Page 73 of Auction Time
My legs took off before my brain could process anything more, and I followed her. I caught up with her just as she went through the door.
I caught her arm and pulled her back to me. Tears ran down her cheeks, and the pain in her eyes killed me.
“Vanessa, please,” I begged.
“A bet, Cole?” More tears came. “A bet? That was the night I first gave myself to you, and it was a bet. You won.”
“I didn’t. It wasn’t anyone’s business, so I said nothing. Vanessa, it never took a stupid bet for me to be with you.” There was so much at work here. The bet and all that Denver highlighted about me.
He spoke everything I feared. All of it, and the fucking thing about it was he wasn’t lying either. When he spoke to my girl, he wasn’t lying about anything.
“It’s just the kind of horrible thing you would do. You’re the same. Someone like you can’t change, and you always have this power to hurt me so deeply.”
She pulled out of my grasp. “Vanessa, you have to listen to me.”
“I don’t want to talk to you right now, Cole.” She shook her head.
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her I loved her. I just didn’t think it would do anything. The hurt in her eyes was too much to bear.
It was that glass half full scenario. I could say it and save us or do nothing and let her go.
And… what would saying it achieve?
Wasn’t I just like my father?
If so, then she could do better than me. She deserved better than me. Denver couldn’t have been more right. The Internet was there with every possible article there was on me. Showing the world who I was.
Just like my father.
Darkness filled my heart as she turned to leave, and I watched her go.
Chapter 21
Vanessa
* * *
I lostmyself in my work for the next two days and appreciated that Cole allowed me my space.
At the same time, I hated it too.
I had all these people around me. My sisters and Gage. All trying to make me feel better. But not him.
I stayed at work late both days looking over the magazine a hundred times. Today was the deadline for submitting it to the publisher. It had been ready days ago, but I’d just wanted one last run-through of all the articles I’d done. There were twelve main ones, and I thought the guys from both teams deserved something extra because they’d all worked so hard this season. Cole included.
Every time I got to my little write-up about him, the tears would come. Of course, there was Denver too to remind me of all that had happened.
Reminding me that what I hit two nights ago was the big everlasting wall of reality.
Truth.
When you pick up a snake, you know what it is. There is no doubt as to what it is and what it can do.
You can hope that it won’t hurt you, but that is on you. If the snake bites you or if you decide to be a fool and pretend it isn’t a snake and someone suddenly tells you what it is, the mistake will all be yours.
It would be mine.
Itwasmine.
