Filed to story: My Life with the Walter Boys Book (I & II) PDF Free
Skylar pressed a fist to his mouth to cover a cough, but it sounded suspiciously like “Cole.”
I looked daggers at him, then turned back to Chase. “Yes, and I have a rough draft for you as well.” I handed over the pages I’d printed out this morning in preparation.
As he read over what I wrote, Chase’s eyebrows rose. “This…this is really good, Jackie. I’m impressed.” When he met my gaze again, I could tell he was on the verge of saying yes. “Do you have any images we can use?”
The question threw me off for a single heartbeat, but then I remembered the picture I took of Cole and Carter at the race track. “I have something that should work.”
“All right.”
“All right, meaning?”
“I’ll run the article,” he said with a nod.
“Yes!” I squealed, rising onto my tiptoes and clapping my hands together. “Thank you so much. I promise you won’t regret—“
Chase held up a finger. “On one condition,” he added, and I went still. “You have to join the school paper and continue writing this column.”
As if that was some great hardship? “Fair enough,” I said as I bit back a smile, “but I have a counter condition.”
Sixteen
Sixteen
Silence.
I stopped pacing across the worn-out rug and turned to face Nathan. “Well, what do you think?”
Not much, if the expression on his face was anything to go by. He was sitting in the same position I’d found him in when I showed up at the loft looking for reassurance that tomorrow would go smoothly—cross-legged on the single couch cushion that wasn’t sunken in, sudoku booklet clutched in his hands, and a walkie-talkie at his side. The only difference now was that he was staring at me with raised brows, not unlike Parker had when I told her I didn’t know how to throw a spiral or what that even was.
“It’s certainly well thought out,” he said, though his tone suggested otherwise.
My shoulders sagged as I released the breath I’d been holding.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” he replied, but his gaze darted to the puzzle in his lap so he wouldn’t have to look me in the eyes.
Yeah, I wasn’t buying that. Nathan had never been a very good liar.
I circled around the coffee table, plopped down beside him, and gently nudged his side. “What is it? I promise I can handle the truth.”
He sighed, stuck his pencil between the pages to mark his place, and let the booklet fall closed. “Don’t you think that’s a little…I don’t know, much?”
My condition for becoming Chase’s new columnist was that he had to release this month’s edition of the school paper three days early. It meant a ton of extra work on his end, but once I explained my reason, he reluctantly agreed. Instead of this upcoming Monday, it would come out tomorrow, which just so happened to be the same day as the next dirt track race. Cole’s current client would be competing with the engine he rebuilt, and the entire Walter crew was attending to support him. Hopefully the driver did well, because my plan was to find Cole after the feature, present the debut alumni column to him, and apologize for making him feel less than. When I told Nathan my plan, I never expected him to be skeptical. Amused or disinterested, maybe, but still supportive.
“To be honest, I’m worried it won’t be enough.” I tried to shake off the negative voice inside my head that was whispering all the things that could go wrong, how I’d fail and that Cole would never forgive me, but the more I ignored it, the louder it grew. “I really screwed up,
Nathan. This has to be perfect.”
“I get that, but…why do you need all the extra stuff?” He shifted sideways, rearranging himself so we could look at each other as we spoke. “The article, the timed arrival after the race—it’s a bit over the top. Can’t you just tell him you’re sorry? I think he’d appreciate you being straightforward instead of setting all this up behind his back. What if he doesn’t want something written about him in the paper?”
Oh shit. Despite overanalyzing my plan to death, I hadn’t considered that Cole might not want his business published for everyone to read about, because he was never one to shy away from attention. But it was too late now to change things. “You might be right, but Cole bared his soul to me in a novel-length letter. A casual apology doesn’t feel like enough to make up for how I treated him.” I chewed my lip as I thought things over for the thousandth time. “What if he doesn’t believe me? I have to—“
The barn door slammed open, cutting me off. “Where the hell are you, New York?” shouted a familiar voice that never failed to give me butterflies, both the good kind and the bad. “We need to talk.”
My eyes widened. What was Cole doing here? More importantly, why did he sound so angry? The last time I saw him was the day after Halloween when he cleared his remaining belongings out of the art studio. He didn’t say a word to me then, and I hadn’t seen him since.
When I didn’t answer, Nathan cupped his hands around his mouth. “We’re up here!”
“Traitor,” I hissed, shooting him a furious glare and scrambling off the couch. Not to hide—that would be childish—but if I had to face Cole now, then I wanted to do it standing. I heard the exact moment he started scaling the ladder, and the sound made my pulse race. Pressing a hand to my chest, I wondered if it was healthy for my heart to beat so fast.
It felt like ages before he reached the top, but once he was standing in the loft, the air between us hummed in anticipation like it was a living, breathing thing. We stared at each other for a full minute, neither of us speaking. There was a weird look in his eyes, like he wanted to pull me into his arms and punch the wall at the same time. The moment broke when he stepped forward and tossed something onto the coffee table. It hit the wood with a smack.
“What is this?” he demanded, and even without looking, I knew what it would be.
Sure enough, when I glanced down, a copy of tomorrow’s school paper was staring up at me.
Cole Walter’s Winning Strategy
He Was Fast on the Field. Now His Expertise Is Building Racing Engines for Speed
Two years after his football dreams ended in injury, Cole Walter, once considered the best wide receiver in the state, has caught a new dream career for himself. Losing his CU Boulder football scholarship meant he had to rethink his future even before college…
“How did you get that?” I asked, my voice wavering. I needed to buy myself time to think, because this wasn’t how things were meant to go. I was supposed to have the night to form a carefully worded apology, one I planned to rehearse over and over after dinner. I should have known better; things never went according to plan for me when a Walter was involved, especially this one.
“Chase sent it,” he replied, shoving a hand into his hair. It was messier than normal, his blond locks sticking up at odd angles and curling around his ears like he’d been running his fingers through it incessantly. “He thought I should have an advance copy seeing as how I’m the subject matter of one of the articles.”
“You’re mad,” I guessed.
“Yes!” he exclaimed. “No. I mean, I don’t know.” He threw a hand into the air, then collapsed on the couch where Nathan had been sitting only moments ago. The little sneak must have slipped away when Cole and I were sizing each other up. “What you said…it was great, Jackie. Probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me, but I don’t understand why you wrote it.”
“Because I wanted—well, what I mean is…” I was floundering, unable to get any words out. I wanted to tell him how I felt, that he’d been right about me being scared, and that I was sorry about how things went down when we broke up. That he thought I saw him as a loser when, in actuality, he was the most special person in my life felt like a knife to the heart.
Nathan had been right, hadn’t he? The article was the wrong move. Whenever Cole wanted to communicate something to me, he showed me. Instead of telling him how I felt with words, maybe I needed to tell him with action.
Deciding to change tactics, I glanced around until my eyes landed on the rope hanging from the ceiling; I hadn’t touched it since Cole forced me to try it out all those months ago.
“Could you drive us into town?” I asked, removing the scrunchie from my wrist and pulling my hair back into a ponytail. “There’s something I need to show you.”
He crossed his arms. “No offense, but I’m not exactly in the mood for an excursion.”
“I understand,” I said as I moved toward the side of the loft, “but I promise to explain things when we get there.”
“Or you could just tell me now.”
“Remember in the spring, when you brought me up here for the first time?” Reaching the edge, I leaned against the railing and stretched out until my fingers brushed the rope. Once I had it in hand, I put my foot on the bottom rail and stepped up. “I was having a terrible day, and for some ridiculous reason, you thought it would cheer me up to jump into the hay, but I wasn’t having it.”
Cole’s eyes widened as I swung my leg over the top and climbed over. “Jackie, what are you doing?”
“You promised me it was safe, that you did it all the time as a kid,”
I said, giving the rope a firm tug as a precaution. Blood was pounding in my ears, so I inhaled slowly to calm myself. “You wanted me to trust you even though I was scared of getting hurt. I know I don’t deserve it right now, but please. I need you to trust me on this like I did you.”
I flashed him a wistful smile, and then I jumped.
***
“This is where you’re taking me?” Cole asked, glancing over at Caffeinated Pursuit as he maneuvered the Buick into the only open parking spot on the street. “A café? It doesn’t even look open.”
“It’s not just a café,” I said, but he was right about one thing—despite it being a Thursday afternoon, the open-closed sign was currently flipped to display the SORRY WE’RE CLOSED message. The lights were on, though, so I undid my seat belt and grabbed my purse. “Come on. I know the owner.”
If this surprised Cole, he didn’t let it show.
I slid out of the car and onto the sidewalk without giving him a chance to respond, hoping he would follow. The driver’s side door slammed behind me, and I allowed myself a small smile as I headed toward the entrance. Thankfully, when I peered through the window, I spotted Garrett just as he stepped out of the kitchen carrying a box. He noticed me straightaway, set down his load, and came over to open the door.
“Jackie, it’s good to see you!” he said, ushering us inside. We’d built a rapport in the past month and a half, nothing like I had with his cousin, but Garrett went out of his way to talk to me whenever I came in.
Cole’s eyebrows rose as he gave Garrett a once-over, but he didn’t say anything.
“Guess who I spoke to last week?” Garrett continued, but he was too excited to wait for my answer. “Jenny! She was thrilled to hear you found me and said it was fate, although she also insisted that I had to tell you her Caramel Kerplunk making skills are better than mine.”
I laughed. “Next time the two of you talk, let her know she’s still my favorite barista and that I’ll make sure to visit when I’m back in New York.” I should have stopped by when I was home for the summer, but it was hard enough living in my family apartment. I hadn’t been brave enough to visit another place swimming in memories, but after discovering this café and experiencing nostalgia, I knew that was a mistake.