Read Online Certified Disaster (Beautiful Mess Book 2) by Jennifer Preston - Free Book Online Page B

face,”Seb smirked.
    “What?  Oh, crap!”   Cole quickly
gripped his pole, and reeled in the line.  Sure enough, a small fish dangled on
his line.  Too small to eat, Cole removed it and tossed it back.
    “Quite the haul you’ve got there,”Seb quipped. 
    “Yeah, and you’re just the master
fisherman,”Cole
shot back.
    “I am the master of many things,”Seb smirked.  “What
were you thinking about, anyway?  It must have been good to distract you like
that.”
    “You don’t want to know,”Cole shook his
head. 
    Seb gave him a knowing smile.  “You’re
right, I really don’t.”
    “Okay you two, enough.  You’re
scaring away the fish,”Jimmy grunted.  Scott shot Seb a warning look.
    Looking around the boat, Cole
smiled.  He had really missed this.  It wouldn’t be very often anymore
that he, Seb, Jimmy, and Scott would be together like this, and he wanted to
enjoy every minute.  It was Saturday morning, and he and Bri would be flying home
the next day.  He didn’t know when he’d be back home, so he was absorbing
everything.
    But even as he was enjoying being
with his family and friends, Cole was missing Duke.  North Carolina was
beginning to feel as much like home as California was.  He didn’t know if he
should feel guilty about that, but it was the truth.  Maybe it was because he’d
always wanted to get out of L.A., or maybe it was because Bri was at Duke, and
she was where he wanted to be.  His family would always be his family, but the
house he’d grown up in didn’t feel like his home anymore. 
    Cole puzzled over this much less
distracting chain of thought, until it was time to reel in and headed back to
shore.  After showering and eating lunch, Cole decided to call Bri.  He knew
she was spending her last day home with her family, but he couldn’t help it, he
missed her.  She must’ve missed him too, because she answered after the first
ring, and immediately invited him over. 
    So he spent his last afternoon home
with Bri and her family.  Liam and Logan kept him busy wrestling and playing
football, and even Connor and Summer didn’t seem to mind him hanging around. 
It was like he was one of the family.  He smiled to himself at that thought. 
Thanks to Bri, his family had doubled in size.  Summer insisted that he stay
for dinner, and invite his dad over, too.  After dinner, they all played games
until it was time for the twins to go to bed.
    “Cole, will you come tuck us in?”Logan yawned.
    “Of course, squirt,”Cole smiled.  He
tried to act unaffected, but he was really touched the boys wanted him to put
them to bed.  Bri smiled warmly at him as he followed the twins to their room. 
Not having had any siblings himself, he wasn’t exactly sure what “tucking in”involved.  Luckily
both boys jumped into bed and pulled their covers up.  Cole walked over to Liam’s
bed and ruffled his hair.  “You two better get right to sleep if you want to
take your sister and me to the airport in the morning.  We have to leave early.”
    “Okay, Cole.”   Liam reached up and gave Cole a hug. 
Surprised, Cole squeezed him back.  “Goodnight.”
    “‘Night, buddy.”   Cole moved over to
Logan’s bed, where he was pulled in for another hug. 
    “I wish you didn’t have to go,”Logan whispered
sadly. 
    “I know, I wish I could stay, too. 
But I’ll be back before you know it, okay?”
    “Okay,”Logan nodded.  “Goodnight.”
    “‘Night, kiddo,”he smiled.  He
stood and turned, and saw Bri propped in the door frame, watching him.
    “I don’t know if I should be mad
that I’ve been replaced,”she smiled as he closed the boys’door. 
    He chuckled.  “I’m just new.  They’ll
get over me when I lose my novelty, and then it’ll be back to Bri, Bri, Bri.”
    “Yeah, you’d better hope,”she teased.  “Want
to go take one last walk down the beach before we leave?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “You’d better have brought