Cole didn’t react. “Lover’s quarrel?”
I frowned. What? “No. I just left for another agency. There was nothing—”
Going on between me and Adam.
I was going to finish that sentence, but it seemed pointless. Cole didn’t know or care about Adam’s life. At least that was what I thought till he made a sound that I was pretty sure was a snort.
“Yeah, I still talk to my mom,” he said.
It took me a second to understand what he meant by that.
Okay…
Was he saying… he knew about me and Adam? Being together? Had Heidi told him about us? It felt like a lot of presumption and I didn’t want to ask, but Cole clearly wasn’t the type to say more than he cared to, so I just went for it.
“She talked to you about Adam?” I asked.
His sharp features were unmoving, unreadable as he answered. “Sometimes.”
My pulse picked up.
Okay, relax, I told myself, trying not to get excited, because there was something depressing about getting excited over this. It felt like an impossible push and pull. I’d made this decision to start my career as an agent in New York, not LA. At this point, I wasn’t going to leave my job at Ace to return to Engelman, so it was pointless to stir up all these emotions I had on Adam’s behalf.
That was what I told myself.
Of course, it was virtually impossible not to care, especially as I looked directly at this reflection of Adam—this hardened, grown-up version of the adorable little boy Adam had described in such detail during that trip in Arizona. How before he’d been forced to grow up fast, Cole had been a slightly mischievous but mostly sensitive little boy. He got nervous when his mom spoke to strangers, and ran to hide behind Adam whenever he was afraid or unsure.
I wished Cole could know all of this.
How Adam still cared. Still hung on so tight to his memory.
“You know, he thinks about you all the time.”
The words had been out for a few seconds before I realized they’d come from my own mouth.
Meddler, I scolded myself. But I’d already said what I’d said, and I couldn’t take it back, so I decided to own it, an unabashed look on my face as I watched his eyebrows move a little. But he didn’t say anything.
So I did.
“He’s never going to stop being your brother. He just wants to look out for you,” I said, trying not to let the utterly unfazed look on Cole’s face discourage me. “He wasn’t just off living the life. He never stopped thinking about you.”
Cole’s blue eyes studied me now. Before they were just looking at me, but now they were searching.
“If he’s such a good guy, why are you here instead of LA?”
My throat contracted for a second. “I had a better opportunity here,” I said. “Doesn’t change a word of what I said about Adam. You’ve been on his mind since the day he left. Everything he does, he does for you and your mom.”
I thought I saw a sneer curl Cole’s lips, so I braced myself for impact. Cutting words of some kind. But I didn’t get that.
“I know,” he said, his voice sounding suddenly different.
Slightly thawed.
Or did I imagine that? It didn’t matter. I pounced.
“You know he sits with Rocky every morning at breakfast,” I said, referring to the chihuahua-pug Cole grew up with.
He snorted.