Page 9 of Deserving Cora
“To explain, I have to go back,” Cora told the man across the table.
She couldn’t believe she was here, having dinner with the very person she’d been semi-stalking since finding out he’d be in DC. She’d been prepared to pay big bucks for this moment, but somehow, thanks to Eleanor’s bitchiness—she’d be pissed if she knew her big mouth had given Cora exactly what she wanted, rather than having it stolen out from under her nose—she was sitting at a greasy diner, for free, getting a chance to potentially help Lara.
“I met Lara when I was fifteen. I’d changed schools, again, and things weren’t going well for me in the new place. I didn’t fit in…which wasn’t really a surprise, as I rarely fit in anywhere, but Ireallydidn’t mesh with the kids at Harrison High.”
“Why not?” Pipe asked.
“They mostly all came from rich families. Ones with political ties. I was a nobody. A foster kid who was shuttled from one house to another. I had a huge chip on my shoulder, didn’t give a crap what anyone thought about me, and honestly, I’m not all that smart.”
“NowthatI don’t believe,” Pipe said with a small smile.
Cora studied the man, still a little stunned that she’d ended up sitting in a restaurant with him. His hair was longer in front, with a curl flopping onto his forehead. His beard and mustache were full and a little unkempt. His nose was long and narrow, his cheekbones high, and his dark eyes were focused on her with an intensity that was a little disconcerting. She instinctively knew this man didn’t miss much, which both intrigued and scared the crap out of her.
Both arms were covered with tattoos, and she could see them peeking out behind the few open buttons of his white dress shirt as well. Some people would be turned off by all his ink, but not Cora. They fit him.
“Cora?” he prompted.
Realizing she’d been staring at Pipe without talking, Cora felt her cheeks heat and she forced herself to stop examining the man sitting across from her and kept talking.
“I’m not being derogatory toward myself, just telling the truth. I was a solid C student in high school. I’m sure it didn’t help that I had to change schools every time I had to switch foster homes, but still. Anyway, I’d been there a week and the popular kids, like Eleanor, had already homed in on me as a target. I didn’t care. I was used to being bullied. I’d learned to mostly ignore the juvenile insults and attempts to make me feel like shit.
“But at lunch that particular day, apparently Lara had heard enough. She stood up for me. Told Robbie McCallister to stick his head in a bucket of cow dung. She said it just like that too,” Cora said with a fond chuckle. “Too sweet to swear properly. And she looks like an angel. Tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, slender…all the boys were in love with her, and Robbie immediately backed off.
“Then she sat down next to me, and when the attention turned away from us, she started shaking a bit. I thought she was having a seizure or something. But she assured me it was simply delayed reaction. Shehatesbeing the center of attention. It literally makes her have a panic attack. Ironic, since her gorgeous looks are like a beacon to everyone around her. Anyway, to try to help, I talked to her about stupid shit, just babbling really, until she felt a little more in control.
“Eventually, she held out a hand to me and said, ‘Hi, I’m Lara Osler. Your new best friend.’ She was kidding, but little did we know how true that would become. We spent the next two and a half years of high school fending off the cruel bitches who ran that place and have been thick as thieves ever since.”
The words seemed so lame, considering how close Cora and Lara had truly become over the years. Nothing happened in either of their lives that the other didn’t know about…until recently. And Cora couldn’t,wouldn’t, believe that Lara had simply moved on. They’d been best friends for over two decades. A friendship like that didn’t simply disappear because of a man.
“Neither of us dated in high school. I didn’t have any interest in the assholes who came after me because they thought I’d be easy, and Lara was too shy, too focused on getting good grades. We spent every extra moment we had together, which was a godsend. After graduating, Lara headed off to college, and I moved with her. I found a job to help support us. We got a small, crappy apartment together, and things were pretty good. When she graduated with her early childhood degree, she got a job at a preschool near our place. I worked a bunch of different jobs as she continued to get raises and more and more responsibility.”
“After a few years, we decided the time had come for us to find our own places. I was all right with it, although I knew it would be tough to swing the rent by myself. But I could tell Lara really wanted to spread her wings. She was finally dating a little bit, as was I, and it felt like what we were supposed to do…you know, grow up, get a job, get your own apartment.
“It was okay for a while. Until my douchebag landlord decided to come into my place at two in the morning to,” she made quotation marks in the air as she spoke, “check my fire alarm batteries, and found himself staring down the barrel of my pistol. He wasn’t too happy. The next morning, after the cops left and I’d gotten some sleep, I found an eviction notice on my door.”
“That’s illegal,” Pipe growled.
Cora shrugged. “Of course it was, but who was going to defend me? It wasn’t as if I could afford to hire a lawyer or anything. And no one in the complex was going to stick up for me because they needed a place to live just as much as I did. Anyway, Lara didn’t hesitate to take me in. I slept on her couch for almost six months, and she never, not once, made me feel as if I was a nuisance.” Cora paused, a slight smile on her face. “For someone who’d been a foster kid, you have no idea what a big deal that is.
“Eventually I found a new place to live and moved out again. Of course…a couple of months later, I lost my job. My boss decided she liked me, and when I wouldn’t go out with her, she came up with a reason to fire me.”
Pipe growled across the table. Cora looked up and was surprised to see how angry he looked. Reaching out her hand without thought, she gripped his arm. “It’s okay.”
“It’snotokay,” he said between clenched teeth.
“It’s the way of the world,” she said with a small shrug.
Pipe put his hand over hers on his arm. He leaned forward a little more and shook his head. “I’venever been fired from a job for not returning someone’s interest.I’venever had a landlord come into my flat in the middle of the night.”
“You’re a guy,” she said immediately. “And you have friends. I’m thinking Ned—and yes, that really was my landlord’s name—knew that I didn’t have a lot of visitors other than Lara. Family, other friends, boyfriend, that kind of thing. I was an easy target and he knew it. Same with my boss. People can sense when someone doesn’t have a support network. Especially in this town. Ofcourseno one messes with you, Pipe. Even without your badass tattoos, you ooze confidence and fuck-off vibes.”
He continued to frown.
And for some reason, Cora really wanted to soothe him.
“I was a foster kid. I wasn’t wanted. I had fourteen foster homes, and not one family ever gave the slightest indication that they wanted to keep me for good. I wasn’t a bad kid, I didn’t cause trouble, but they still always sent me packing after a while.”
Her chin came up at the look of sorrow on Pipe’s face.
