Break Away (The Moore Brothers Book 4) (7 page)

L
ilah had never felt so
small and unwelcome in all her life as she did when Cole yanked open the door to his apartment and glared down at her. His broad shoulders filled the space, practically touching both sides of the doorway, his head scraping the top of the entry. His face didn’t exactly scream warm and welcoming and Lilah worried that the one plate of cookies in her hands wasn’t going to be enough to tame this particular monster.

But the scowl softened—that rich smile of his warming everything but those stormy eyes—and he stepped aside, making enough room for her to enter. The apartment was a carbon copy of hers. Identical floor plans, the same single window beside the front door set in the wall across from the sliding glass doors in the back of the apartment that lead out to a concrete slab better known as
the patio
. The furnishings weren’t much different from Lilah’s either, although he did have a dinner table, worn and pockmarked though it may be.

She stepped into the living room and stood there, waiting for an invitation to sit, directions as to where to put the cookies, anything to help make the whole situation feel a lot less awkward. Of course, Cole being Cole, all she got was a lot of sarcastic. Luckily, Lilah could fling sarcasm around with the best of them and didn’t hesitate to put him right in his place.

Throughout the simple yet completely satisfying dinner, she amused herself watching Cole and his mother interact and tried to understand their relationship. They both had the same look in their eyes, darting and distrustful and never fully smiling no matter how loud they laughed. And they laughed a lot. Poking jokes at each other about anything and everything and Lilah laughed hard enough to get a stitch in her side more than once.

Maggie even remembered to ask about her nephew, smiling knowingly while Lilah cooed over how tiny he was. By the time they unwrapped the cookies, there was no doubt in Lilah’s mind that she liked Cole and Maggie Bennett.

“Hot damn,” exclaimed Maggie as she peeled back the tinfoil. “Those are the prettiest cookies I have ever seen.”

Lilah had made sugar cookies because the recipe had seemed simple enough, but was so disappointed when they came out of the oven as just boring old white circles. She may have gone a little overboard learning how to make icing and decorating each of them individually.

Cole frowned at the selection of flowers and butterflies. “Got any man cookies in there?”

Maggie slapped his arm and plucked a cookie from the plate. “Don’t be an ass.” She took a bite and moaned, her eyes rolling closed. “Good god, girl. These are tasty,” she said around a mouthful.

Lilah smiled at Cole and pointed to one cookie in particular. One with a faint trail of icing the same color as his eyes, the sea and the sky. “I made that one with the manliest of ingredients.” She waited for him to grab the one she pointed to. “Special for such a manly cookie monster.” She couldn’t help using his nickname, knowing full well that it would embarrass the hell out of him.

Maggie covered her mouth as she exploded in laughter and Cole glowered at his mother.

“Really, Mom?” He shook his head trying to look intimidating despite the smile creeping onto his face. “Well, now that the secret is out I might as well grab that pink butterfly cookie and eat that, too.”

“Believe me,” said Maggie, staring at the last bite in her hand. “You’re gonna want more than just one.”

Well. At least the cookies weren’t disgusting. Lilah watched Cole take a bite and pleasure zinged through her as his face went from one of wariness to pure enjoyment. “That’s a damn good cookie,” he said, his mouth still full. He turned to his mom. “We need to invite her over more often.”

Maggie smiled knowingly, her eyes dancing between Lilah and her son. Something in that look made Lilah think that there was more to this dinner invitation than just a repayment for a kindness. This whole evening was designed to get Lilah and Cole together. Didn’t Maggie know what kind of man her son was? Lilah had zero interest in being another girl slinking out of his bedroom in the morning, thank you very much.

“Hey Cole,” Maggie asked as she started gathering plates and carrying them to the kitchen. “Would you play me a song? It’s been too long since I’ve heard good music.”

“Nah.” Cole grabbed the glasses and ducked his head in a movement that might have looked self-conscious if it wasn’t coming from Cole Bennett. “Not tonight, Ma.” He glanced towards Lilah and looked away as soon as he saw she was watching him. Was that … vulnerability? Did Cole Bennett look
vulnerable
right now? Lilah couldn’t let this moment go to waste.

“Play what?” she asked, leaning on the wall near the kitchen.

“His guitar,” Maggie called over the rush of water as she turned on the faucet to get the dishes started.

“Here, Ma. Let me clean up. You go sit with Lilah and talk about girl stuff.” Cole tried to take a plate out of his mother’s hands, but she gave him a polite elbow to the gut.

“Don’t think you can get out of playing by trying to be helpful.” Maggie smiled up at her son. “I’m happiest in the kitchen listening to you make music.” Maggie turned to Lilah. “He’s really good.”

“I’m sure he is,” Lilah responded, studying the hulking man in front of her and trying to picture him with a guitar in his hands.

Maggie turned to Cole. “Now look, you’re making me look like one of those moms who thinks sun shines out of her kid’s ass. She doesn’t believe you can play.”

Cole frowned at his mom and hit Lilah with a scathing look, almost daring her to agree with his mom. When would this man learn that the only thing looks like that did to Lilah was egg her on? She lifted her eyebrows and shrugged, smiling as sweetly as she could.

“That’s okay, Mrs. Bennett. I’m sure Cole is every bit as good as you say he is.” Lilah made sure to infuse her voice with just the faintest hint of sarcasm and doubt. Not enough to make it obvious that she was messing with him, but just enough to make him question. Something told Lilah that Cole wasn’t used to being mocked and that made this moment all the more sweet.

He looked at her. Pursed his lips together. And without a word, he disappeared upstairs, his footsteps somehow managing to thunder on the carpeted steps.

Maggie laughed and shook her head. “You might be the only woman in the world to get under that boy’s skin,” she said.

Cole returned without a word and took a seat on the couch, went to work tuning an old guitar, the varnish chipped and peeling. He plucked a string and twisted on a tuning peg until he was satisfied with the sound, working his way across the rest, one after the other. When he was through, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, his body bent around the guitar as if it was part of him.

And then he started playing, one set of fingers dancing over the frets while the other plucked a melody into existence, frantic and beautiful. Cole’s face changed as he played, his features relaxing, the tension in his jaw dissipating. His breathing deepened and when he finally opened his eyes, the storm was gone. The corners of his lips twitched up into the tiniest smile, one that came from the very bottom of his soul. Goosebumps shivered out across Lilah’s skin and her lips parted.

Cole took a deep breath and sang, closing his eyes again. The voice that filled the room was so beautiful, deep and rolling, constructed of emotion and meaning. He opened his eyes and they glistened with truth, like Lilah could see past all the hard lines he had drawn for himself and she could see exactly who he was. And who he was was beautiful.

Lilah stared at Cole with her mouth open, her heart open, her skin rippling as she shivered with the power of his voice and words. The simple beauty of the guitar accompanying him. Gone was the harsh man, judgmental and withdrawn, and in his place was a person beaming with meaning and warmth. She wanted to know this man. To touch him and talk to him and bring him into her life because having him would surely make things better.

Maggie appeared at her side, drying her hands on a dishtowel. “He’s something, isn’t he?”

Lilah didn’t want to mar the moment with something as plain as her own voice so she just nodded, unable to take her eyes off Cole.

“I always said he was meant for more than shrimping.”

Lilah couldn’t agree more. How could a man this talented waste himself out on the water? How could he survive in this tiny little apartment, almost as empty as her own? How could he settle for such a hard life, one that made his eyes close off as he drew definite lines around himself and the people around him? Is this why he seemed so unhappy? Because he was living as a shrimper instead of a musician? Denying some basic part of himself?

Cole stopped playing and looked up at Lilah. When their eyes met, she shivered again. Cole beamed at her, happiness lighting him up from the inside out. He dropped his eyes and ran his fingers across the strings, plucking another melody into existence. He closed his eyes and tapped his foot, bobbing his head as he lost himself to the music. He didn’t sing this time, just played. His fingers moving with intricate precision. Lilah watched, almost hypnotized by the unexpected pleasure of learning that something like this lived inside Cole.

While he played, Lilah and Maggie sat back down at the dinner table, sipping cups of coffee Maggie brought for them. Cole made his way through a few more songs, two of them with lyrics so powerful, she felt driven back in her seat by the sheer truth in them.

“Play that one I love so much,” Maggie said when Cole finally took a break, covering the strings with his palm and silencing the guitar.

“Which one?” Cole looked at his mom with peacefulness in his eyes that suited him. There was no denying that Cole Bennett was a good-looking man, but this extra softness in his eyes took him from good-looking to compelling. Lilah couldn’t take her eyes off him.

“You know the one.” Maggie offered a smile to her son, one that spoke of years of connection.

“You mean this one?” Cole strummed a few notes, playing a song that even Lilah recognized, although she couldn’t quite remember the name.

“That’s the one,” Maggie said, settling back in her chair. “What’s it called?”

“It’s She Talks to Angels, Ma.” Cole shook his head. “I don’t know why you can’t remember that.”

“Why do I need to remember when I’ve got you to do it for me?” Maggie traced her finger along the rim of her coffee mug. “You want me to make you a cup while you play or are you going out on the boat tomorrow?”

Cole’s fingers meandered along the guitar strings and he shook his head. “Got my alarm set for bright and early. Last thing I need is a cup of coffee. Thanks though.” And with that, he stopped meandering and started playing purposefully and when he sang, his voice cracked with emotion, filling the small apartment with big feelings.

Silence sat between them when he finished. “Thanks Cole,” Maggie finally said. “I think I like the way you sing that one better than whoever sang it first.”

“The Black Crowes. You ever plan on remembering that, or are you just gonna keep relying on me for that one, too?”

Maggie stood up and crossed the small apartment to drop a hand on her son’s shoulder. “I guess I can’t keep relying on you for everything, now can I?” There was grit in her voice and all that hardness came rushing back into both of their eyes. It was like watching a door slide shut. Like watching water freeze in an instant. The disappearance of an oasis in the heat-scorched desert.

“Of course you can,” Cole said and Lilah felt like she wasn’t supposed to be part of this moment. Like they were talking about so much more than Maggie forgetting the name of a song and the band that wrote it.

And then the moment passed and Maggie made a big show of a huge yawn. “Thanks for the music, son. I’m tuckered. These old bones don’t like late nights like they used to.” With that, Maggie smiled sweetly and headed upstairs, leaving Lilah and Cole alone.

A
s Maggie disappeared upstairs
, Lilah became more and more aware that she was alone with Cole in his living room. She also became more and more aware that Cole hadn’t been the one who invited Lilah over for dinner in the first place. She remembered the scowl on his face when he yanked open the door—the one that made it obvious he didn’t want her here. Without Maggie, Lilah felt unwelcome as all hell. She fidgeted with the hem of her dress for a few seconds before she realized what she was doing and folded her hands together. Lilah Moore had never been one to fidget and she sure wasn’t going to start now.

Cole strummed a few meandering chords, that look of sheer happiness stretching across his face again. Just as Lilah decided to make an excuse to head on home, Cole looked up. “You wanna go sit outside with me?” He gestured towards the patio with a jerk of his chin.

“As long as you promise to bring your guitar,” Lilah said and tried not to let the shock she felt register on her face. Who knew if the shock came from the fact that he asked her to stay or because she agreed without even thinking? It sure wasn’t Lilah.

Without a word, Cole stood up and crossed the small apartment to the patio door, slid it open, and waited for Lilah to step outside. For all the sparse decorations inside, the patio actually looked like he put some time into it. He had some nice outdoor furniture set up, two chairs and a small table with a few candles in the middle. A huge tropical plant, and some tiki torches poked into the ground at the end of the concrete slab. As Lilah took a seat, Cole lit the torches and then perched on the edge of the chair next to her, cradling his guitar in his lap.

“You don’t look like the kind of guy who lives with his mom,” she said after a few moments of listening to him play.

Cole’s fingers never stopped their movement across the strings. “It’s a short term solution to a long term problem,” he finally said. Somehow, a bunch of images lined up in Lilah’s head, all straight and perfect and suddenly, everything made sense. The hunted look in both mother and son’s eyes. The fading bruise on Maggie’s face. The way she just showed up out of the blue, living with a son who most definitely wasn’t used to having his mother around.

Cole came from an abusive family.

Lilah’s heart surged with sadness for the boy who grew up living in fear in the one place he was supposed to feel safe. “It’s gorgeous out here,” she said, leaning back in her chair and looking up at the night sky. “The tiki torches are a nice touch.”

“I get cooped up inside.” Cole shrugged and tilted his head, losing himself to his song.

“Is that why you’re a shrimper?”

Cole shrugged, not even pretending to look up from his guitar. “Nah.”

Lilah studied him for a second and wished that she had brought a drink out with her. Be nice to have something to do with her hands. “You do that, you know,” she finally said. “Put on your big strong man face and do the whole brooding shrug and dismissive answer thing. I hate to break it to you, but it’s not working for you.”

Cole silenced the guitar by flattening his palm against the strings. “Excuse me?” He asked, all the joy the music had brought him draining from his face.

“You heard me.” Lilah sat back in her chair and let her gaze wander the night sky, very purposefully not making eye contact. “You build this wall around yourself, refuse to let people in. I even bet you think that you’re happy. Say you’re better off alone and all that. But I don’t think you are.”

“And who are you to decide whether or not I’m happy?”

Lilah shrugged. “Nobody, I guess.”

Cole went back to playing his music, his jaw tense and his eyes tight. Had it been rude of her to say that? Should she have just let Cole do Cole and enjoy the music and the company, grumpy and inarticulate as it may be? Lilah turned her head just enough to catch a glimpse of his profile. Damn was he ever good-looking, pulsing jaw muscle and all.

And he had to be twice as talented as he was easy on the eyes. Lilah would put his music up against any of the artists on the radio. And his voice! Holy shit, it was like chocolate and butter and smoke all wrapped up in the sparkling sea and rough wind. It was fairy tales and hard lessons and hope and despair and it made Lilah shudder with pleasure when he sang.

And if he was twice as talented as he was good-looking, he had to be three times as protective. This is the guy that stopped to jump her car when her battery died. The guy that stood up for her at the cafe when that customer put his hands on her. The guy who rescued his mom from a bad situation. Hell, the guy who probably gave up his only bedroom so she didn’t have to sleep on the couch.

“It was my grandpa’s business.” Cole didn’t look up from his guitar. Just kind of shrugged and kept his gaze focused down at his feet.

“Shrimping?” Lilah didn’t move, barely breathed. Didn’t want to do anything that might shock him out of sharing.

Cole nodded. “He built it from nothing. Worked his hands to the bone. Poured his blood, sweat, and tears into it. All that stuff. My dad?” Cole cleared his throat and his hands stalled over the strings. “Not so much. It’s up to me to make my grandpa’s hard work mean something. Carry on his legacy.”

Lilah didn’t respond. The last thing she needed was to move too quickly and make him realize that he was actually having a real conversation about himself. He would clam up for sure and Lilah wanted to know more about this man. This warrior-poet, the man with the good looks and sweet voice, the man with the desire to protect the people around him, the man who wasn’t strong enough to let anyone in.

“What about you?” Cole asked, pulling his hands away from the guitar. “What kind of girl grows up in a cookie-less existence, yet manages to make something that delicious on her
so called
first attempt.” He made a face that meant he wasn’t so sure he believed those were actually her first cookies.

“So called!” Lilah widened her eyes and dropped her jaw. “That
was
my first attempt, buddy.”

“Sure. And tonight was the first time I’ve ever picked up a guitar.” Cole twisted his smile into a sexy little smirk, lifting his eyebrows and challenging her to prove otherwise.

“Who’s to say I’m not a cookie prodigy? Maybe it’s my calling.”

“Maybe it is, princess. I mean, it sure as hell isn’t waitressing.”

Lilah reached across the open space and slapped his arm. “Hey! I’m still new. Cut me some slack.”

“I‘m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you’re not gonna get much better with practice. You don’t seem like the kind of girl who makes a habit of serving others.”

Lilah had to admit, he had a point. She liked it way better when she was being waited on then when she was at someone else’s beck and call. But there was no way she was going to admit that to Cole. “You never know. I might surprise you.”

Cole stared at her for a few seconds and Lilah’s heartbeat did a funny little skipping thing. “You got me there, princess. You definitely surprise me.”

What the hell did that mean? And why in the world did it make her want to smile like an idiot? Lilah decided to answer his question about her childhood while she puzzled out how she should respond to his statement about surprising him.

“Well, if you’re looking for more surprises, you won’t find them in my childhood. I grew up in a happy family. Not a lot of drama. Family dinners and game nights. All that stuff.” She immediately felt bad sharing that with Cole, especially considering what she thought she figured out about his childhood. She trailed off, not at all comfortable talking about how wealthy her family was and how she had never had to work a day in her life until now.

Here was a man who may have just rescued his mother from an abusive father. A man who worked damn hard to keep his grandfather’s business alive, and judging from the age of his truck and the state of the furnishings in his apartment, made enough money to survive and not much else. It almost felt like talking about how easy her life had been would be rubbing her privilege in his face. Showing off. Something like that.

“I can see that.” Cole smiled and for the first time ever, it reached his eyes without his guitar in his hands. “You don’t seem like the kind of girl who’s had to deal with a lot of shit in her life.”

“Is that why you call me princess?”

“That’s exactly why I call you princess.” Cole winked. “It’s actually really cute. I’ll admit that I’m digging the whole helpless and clueless thing.”

“I am not clueless!”

“You didn’t know how to make cookies!”

Lilah laughed. “Okay. Maybe that made me a little clueless. But helpless? No way. I showed up with cookies tonight, didn’t I?”

“You showed up with damn good cookies.”

“See? Not helpless.”

“Alright.” Cole sat back in his chair, his eyes gleaming with a wicked humor. “Show me just how not helpless you are. Let’s just pretend that I never showed up the day you couldn’t get your car to start. What would you have done?”

Lilah rolled her eyes. How helpless did he think she was? “I’d have called a cab to get to the interview and then a tow truck to take the car to the shop.”

“A cab
and
a tow truck? You must get bonus tips at the diner for being hot.”

Lilah didn’t know what to say. It had never occurred to her to even think about the expense of a cab and tow truck. A little surge of fear sent her heart stuttering in a whole new direction. Rent and all her bills were coming due. She hadn’t looked at her accounts in a couple days at least. She was pretty sure she had money in there to cover everything. She hadn’t spent that much lately. Just the new outfit for herself. And the ingredients for the cookies. And a few meals at the diner. And the gift for her nephew. And the end table. Plus the stuff for work...

“Maybe I just know when to admit that I’m out of my depth.” Lilah tried to keep her face confident, but inside, her mind was reeling with the realization that it was almost the end of the first month and she had no idea how much money was in her account. There was also just a touch of humiliation dancing around in there over the realization that if Cole hadn’t shown up to jump her battery that day, she would have made a ridiculous mistake and spent way more money than she needed to trying to solve the problem.

Was she really that unprepared for real life? Was it possible that growing up in a wealthy family had actually put her at a disadvantage? Lilah almost laughed out loud at the thought. What a silly thing to think!

Cole sighed and leaned his head against the back of his chair. His eyes slid closed and he stifled a yawn.

“Were you on the water today?”

“I got in around noon. It was a long couple days, but I came in with the hold full, so it was worth it.”

“Does that mean you’ll get a couple days off?”

Cole laughed. “No, princess. Nothing is more dangerous than yesterday’s success. Gramps pretty much beat that into me from the time I could even think about walking. Tomorrow is another day. Gotta treat it like that no matter how good or bad the day before it went.” There was a weariness weighing heavy on Cole’s words. He ran a hand along the back of his neck and looked more exhausted than anyone Lilah had ever seen in all her life.

“What time do you have to get up?”

“Too early.”

“Which means…?”

“My first alarm goes off at four thirty.”

“Four thirty? Well hell Cole. Why are you still even awake?”

“Because I’ve got company.”

Lilah sprang out of her chair. She didn’t know what time it was, but she did know that the moon was high enough to mean that Cole would only be getting a few hours of sleep before he went out on the water tomorrow. “I should let you get some rest, then.”

Cole stood and stretched. “I’d like to argue with you about that, but I’m not gonna.” He swooped up his guitar and put a hand on Lilah’s lower back. She had never, in all her life, been more acutely aware of one area of her body like she was right now. “Here, let me walk you home,” said Cole.

“I live right next door, silly. I think I can make it.”

Cole used that hand on her lower back to guide her towards the patio door. “That’s just what you do after you have a woman over for dinner. Walk her home. I’m trying to be decent here.”

“What a nice change of pace for you.”

“You should be honored.”

Lilah
was
honored, and that was silly. She was also nervous, which was even sillier. Cole Bennett was a player and either he was too tired to realize he was turning on the charm or it was just some kind of subconscious reaction to being around a woman. Either way, she was a fool to fall for it.

Cole propped his guitar against a wall and led Lilah through his apartment, out the front door, and across the little bit of grass separating their sidewalk. Lilah was acutely aware of the warmth of his hand on her back. The strength and certainty with which he moved. The way his scent mingled with the night air.

“Here we are,” she said as they came to a stop in front of her door. “Thank you for escorting me home. I don’t think I would have made it here without you.”

“Thank you for keeping me company tonight.” Cole leaned against her doorframe, standing just a little too close. “I actually had a nice time.” He smiled, his eyes sweeping her face and lingering on her lips. What the hell was going on here?