Страница 51 из 63
I choked back more tears, feeling too much—much too much—all of it building in my chest. I pressed my mouth against his and clung to him, pulling the calm I needed out of him. Finally, when I felt able to speak, I broke the kiss and clasped his face. I stared straight into his eyes and fought every single fear inside me. “I love you too.”
CHAPTER 22
R ae was smirking at Cole and me as we walked over to the table hand in hand. Tony and Simon were wearing similar expressions.
“Managed to drag yourselves out of the love shack, did you?” Rae had practically yelled, and I could feel the curious and amused gazes of the other restaurant patrons burning into me.
“Remind me that I kind of love her,” I said, gritting my teeth.
Cole grunted. “Hard to do when I’m busy trying to remind myself.”
“No!” Rae continued to speak much too loudly as Cole pulled out the seat next to her. “Switch with Simon and Tony. If I sit next to you two I’ll look like someone has rolled me in flour.”
Assuming she was referring to the tans we’d gotten in Italy, I took the seat Cole had offered. “Suck it up.”
She pursed her lips in a
I shrugged. “It’s called happiness.”
Rae’s attention flicked between Cole and me. She gave us a huge beaming, genuine smile at odds with her next words. “Cheesy buggers.”
“So, okay, I really want to find out what you think of my home country.” Tony smiled lazily, but I could see a glitter of excitement in his eyes. “But first I want to tell you something.”
“Tony.” Simon groaned.
“No, no.” His partner narrowed his gaze. “I want to know what they think.”
“About what?” Cole said.
“I want to adopt a child,” Tony a
Cole relaxed back in his chair, seeming to be unperturbed by what I considered to be huge news. “Okay, well, I will but it all depends.”
“On what?”
“On if you’re crazy or not.”
Simon snorted.
Tony did not look amused. “I am ready to be a papa. I think Sy and I would make wonderful parents.”
“I think you would too,” I found myself opining before I could stop myself. From the moment he’d a
Everyone sat in stu
Cole reached for my hand under the table and gave it a squeeze at the exact same time Simon lifted his glass of water in a toast to me. “Thank you. A voice of reason in the madness.”
Tony shot him a hurt look. “I don’t think it’s an accessory. I want a child.”
“And I’m not ready. I also don’t want to discuss this shit in front of our friends.”
Squirming uncomfortably, I held Cole’s hand tighter as the tension mounted around the dining table.
“Is everyone ready to order?” A waiter suddenly appeared beside us.
Rae snapped open her menu. “Unfortunately we’ve been too busy participating in really fucking awkward di
The waiter scurried off as quickly as possible.
I shot Cole a look of concern. “I don’t think he’s coming back.”
Cole’s lips twitched. “Would you?”
I looked down at my menu, avoiding eye contact with the warring couple opposite us. “Absolutely not.”
Tony sighed wearily. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to make anyone uncomfortable. I got excited about the idea.” He leaned in closer, trying to smile away the troubled look in his eyes. “So, tell me, how you find Lago di Como?”
Before I could answer, Cole’s ringtone sounded from his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced down at the caller ID. He frowned apologetically. “Sorry. I have to take this.” He tapped the screen and held the phone to his ear. “Marco?” Cole tensed.
So did I.
“Sha
We were? Where?
Cole shoved his phone in his pocket and pushed back from the table. “To make this more awkward than it already is, Sha
* * *
“I would never have guessed any of that. Ha
I was snuggled up next to Cole in the hospital waiting room and he’d just finished telling me a little bit about Ha
That left an exhausted Cole and me. To stay awake we’d been drinking coffee and chatting until we were hoarse. I discovered why Cole wanted to stay after he told me about his best friend’s history.
Apparently when Ha
“It was awful,” he said, eyes bleak with the memories. “There was all this blood and I didn’t know what it meant. I had my suspicions because what else could it be? But this was Ha
“Oh my God, Cole.” I gripped his arm, shocked.
“They rushed her into surgery. Her heart stopped on the table, but they brought her back. By this point her whole family was at the hospital and they kept asking us questions. I was numb with shock. Ha
“Did Marco know?”
Cole shook his head. “Nah. I confronted him, violently,” he admitted ruefully. “Until Ha