Page 93 of Tempted Hearts
I loved seeing him like that.
I loved coming for him.
I loved Cole.
It was as though that last thought—lying there afterward, tangled together, the aftermath of quick but utterly satisfying sex—made him pull away. As if he were reading my mind.
“I think I’m going to head back to Heritage Hill,” he said.
Still tucked against his chest, I lifted my head to look at him. The question was there, unspoken.
“If I stay,” he said quietly, “I’ll make promises I’m not ready to keep.”
I expected to push him away. To tell him to go.
Instead, I kissed him. I think it was meant to be quick, small—but it lingered. The kind of kiss that made leaving necessary.
When it felt right, he kissed my nose and slipped out of bed.
I didn’t say a word. Just sat up, pulling the covers around myself.
I was waiting for him, and I wasn’t sure another day together would be a good idea.
“I’ll text you?” he asked.
“Sounds good. I’m free after eleven tomorrow.”
That was the invitation.
He nodded instead, and before he could change his mind—or fuck things up further—he left my room.
I walked him out only in my head, through the quiet domestic comfort of my small house, out onto the front porch. The lightning was gone, the thunder too—just steady rain.
I imagined him looking at the Grado Valley truck, then toward Cedar Falls Square in the distance.
This place wouldn’t be enough for a lot of people.
But it would be for him.
36
COLE
It was a pillow.
I wasn’t holding Jules. I was holding a damn pillow.
Opening my eyes, daylight streaming through the blinds I’d purposely left open, I remained in bed—just lying there, thinking of her.
Thinking of everything.
Italian breakfasts, strolls through cobblestone streets, the boat ride, the cabin, cookies yesterday… What the hell was I doing? Moments like Italy made it too easy to believe in something that couldn’t last. Too easy to forget that real life came with expectations and futures that didn’t always line up. How did I stop us from crossing a line that would turn this into something I couldn’t sustain without hurting her?
There was some work I could do, but my mind was anything but focused. I grabbed my phone. No text from Jules, though I hadn’t really expected one. I’d said I would text her, but you never knew.
Clicking on Beck’s name, I fired off a text.
Cole
