Read Online B008DKAYYQ EBOK by Joyce Lamb - Free Book Online Page A

bedroom without his shirt on, all muscled ridges and tanned, smooth skin, she would have goggled if she hadn’t already been struggling with the reminder that he was a better friend of Daniel’s than she’d thought.  
    Her throat tensed as she imagined what Daniel had told him about her. He’d made it good, obviously. Something truly heinous. And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. Whatever she said would sound like she was either trying to turn Cole against his friend or cover her own butt. And, knowing Daniel, if Cole went back to him with her version, the pissing match would begin. She didn’t stand a chance, so why bother?
    “Ready?”
    She opened her eyes to find Cole standing near the front door in light khaki cargo shorts, a half-tucked navy T-shirt and ragged Nikes. He hadn’t shaved, and the light beard that tempered the angles of his jaw made his eyes even bluer.  
    “Ready,” she said.
    Before she could stand, he strode a few paces toward her. “I don’t understand why you’re mad at me. I didn’t do anything.”
    She decided to stay seated, preferring not to rise while he studied her so intently. She hated that she had already been weak in front of him. “I’m not mad.”
    “Yes, you are. Your body language is screaming at me.”
    She forced herself to relax, telling her body language to shut the hell up. “Why do you care?”
    “I want to know. Maybe I think I deserve to know after … yesterday.”
    She couldn’t argue with that. He’d chosen to stick with her every time he’d had the opportunity to bolt. He could so easily have left her at the hospital to drown in the horrible memories and her own anxiety.
    She drew in a breath. Once he dropped her at James’, it would all be history, an entertaining story for their co-workers to tell: “Remember that time Bailey got stabbed and Cole ended up holding her hair while she hurled? That was hilarious!”  
    “I’m not mad,” she said. “I’m disappointed.”
    He cocked his head. “In me?”
    She lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug. “I know it’s probably not fair.”
    “Damn right it’s not.”
    “It’s not like you’ve been the personification of fair yourself,” she shot back. “You declared me guilty a long time ago. You just accepted what Daniel told you and decided to hate me without giving me the opportunity to defend myself.”
    He crossed his arms over his chest. “Here’s an opportunity.”
    The arrogance of his stance, the challenge in his eyes infuriated her. She hadn’t been truly angry before, but she was now. She pushed herself up, suppressing a grimace. “I’m ready to go.”
    He stayed put. “I’m not.”
    “I’m not going to do this now.”
    “So I let you off the hook, what are you going to do? Avoid me until I give up and go away like you did with Daniel?”
    She dug her nails into her palms. “He stayed away all by himself.”
    “And what you did had nothing to do with that.”
    “Look, I don’t even know what he told you, and it obviously wasn’t the truth, so it’s stupid for us to—”
    “He told me you got rid of his baby without telling him first.”
    All the blood seemed to drain out of her head in one rush. “What?” she asked faintly.
    “He said you didn’t want the kid because of your career, so you got rid of it. Without telling him beforehand. I get that it’s your choice and all, but that was his kid, too.”
    Bailey shifted back so that she could brace her hand on the woodwork that divided the dining and living rooms. As the reality of what Daniel had told Cole sank in, her shock turned to fury, which she managed to tamp down before it burst out of her. She could deny it for a hundred years, and as long as Daniel maintained the lie, Cole would never believe her. Why should he? She was nothing to him, and Daniel was his good friend whose photo he had on his wall.
    “I want to go now.” She had to force strength into her voice.
    “Of course you do. No