“I’m not sure you should be exercising,” I say.
“I know, but don’t worry, I took it easy.” He cocks his head, his eyes teasing. “Wait, you were worried, right?”
“Of course I was,” I say quickly. “You’re my brother’s best friend, and even if you were a jerk to me growing up, I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“I wasn’t always a jerk. If I was, you wouldn’t have called me that night, remember?”
I cringe at the reminder. “Yeah, I remember.”
I’ll never forget the night I snuck out and went on a date with Kenny Foster. He was older and had a car. Cason didn’t like him, and Mom and Dad would never have allowed me in a car with a guy at fifteen. But he paid me attention when other guys didn’t. He was a fighter, a troublemaker, with a bad-ass reputation. No one messed with him, so when the bad boy paid me attention, I fell for it. That night, he drove to the lookout point, and told me to either put out or get out.
I got out—and ran.
“Yeah, thanks for that. I couldn’t tell Mom or Dad, and I didn’t want Cason to know. He would have gone after him, and I didn’t want my brother to get hurt.”
“I never told him. I promised you I wouldn’t, and I didn’t.”
I nod, really appreciating that he’d kept my secret. “Kenny ended up with a broken nose somehow, anyway.”
&nbs
p; “Yeah, I know.”
My head jerks back and I catch the small grin on his face. “Wait…you?”
“Yeah.”
My heart stutters. “That was crazy, Cole! He could have killed you.”
“I’m still here, aren’t I?”
I shake my head. “I had no idea you did that to him.”
“You didn’t need to, but he needed to know if he ever put his hands on you or put you in that kind of situation again, he was a dead man.”
“Thank you,” I say quietly, my insides on a roller coaster ride. Cole went after Kenny for me?
He goes quiet and glances past my shoulders, his eyes are narrowed, like he’s remembering something from long ago. “I’m kind of going insane here, Nina,” he says, his honest admission and the stress in his voice taking me by surprise. “I’m not even supposed to be watching TV, but how can I sit around all day and stare at a wall?”
My heart squeezes at his loneliness. “I know exactly what you mean. Cabin fever is real, even in a mansion like this. At least I had Jess to keep me occupied though.”
“I’m worried that if I don’t swim and keep my muscles warm and active, I’m going to fuck up when I get back.”
This vulnerable side of him is messing with me head. I spread my arms over the surface of the hot tub, plucking at the bubbles. “The best place to warm your muscles is in here,” I say without thinking.
“Don’t mind sharing?”
Oh, shit. A half-naked Cole is going to slide in beside me. Well done, Nina. Well done. But how could I not invite him in, especially after seeing that little-boy-lost look on his face? This is harder for him than he’s letting on, and it breaks my damn heart that he has no one to help him. Where the heck is his father when he needs him most?
“Like I said, this is your place.”
He lifts himself from the water, and I take another big gulp of wine as he opens a plastic box beside the hot tub and pulls out a bottle of something.
“What’s that?
“Tiger balm. Good for sore muscles.”
He uncaps it and adds it to the water, and the scent of aloe vera and wintergreen fill the air. I breathe it in as he climbs in and sits across from me. Our feet touch, and I quickly pull my legs back.