17. Bailey

"So,what about you? What was your longest relationship?" I knew it was none of my business, but now that we'd opened the exes can of worms, I wanted to know.

I sort of felt like I'd wasted my ‘personal question' on his age, but we still had a long drive ahead of us, and I figured I'd give it another shot.

Silence hung in the air. I stared out the windshield and wondered if I should retract the question. I didn't want to make him uncomfortable. I was just really curious.

"Nine years," he finally said.

"Nine years?" I turned my head toward him, sure I must have heard him wrong.

He nodded.

Nine years?He was only twenty-four. I realized then that I'd never asked if he had a girlfriend. Current. Present tense. I'd assumed that since he dated people for money, it meant he was single. But I'd seen enough reality TV shows about untraditional couples that included polygamy, open relationships, and men with multiple wives to know that might not be the case.

"Are you still together?"

"What?" His eyes cut toward me, but then he looked back out over the road. "No. We broke up three years ago."

I did the mental math. "So you were…twelve when you got together?"

"I asked her to be my girlfriend the first day of seventh grade."

"And did you stay together?" I asked. "I mean, all through high school and college, or was it off and on?"

"I didn't go to college, but yeah, we stayed together. We only broke up once. Three years ago."

"What happened?" As soon as I heard myself ask the question, I backtracked. "Sorry, it's none of my business. Sorry."

"You apologize a lot," he pointed out.

He wasn't the first person to mention that to me. Grandma Betty, my sisters, Olivia and Trevor, had all told me that I should stop saying I was sorry for everything. It was a force of habit. Second nature. It came out of my mouth before I even knew I was saying it.

I almost said it again. I was about to apologize for saying sorry, but I caught myself. "Yes. I do that. I know."

"The short answer is that she moved to New York."

"Oh, okay." I wanted so badly to know what the long answer was, but I didn't ask.

A few minutes passed, and I did my best to distract myself by listening to "The Way You Look Tonight," which was playing over the speakers, but all I could think to ask was more questions about their relationship.

"You want to know the long answer, don't you?" His eyes sliced to me.

"So bad." I admitted.

He smiled and then sighed. "Some things changed in my life, some responsibilities, and it was too much for her. She just needed to get away. I think that's what happened anyway. We never talked about it."

"You didn't talk about it?" As soon as I heard myself ask the question, I realized I was the last person to question someone's communication skills, since mine were severely lacking. Exhibit A: I'd been in love with Simon for over two decades and always assumed he felt the same way but just wasn't ready to settle down. Since we were driving to his wedding, clearly that hadn't been the case.

"No. We didn't. She was gone, and then I found out she cheated on me. I was upset and didn't want to hear her reasons, so I blocked her on my phone and social media. I think now, looking back, she needed to blow up our relationship because she didn't want to get trapped."

"I'm sorry," I heard myself apologize, and I automatically doubled down. "Sorry, I know I need to stop apologizing."

"So now you're apologizing for apologizing."

"Yeah, I clearly have a problem."

"Maybe there's a support group or something you could go to. Apologists Anonymous." His head tilted to the side. "No, that wouldn't work. AA is already taken."

I chuckled but then felt a little guilty for laughing when he'd just told me that after almost a decade together, he was cheated on. "But I am actually sorry you went through that. Have you had any other relationships, you know, serious relationships, since then?"

He turned his head and he looked at me for a moment, then his attention went back to the road. "So, the age thing was just a softball question before these hard hitters."

I nearly apologized again, but I stopped myself. "You don't have to answer."

"No. I haven't had anything serious since."

"Yeah, I understand." Much like communication, getting over someone was clearly not my strong suit, so I totally understood why he'd been single. Simon and I hadn't had anything nearly as serious as what Cole and his first love had shared, and I'd spent over twenty years holding onto it.

In fairness to me, we'd stayed in touch, and he'd always show up whenever I was ready to cut him off. Then we'd have a few months of amazing, before he left, and the cycle started all over again.

"What? What do you understand?" he asked.

"It's hard getting over someone."

His fingers flexed on the steering wheel, and I sensed I had hit a nerve. "That's not why I haven't had another relationship."

"Oh." Now, I really did need to apologize for offending him. "I was just…sorry, I guess I just assumed."

"You said sorry again," he pointed out.

"Sometimes, I am actually sorry. This was one of those times."

The corners of his mouth curled into a grin. "I haven't had another relationship because of my life…" He exhaled. "Yeah, it just…it wouldn't be fair to bring someone else into it."

"Because of TPOP? Because you're a plus one."

"That and the circumstances that came between Lindsay and me haven't changed."

What circumstances?I wanted to know so badly, but I sensed that would be crossing a line. And also, Lindsay. Now, I had a name for the girl who didn't want to be trapped by Cole.

"Have you always wanted to be a wedding coordinator?" he asked, not so subtly changing the subject.

"Sort of. My Grandma Betty owned the shop since the forties. I always knew that her plan was to leave it to my sisters and me. Once the business was passed down to us, we all sort of realized our roles in it. Birdie is the creative one. She handles all the dress buying and even designs her own dresses. Billie holds things down with financials, paperwork, and marketing. And I was always good with people and loved planning parties. So, we all play to our strengths." I turned the tables and questioned him. "What about you? Have you always wanted to be a professional plus one?"

"No." He smiled. "This is just some extra money. My day job is construction."

I knew that after running into him outside the bakery. Just thinking of Construction Worker Cole made me feel all giddy inside.

"I'm getting my contractor's license and starting my own company."

"Seriously?!"

He turned his head toward me. "You sound surprised."

"No, I'm not; that's awesome! I was only shocked because my sisters and I have been trying to find a contractor we trust for a couple of years now. We've hired two, and neither of them worked out. One just stopped showing up one day, and the other took off with ten grand."

"A contractor for the bridal shop?"

"No. My grandparents' house. We inherited it when my grandma passed away, and it's just been sitting there empty for the past three years. It's a Victorian, and we want to preserve as much of the original as we can, which is trickier than you might think. Or maybe not since that's your business."

"It will be my business. Right now, I mainly work on commercial buildings. But if you want, I can stop by and take a look. I'm taking my exam next month, and then it's a few weeks for the paperwork to go through the state. Starting off, I'm going to be working nights and weekends until I can quit my day job, so it might take a while, but I have a small crew already and good relationships with tradespeople."

"That would be amazing. Honestly, it's not like there's any rush. We just know Grandma Betty would not want the house sitting empty. But we're gun-shy about hiring someone because we want someone we trust."

He turned his head toward me. "And you trust me?"

I nodded. "Yes."

I wasn't sure why I did, but I did.

"I'll have Billie, my older sister, the one who saved us from the bathroom, send you everything we have from the other contractors we hired. She's the one who handles all of the paperwork."

He nodded. "How many sisters do you have?"

"Two. Billie, she's a year older than me, and Birdie is a year younger."

"Billie, is she named after your grandfather?"

"Yeah, she is. It's a tradition in the Bliss family. My dad was William Martin Bliss IV, and everyone called him Will. My Grandpa Bill, whom Mr. Reynolds knew, was the firstborn, and he was William Martin Bliss III. His dad was the firstborn, and he was a junior. I think my parents thought about waiting to see if they had a son, but my dad decided to name Billie, Billie."

"Are you close to your dad?"

"Um." I never really talked about my dad. Usually, only to my sisters, and only if they brought it up. But for some reason, talking to Cole was easy. I felt like I could tell him anything. "Growing up, he lived in New York, so we only saw him in the summers. He always said that he was going to have us move there with him, but he died before that happened."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It was a long time ago. I was fourteen."

"What about your mom?"

"She died from complications while giving birth to Birdie."

"Wow, that's awful. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. My Grandma Betty and Grandpa Bill were seriously the best. I had a really happy childhood. What about you?" I glanced over at him and noticed his jaw twitched. His very square jaw that was covered with stubble.

I'd never been a huge fan of facial hair. I'd always thought that I preferred a clean-shaven man, but on Cole, it worked. Everything about him just worked.

"It was… not great," he finally said. "My parents had issues with drugs. I was in foster care before my sister Sara got custody of me when I was twelve."

"I'm sorry. And I can say that because you said you were sorry twice when I told you about my parents."

He grinned as he glanced over at me. "Are you keeping score?"

"No. But if I was, you would be losing by one point."

He chuckled, and the sound simultaneously wrapped around me like a hug and had my lady parts tingling. How could something be both comforting and arousing? How could it feel safe like home and dangerous at the same time?

I didn't know the answer, but I really hoped I got a lot more chances to find out this weekend.