Cole’s eyes narrowed as he shut down the engine and opened his door. He stepped into the raw night and realized that whatever Lucas wanted, he’d come alone. Ren wasn’t with him.
“What the hell do you want, Holt?”
Lucas leaned against the side of his car. “Invite me in, Madison. I think you’ll be interested in what I have to say.”
Cole shut his door and stared at Lucas for a long time. The other man didn’t so much as blink. Or give any hint of what he wanted to talk about.
“This better be good,” Cole muttered as he headed for the front door.
He stepped inside, flipped the lights on and led Lucas into the living room. The same living room where he and Ren had been just three weeks ago. Cole swore he could still smell her in his house. As such, he hadn’t had it cleaned since she left.
“Drink?” Cole asked as he walked to the liquor cabinet.
“Nothing for me,” Lucas said.
“I think I’ll need it,” Cole said in a low voice. He poured himself a glass of Irish whiskey and took a fortifying sip before turning his attention to his visitor.
“Now, what is it you wish to discuss that I’ll find so interesting?”
“Ren.”
Cole sucked in his breath. “Well you have me there. I’m definitely interested in anything you have to say about Ren. Is she okay?”
“Do you care?” Lucas asked sharply.
“I don’t have time for your bullshit,” Cole said coldly. “I didn’t run you down and arrange to spend two weeks with a woman I care nothing for.”
“Let me just tell you how Ren sees it. She spent two weeks with a man she once loved beyond reason. The same man who walked away from her and devastated her when she was young. She realizes during those two weeks that she still very much loves this man and he makes her a promise that he’ll find a way. A promise she clings to when she’s uncertain of how things can possibly work out. Then at the end of the two weeks, this same man walks away from her yet again. So you tell me, Madison. Does that sound like a man who gives a damn?”
Cole stared at him in stupefaction. Then he shook his head. “There are so many what-the-fuck issues with that bullshit you just spouted that I don’t even know where to begin. But let’s start with why the hell do you care? Why are you here? And for that matter why point the finger at me when you hurt her so badly by A. giving her to me in the first place, which immediately made her assume the worst and that you were dumping her and B. looking straight through her like she didn’t exist when she saw you outside Cattleman’s.”
Lucas’s face was locked in stone. “Just tell me why you left, Madison. Why did you give her up when you once swore to me you’d fight for her with every breath you had. You pretty much told me that you’d do whatever it took to ensure she never came back to me. And yet it seems to me that you couldn’t get rid of her fast enough.”
Cole slammed his drink down on the sideboard with enough force to make the liquid slosh over the rim. “I didn’t goddamn walk away from her. I let her go because it was the right thing to do. She loves you, and she was never going to choose between us. Never. She loves us both but one of us had to lose. I just want her to be happy even if I’m fucking miserable in the process.”
Lucas sighed. “I thought it might be something like that, you fucking martyring bastard.”
“Don’t piss me off. I’ve spent the night deciding just what a dumbass I was. This is the only warning you’re going to get. I’m coming for her.”
Lucas stared at him for a moment as if studying or perhaps deciding whether or not he wanted to say what it was he wanted. And finally he spoke. “I had in mind something different.”
Cole was at the end of his patience. He was tired. He was pissed. And what he really wanted was to knock Lucas on his ass and then go find Ren, throw her over his shoulder and haul her back to his cave. In that order.
“Just get to your point.”
“I think we should share Ren,” he said in a low, grim voice.
Lucas made an angry, frustrated sound. “Look, what I’m suggesting isn’t easy for me. No, I don’t think we should pass her back and forth like some tasty treat. I think we should give serious consideration to entering a relationship wherein she belongs to both of us. Full time. All the time. Which means that you and I would have to come to an understanding. And we’d have to make a hell of a lot of decisions about living arrangements.”
Cole’s eyes widened as realization dawned. What Lucas was suggesting was a permanent, full-time arrangement. Hell, they’d live together and be in constant contact. They would truly share Ren. There were so many potential pitfalls that Cole couldn’t even wrap his head around it.
