Perfect Fling (Serendipity's Finest 2)

Erin narrowed her eyes and nodded.

“She mentioned to me that Joe has to look for a new tenant for the apartment over the bar. It’s month to month, so when this one’s over . . . Cole said he’s moving out,” she said gently. “Did you know?”

Erin shook her head, willing the tears not to fall. “But I haven’t taken his calls, so for all I know, he would have told me.”

“Is it okay with you if I give him a call? See if he has a lawyer he wants me to be in touch with over these things? Or did you want to talk to him yourself?”

Erin waved her hand through the air. “You do it,” she said abruptly. “Please,” she added, knowing it wasn’t Kelly who she was angry with.

Rationally she wasn’t angry with Cole either. Things were playing out exactly as he’d warned her they would. It was her fault, hoping for more. For something he’d expressly told her would never be.

Still, the less she had to do with Cole right now, the better off she’d be. She clutched at the blanket she’d draped over her stomach and legs, her head pounding and her heart breaking. Based on the easy flow of tears and the sharp pain slicing into her chest, obviously getting over Cole Sanders wouldn’t be as easy as she’d hoped.

Kelly handling things would let Erin hang on to the one thing she had left of herself.

Her pride.

• • •

After visiting his father again, Cole spent the day in Manhattan, giving his boss the news in person. Rockford hadn’t taken his resignation well, the man sputtering and turning beet red, but in the end he’d wished Cole well. And told him if things got boring, his old job would be waiting.

Cole might be a lot of things in Serendipity, but he knew bored with Erin wouldn’t be one of them. He didn’t know it in his gut; he knew it in his heart.

Enough avoiding. While in Manhattan, he called on his mother and stepdad and told them they were going to be grandparents. Afterward, he planned for the future. He put out feelers with old contacts, hoping to start up his own security firm, which would be based in Serendipity but would work with retired agents he knew who had spread out to various parts of the country. There’d be some traveling, but little danger, and the more guys on board whom he trusted, the less Cole himself would have to fly out and handle things in person. In the meantime, he had a huge nest egg from years of living minimally and frugally, he had jobs with Nick if he wanted time working with his hands, and most of all, he had a plan.

With that plan came hope. Though he cautioned himself against it, Erin’s optimism had been contagious. But she was the last stop in his plan and he meant to tackle things in order, so he could show her that he meant what he said and had taken steps to prove it.

From the city, Cole headed back to the hospital in time for the last visiting hours of the day. He stopped to talk to the doctor, who’d just finished rounds. Jed had been moved out of the CICU and into his own room. They were already getting him up and moving, and Cole couldn’t imagine the pain involved in such an endeavor—or the crap his father was giving the nurses.

He began walking toward the room and stopped right outside.

“Mr. Sanders, I need you to breathe into that tube. We can’t have your lungs filling with fluid.” An older woman stood beside the bed with a breathing apparatus in her hand.

Jed lay back against the pillows, refusing to look at her. “Go away.”

Cole bit the inside of his cheek, debating whether or not to step in.

“Not until you blow. You don’t scare me and I’m not leaving. I’m every bit as stubborn as you.”

“Dang it, woman—”

“Ms. Reynolds. Lucy Reynolds. You can call me Lucy if and when you blow into this machine.”

She stuck the equipment in front of Jed’s face, and to Cole’s amazement, his father let her help him sit up straighter and did his best to comply with her instructions. Jed groaned and winced and she finally eased him back against the bed.

“Good job, Jed!” the nurse said happily.

“That’s Mr. Sanders to you, and you can call me that until you stop being a pain.”

Ignoring him, she handed him a cup with a straw, from which he took a small sip.

Cole shook his head and walked into the room. “Still cheery as ever?” he asked his old man.

Jed’s eyes widened as Cole stepped inside.

“He’s doing well,” the nurse, who was attractive and about his father’s age, said to Cole.

“Well, I appreciate you putting up with him.”