Page 78 of Auction Time
An hour later, when I was nearly done, the doorbell rang.
I opened the door and was definitely shocked to see Gage Cartwright standing on the porch staring me down.
I thought he would be glad Vanessa and I weren’t together anymore. But since I know I’d hurt her, I was guessing he was here to beat the crap out of me. He was just a little over a week late.
“Come to get me? Mess me up? Go ahead, take a hit. Knock my damn teeth down my fucking throat,” I said to him, stepping closer so he could take his hit.
The truth of the matter was, I no longer cared.
Instead of hitting me like I thought he would, he stepped past me and walked inside the house.
I followed him into the kitchen, where he grabbed one of my beers from the fridge. He snapped it open and tossed me a can.
“Gage, I’m not really in the mood for games right now. So, please.”
“Cole.” He shook his head at me. “I never play games with you. Know that. If there is any game to be played, it won’t be with me.”
“Why are you here?” I asked.
He took a swig of the beer and walked back to me. “You nearly proved me wrong, very nearly. I want to know what happened. Why did you stop?”
“Thought you’d be happy to be right.”
“You want me to be happy that my cousin is hurting?” he retorted.
“No.”
“Then don’t talk shit like that to me. I saw you with her. I have seen you with her this whole time, and suddenly you just decide that it’s best you’re not with her. Why’d you bother?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I came back, and I was the asshole I’ve always been.”
“Why did you ever bother? This isn’t just about recent months. This goes as far back as middle school. You have the same look, and you never tried to be better than what you were. You were just an asshole who couldn’t give goodness a chance. You couldn’t admit back then that you love her, and you can’t now.”
My breath stilled. There was no way I’d believe that Gage of all people guessed that.
“Gage, it’s not that simple. There are just some things you should leave alone. I see that now, and you’re right. I love her. It’s not enough though.”
“Make it be enough. Why the hell wouldn’t it fucking be enough?”
I stared him down. “Gage, you know what kind of person I am. I was an ass to you back in high school and am an ass now. I don’t want to hurt Vanessa the way my father hurt my mother.”
“What are you saying? So, you plan to cheat?”
“No, I would never,” I shot back
“Fuck! Cole, what the hell is wrong with you? You’re actually planning to fail, giving up before you’ve even really tried,” he shouted, and his voice echoed within me. Reverberating through the fibers of my being like it did the walls surrounding us.
“Gage—”
He held up his hand and cut me off. “No! I’m going to tell you something I shouldn’t because it’s not my place. It’s none of my business and she’ll probably hate me for doing this, but I’m going to do it anyway. I’m making it my business because it’s her. So, I’m going to cut you some slack and do you a favor. I’m going to point out what you can’t see. You love her, and she loves you. It’s enough. It has to be because right now she needs you. Cole, she needs you. Vanessa’s pregnant…Sheneedsyou.”
A stone dropped in the pit of my stomach, and the blood drained from my face.
“What?”
“You heard me. She’s pregnant. Now, you can do what you want with that information. You can run away like a coward and not try to be a better man than both our fathers, or you can just be you and do what you said you’d do when you told me you wouldn’t hurt her. That day, you looked at me like you were going to prove my ass wrong, and you did. It doesn’t matter what happened after or who said what. Cole, the damn past doesn’t matter. What matters is now and what you do next. She told me you apologized for being with her, but you act like she didn’t know all that stuff about you already. She knew it all and still loved you anyway. Right from way back when. Vanessa still loved you anyway. She still loves you now. So, what next, Cole?”
My mouth opened to talk, but no words came out.
