Page 7 of Auction Time
I snapped my gaze around to her and frowned. “What? What are you talking about?”
“She’s talking about the asshole from high school,” Gage filled in, talking loud on purpose. He gave me a pointed stare first as if to chastise me for indulging in Cole, then he switched his stare to him.
The only person who hated Cole as much as me was him. Gage hated Cole because he gave him hell in school, and when I say hell, I mean hell. Cole was how Gage found out his parents were getting divorced. Cole was how the whole school found out that Gage’s parents were getting divorced because his father, our dear Uncle Patrick, got their maid pregnant then tried to pay her off with too little to keep her silence.
Yeah, that was what Cole was like back then. I didn’t know what he was like now. Gage had reason to hate him, much more than me.
I got the usual teasings because I was a late bloomer who wore braces. He’d called me all sorts of things whenever we spoke from pancake girl with metal teeth, to flat chest with metal teeth.
In junior high he and his friends made fun of me when I had chicken pox and came back to school with the scars. I was Pizza Face for a long time after and he’d always do nasty things like leave dead rats in my bag and locker. That was because he and Gagealwayshad some kind of beef and Gage was always with me.
It was all hurtful awful things but they weren’t the reasons for my strong dislike toward him. It ran much deeper than that. My wound was emotional, a little like Gage’s, but different.
I hated Cole because he’d rejected me.
I knew better than to go crushing on the school bully. My senses just never kicked in when it came to him.
He’d rejected me when I so foolishly threw myself at him. It was perhaps the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to me. All of it.
“Guys, why don’t we just continue the game,” I offered, shaking my mind free of the memories.
Mia smiled at me. “Awww Vanessa, you shouldn’t be so shy.”
I didn’t know why she was telling me that when she knew what Cole was like.
“I’m not shy, and I don’t want to talk to him.”
“Why the hell not?” she winced.
“Because she has a brain,” Gage filled in.
“Exactly, so she should talk to him if she’s interested.”
“She’s not interested,” I answered for myself.
I took my shot and frowned when I watched my balls split off toward the sides of the table, none going in the holes. I was usually so good at this game, and it normally served as a great distraction.
“I’m sure he’s different now,” Mia said as I straightened up. “He’s been watching you since we got here.”
She was only saying that because since she’d gotten together with Eric, her mind had become a lot more open. Prior to Eric, Mia used to preach that all athletes were jerks. Eric was the linebacker for The Centaurs and in my opinion not like the usual jock who was more like Cole.
Eric was a nice guy. My sister Abby’s husband, Gilly, who was the quarterback for the team, was like a brother to us. Cole wasn’t comparable to either of them.
“God knows why,” I scoffed.
“Oh Vanessa, you know you’ll always be a virg—” Mia swallowed her words thankfully just in time.
I glared at her, and she bit back a smile. Gage knew I was still a virgin, but he didn’t know that she knew, and she would never forgive me for telling him and not her first. She probably would never forgive me for being closer to him than her for the simple reason that I’d always found him to be more down to earth and logical.
“I mean you won’t be able to get rid of that little problem of yours if you don’t put yourself out there,” Mia amended with a nod.
“Mia, stop filling her head with nonsense,” Gage warned.
“I am not. I’m simply guiding my sister and helping her select the best.” Mia nodded.
Gage frowned. “That guy is not the best.”
“Whatever. We’re not taking advice from you.”
