Chapter 3

Cole

I’m worthless for the rest of the morning. All my concentration has blown out the window.

Why is she here?

Why did she move to Banner Bay?

Who is the lucky motherfucking piece of shit who’s marrying her?

Does he love her like I do?

Whoa. I better get a grip. I don’t love Haley. I love the memories of what we had back then.

Staring at her color-coded drawing of what she wants for her office space, my heart clenches. She’s still sketching out her visions. It was something she did all the time when planning campus parties. Because yeah, she planned them. Like full on themed shit, not just kegs and coolers. They were fucking epic too.

My girl has talent, and she’s making a living off it. I’m so proud of her.

She’s not my girl, I remind myself again. She’s someone else’s now. And going off the size of that rock on her hand, he’s making bank.

Noah sticks his head in my office. “Hey, where are we with the Campus project?”

“Already submitted.” I slide Haley’s drawing across my desk and into my top drawer.

“And the corrections on the designs from Brent?”

Shit. I forgot those needed to be couriered by noon. Annnd I dropped my coffee all over them. “Handled.”

“Awesome.” Noah knocks his fists on the doorjamb. “You got time to look at the list for the holiday party? We can grab lunch at two and go over the clients who should be invited.”

Shit. “I’ve got an appointment then.”

“No, you don’t. I checked with Tamara.”

I hate that he’s a micromanaging busy body. “She didn’t know. It was a last-minute add-on.”

“Hmmph. Alright.” He turns to leave and then stops. “Hey, who was that new client you had in here this morning?”

“Someone looking for a quick floor redesign.”

“She’s hot.”

“She’s taken,” I say through gritted teeth.

“She can always get taken again,” he shoots back. “I mean, goddamn, did you see the size of her ass? There’s room for two back there.”

My hands ball into fists and I lift off my seat so fast, there’s no hiding that I’m about to leap over my desk to throttle the man who signs my paychecks. But I stop myself from following through because I can’t afford to lose my job or go to jail for beating the shit out of my boss. This isn’t the first time Noah has talked like that about a client. It won’t be the last. He’s a player who’s filthy rich, and he always gets away with his bad behavior.

“You need to watch how you fucking talk about clients, Noah. You’re going to get a sexual harassment lawsuit one day.”

It’s moments like this when I hate myself for working here. The pay is incredible, but the management is fucking embarrassing. It’s why I started working on the side with my brother, Trey, redesigning the houses he flips with the love of his life, Erin.

And it’s the biggest reason I’ll be putting my resignation in right after the holidays. I can’t leave before then or I would. But I’m waiting with bated breath to hear back from one last project before I walk out these doors for good.

Noah puts his hands up and laughs. “I was just kidding.”

Fuck this asshole. “Is there anything else you need?”

“Nah. You’re on top of shit as always.”

I stare at him again, and something in me cringes. Noah looks rough. “You’ve got powdered sugar on your shirt.”

He looks down. “Oh shit.” He hastily brushes it off. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem.”

The door shuts softly behind him, and I watch Noah stalk to the next office down from mine. I hate that we’re in glass fishbowls. I hate that I can’t strangle my boss because murder is wrong. I hate that the company feels like it’s gone downhill over the past year, and I don’t know why or if the reason is somehow my fault.

“What the fuck was that about?” Jaedyn asks, peeking in.

“Nothing.” I sign the coffee-stained papers and brush past him on my way out. If Jaedyn wants to press, he doesn’t. I drop the files on Tamara’s desk when I get to the lobby and head straight for the elevator.

···

Two o’clock hits and I’m standing outside a building, waiting for Haley to show up.

When two fifteen hits, worry creeps in.

Two twenty-two and I’m about ready to leave.

“Sorry!” She runs towards me with a large bag hooked around her arm and two drinks in her hand. “I mis-judged the parking situation big time. I still haven’t gotten a permit yet, and had to find a spot on the street, which is a bitch, by the way.” She halts right in front of me, catching her breath. “I hope double mochas are still your thing.”

I stare at the drink she offers me. “And a filthy chai with extra cinnamon is still yours?” I hold out a cup to her, too.

We’ve both bought our favorites to give to each other.

This is trouble.

Haley stares at our drinks for a moment, then giggles. “Oh my gosh, Cole.” Her laughter is music to my ears. “Didn’t think you’d remember that.”

“I can’t forget,” I confess, not at all talking about her favorite drink. “And thanks.” We swap drinks and I take a sip of mine. I haven’t had a double iced mocha in years, but I’m not telling her that.

We both two-fist our overpriced beverages up to the third floor.

“Ta da!” Haley saunters into her clusterfuck of an office space.

There are so many walls, it’s chopped the whole place up. “What used to be in here?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. It’s been unused for a few years and the price was right, so I took it. The blueprints were from when it was barebones, though, which I’m totally willing to take it back to. We can strip everything and start fresh.”

That’s a lot of construction work. And a lot of money.

Haley sets her cups on an abandoned desk and drops her large bag on the floor. “This…” she announces excitedly, “is where I want to display pictures of my best events. I’ve got some killer photos printed and framed already.”

I set my drinks down next to hers as she rushes past me to another closed off area.

Her voice rises with excitement as she says, “I’ll have pedestals for cakes and centerpieces over here so that when you first come in—” She spins around and runs smack into my chest. “Oomph.”

I grip her arms to hold her steady.

She smells amazing.

When Haley looks up at me, her cheeks redden. “Um. So, anyway.” She brushes the hair away from her face. That damned engagement ring taunts me. “Yeah. I’ll have a display. And then over here,” she says, grabbing my hand and pulling me down the narrow hallway, “is where we’ll have big meetings. And I want a loaded kitchen area over there.”

“A full kitchen?”

“For sure. With a wine fridge.”

“You need a fully functioning kitchen and wine fridge to work?”

Haley’s shoulders lift. “I want to offer champagne to my clients if the occasion calls for it. And also, I want to eat. I work long hours and it’s cheaper to cook here than to eat out all the time. My waistline can thank me later.”

My hand is still in hers. Of its own accord, my thumb runs along her ring again.

I can’t think past the fact that someone else has won her heart. Someone else will get to see her happy every day. Someone else is going to kiss her each morning and fuck her every night.

When we parted ways, it wrecked me. I just didn’t let anyone see it. After graduation, I went straight into another program to get my master’s degree and erased her number from my cell, because the temptation to call her was too much for me to handle. Hell, I didn’t even have the strength to look her up on social media because I didn’t trust myself to not stalk her.

She wanted a clean break. I made sure she got it.

But now Haley’s back in my world, and I hate it. I hate that she’s moved to my city. I hate that I’ll breathe the same air as the woman I’ll never have.

Because I never stopped loving her. It’s my biggest secret and right now it feels like my worst toxic trait. She’s marrying someone else when it should have been me. I’m a glutton for punishment asking this, but I have to know. “Who’s the lucky man, Haley?”

“There isn’t one,” she says so quietly I wonder if she spoke at all.

“What?”

“There isn’t one,” she repeats louder, and her cheeks turn red again. She holds her hand up and that fucking diamond gleams like a disco ball in my face. “This is fake.”

I must be hearing things. “Why are you wearing a fake engagement ring?”

“Long story.” She pulls away from me and clears her throat. “So anyway, I think over here would be a good place to—”

I spin her around and hold her hips, my eyes boring into hers. Those bricks I’ve stacked around my heart all day start falling. “You’re not engaged?”

Haley shakes her head.

“Are you dating someone?”

She shakes her head again.

“Are you…” Fuck, I can’t even ask this next question. It might just put me six feet under if her answer isn’t what I want to hear.

Haley stares up at me and bites her bottom lip.

Fuck it. I’m asking. “Why did you come to see me, Haley?”

Her pulse quickens, the vein in her throat fluttering wildly. “I…I um…”

Say it. Say the truth. Put me out of my misery and tell me why you came.

“I need a talented architect.”

Bullshit. Any construction worker worth his salt could tell her what walls to knock down and build her what she wants. Going with an architect for a project like this isn’t necessary. “Why me?”

“You’re the best in town.”

Not hardly. But I’m one of them. “You could have gone anywhere.” My heart beats harder in my chest, making my stomach twist. “Why did you come to Banner Bay, and why did you come to me?”

She swallows and looks down at the floor.

Nope. She doesn’t get to look away from me. Tipping her chin with my finger, I growl, “Why?”

“Because,” she says in a shaky voice. Tears well in her eyes, making those baby blues glassy. “I never stopped thinking about you, Cole.”

Thinking isn’t loving. Loving isn’t fantasizing. We’ve notoriously blurred lines in the past and it’s what got us in trouble before. I’m not foolish enough to believe she’s going to stay around and plant roots here. Haley runs. She’s never stayed in one place for too long. If I get my hopes up thinking she’ll stick around, I’m a bigger dumbass than I gave myself credit for.

But for her to say she hasn’t stopped thinking about me? Damn. I hate that my heart’s tripping over itself about it. “You could have just reached out.” I step away before I do something stupid like kiss her. “I’m all over social media.”

“I know you are,” she whispers. “But I wanted to see you in person.”

“Why?” I feel like she’s somehow tricked me, and I don’t like it. “Why, Haley?”

“To see if what we had before was just pretend, or…” She looks away from me. “Or if it’s really all gone.”

She’s wrong. It’s neither of those things.

When I cup her face and lean in, Haley’s chin trembles and the first tear falls.

I break.

Smashing my mouth to hers, I drive Haley backwards until we hit a wall, then I press against her. Our tongues twirl while our hands run all over every body part we can reach. Before I lose my ever-loving mind, I break away. “Do you have your fucking answer now, Angel?”

She gasps.

“Yes.” Her shoulders collapse as she presses her hand on my chest. I’m sure she feels my heart kicking.

“Yes, what?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Yes, Daddy.”

Holy fuck, we’re both in so much trouble if we can fall so easily back into our old ways.

Haley yanks me closer, crushing her mouth to mine, and drives me backwards. I stumble over her bag as we make our way towards the abandoned desk.

She just pulled the pin in my grenade. My control ceases to exist. She’s no better. We turn into a tornado of lust, clashing and spinning across her office space. We no sooner hit an object than bounce off it until we slam into something else. The chemistry we had five years ago is nothing compared to how explosive we are today.

I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know if I want to care either.

She wrecked me once, and I survived. Even if she destroys me a second time, it’ll be worth it.

One more minute with Haley is worth everything.