Page 16 of My Return to the Walter Boys (My Life with the Walter Boys #2)
I couldn’t stop thinking about Cole, not after witnessing how sweet he’d been with Benny yesterday afternoon.
It was tiny moments like that that made me wish things could be different between us.
I wanted to talk to someone about it, but I didn’t trust my friends not to dismiss my very legitimate concerns and push me back into his arms for the sole reason being he was Cole Walter.
Then there was Nathan. He was usually an objective listener, but I was convinced he was holding something back from me.
Until I knew what that was, I wasn’t willing to reveal any more of my feelings to him.
That only left Danny, and I winced. I hadn’t spoken to him since returning to Colorado, but if there was one person who knew Cole the best, it was his twin.
There was little privacy in my new room, so I slipped out the back door and climbed the tree house ladder. Once I was ensconced in the greenery where I knew our conversation wouldn’t be overheard, I pulled up Danny’s contact and tapped the video call icon.
He answered on the first ring. “Hey, stranger. I was starting to wonder if I’d ever hear from you again.”
It was dark wherever he was, but the sight of Danny’s wry smile instantly took me home to lazy strolls in Central Park, lingering dinners at our favorite sushi bar, and lengthy discussions after each and every Broadway show we attended.
It struck me as strange how I now associated one of the Walter boys with the city I grew up in.
“Sorry, things have been intense since I got back,” I told him.
Danny shifted, then a light switched on. He was lying in bed in what used to be the guest room of my family’s apartment. Now I thought of the room as his. “Have they? Or are you avoiding talking to me because of Cole?”
I sighed. “You heard what happened, then.”
“His side of things.” Danny propped himself up against the headboard. “I also spent the whole summer watching you struggle, so I know there’s more to the story than what he said. And before you ask, I won’t be telling you anything about our conversation.”
“I’d never expect you to.” When he lifted an eyebrow in that go on way of his I’d become accustomed to, I laughed and added, “Okay, maybe I was avoiding you a little.”
“Why?” he asked. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but you’re family now, Jackie. You could break Cole’s heart, and I’d still answer every one of your calls. Day or night, I swear. Even if I knew you needed help disposing of a body or something nefarious like that.”
“Wow. There’s a lot to unpack here, but most importantly—Cole said I broke his heart? Why would you be okay with that?”
“Ah, ah, ah! No questions about my conversation with Cole, remember? I said you could break his heart, not that you did, and I’d be okay with it because you’re not a malicious person.
You would never want to hurt him. Also, I’m insulted.
Out of everything I said, is that really what you thought was most important? ”
“No, actually, it was the part about helping me get rid of a body if I ever needed it,” I teased. “I bet you’d be a great accomplice after watching all those crime shows.”
Danny made a face. “Is that all I’m good for? How to Get Away with Murder 101?”
I pretended to think for a moment. “Well, you’re also a phenomenal shoulder to cry on.” And I had—many, many times. I’d have racked up a monstrous dry cleaning bill if Danny wore something other than cotton tees on the daily.
“Thanks, I guess,” he said dryly.
My heart squeezed in my chest. God, I missed this—our open conversations, the easy back-and-forth, his subtle sense of humor.
Now that we were more than a thousand miles apart, I selfishly wished I’d heeded Cole’s plea to keep Danny from falling in love with New York.
If I had, then maybe he’d be here with me right now.
“Hey, Danny?” I said in a quiet voice.
“Yeah?”
“You’re my family too.”
A soft smile stretched across his face. “Then I expect weekly updates.”
“Phones work both ways,” I said, shifting mine to my other hand. “If you were feeling neglected, why didn’t you reach out?”
It was Danny’s turn to look guilty. He grimaced and scratched the stubble on his chin. “I wanted to, but I was afraid you’d feel pressured considering what went down with Cole.”
“Why would I feel pressured?”
“He’s my twin ,” Danny replied as if that was the only explanation needed. “Wouldn’t it be weird, getting a call from the brother of the guy you rejected? I didn’t want you to think I was trying to change your mind.”
Okay, so he had a point. But I also knew Danny wasn’t like that. “Are you gonna try and change my mind?”
“No, never!”
I rolled my eyes. “Then don’t be ridiculous.”
“Right,” he said, cheeks turning pink. “How are you holding up?”
Good freaking question. Living with Cole for the past two weeks hadn’t been a walk in the park.
While I understood he was upset, the cruel things that came out of his mouth when he wasn’t ignoring my existence hurt.
How could he say he wanted to help me through my grief in one moment, then call me stuck up and taunt me in the next?
If he truly cared, wouldn’t he want what was best for me?
“I’m…okay. Hanging in there.”
Danny’s eyes narrowed. “Cole is being a major jackass, isn’t he?
“A bit? He’s mainly been giving me the silent treatment, but some of the stuff he’s said to me…well, I get why he’s angry—I let him kiss me, and then I did a one-eighty on him. Considering our history, it could be so much worse.”
“That’s no excuse.” He sighed and carved a hand through his dark blond locks. “Just because he didn’t get his way doesn’t mean it’s okay for him to throw a tantrum.”
Funny, I’d had the exact same thought.
Thankfully, Danny was able to give me some advice on how to handle the situation.
Not anything groundbreaking—be my usual self, call Cole out when he crossed the line, and eventually he’d calm down—but I appreciated it nonetheless.
It gave me the courage to confess that even though he was being a jerk, a part of me still wanted to be with him.
The gratitude I felt for Danny’s nonreaction brought tears to my eyes.
“Of course you do,” he said with a shrug, like we were talking about established facts—the sky is blue, water is wet, Jackie wants Cole.
“That doesn’t mean you made the wrong decision, though.
If you’re meant to be together, I’m sure it will all work out in the end.
Until then, focus on you, but don’t let him make you feel bad for putting yourself first.”
“Thanks, Danny,” I said, wiping away a single escaped tear, because that was exactly what I needed to hear. “Enough about Cole. How are you? How are rehearsals for A Midsummer Night’s Dream going?”
***
If Cole wasn’t pissed at me, he’d applaud what I was about to do with pride.
I glanced over my shoulder, but none of the teachers on cafeteria duty were paying me any attention, so I pushed open the door and stepped outside.
Only seniors were allowed to leave school grounds during lunch, but so many students ignored this rule that I didn’t feel bad about breaking it.
The walk to LJD Custom Prints, a local screen print shop, would only take five minutes, which left me plenty of time to get back before my afternoon classes started.
While I walked, I reviewed my campaign checklist and was happy to discover I’d already tackled half of it.
Yesterday morning, Erin approved the slogan I spent all weekend coming up with, along with the logo Katherine designed.
The tasks I wasn’t personally overseeing, like social media and the creation and distribution of posters and flyers, had been handed off to Erin’s close friends.
On top of that, I’d convinced Skylar to help me promote her candidacy to other student clubs after school, but only by agreeing to include the school newspaper so he could flirt with Chase.
I felt confident about our chances of winning.
Although Erin’s opponent was the kind of guy who was friends with everyone, he was running solely on word of mouth and spent more time smoking behind the dumpsters with the likes of Isaac and Jet.
But before I could turn my attention to drafting a victory speech, I wanted to get T-shirts made for everyone helping with the campaign to wear on Friday.
Strange as it sounded, I was grateful to Erin for confronting me during the first student council meeting.
If she hadn’t, I never would have been given the opportunity to be involved.
Helping her with this showed me how much I’d missed planning and organizing and being involved in something.
As I neared the town square, a sign advertising a newly opened café caught my eye—CAFFEINATED PURSUIT.
I froze in the middle of the sidewalk. What were the chances that this place was what I thought it was?
Next to none, most likely, but I still crossed the street to check.
When I pushed open the door and stepped inside, my breath caught in my throat.
I loved my parents, but they were routinely busy when I was growing up.
Sebastian and Angeline Howard were shining examples of hard workers, which was what made the both of them so successful.
The trade-off, however, was that they didn’t have a lot of time to spend with Lucy and me.
They made up for it by taking us to the board game café down the block from our apartment every Sunday afternoon.
If their schedules got too hectic for our weekly ritual, like when Dad was away on a business trip or Mom was preparing for fashion week, Lucy and I would go by ourselves in order to feel close to them.
The older we got, the more time we spent there just the two of us until, eventually, it became our hangout spot.