Typical Mom, to have it out the day after Thanksgiving and put away the day after New Year’s.
Her ride home with her dad the night before had been blessedly silent. He hadn’t asked questions, and she hadn’t volunteered information. He just drove her home, told her to shut out the lights, and left her to crash on the couch and cry herself to sleep.
She got up this morning long enough to slide the lonely package of Oreos on the end table closer. The cookies kept her company. She wasn’t sure how many she’d eaten, but she took another bite, closing the package.
“You shouldn’t eat cookies for breakfast.” Parker appeared in his Spider-Man PJs with straw hair sticking up in every direction.
Saylor gave him a smile she didn’t feel, set the blue package aside, and pulled her boy onto her lap. She’d checked on him before crashing the night before, like always.
“Morning, bud.” She smelled his hair before kissing the back of his head. Saylor loved the way his small feet jutted out over her lap.
“You can have anything for breakfast at Grandma’s house,” her mom said, her head sticking out over the top half of the sad tree.
“I can?” Parker leapt off Saylor’s lap, his eyes bright. He gave her a grin before darting into the kitchen.
“Good going,” Saylor said.
Mom shrugged. “You started it.”
She stared at the soothing blue-packaged offering of double-sided, chocolate-hugging goodness. “Sometimes a girl just needs to wake up to some chocolate. I should keep PJs here like Parker does,” she added, taking in the rumpled state of her clothes.
“You never did tell me how your date went.” Mom began winding the pile of lights near the fireplace.
“The date itself was fine,” Saylor said. “Amazing, even.” And it had been. Being at Cole’s side, seeing his employees revere him and have such a great time. Kissing him in his truck and talking commitment with him.
“But?”
She rose from the couch, set the blanket aside, and began helping her mom wind light strands. “But when we went back to his apartment, his ex-wife was there, and she had her hands all over him.”
Mom kept her attention on the lights. “Are you sure you didn’t misinterpret things?”
“How can I misinterpret him ditching me in the truck to greet her instead and let her rub her hands up his chest?”
Mom hmmed.
“What?” He was playing with her. There was no other explanation for it. The realization peeled her apart inside.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” her mom said. “Why would he invite you only to meet up with her?”
“Men do crazy things?”
“Not all men,” Mom argued. “I believe gentlemen still exist.”
Saylor drew in a long intake of breath and laid another strand of lights on the pile in the box. “When you find one let me know, would you?”
The doorbell rang, and after a few moments, Saylor’s dad entered the family room, standing near the fire crackling in the fireplace which separated this room from the kitchen. He then stood in the family room’s entrance and announced, “Saylor, there’s someone here to see you.”
Confusion swept her brow. “Who—?”
Cole stepped in behind her dad, looking sheepish. He wore his blue ski jacket, jeans, and held a bouquet of pink roses.
“What—?” Saylor was the queen of unfinished sentences this morning. Her thoughts were disoriented, to say the least, and she was fighting the fluttery sensation going on inside her. “How did you know where I was?”
He ambled around the couch, nodding a greeting to her mom, then her dad, then Saylor again. Silently, fighting smiles and ducking their heads, her parents left the room.
“The stalker in me hurried back to my pickup and followed you last night,” Cole said once the room was cleared. The wrapping hugging the roses in his hand crinkled.
“You did?”
“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t stranded at that gas station. When your dad showed up, I took a casual drive...right behind you.”
In spite of her charging heartrate, Saylor worked to keep her smile away. She couldn’t give him any false hope, not until she figured out if he was being truthful. Or if she wanted to pursue anything more with him. Was he worth another broken heart?
He offered her the flowers. “I wasn’t sure what your favorite flower is. But I wanted to say I’m sorry.”
The words cracked through her a little more, chiseling the ice away from her heart.
SAYLOR’S MOUTH PARTED. From the adoration in her eyes, she seemed touched. Still, Cole wasn’t sure whether she accepted his apology or not. From the rumpled state of her red shirt and wrinkled pants, he knew she must have slept in them last night. The thought added a prickle of guilt, increasing his urgency to make things right.
He stepped closer to her. “I honestly had no idea Brooke would be there. I never would have put you in that situation purposely. Will you forgive me? Can we try again?”
Cole hesitated, hoping she would accept, hoping she would read the truth in his words.
But she hesitated too.
He would tell her how he’d texted Brooke last night, expressing how he never wanted to see her again. He would show Saylor the text if he had to.
Another man entered, stealing Saylor’s attention before she could answer. He had longish hair, a scraggy, unkempt beard and wore gray sweats and a baggy Dr. Pepper T-shirt. Grimacing, the man twisted what appeared to be the lid of a bottle of pills, but halted at the sight of them.
“Morning,” the man said, apprising Cole and lowering the pill bottle. Its contents rattled. “Who’s this?”
The mask fell back over Saylor’s face. If Cole didn’t know any better, he’d say she was angry. Embarrassed, even.
“No one,” Saylor said, pushing her shoulders back. “He’s no one.”
She thrust the flowers into Cole’s chest. “Thanks for coming, but you have to go now.”
Without
