“Anytime.” Lauren waved at the other guys. “Stay warm,” she called, and again, they shouted their thanks to her.
Michael smiled. “Well, I better go get some before those animals drain that thing,” he said. “And you should get the hell out of this cold.”
“Wait,” Lauren said. “I have something for you in the car.”
“For me?” he asked, his brow lifted, and she nodded.
“Hurry though, I’m freezing,” she said as she turned and started walking quickly down the block.
She was vaguely aware of Michael following her, but she was too focused on picking up the pace. The wind had started to pick up, making it borderline unbearable to be outside.
When she reached the car, she jumped in, quickly closing the door behind her, and Michael walked around, getting into the passenger side.
“God.” Lauren’s teeth chattered as she started the car and blasted the heat, holding her hands in front of the vents. “How the hell do you do it?”
“You get used to it after a while.” He rested his head back on the seat and turned to look at her. “This was probably a stupid move though.”
“What was?”
“Getting in this car with you.”
She pulled her brow together as she focused on playing with the knob for the heat. “Why?” she asked with strained casualness.
“Because I’m warming up. It’s going to be that much colder when I go back out there now.”
“Oh.” She felt her shoulders soften in relief as she looked over at him.
“What did you think I meant?”
She shook her head. “Nothing,” she said, reaching into the console and pulling the large Dunkin Donuts cup out of the holder. “Here, maybe this will make going back out there a little more bearable.”
“What is this?” he asked, taking it from her.
“Hot chocolate.”
A slow smile formed on his lips. “With whipped cream?”
She nodded once.
“And…?”
Lauren smiled. “And rainbow sprinkles. And a cherry, of course.”
Michael’s smile turned into a full-blown grin, and Lauren laughed.
When they were in high school, Michael used to order this drink all the time, claiming it was like “an ice-cream sundae you could have in the winter.” Lauren always got a kick out of it, the way he’d walk through the halls with his intimidating posture and unnerving expression { display: block; text-indent: 5%; font-size: 0.88rem; margin-top: viles while holding such an innocuous, juvenile beverage concealed in a coffee cup.
She nodded in the direction of the work site. “Tell them it’s something manly,” she said. “Like black coffee with a shot of whiskey.”
He burst out laughing before he looked down, shaking his head with a smile. He spun the drink slowly in his hand before he looked back up at her. “How do you remember these things?”
Her expression softened. “You were my best friend, Michael.”
His smile dropped. For a moment, they just stared at each other, and then he looked down. “I know,” he said softly. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat. “I should probably…” He gestured with his head toward the construction site, and Lauren nodded.
“Yeah. Try to stay warm, okay?”
She turned toward the steering wheel, and suddenly his hand was on her chin, turning her face back toward him as he leaned forward and brought his lips to her cheek.
She closed her eyes as his mouth left her skin. “Thank you,” he said. She felt the backs of his knuckles brush over her cheek, right where he had just kissed her, and then he was out of the car before she could even formulate a response.
Michael walked back down the block, hot chocolate in hand and a smile on his face, completely oblivious to the cold now.
When he got back to the site, most of the guys were sitting on the curb drinking coffee and eating the donuts Lauren had just dropped off. He walked over to where Dean was leaned up against a streetlight, warming his hands on his cup of coffee.
Dean glanced over at him. “Was that her?” he asked before he took a sip.
“Who?” Michael asked, taking a sip of his own and smiling as the sweet beverage hit his tongue. Tell them it’s something manly, like black coffee with a shot of whiskey. He laughed to himself.
“Your girl,” Dean said. “The one you’ve been after.”
Michael looked up, his expression turning serious. “I’m not after her,” he said. “She’s a good friend of mine.”
Dean looked at him for a second before he smirked. “Okay,” he said, turning his attention to the other side of the street. He brought his cup to his mouth, but Michael could still see him smiling.
He looked at Dean for another second before he dropped his eyes, rolling his cup in between his palms, feeling the heat of the liquid and the icy chill of the air alternating on his skin.
“Can I ask you something?” he finally said.
Dean looked back at him. “What’s up?”
“You and Melinda. How’s that going?”
Only a few months ago, they had been in the middle of an ugly custody battle over their daughter. But recently, Michael knew they’d been trying to work on their relationship.
Dean inhaled deeply. “We got a lot of shit to work out. But we’re trying. We’re getting there.”
Michael nodded, and for a minute, the only sound was the murmuring conversations of the guys around them mixing with the cars passing by. “How?” he finally said.
“What do you mean?”
He inhaled slowly. “I mean…how do you fix@u"> shoulder something you really fucked up?”
Dean looked at him, and after a second he nodded in understanding.
“Well,” he said, “we have a kid involved. So when we put her needs in front of our own, that helps.”
“Yeah,” Michael agreed, running his fingers over the lid of his cup.
“But honestly? What women need?” Dean paused to take a sip of his coffee. “Actions. Not words. Sorry doesn’t mean shit, begging doesn’t mean shit, and promises don’t mean shit.”
Michael nodded and looked down. “I’m just…I’m at a loss, man. I just don’t know…” He sighed, shaking his head.
Dean leaned over. “You gotta prove to her that you’re never gonna do whatever messed with her in the first place ever again. You gotta show her there’s no reason to be afraid of giving you another chance. And that’s work, my man. That’s work.” He pushed off the lamppost and started to walk away, but turned at the last second. “But from what I just saw, I think she’d be willing to hear you out.”
Dean clapped him on the back before he turned and walked back toward their workstation.
Michael watched him walk away for a moment before he turned and sat on a nearby bench, resting his elbows on his knees as he held his hot chocolate in front of him.
Slowly, he bowed his head.
Something had changed. Somehow, for some reason, something had changed between them over the past few weeks. Lauren seemed so much more open to him. More relaxed. More herself. Months ago, that had been all he really wanted—to have her drop that aloof charade, for her to let her guard down and just be herself with him again.
But now that he seemed to have that, he wanted more.
The taste of winning back her friendship had given him an appetite for something much bigger. And when she looked at him the way she just did in the car, there was a piece of him that believed maybe, just maybe, he could have it. That there was a chance he could fix this.
That he could have everything he wanted.
Michael dropped his head back, taking a deep breath as he blinked up at the sky.
He’d done everything except the one thing he knew he had to do.
He needed to talk to her about what happened.
And maybe if she knew the reason behind his actions all those years ago, she’d understand.
Michael sighed as he looked down at his drink, swirling it a few times before he took another sip.