He was falling in love with her.
Saylor’s lower lip began to tremble. She nodded, bobbing her head like a dashboard doll. “No, no, I get it. Of course you need time.” She swiped at her eyes and bent for her keys that had fallen on the couch cushion. “Thanks for hearing me out, I really—”
A soft voice peeped from down the hall. “Yes!”
Cole had almost forgotten about the little boy emerging from the hall with a cat in his arms.
“I caught it!”
The boy’s glee would have been contagious in any other circumstance. Discomfort wrenched inside of Cole as the realization struck. He wasn’t only ending things with Saylor, but with her son, too. He hadn’t realized how attached he’d become to the little guy in such a short amount of time.
Saylor sniffed and daubed on a smile, bending to pet the cat on its head. She really was an amazing mom, pulling it together like this for the sake of her son.
“Bubba Jones must really like you,” Cole said, trying to make things easier for her. He couldn’t relent on this, not the way he wanted to.
Parker’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Saylor’s smile was sad. “Really. Cole wouldn’t say that if he didn’t mean it.”
Parker grinned, a toothless grin, with a lasso to string right around his heart. Stupid. Cole was so stupid. He should retract it now, take back every word, pull her to him and kiss her. Tell her he was wrong. He was sorry. He wanted to keep things as they were.
The cat wriggled until it managed to leap from his arms. Parker darted off to chase it again, when Saylor gave him a firm, but kind, request that it was time to go.
“Aww,” Parker groaned. With the fortitude some of Cole’s workers should envy, the little boy obeyed his mother and waited patiently by the door.
Sniffling, Saylor bravely met Cole’s gaze. “Goodbye, Cole.”
Cole clenched his teeth. His fists. His shoulders as well. He deserved for her to call him every name in the book right now, but she stoically turned and ushered her son out the door before he could say a word.
Chapter Twenty
For whatever reason, Saylor didn’t cry again. She couldn’t. The well was dry, used up as she’d exerted every effort she had to spread her soul across Cole’s front room.
She couldn’t say she was that surprised at how things had turned out. She’d braced herself for him to end things with her.
It was just that a tiny part of her had hoped Cole would prove her wrong.
Saylor almost thought he had. There was a moment when she felt he was listening to her, really listening, connecting with her and showing sympathy for her foolishness. He’d been so kind, so heartfelt and understanding. Talking about past mistakes, and how amazing she was because of them.
That had been the point of hope. The thought that maybe, just maybe, this could work. Too bad the thought had become a traitor.
“How come we left so fast, Mommy?” Parker asked from the backseat.
Saylor worked to keep her voice steady. “Because we need to get Grandma’s car back to her.”
“Oh right. Because your car is sick.”
Any other time, this would have drawn a chuckle from her, but Saylor simply peered at him through the rear view mirror. “That’s right, bud.”
She really didn’t want to go back to her parents’ house, but she couldn’t exactly keep driving her mom’s car around.
“I like Cole,” Parker went on.
Saylor’s eyes smarted. “Me too.”
She wanted to lash out at her brother for ruining yet another relationship for her, but as she turned onto her parents’ street and saw his beater collecting snow at the curb, a different impulse overtook her.
She was exhausted. So tired, so done with holding onto this stupid grudge. What good was it doing her, other than making her miserable and ruining perfectly good visits to new boyfriend’s apartments?
Forgiving her brother had been a long time coming. But now, after her mother’s words, after Cole’s reminder about letting the past stay where it belonged, and then snipping through her dangling hope with a pair of invisible scissors, the urgency coursing through her was unmistakable.
It was time. It was finally time to let the past go.
I can do this, she told herself.
She could. It was time to move on.
She drifted into the driveway and shifted into park. Her hands gripped the steering wheel while a storm of emotions raged inside of her. Going inside seemed like such a simple thing. Open the door. Take the dozen steps into the living room.
Face her brother.
A cluster of doubt catapulted like tossed bricks, cracking through her resolve. Fear slipped its way in behind her sternum. Who was she kidding? She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t make up with Greg, hear him out, tell him how badly he’d hurt her. Not after what she’d just gone through with Cole.
Yet, a new sensibility slipped through, adding its voice to the argument. It encouraged her steps. How she wished she could dance in the snow, to examine the marks her feet left in the fresh powder the way Parker was doing, to be so carefree again.
This was her best chance at that.
As she headed for her parents’ front door, a posh, black Lexus slowed at the end of the driveway. Parker began flapping his arms.
“Dad, Dad, Dad!”
Saylor’s insides turned to icicles. David was the last person she wanted to see right now. She wiped at her cheeks, praying mascara hadn’t decided to scribble across her cheeks or temples. She really needed to go home and change. A shower would be nice, too. If only she could drip down the drain right along with the water right now.
“What are you doing here at my parents’ house?” Saylor demanded, forgetting everything else for the moment. David had no right to ram in here. It’d been bad enough to bump into him at Rock Creek unannounced.
“Daddy!” Parker leapt up
