Page 103 of Cold As Ice

“What? Come on, that’s funny. So she didn’t see anything?”

“No, thank God.”

“Everything’s good then.”

“Actually, we decided to cool things.”

“We?” Her brow arched, and I didn’t like the insinuation in her voice. “Or him?”

“It was a mutual decision.”

I’d promised myself when I left Warren that I wouldn’t be the kind of mom who brought a string of guys around Imogen, that I’d focus on her and us, and rebuild our lives together.

“So why the glum face?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged, turning away from her to avoid any more scrutiny.

It wasn’t like I expected Austin to want to get to know Imogen. We’d both made our intentions clear about things. But I guess I didn’t expect him to end things so abruptly after one close call.

“You like him,” she said.

“Well, yeah.” I glanced back at her with a sad smile. “I wouldn’t be sleeping with him if I didn’t. You know me better than that.”

“I do, and this sad girl act you’ve got going today tells me all I need to know about your casual arrangement with College Guy.

“Oh, babe.” She dropped the box of coffee cups and pulled me in for a hug. “Youreallylike him.”

“I—”

Was that it?

I mean, sure, I liked the way he made me feel. How easy it was being with him. But our relationship—if you could call it that—was surface-level only. We hadn’t even gotten to sharing the deep stuff.

But I’d wanted to.

Crap, I’d wanted to go there with him.

What an idiot.

“I’m so stupid.” I sighed with frustration. “He’s in college. He made it perfectly clear that—”

“Stop, stop.” Kayleigh grasped my hands between us, offering me a pitiful smile that only made me feel ten times worse. “You’re only human, Mads. And this is the first guy you’ve let in since Warren. It was always going to be complicated, even if you both laid your cards on the table.

“You should be proud of yourself, though. Look how far you’ve come.” She squeezed my hand. “You trusted a guy again after everything you’ve been through.”

Inhaling a shuddering breath, I nodded. “You’re right. God, you’re so right. I’m being ridiculous. He didn’t promise me anything, and I did act kind of crazy this morning. I made him hide in the bathroom, and then just left him there.”

“You were protecting Immy. No one can blame you for that.”

But Austin did.

Or maybe he didn’t.

Guess I’d never find out now.

“This might sound a bit odd, but do you think that maybe you picked Austinbecausehe’s a college student?” My brows knitted, and she continued. “I just mean, maybe some part of you knew he was a safe bet. A bit of fun to test the waters.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

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