Page 21 of Coming Home
Cole continued to smile at me, and I blushed. Was he thinking about last night, too? It wasn’t like I was a virgin. It just felt different with him. Serious. Not just a good time before we rushed off to live our lives, the moment forgotten. I opened my mouth to answer my father, but Cole beat me to it.
“I’m taking Reed to the drive-in movies tonight.” He took a couple of steps closer to me. “28 Days Lateris playing.”
Marry me.God, those words were on the tip of my tongue. He remembered that28 Days Laterwas one of my favorite horror movies.
“It’s going to be awesome,” I added like this wasn’t the first time I’d heard about it.
I didn’t care, though. I was going on a date with the boy I had crushed on in high school. The one who had nearly gotten away. I had no idea what might happen after the summer was over, but I couldn’t worry about that now.
“You two have fun.” Dad nodded, then walked away with Killian, talking about fishing, and I couldn’t help but think they had an odd friendship. They didn’t really seem to have much in common, but if it made my father happy, that was all that really mattered. When they were out of earshot, I grabbed Cole’s hand.
“Were you serious? About the movie? Because it’s my favorite.”
“I know.”
“You remembered.”
Cole reached for my other hand. “Jackson told me about the drive-in. It serves food and snacks. We just have to bring our own blanket. I thought it sounded fun.”
“You told Jackson?” Did that mean this was like an official date? If he told his family, that kind of felt official.
He nodded. “If that’s okay. I mean, Tate was trying to get it out of me when he saw the hickey, but I wasn’t ready to tell him yet. I’m sure Maverick will say something to Dean—”
I nearly knocked him over when I wrapped my arms around him, kissing his face, his lips, his nose. I didn’t care who he told. He could shout it from the rooftops with a megaphone if he wanted.
“It’s more than okay,” I assured him.
“Your dad...” Cole laughed as he cupped my head between his hands.
“I don’t care.” I tried to kiss him again, but he stopped me. I pouted.
Cole brushed his thumbs over my cheeks. “I’m not...PDA isn’t something I’ve done a lot of. With anyone.” He blushed slightly. “I told my dads, too.”
“You told...About us?” I gripped his wrists. We would talk about the PDA thing soon enough. “What did you tell them exactly?”
He bit his bottom lip. “That we kissed, and uh, that you slept over. They kind of figured that out. There’s a camera outside the front door.”
“Oh.” My eyes went wide. “We kissed a lot outside the front door.” Thank God I hadn’t tried to suck him off. I giggled. “Well, that must have been something to see.”
Cole blushed even darker. “They just asked me to keep it clean next time. But they’re happy for me.” He smiled before he pressed his mouth to mine again. “Your dad asked me a lot of questions.”
“Did he?” I popped a brow as I looked out to where he and Killian were sitting in the boat. “I hope he was nice.”
Cole grabbed my hand. “He was.”
My father’s laughter filtered through the air, and I looked back at Cole. “Do you want to come inside? I’ll show you my room.”
Chapter Eleven
Cole
Reed pushed the door to his room open, then turned and gave me a big smile. I wasn’t sure what I had expected. The walls were painted pale blue, but they were covered in framed pictures, posters, and random memories. It was comfortable and warm, like Reed had left little bits and pieces of himself around. It wasn’t messy. Everything had a place. I stopped to look at a collage of photos, admiring the smile on Reed’s face in each picture and the way his eyes sparkled. He had his arm linked through a small blond man, and jealousy shot right through my body. I had no right to feel that way. We had lost contact at that point, and I was off in Boston doing my own thing. I leaned closer, noticing some of the pictures seemed to be focused on a roller rink. And maybe it was someone’s birthday, because there was cake, party hats, and presents.
“That’s from my eighteenth birthday.” He leaned his head on my shoulder. “Sadly, the rink was torn down a month later, but it was the place my friends and I went to a lot when we were younger.”
I wanted to demand to know who the blond was. He was in a lot of the pictures, snuggled up close to Reed, touching him and smiling with big, wide eyes. Were they more than friends? Instead, I slipped my arm around Reed’s slim waist and tugged him closer.
“You look cute.” I pointed to the photo where he had a party hat on and frosting all over his face.
