Jackson Hole Valentine (13 page)

“I had no complaints with the sex,” he said, swinging his legs to the side of the bed.

What puzzled him most was how he could still desire someone who had no respect for him.

“Why did you quit calling? Was there another girl? You could have simply told me if there was someone else. I know all the girls liked you.”

Uh-oh.
Cole recognized the rapid speech and run-together sentences. Though Meg wasn’t normally a big talker, the floodgates had been opened and he was going to get an earful.

“Even Joy.” Meg gave a humorless laugh at his startled look. “Yep, my best friend had it bad for you. She never admitted it, at least not to me, but I could tell.”

Joy.
She was bringing up Joy? And here he’d thought the conversation couldn’t get any worse.

“Travis suspected that you and I had been involved.” Meg picked at a piece of lint from her shirt. “But I never told him I slept with you.”

Thank God for small favors.
Her older brother had never been a violent guy, but all the boys knew that nobody messed with the Fisher girls.

“Travis was surprised you didn’t come to our parents’ funeral, seeing as how you’d played ball together all those years,” Meg continued. “You were the only one on the team not there.”

It would be so easy to dismiss those feelings, but Cole remembered how he’d felt when his friends had shown up for his dad’s funeral.

“Sorry about that.” He bent over and tightened a strap on his brace. “Something came up.”

“What could have been so important, Cole?” She spat his name as if it tasted bitter on her tongue. “So important that you couldn’t have shown my family—and me—a little respect?”

The car accident that had claimed the lives of her parents had occurred in late spring. One more year. That’s all Cole had to make it through before he would graduate. Then he’d take his brother and get the hell out of Jackson Hole.

The wrong person seeing that black eye could have ruined those plans. If they’d gone into foster care, all bets would have been off.

Cole jumped to his feet, stifling a curse when his knee revolted at the sudden movement. He gritted his teeth and rounded the bed to where she stood, her arms tightly crossed and clasped to her chest.

After what she’d done, she didn’t deserve an explanation from him. Well, she was going to get one anyway.

“Do you want to know why I didn’t come to the funeral?”

“It doesn’t matter now,” she muttered with a dismissive wave. “That was a long time ago.”

Her words said one thing, but the ramrod straightness of her back and the tight set to her shoulders told him it did matter.

Perhaps another man would have held back the truth. Some might even say he’d be justified after what she’d done to him. But in his mind two wrongs never equaled a right.

“I had a black eye,” he said. “I knew it’d raise questions if I came to the funeral with the side of my face looking like it’d been run through a meat grinder.”

Surprise mixed with puzzlement in her gaze. “How were you injured?”

“My stepdad used me for a punching bag,” he said in the same tone he might use to describe what he’d had for supper. He ignored the shock skittering across Meg’s face and continued. “It only happened when he drank. Unfortunately that was pretty much all the time.”

“Oh, Cole.” Meg gasped, bringing two fingers to her lips. “I never knew.”

“A couple of teachers suspected. I denied it.” He turned and walked to the window, gazing unseeingly out over the pine trees blanketed with snow.

“Why didn’t you tell them the truth? They could have—”

“What could they have done?” He turned and faced her, his back against the windowsill. It seemed oddly symbolic since he’d felt as if his back had been against the wall from the moment his mother had left him and his brother behind. “They’d have turned Cade and me over to social services. We’d likely have been split up. Putting up with Wally was better than taking that chance.”

“Maybe they could have found a way to keep you and your brother together—”

“Yeah, and maybe Santa Claus is real.” He raked a hand through his hair and expelled a harsh breath. “I couldn’t take the chance.”

Her brows pulled together. “It sounds like this went on for quite some time. I can’t understand how none of the teachers noticed the abuse.”

“Wally made sure he hit me where the bruises didn’t show.” A chill settled over Cole’s body. “I started football in middle school and played hard. That explained away any bruises. By the time I met you I could hold my own against him.”

“What about Cade?”

“For some reason he left him alone.” Cole gave a humorless laugh. “Other than the night I got the black eye. I stepped between them. There was no way I was going to let him pound on my little brother. After that episode Wally gave both of us a wide berth. Once I graduated from high school, I left Jackson and took Cade with me.”

Contacting an uncle in Austin who he’d never met had been a long shot, but it had worked out. Cole only wished he’d done it years before.

Soft fingers touched his arm and he jerked his gaze upward to find Meg standing beside him.

“Why didn’t you tell
me
about your stepdad?”

“Like I said, I told no one.” He met her gaze. “It was best.”

“I’d have been there for you.”

Cole gazed down into her luminous green eyes and realized how easy it would be to fall under her spell once again. To believe in the words sliding so easily from her soft lips. To think she genuinely cared and could be trusted.

But he wouldn’t let himself be fooled a second time. Meg was a nice person with many good qualities.

Yet, trust her?

Not again. Not ever again.

Chapter Nine

T
he next week passed uneventfully for Meg. Life in her temporary mountain home settled into an easy rhythm. She helped Cole with his exercises and was astounded by his progress. Her only worry was Charlie. The boy had begun to suck his thumb and had started waking up during the night crying.

Yesterday, he’d had his first session with Dr. Allman, a Jackson psychologist who came highly recommended by July Wahl. Charlie appeared to enjoy his time with the man, saying Dr. Pete had a lot of really cool toys.

Maybe everything with Charlie was under control.
Her and Cole?
Well, that relationship was still under construction.

When Cole had opened up to her Sunday afternoon about his childhood abuse, she felt as if something momentous had occurred. She now understood him in a way she never had before. His honesty had chipped away at the hurt and anger encasing her heart all these years.

Although Cole may not have explained why he’d so unceremoniously dumped her back then, now there were lots of potential explanations. Whatever the correct answer, Meg bet it had something to do with his tumultuous home life.

She considered asking him straight out, but he appeared more withdrawn after his confession, as if dredging up the past had shot a hole in his emotions.

“What’s taking so long?”

Speak of the devil.

Meg glanced up from the kitchen counter, where she’d been preparing vegetables for Lexi’s holiday festivities tomorrow, to find Cole standing in the doorway. For a second, she let her gaze linger, her eyes drinking him in. She’d never known a man who could look so good in jeans and a sweatshirt. She barely noticed the brace on his leg anymore. It had become as much a part of him as his dark hair and the barely perceptible cleft in his chin.

“Charlie sent me to tell you that we’ve got the Chutes and Ladders game out. All we’re missing is you.”

“Did he really say that?” Meg teased. “Or are you simply hoping for some adult conversation with your popcorn?”

While she was working on the veggies, Cole had stuck a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Charlie had done his part by dumping the finished product into a large bowl and carrying it into the family room.

“I’ll have you know, Charlie and I were in the middle of a very scintillating conversation on the merits of chewing two pieces of gum over just one.” Cole crossed the room and grabbed a couple of black olives from the relish tray in front of her. Before he’d finished chewing those, he reached for another.

“Stop that.” She slapped his hand. “These are for tomorrow.”

While she watched, Cole had the audacity to snag another olive.

“I thought Lexi had the food covered?”

“She does, but I hate the thought of going to a holiday dinner empty-handed. My mother always said—” Meg heaved an exasperated breath when Cole filched a piece of stuffed celery from the tray.

She opened her mouth to give him the dressing-down he deserved, when a look of pure delight blanketed his face.

“Wow, this is good.” He chewed thoughtfully for another second then lifted a brow. “Do I taste crab in this?”

Meg nodded. “Along with chive cream cheese, onion salt and a few other ingredients.”

“My mom used that store-bought pimento stuffing which I liked. But this—” he lifted up the last bite of celery “—
this
is an epicurean delight.”

“I’m glad you like it.” A wave of pleasure washed over Meg. “Travis told me Lexi is into gourmet cooking, so I wanted to bring something extra special.”

Cole grabbed another celery stalk, resisting her attempt to snatch it from his hand.

“Sure you don’t want to leave the tray here for the three of us to enjoy?” he asked.

The three of us.

The phrase had such a nice ring. Of course, nice ring or not, the current arrangement was just temporary. Before long, Cole would be able to care for Charlie on his own. There would be no more nights of board games and popcorn. It would be just Cole and Charlie. Or her and Charlie. Not the three of them.

Though Meg tried to tell herself that getting her own place would be a good thing, at the moment she had no burning desire to leave.

“I recognize that smile,” Cole said. “I know what you’re thinking.”

Dear God, she hoped not.

“Tell me, oh, wise one,” Meg managed to shoot back.

He lifted a radish she’d carved into a rose and bit off a petal. “You’re thinking we could keep the tray and bring a bottle of wine instead.”

“You know me too well.” She breathed a sigh of relief, popped the lid on the tray, then slid it into the refrigerator.

“That I do.”

The slightly mocking edge to his voice was back. Was sarcasm Cole’s way of keeping women at arm’s length?

Had someone hurt him the way he’d once hurt her? Was that the reason for the “I don’t trust you” vibe she’d been getting from him since that first meeting in Ryan’s office?

Although they now lived under the same roof, Meg realized she had very little knowledge of Cole’s personal life since he’d left Jackson Hole. In fact, for all she knew, he could have someone special waiting for him back in Texas.

Meg slammed the refrigerator door shut with extra force and whirled. Telling herself to play it cool, she sauntered across the kitchen and stopped in front of him. She lifted her chin. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

Way to play it cool, Meg.

His lips twitched. Apparently he found her blunt question amusing. “Does this curiosity have anything to do with your thwarted attempt to seduce me?”

“What?” Meg took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “For the record,
you
were doing the seducing, mister. And you still haven’t answered my question.”

“I’m not involved with anyone,” he said in an annoyed tone. “If I was, I wouldn’t have touched you.”

Relief rushed through Meg.

He narrowed his gaze. “What about you? Do you have some doctor or lawyer waiting for you back in Omaha?”

“My last relationship ended over a year ago.” Meg lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “We were engaged but I broke it off when I realized I didn’t love him. Not enough.”

“Joy mentioned a couple of months ago that you’d never married,” he said, as if talking about her marital status with her best friend wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. “Coming from that big family, I thought you’d have settled down and had a half-dozen kids by now.”

“That was the dream,” she said with a wistful sigh. “But I learned long ago that life doesn’t always turn out like we plan. That’s why being able to be a mother to Charlie is such a blessing. He’ll probably end up being my only child.”

Cole shifted from one foot to the other and grimaced. From the pained look that crossed his face, she guessed his knee was giving him trouble.

“You say you’re not involved with anyone at the moment.” Meg had her answer, so there was no need to go further. Except now he was back in her life and she was curious what he’d been up to all these years. Though Joy had obviously kept Cole up-to-date on his former classmates—including her—she hadn’t mentioned anything about him to Meg. She couldn’t imagine that Cole had made it to thirty-two without making a trip down the aisle. “Were you ever married?”