Cole: The Wounded Sons, Leah Sharelle [the reading list .TXT] 📗

Sliding my eyes to Thayer, I nodded once, receiving a happy smile from her.

Good job, she mouthed, giving me a covert thumbs up, then quickly returning her attention to Cole and him cleaning up her spilt drink.

“Clumsy is my middle name,” she singsonged, giving him an unrepentant shrug.

“Hmmm.” Was his only response, but his tone had me worried that he was suspicious of Thayer’s theatrics. My eating disorder wasn’t a dirty secret, but it was my business and my decision to share it or not. It wasn’t like I walked around with a sign around my neck announcing to all that I used to be a skeleton and threw up food. People close to me knew, and those who noticed things others didn’t would see that my frame was very thin. Cole was in the category of a noticer, the same as his dad.

Memphis knew about my medical history, as I had to fill in an employment declaration and insurance form when she hired me. At the time, I glossed over most of it, thinking at the time that I was glad Memphis couldn’t see my face when I told her. Little did I know my new boss had her own unique way of reading a person’s facial expression. That day I discovered just how amazing and special Memphis Stephens truly was. I had been in the middle of flippantly telling her about my eating disorder when she stopped me with a semi-harsh growl. One I later learned she got from her husband, then she told me to start over again, this time with her fingers on my face. I did as asked only with her fingers tracing over my lips, cheeks and eyes area. She even placed two fingers at the base of my throat, feeling my pulse as I spoke. By the end of it, I poured out the whole story, not just about my anorexia and bulimia disease but about my parents and having to go live with my grandparents multiple times until they got full-time custody of me. Both of them were fed up with my mum and dad bouncing me back and forth whenever it suited them.

After that day, I never glossed over issues or omitted the truth from Memphis again.

Until today at the bookshop, that is, when I told her Creed wasn’t growling for any other reason than his worrying about her and the crowd of people.

“Oaklee?” Cole reached out again to grab me, only this time only taking two of my fingers, gently shaking my hand.

“Yeah?” I whispered, looking down at our fingers, my throat clogging up at the gentle way he was touching me.

He knows and understands on some level that this is what I need.

Cole gave my hand another slight shake, lifting my eyes to his, a small hiss left me.

Looking down at me, Cole had the kindest smile on his lips. It was beautiful but somehow out of place on his tense face.

“Let’s talk, baby.” His voice still deep, but his tone was inviting, his eyes darting to the door behind me.

“Okay.” My voice breathy, and god damn it, right then, I decided I would follow anywhere Cole chose to lead me.

CHAPTER SEVEN

COLE

Oaklee’s fingers clung to mine as I led her through the crowded bar to the exit only the staff and Club were allowed to use.

The Bar and Grill had an outside area at the front of the building, and I wanted to avoid seeing anyone either Oaklee or I knew in case it gave her an opportunity to make a bolt for it. Back at the table, I saw in her green eyes so many conflicting emotions aimed at me, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. Other than that night, which was still sketchy at best, Oaklee and I rarely crossed paths. Dad’s warning kept me from talking to her, asking her why she watched me so much. I had to guess that she was too young for me, going by her tiny size, but now I wasn’t so sure she was. I fucking hope she was legal, at least, because sleeping with her the other night would be a disaster if she wasn’t.

“How old are you?” I asked as I pressed the security code into the keypad for the back door.

“I turn twenty-three in two months. Why? Did you think that you deflowered a minor or something?” Oaklee sassed back at me, a smile tugging at my lips. She might be slight in stature, but she had spunk. I liked that about her.

“Deflower?” Pulling her outside, I looked around to see if any of the staff were on a break. Steel had Deck build an outdoor break room for the workers, half of it was enclosed and the other half was a beer garden. Comfy chairs with weatherproof material littered the area and in the middle was a terracotta fire-pit for the cooler months. Seeing it was vacant, thanks to the fact that the Bar and Grill was packed, meaning the staff was all on deck working, I moved towards the enclosed area, Oaklee following me, her hand still in mine.

“I don’t remember too much about that night we spent together, but I don’t recall you being shy and innocent, Temptress,” I drawled dryly.

Jesus Christ, surely that wasn’t her first time. If it was, I deserved to face a firing squad.

“No Cole,” Oaklee huffed, letting her fingers slide from my grip, and she dropped down into an overstuffed recliner. “It wasn’t my first time, not even my second, so you can relax. You didn’t steal my—” Oaklee stopped what she was about to say, her eyes wide and bugged the same way she did earlier when Thayer spewed out that I rocked Oaklee’s world in bed.

I liked that I did, it would be nice if I could remember doing it, however.

So far, only small snippets and blurry memories had come back to me. I couldn’t remember seeing her face, just