excuses. No one blames you. You gotta know that.”
Cole stared at a seagull gliding down for a water-skimming ride and shook his head. “It still shouldn’t have happened,” he said quietly.
“No, it shouldn’t have. But it did, and he’d kick your ass if he knew you were beating yourself up because of it, especially when you got hurt, too. Look, man, we all know the score. So did Mannix. Now go get yourself a woman and come see us. Got it? I’ll leave the two tickets at the front desk for you.”
His grip tightened on the cell phone. “I’ll think about it.”
“Noncommittal as ever,” Jones said, drawing out the words in a light tone that didn’t exactly disguise his frustration. “Boy, we’ll be in your hometown. You stand us up, and you’ll have all of us on your doorstep. Try us and see.”
“Okay, okay, I hear you,” Cole said again. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good.”
Jones kept talking for a while, filling Cole in on him and his wife expecting baby number three, the other guys and some of their antics, before ending the call.
