Cracking open the door to the hospital room, he glared over at West, who perched on the couch, watching their momma sleep. “Can I have a word with you?” he hissed.
West glanced over at his brothers and then their father, who were just beginning to shift with suspicion, before West stretched casually to his feet. He joined Cole in the hall, closing the door behind them.
“What did you do?” Cole asked him.
West scanned the empty hallway for himself, but didn’t seem too surprised when Eva didn’t reappear. “It’s for the best, Cole. We don’t need any distractions. We’re about to have a tough couple of days here.”
Cole knew it! Westwasbehind her disappearance.
“Why do you think I need her?” Cole asked. His frustration and worry from these past days swallowed him as he tried to break through his brother’s hard expression. “It’s like you don’t even know what love is.”
“Don’t lecture me on love. I’m not in the mood.”
“Not a surprise; you only see it as a ball and chain. I feel sorry for you. Eva’s my lifeline.”
And she was gone. The neon lights flickering in the hall were a poor replacement for the brightness of her sunny disposition. She’d beenhislifeline, but had he been that to her?
“I need her,” he breathed.
And Cole had wronged her. He needed to tell his family everything, not hide her in the dark—that’s how West had gotten to her. How could Cole be so stupid?
He couldn’t even imagine what an enraged West might say to her. Cole had to find Eva, shelter her with his love and bring her to talk to his momma before it was too late. His family had to know about the most important person in his life.
“Where is she?” Cole asked.
West kneaded his forehead, watching him with weary eyes. “Why are you looking at me? Text her. I’m sure she’s just sleeping at the hotel.”
She’d better be. West could talk a worm into sprouting wings and flying cross-country just to escape him. “My phone’s broken.” Cole’s urgency broke through his distaste of asking West for anything. “I need yours.”
“You need my…?” Unsurprisingly, West didn’t make a move to help him.
Who was he kidding? His brother enjoyed getting the last laugh. Cole didn’t need him anyway. Shaking his head, he stormed past West. Cole would just look for her at the hotel and hope for the best.
“Hey, Cole… can you just listen to me for a second?” West caught up to him and grasped his arm. “Don’t go running into this like you do when you’re after one of your poor lost cattle. If this is… love, like you say,”—West’s nose wrinkled like he was discussing stinky socks—“then it takes time and work. It’s not something that happens overnight.”
On the off chance that his brother was honestly concerned, Cole turned back to him. “Look at me. I’m a grown man, okay? I’m not the ‘baby’ anymore. You’ve got to trust me. Maybe you never thought that much of her, butIsee something amazing in Eva, and she sees that in me too. It would be a crime to throw that away. We’ve gotten really close these past few days. We’re made for each other, man.”
West snorted. “You missed your calling in life—you should’ve taken the role of a hero in a cheesy romance novel.”
Cole’s lips tightened. Was that all West got out of what he said? Figured. He shook his brother’s hand from his jacket.
His brother sighed. “What do you want to text her?” He dragged out his phone. “Huh?”
Cole straightened. Was he finally getting his older brother’s blessing, as tortuous as it was? Momma’s debilitating heart disease had been hard on them all. West could just be worn down, but Cole would take his good fortune and run with it. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
“It’s not my approval,” West said grimly, “but… well, you’ve got to make your own stupid decisions… just like the rest of us.”
That was almost… touching. Cole reached for West’s phone. “I’ll text her.”
“Nobody gets my phone. Say your piece now, Casanova, or you’re just going to have to live with the consequences of being a total caveman who doesn’t know how to take his phone in.”
Well, he couldn’t expect West to change overnight. Cole sighed. “Just ask her where she went.” He supervised West’s screen to make sure that’s what he really said.
Miraculously, his brother complied: “You awake? Cole wants to know where you are.”
They got an immediate reply. “At the hotel. Come meet me.”
Cole startled at that, and then his heart did a backflip. She hadn’t left. “Tell her I’m on my way!” He hurried for the door.