“Okay? Just like that?”
I nod. I want to go out to L.A. and see Taylor, but it can wait. I know I’m going to be the only family member at Hailey and Cole’s wedding. She hasn’t been on speaking terms with our father since he maybe killed a call girl.
Cole had covered it up. That’s what brought him into Hailey’s life, and for six months, she’d hated him for it. Fair enough, right? But there was more to Cole, and The Horus Group, than just crisis management and security expertise.
The fact that Hailey had been kidnapped after Cole fell in love with her is probably proof of that.
I shudder as I think about how close I came to losing my best friend and the only other sane member of my family. “Just like that. I’d do anything for you, Hailey.”
“Same, sweet pea.”
“Even let me date Scott?”
She laughs. “No, not that.”
I glance at the bar. He’s stopped talking to the bartender.
Good.
“Just as well. I don’t want to date him anyway.” She gives me an incredulous look and I stick my tongue out at her. “I don’t. I just want him to…”
“God, that’s even worse.”
“Why?”
She gapes at me for a moment, then closes her mouth and shrugs. “You’re right. It’s not. Do I need to give you a safe sex lecture?”
“No.”
“Do I need to give you a safe heart lecture?”
God, no. “That’s a definite no. I’m not romanticizing anything, Hail. I just want…It’s time, you know?”
She winces. “Stay a kid forever.”
“Can’t. That’s not how it works.”
“Then be safe. Because a man like Scott—” She cuts herself off and takes a long, fortifying gulp of wine. Like Cole. “He can overwhelm you if you aren’t careful.”
“I’m not sure he’ll be game for even a casual hook-up. He’s done a bang-up job of ignoring my advances.”
“Have you tried just being straight up with him?”
I blush. “What?”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, Alison. Don’t tell me you’re trying to seduce him or something like that.”
Maybe. I clear my throat. “What else…how else…you know. Help me out.”
“If you play games, then he’ll always be wondering what else is going on that he can’t see. Strings, that kind of thing. But if you lay your cards on the table, then he’ll do the same. And you’ll both know—either this is a good idea, or it’s not, and you can let it go once and for all.”
“How…” Completely unsexy. Except what I think I really mean is unromantic, and isn’t that the point? Romance has its place, like with Hailey and Cole, at least once they hooked up. “Was that what it was like with you and Cole?”
We talk about almost everything, but we’ve never talked about how she started dating the intense crisis management expert—a so-called Washington “fixer”. Mostly because I assume it started with something super dirty, and I don’t need that picture of my sweet-as-apple-pie older sister.
I already have images like that of my other sister, thanks to YouTube, and my mother, thanks to my vivid imagination and too-thin walls at my grandfather’s estate.
Making a face, I reach for my wine. “Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
Hailey laughs. “It was different with us, because it’s different for everyone. And we had strong feelings from the very beginning, so there was a lot of resistance to that. I was terrified of what having a crush on Cole would mean for me, that he’d suck me back into his world, and all I wanted to do was escape it.”
Instead, she’d pulled Cole out of it. He wasn’t exactly a good guy now, but good-er. I giggle, then realize I’m way too much in my head and nod more soberly. “Sorry. Yes. Right.”
“No more wine.”
“Of course not.” I reach for the bottle. She doesn’t stop me. I want to look over at the bar again, but I don’t. I pour myself another glass instead.
“He’s watching you.”
I don’t smile at that. It’s good, but it’s not great, because I don’t know what to do about that information.
“What do you want from him?”
“Sex,” I say immediately.
She winces, but then takes my glass out of my hand and empties it in one swallow. “Then go get it, birthday girl.”
“Yeah?”
She opens her purse and pulls out her phone. “I’m calling Cole. The suite is yours for the night. Don’t get hurt.”
“Your bodyguard isn’t going to hurt me.” Not even if I beg him to.
“Right. Don’t hurt him, then.”
“I’m harmless.”
She smirks and tips her head in his direction. I take a deep breath and stand up. By the time I turn around, he’s standing, too.
There’s nothing else in my line of sight, just a tall, broad, dark haired man in a suit that fits him like a glove. The carefully designed lighting highlights his few days of stubble that looks like it was perfectly groomed like that, but I know it’s not, because I’ve watched it grow in.