Page 60 of Auction Time
“Broke in. It was so cool. There were all these people at her house. Gilly and I snuck in from the back. I was spying and saw when they arrived. I knew there was some funny business going on last week when a van delivered what I thought looked like a cage.”
There it was, and I would never be surprised if she and Gilly ended up in jail one day. While the rest of us grew up with that element of knowing right from wrong, they’d grown up without it.
Kids for life. I guess, though, it was good for them. I couldn’t think of two people more suited for each other.
What was I saying? That observation could apply to any of my sisters. And most especially to my parents who were my idols for the truest love.
Taylor had Dylan, Abby had Gilly, Mia had Eric. Mom had Dad. Each couple was a perfect match. My sisters each had their own temperaments and relationship worries, but they had guys who were perfectly matched and suited them.
I was the only one left, and my guy was…
Well… he wasn’t anything like their guys.
But still the man I wanted.
Mia continued to do my makeup while Abby continued with her chatter and moved on to more gossip. I listened and tried to calm my thoughts.
When Cole came to pick me up, it was probably a shock to see all of them, but he was cool about it and even cool when Abby highlighted the fact that we were always together and people might start to think as such.
I laughed it off but noticed that he never protested or tried to make her think otherwise. He just said yes.
It was a definitive answer, but what was more definitive was what he’d arranged at The Verve.
I’d been here once for my birthday. It was for my last birthday. My whole family came.
I’d loved it then. It was a chic Italian restaurant that overlooked the sea.
Cole had hired out the terrace, and we were led to a lonely candle lit table that looked like it was plucked straight from the set of a film likeOnly You, which was actually one of my favorites.
The whole thing stole my breath away, but what got me more than anything was the way he looked at me. It was like when he saw me, he sawme, the real me. Who I was inside and outside, and I was finding it very difficult to keep a grasp on the line I put up, separating what I wanted to feel and what I thought I should feel.
We had a beautiful night, which went exactly as he’d said.
Dinner, then back to his place, where I fell asleep in his arms.
It was late morning when he took me back to my place, and what greeted us was the morning paper with a picture of us on the front.
Coleridge Buchanan’s Latest Catch
That was the headline.
The media worked fast. Fascinated to hear what it would say, I started to read how the beautiful but shy wallflower Vanessa Cartwright was now dating the new wide receiver for The Centaurs.
That was as far as I got before Cole took the newspaper from me.
“Wow, they work fast,” I joked.
“Yeah, they’re a bunch of assholes, but at least they got it right this time.” He smirked.
I gazed up at him. “Right?”
“Coleridge Buchanan’s latest catch.” He smiled. “But they made it sound like it was easy to get you, and nothing was further from the truth. The long mental hours of hard work I put into deep thought was all left out. Not to mention the deep, deep concentration it takes to think about football when I’m trying so hard not to think about you. Or,fuck, how I had to come up with a strategy to stop you from telling me no even before I opened my mouth.”
I laughed and took both his hands into mine. “I’m sorry.”
“I’ll accept your apology if you go out with me again tonight,” he said, pressing his forehead to mine.
I nodded. “Yes.”
