A pair of wide eyes locked on to his.
Gemma.
Cole dropped his arm back in his lap and looked away.
“Well, this is awkward,” Josh said.
“It’s not awkward,” Cole said. But he should’ve known better. Gemma loved Hazel’s as much as everyone else, and she likely spent every morning here, like everyone else.
“No, but it’s about to be.” Josh gave Cole a nod. “She’s coming over here.”
Cole stifled a groan. While Connor had been around for the beginning of his relationship with Gemma, Josh had been staying with him the day he finally told her to leave. And everything in between? Well, the whole town had been there for that.
“Hey, Cole.” Gemma stood next to him now. Too close. He fisted his hand in his lap. He didn’t respond.
“Hey, guys,” Gemma said. “Connor, I was so sorry to hear about Jules.”
Cole wanted to tell her to mind her own business, to not refer to his sister in such a familiar way. After all, Gemma hadn’t sent him any condolences.
“Thanks,” Connor said half-heartedly.
“Hey, Cole, can we talk for a minute?”
Cole’s eyes traveled up the table to Josh, who was staring at him, eyes wide. Poor guy probably wondered how he got so lucky as to have two of his closest friends broken at the same time.
“I’m kind of busy here,” Cole said. Unlike when he was rude to other people, he didn’t feel even a hint of remorse for being rude to Gemma.
“Just for a minute. Please?” She put a hand on his shoulder, and Cole quickly shrugged it off. She’d lost the right to touch him when she started having her affair, which actually meant she never had a right to touch him. That realization turned sour at the back of his throat.
“Be right back, guys.” Cole pushed his chair away from the table, stood, and walked out onto the sidewalk, around the side of the building so the nosy patrons of Hazel’s Kitchen weren’t privy to his personal business.
Not that he considered Gemma his personal anything anymore.
“What?” he said, spinning around.
“Whoa,” she said. “Why are you so hostile right now?”
He tried not to laugh—not an amused laugh, an ironic you’ve got to be kidding me laugh. “Do I really need to remind you?”
“I told you I was sorry, Cole,” she said.
He faced her. “Can we be done now? I’ve really got nothing else to say to you.”
“Look, I just wanted to call a truce. We’re both here this summer, so—”
“Yeah, why is that?” Cole asked. “Why are you back here?”
Gemma looked shocked, as if it had never occurred to her that coming back to Harbor Pointe might not be the best idea. “I’ve spent my summers here since I was a kid.”
“And you just couldn’t help but come back to flaunt Max in my face?” Cole was beginning to understand the meaning behind the expression about blood boiling. “I live here, Gemma. It’s not a vacation spot for me.”
She held her hands up as if in surrender, and Cole backed away. He hadn’t intended to get that close to her, and he certainly hadn’t intended to raise his voice enough to stop an older couple walking on the other side of the street.
“Look, you bring out the absolute worst in me, Gemma.” Cole took a step back. “I think you need to just stay away.”
“I don’t want you to hate me, Cole,” she said. “You know I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Was she delusional? “What did you think having sex with someone else while we were married was going to do? Make me feel good?”
“We’re both adults, Cole,” Gemma said. “You need to figure out how to let go of me.”
Now Cole did laugh. “You’re absolutely insane if you think there is any part of me still pining away for you.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “But you’re still angry.”
He swore under his breath. “I’m going back inside now, Gemma. And it would be great if you’d find somewhere else to eat when you’re here this summer.”
“I can eat wherever I want,” she said.
“Yeah, you can,” Cole said. “But if you have even a shred of decency, you won’t eat here.”
She straightened.
“But I suppose if you had a shred of decency, you wouldn’t have done what you did, now, would you?” Cole stared at her for a long moment, wondering if he’d regret this conversation later.
He started back up the street to the corner, but before he turned, Gemma called out, “Max asked me to marry him.”
Cole stopped, but he didn’t respond.
Gemma faced him now, he heard her turn. “I just thought you should hear it from me.”
He bit back a sarcastic comment and walked away.
16
For days after the meeting at the dance studio, Charlotte busied herself with her morning run, with observing dance classes, with meeting parents—most of whom thanked her profusely for ensuring the kids would have their recital.
She’d managed to stay busy, even without the rigors of a strict dance regimen, and that busyness had allowed her to avoid the thing she really didn’t want to do
But unfortunately, the time of procrastination had come to an end.
Which was why she now sat in the parking lot at the high school, watching from a distance as Cole and another guy barked orders at the boys on the field, boys who all complied with whatever the men told them to do.
She opened her phone and saw a missed call from Marcia. Seconds later, her voicemail alert rang.
She couldn’t deal with her mother. Not now. Not today. She tucked the phone in her purse just in time to see the boys run to the center of the field and huddle up, all eyes on Cole. She had to wonder what the man was saying, considering that he seemed to find it impossible to 1. Talk and 2. Be nice.
But then maybe high school football coaches didn’t have to be nice. Those boys probably all needed a little tough love.
How many dance teachers had she had over the years that subscribed to that tough love method?
What she wouldn’t have given for one who actually cared enough to be kind.
Marcia would tell her to stop complaining. It wasn’t kindness that got her where she was. As a teacher, her mother certainly subscribed to that theory—and as a mother, even more so.
She drew in a deep breath and pushed open the chain-link fence, making her way out onto the field. It didn’t escape her that she’d drawn the attention of at least half of the football players, something she pretended not to notice. She’d almost reached Cole when he glanced up from his clipboard.
Recognition washed over his face. “Charlotte?”
She smiled, but even she knew it probably looked as forced as it felt.
“You know her, Coach?” one of the lingering players said. “Lucky man.”
Charlotte felt herself blush, but she quickly looked away.
“Matt, would you take the equipment? I’ll be right in.”
“Sure thing, Coach.” The other adult on the field shooed the boys away, leaving her standing in the middle of a circle that had been painted in the grass. With Cole.