Worth Any Risk

Ch. 6 Empty

*Cole

I wake up and the spot next to me is empty and cold. I rub my hands down my face, cursing.

I had hoped to have her here with me still this morning, for at least one more time together before we go our separate ways. She was amazing. What the hell was going on in her life that made her sit alone at a bar and nervous as a deer with a ten-point rack in hunting season?

My gut seizes up. That hunting image might be closer to the truth than I hope. Damn it. She was scared. I replay the scene in the bar as she scanned the room, played with her glass of beer, and cast quick looks in my direction for an eternity before she wandered my direction at the pool table. Shit.

The question is, should I do something about it or not? She set the rules last night, and she said no names and nothing past one night. Except...

Cole.

She said my name. She knows me.

But that doesn't mean I can betray my promise—never tell anyone she was here with me. On the other hand, she didn't make me promise not to try and find her without betraying that trust. Groaning in frustration, I lurch out of bed and head for the bathroom to take a shower. I don't need this complication. I am here to take care of my uncle's will, and today will be shitty enough without other problems. Then I have to leave and go back home. I can't afford any extra time away from my shop.

I run the water and step into the stream while it's cold to wake myself up. Scrubbing the icy water through my hair, I repeat all the repair orders I have deadlines on. The water is warm before I reach the end of the list.

I can't stay in town chasing after a woman who doesn't want to be chased. She's a big girl and can handle herself.

Unless she can't.

Fuck.

She isn't a problem I have to solve—she's a human being who might need help. I soap myself up, regretful that I'm somehow washing her away. I feel like I know her better than myself. At least, I feel like I know her better than from what we shared last night. I shut off the water and grab a towel.

Do I know her? She's about my age, if she grew up here, I might have run into her before. Hell, she might have sat behind me in Geometry. I slept straight through that class, every single day, so she could have been right next to me and I simply don't remember.

School was such hell for me, I've blocked most of it. No. It wasn't school that was hell, it was home and that carried over into school.

Today is going to be rough. It might even get ugly. I tie the towel around my waist and go the sink to brush my teeth. Today was going to bad, and I had to concentrate. I couldn't allow any emotions to make me do something I'd regret.

I won't give them the pleasure of seeing me react to anything they throw, and there never were any bigger shit slingers than my mom and her husband. I swore it when I left the first time, and I am swearing again this morning—I won't let them see anything from me but calm.

I lean on the sink, staring at my foggy reflection. I think it's time for a new promise, this one to myself. After I've taken care of what I came here for, I'll find my brunette.

I'll find her and make her mine.

***

At the lawyer's office in the town's square, I hug my uncle's girlfriend as soon as she introduces herself. We've never met, but I've heard plenty about Roberta from the occasional phone call. Nothing Uncle Pete ever said prepared me to meet her face to face though. This fifty-something woman is a wild-cat, a 'no holds barred, zero fucks to give about anyone's opinion on the propriety of her behavior' woman. Her bleached hair is tipped in turquoise blue and she's dressed for an afternoon on the beach, a peek-a-boo sun dress, sandals, big straw hat and sunglasses included. Glitzy jewelry decorates ears, fingers, wrists, and ankles, her lips are cherry red and huge breasts shoved up to her neck with a black bra, which I can see through her dress. She seems to have on some cheeky shorts, but I tried not to stare so I can't be sure.