Perfect Fling (Serendipity's Finest 2)

Her mother’s attractive face wrinkled in confusion. “He didn’t tell you? Cole asked Sam to have me go to the store where we went maternity shopping and replace everything that was destroyed,” her mom said, a diplomatic description if Erin had ever heard one. “He said to buy whatever we chose that day, and whatever else I found that you’d like.” With a twinkle in her eye, one that indicated how pleased Ella was with Cole’s behavior, she turned away and began unpacking the groceries.

Erin stood stunned, unable to process what she’d heard. “Cole said that?”

Her mother nodded. “And he took the bill from me when I pulled in. He’s paying for it all. Now close your mouth, you’re catching flies.”

Erin lowered herself into the nearest chair, needing to think about Cole’s actions. On the one hand, they made sense. It was obvious she had nothing to wear—right now she was in a pair of her biggest drawstring sweats and one of his old T-shirts, which he’d left out for her on the bed. But the easiest thing would have been to have her mother pick up a couple of items until Erin could shop for herself again.

But to replace everything? And add more? And pay for it all himself?

“Guilt,” Erin said out loud. “He feels responsible that my life has been turned upside down and my clothes ruined, probably by some psycho stalker, and he blames himself.”

“Maybe.” Ella’s eyes narrowed at Erin’s conclusion. “Or maybe he wants to take care of you and this is the way he thought to do it.”

Erin wrinkled her nose at the notion. “Doubtful.”

“Oh ye of little faith. Even your brother seemed impressed,” her mother said.

“Sam?”

“Yep. He said he doubted he would have done something that thoughtful. Then Mike said—”

Erin jumped up from her seat. “I don’t want to hear Mike’s negative comments.” She stuck her hand in the nearest bag and began helping her mother put away the groceries.

“You’ll want to hear this,” Ella said. “Mike actually told Sam that no man would think that way unless he cared about the woman in question.”

Erin froze in the process of putting eggs in the refrigerator and turned to her mom. “Mike took Cole’s side? He said he thinks Cole cares about me . . . that way?” Shock and disbelief reverberated through her.

Erin knew Mike paid lip service to cutting Cole slack, but she didn’t believe her protective older brother would actually do it.

Ella nodded. “Of course, then Mike ribbed Sam about his single status and ended by informing him that only when Sam fell that hard would he understand.”

“I think I might faint,” Erin muttered.

Her mother chuckled, shutting the fridge door behind Erin. “Over which part? Mike taking Cole’s side? Or the possibility that he might be right and that man might really be falling for you?”

Erin closed her eyes, wishing with everything in her that Mike had a point, that Cole could care about her—as deeply as Mike loved Cara.

“I know how I feel, what I want—and sometimes I think I’m on the verge of breaking through to him. But then something clicks in his male brain and he withdraws. It’s like he’s feeling too much and it scares him.”

“Maybe that’s true. Remember, he doesn’t have two parents who are still together like yours are. By the time his mother married her second husband, Cole was older. Cynical. With his negative views about himself already formed by Jed. You know how young and impressionable children can be damaged by bad parenting.”

“Cole said the same thing to me once. When I asked him why his stepfather’s positive views of him didn’t override his father’s negative ones.”

There’s only so many times you can hear negative shit before you start believing it yourself. By the time we got out, I’d had sixteen years of disappointing Jed under my belt.

She shivered at the memory. “Every time he pushes me away, I promise myself I won’t react. But it hurts, and I push back.” This time, she had done worse than that.

Unless and until you’re ready to commit to an us, don’t you dare ask me to call it anything else. Because you’re right about one thing. The way you’re behaving right now? I do deserve better.

She’d reacted with hurt and anger, hormones and frustration, and by doing so she’d validated his worst fears about himself. She rubbed her hands over her eyes.

“You’re human, Erin. You can’t blame yourself for acting like it.”

She forced a smile for her mother’s sake. “You’re the best, you know that?”

“So are you, honey. And so is that man of yours.”

Erin nodded in agreement. She knew that. Now. “I just wish he believed it too.”