Instead, Rachel found herself staring at the brown-haired boy currently roughhousing with her brother. She decided there was no way she was baring her flat-chested thirteen-year-old self in her bathing suit to him. She couldn’t decide what was more annoying—the fact that she was still flat as a board or the thought that one day she’d have boobs. Some days, she hated being a girl.
“Are you okay?” her mom asked, leaning into her with a little shoulder-to-shoulder bump. “You’ve been really quiet, which is not like you at all.”
Rachel turned to look at her mom and bit her bottom lip. It was so hard, not having a sister to talk to about boys, and there was no way she was bringing this up with Mase.
“It’s Mason’s friend, isn’t it?” her mom whispered conspiratorially.
Rachel felt her eyes widen as her heart started to beat erratically.
“No!” Rachel denied emphatically.
Her mother chuckled and reached out to push a piece of hair behind Rachel’s ear.
“It’s okay if it is, Rach. It’s normal to look at boys and think they’re cute.”
“I don’t think anything!” Rachel stressed, becoming flustered. In the back of her mind though, all she could remember was the way he smiled at her. Oh yes, she definitely thought he was cute.
“Well, no matter if you do or don’t, it’s completely normal. But remember, he is Mason’s friend, and he is older than you.”
“Mom!” Rachel whined, feeling her face heating up. Why is Mom still talking? Is she determined to embarrass me?
“Alright, alright. I will keep your secret.”
Crossing her arms in front of her, Rachel pouted and rolled her eyes in the way all thirteen year olds do. “There is no secret, Mom.”
“Sure there isn’t, love. Is that why you giggle every time he talks to you?”
“Do not.”
“Do, too,” her mom replied with a mischievous grin. “But don’t worry. I won’t tell.”
Rachel looked back down to the river where her brother and his new friend were now climbing out of the water. She stared at the lanky boy beside Mason, and as he raised his hand to push it through his hair, she felt her cheeks redden. Rachel looked away only to see her mom chuckling at her.
“I promise not to tell,” she repeated with a soft look as she brushed gentle fingertips over Rachel’s cheek.
Rachel lowered her eyes quickly. Her mom always knew everything. Would there ever come a day when I will to? She doubted it. As her mom reached across the blanket and squeezed her hand, Rachel thought about how lucky she was to have such a great mother. She couldn’t imagine life without her.
“Promise?”
“It’s our secret, Rach. I promise.”
That was the first time she fell for a boy.
“And what about you?”
Josh’s voice pulled Rachel from her memory, reminding her of the reason they were talking in the first place.
“What about me?”
“Are you happy? With Cole?”
Rachel narrowed her eyes. “It’s only been a few days, Josh.”
Josh looked her over and waited patiently.
What is it with the men in my life? All of them are so damn patient. Well, except Mason.
“Are you seriously asking me this?”
“Well, do you blame me? You’ve been acting different lately, and Shelly mentioned how you all first met him.”
“Oh, she did, did she? What exactly did she say?”
“Come on, Rach. Don’t get mad at Shel.”
Raising a brow, Rachel sighed. “Okay, okay. At first, I was unsure about him.”
“At first?”
“Yes. At first,” she stressed. “But now, I’ve gotten to know him.”
“You have?”
“Yes. Why? Don’t you know him? He’s your friend,” she decided to point out.
“Well, yeah, he’s my lawyer and a friend, but I don’t actually know him personally.”
Rachel thought about the serious lawyer who had somehow crept deep inside her tightly locked heart and had pretty much broken down all her walls just the night before.
“Yeah, that seems like Cole. He’s very…” Rachel searched for the right word and ended with, “Private.”
“He’s a cagey bastard,” Josh retorted.
Rachel found herself chuckling. “He’s composed.”
“He’s distant.”
“He’s just different from you and Mase, so you both feel like you have to stick your noses in.”
“He’s reluctant to let people in, Rach, and that makes me wonder why.”
Rachel shook her head. “I told you. No gloomy warnings. I like him, and I want to see where that takes me.”
Josh straightened and winked at her as he pushed his hands back into his pockets. “If it helps you to be less annoyed at him, Mason told me yesterday that he was happy to see you smiling last night at the restaurant. That has to mean something, right?”
Rachel watched Josh turn and walk to the front door.
“Josh!”
He stopped and turned to face her.
“It helps, and I should have said this months ago, but I’m so glad you finally came home.”
“To Chicago?”
Rachel grinned and told him sincerely, “No, Daniels. To us.”
18
Unbuttoning his wool coat with one hand, Cole made his way through the tiny foyer of the apartments where Rachel lived and pressed the button for the elevator. He had dropped her off at the front of the building several times, but this was the first time he was going up. When the old elevator groaned to a stop at the bottom, he had to admit he was slightly nervous about getting on it. Taking a step back, he waited as the metal doors parted, ready to move aside for any occupants. That, of course, was the plan before he looked inside.
Life is too fucking good to me right now, he thought.
The woman inside the death trap of an elevator stepped forward on a pair of heels so tall that they made her eye-level with him. Cole was trying to find the words, Hello, Rachel, but the only problem was he currently had no power to speak. She had rendered him mute.
She was wearing the most sensual dress he’d ever seen. It was held up—barely—by a thin strip of ivory-colored satin around the neck, and then it flowed down over her body to the tops of her heels. It showed off every sexy curve she possessed.
As she moved off the elevator, Cole watched the silky fabric part and split, all the way up to her right mid-thigh.
Fuck the function. Where’s a bed?
As that thought entered his mind, he heard her finally speak.
“Wow. You look like one of those ads in a glossy magazine.”
Cole was still too busy looking over every inch of her to respond, and for once in his life, he was truly speechless. The rich cream color of the ivory fabric made him want to reach out and touch because she looked so damn soft, but at the same time, so incredibly sexy. It was such an innocent color, yet the minute she moved, it had that wicked split that made him want to run his fingers up her leg and under the dress.
Yes—up, under, and inside her.
“Cole?”
Finally, he brought his eyes to hers. In a voice that demanded she obey, he told her, “Turn around for me.”