Oh God. Cole.
Sierra shot up off the bed, unsure of what to do or where to go – feeling the same way she imagined Luke had when they hadn’t used a condom that first time. She grabbed her robe from the back of the door, slipping it on while Luke merely sat up, watching her intently.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, apparently picking up on her panic attack.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” Broken record that she was, Sierra couldn’t think of anything else to say. How could they have not thought about Cole in all of this? This wasn’t a relationship of just two people, no matter how strange that sounded. The three of them were in this together. At least Sierra thought they were. She loved Luke. She also loved Cole. Equally. She wasn’t complete without either one of them, yet she had just agreed to marry Luke without even thinking about Cole. How could she?
Sierra stormed from the room, trying to get her brain to settle down, and her heart rate to follow along. When Luke appeared moments later, he was wearing his jeans but not his shirt, and his feet were bare and holy cow, he looked amazing.
“We didn’t even think about Cole.” She blurted out, turning to face him. The look on his face was not one she recognized, but when he didn’t say anything, she knew there was trouble brewing. “What’s wrong?”
Luke shook his head but didn’t move. Sierra wanted to scream at him, but she didn’t. She’d already lost her head once today, and that might have ruined her career.
“We need to talk to him.” Sierra said, dropping into a chair, resting her head in her hands. Luke might not be talking, but they needed to.
This was big.
Huge.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Cole rapped his knuckles against the door, waiting patiently for Lucie to answer. His patience was running thin, so he wasn’t sure how he managed. He’d received a call from Sierra earlier, asking him to stop by. Her message had been cryptic and she sounded worried which made Cole worry. Two attempts to call her back had failed, so he opted to go over to Lucie’s before he went to Sierra’s.
“Thanks for coming.” Lucie said when she opened the door. She had changed out of her work uniform into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She looked tired. Her eyes were puffy like she had been crying.
“Sure.” He replied, walking in and shutting the door behind him. “Is Haley here?”
“No. She’s at my mom’s. I didn’t want to take a chance that she would overhear our conversation, so I asked my mom to keep her for the night.”
Cole knew where this conversation was going to go, especially if Lucie made a point to keep Haley away.
“Can I get you something to drink?” She asked politely, but without heart.
“I’m good.” He took a seat on the sofa, waiting for her to join him. When she didn’t, he waited. He didn’t have to wait long though.
“I have to tell him.”
That was a good start. At least Cole thought it was. “What made you decide that?”
“Haley deserves to know who her father is.”
Cole didn’t know if she was telling him the reason, or trying to convince herself that this was the right thing to do.
“You know how I feel about this.” They’d talked about it numerous times and Lucie never agreed with him, but he hadn’t held back how he felt. Having grown up without a father, not knowing who the man was, Cole had firsthand knowledge of what that felt like. Although his situation was different. Cole’s father knew about him, he just chose not to be a part of his life. Haley’s father didn’t even know.
“When are you going to tell him?” Cole asked, hoping to get her to open up a little.
“I don’t know.”
“Lucie. Sit down.” Cole told her, letting her hear the insistence in his words. She had asked him to come over, and he would never turn his back on a friend, but he needed to check on Sierra, which meant Lucie had to get on with it. “Talk to me.”
Her feet moved albeit reluctantly, and she made her way to the couch, sitting down beside him and putting her head in her hands as she spoke. “Haley deserves to know him. And he deserves to know her. It’s not her fault that he doesn’t remember what happened.”
“It’s not your fault either, honey.” Cole assured her.
“I know it’s not. But I could have brought it up to him. I could have told him what happened. I mean we had sex. And it was amazing.” She sighed. “How can he not remember?”
Cole didn’t have an answer for that. He’d never had an answer for that.
“This is going to turn his world upside down.” Lucie continued. “He seems happy. Truly happy right now. How can I just unleash this on him? He’s going to hate me. And probably fire me.”