Fighting Fate (27 page)

She stood in front of the mirror for a moment before deciding to add a chunky gold bracelet. She had a pair of white sandals waiting for her by the front door.

After touching up her make-up one last time, she decided she was as ready as she could get. She tried to tell herself she shouldn’t be so nervous. Cole had seen her at her g alp>ching up hrungiest time and again the past few weeks. He had seen her covered in paint splatters and with wallpaper gunk in her hair.

Even still, she wanted tonight to be perfect. Since the night of the storm, they’d been growing close again. He’d been stealing kisses every chance he got and she’d gladly let him have them. But going on an actual date made everything seem…official. It made it seem more real. And having something real with Cole? At that moment, she couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than that.

Something silky circling her ankles demanded her attention.

“Hey, Penelope,” she cooed. She reached down to scoop the kitten up in her arms. She was rewarded with her enthusiastic purr. She stretched upward, rubbing her head against Sarah’s neck. “Such a little sweetie,” she muttered.

Through the open window came the sounds of crunching gravel. With Penelope still in her arms, she walked down the steps. Moments later, Cole was knocking on the door. He was well-aware of the dislike she had for her doorbell so he was careful to never use it. He’d also promised to replace it. He hadn’t had a chance to do it yet. It was simply added to the list.

As she reached the door, she placed the kitten on the floor. Penelope gave her a disgruntled look as she trotted along behind her.

She didn’t bother to move the flimsy curtain aside. She knew it was Cole, right on time. She felt a surge of happy anticipation course through her as she pulled the door open.

She was greeted by an enormous bouquet of peach roses. She gasped as Cole grinned at her. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if she was more surprised by the flowers or his appearance. He had on a pair of khaki pants and a light blue polo.
Casual, but not
too
casual
. She realized that in all the years she’d known him, this was the most dressed up she’d ever seen him.

“You look so nice,” she said appreciatively. Then her attention went to the vase. “Roses, really? You didn’t have to do this!” Her tone indicated that he hadn’t needed to but she was pleased that he had.

He stepped inside, crossed the room and placed the flowers on her kitchen table. Sarah followed and leaned in to smell the petals. She hummed her approval.

“They’re gorgeous,” she proclaimed.

His gaze scanned over her and one side of his lip quirked up. “Compared to you, they’re not.” He reached out to her, taking her by the hands and pulled her in. “When I was younger, I thought you were the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. I couldn’t imagine anything prettier but here you are, even more gorgeous now than you were then.”

“Oh stop!” She said the words with a giggle as she pulled her hand from his and lightly smacked him on the shoulder.

“Do you think I’m joking?” he asked as he l asi>

She placed a hand on each side of his face and brought his lips down to hers. The kiss was slow, unhurried and lasted long enough that each of them were out of breath by the time Sarah pulled away.

She was trying to hold back a pleased smile when she glanced at the roses again. “I truly love that bouquet but I hope you don’t think it’s necessary to do things like that.”

“Sure it is,” Cole said. “When I was younger, it drove me crazy that I wasn’t able to buy you flowers. Or take you anywhere decent on a date. I can do it now. And I’m going to.”

“You brought me flowers,” Sarah argued.

“I picked daisies for you out of the ditch down the road from the trailer park I lived in.” His face was scrunched up into a look of embarrassment.

“Sometimes it’s the thought that counts. I loved those daisies!”

Penelope
meowed
from between their ankles. She glanced down and then back up at Cole. “I loved the daisies and the roses but not nearly as much as I love Penelope. And for the record, I don’t need you to shower me with expensive things. I just love it when you put thought into the simple things.” Her eyes darted to the flowers again. “
Peach
?" she asked. Her lips twitched into a smile.

His gaze slid over her peach shirt. “I was hoping it was still your favorite color.”

She gave him a little nod. “It is and I can’t believe you remember that.”

He pulled her into him again, smiling as he nuzzled her hair. “Sarah, I remember everything about you.”

His words pressed her mind into a blissfully happy haze as they left her house. She was only edged out of it sometime later when she realized what his plans for the evening consisted of.

She turned to him with narrowed eyes as he parked his truck. “Cole.”

“Sarah.”

She let out a huff as she looked at him from the passenger seat. “
Bianca’s
?” It was inarguably the nicest restaurant in town. That translated to the most expensive.

He grabbed her hand and rubbed his thumb across the back of it. “Listen. All those years ago? Our dates consisted of cheap pizza, cold ham sandwiches that we ate on the couch in front of a movie and if we were lucky, a burger somewhere decent. But now, this is us, starting over. And I’m not saying that I think I need to take you to Bianca’s every night. But tonight? I really want to. Please, don’t argue and just let me have this.”

ignu to BShe was mesmerized by the hopeful look on his face. He was right. Tonight was special. They were both adults now. And while he’d been jumping around for nearly a year doing one odd job after another, school would be starting soon. From there on out he’d be living comfortably on a regular paycheck. He wasn’t the kid who more often than not didn’t have lunch money.

She wrinkled her nose up as she smiled. “I love this place,” she admitted. “I’ve only been here a handful of times. Only—”

“—on special occasions. Which tonight is,” Cole said.

She laughed. “Yes, Dad always let me pick where I wanted to eat on my birthday. I—”

“—always chose Bianca’s,” he finished for her. “You always ordered the lobster ravioli and raspberry gelato for dessert.” He grinned as he winked at her. “Yeah, I remember. You’ve got no idea how badly I wanted to bring you here back then. But there was no way. Tonight, we’re going to add a bottle of wine to our meal. So,” he glanced at the dashboard clock, “we should get going. Our reservation is at seven. There’s some kind of festival in the town square tonight so they might be busier than usual.”

She glanced around. All the parking lots in sight were crammed and the traffic in town was heavier than normal. “That’s why there are so many people in town.”

He nodded. “Yeah. It’s taking place of the street dances Laurel used to have. Now they have a band playing at the new pavilion. I think there are food booths set up down there, games for the kids, that kind of thing. I thought we could check it out later.”

Before she could respond, he’d hopped out of his truck. She reached for her door handle but instinctively realized she better stay put.

He grinned when he opened the door for her. He offered her his hand as she hopped down from his truck. With one hand on the small of her back, he led her to the restaurant.

Sarah hadn’t been inside for years but the place felt cozy and familiar. The waitress led them to a cushy corner booth. Neither had to peruse the menu long before placing their order. Cole ordered a bottle of white wine to go with their pasta dishes. After the waitress poured them each a glass, they both sat silent for a moment, not sure what to say now that the formalities were over.

It wasn’t necessarily an uncomfortable silence as they smiled timidly at each other. Cole was the one to finally break it. He glanced around to be sure they had an acceptable amount of privacy before speaking.

“I’ve started researching the coins you sent home with me. Their values are all over the place. Some are worth maybe five dollars. Some of them are worth a whole lot. Cora had several Liberty Head Nickels, the rare ones. But,” he said as he leaned in excitedly, “she also had two Liberty five dollar gold coins that are worth a pretty good chunk of money. I know of a place you could bring them, you’d get a fair price, if you decide you want to sell them. Or real thar. Thely, if you want to you could just hold onto them. They’re not getting any newer and their value is probably just going to increase.”

She pondered that for just a moment. “What do you think I should do?”

He smiled, looking pleased that she had asked his opinion. “If they were mine,” he said carefully, “I would probably sell off the majority of them, the ones that aren’t going to increase a whole lot in value. I would definitely keep all the rarer ones.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” she agreed. With so many cans full of them, they took up a lot of space. “I’d like to keep several for sentimental reasons. I don’t really need the money right now.”

Cole chuckled at that. “No. I suppose you don’t. Not when you have box springs that are pouring out cash.”

“Mattresses, coffee cans, cocoa canisters, an empty granola bar box, a cheese ball tin,” she muttered. She furtively glanced around the restaurant before leaning across the table. She kept her voice low and wore a perplexed look. “She stashed money all over. The coffee cans downstairs, once we knew about them, they were obvious. That’s where all of the coins were. But I’ve found cash in the strangest places. I don’t dare toss
anything
out without thoroughly inspecting it.” She sounded exasperated.

Cole let out a low laugh and his eyes twinkled in amusement. “Sarah, there are worse problems to have than finding money all over the place.”

She leaned back in her seat and smiled. “Yeah, I know. But every time I find a new stash it just makes me wonder what she was thinking.”

She had spent an entire day scouring her house, looking for hidden treasure. She had looked in, around, under and behind everything in the house. She was fairly certain that she’d found everything there was to find. Though she wouldn’t be surprised if something else popped up later. For now, she’d deposited all of the cash in her savings account. She’d gotten a safety deposit box for the savings bonds.

“Do you have any idea how she ended up with so many coins?” Cole asked.

Sarah nodded. “Dad said Grandpa used to collect old coins. I suppose maybe Grandma didn’t know what to do with them after he passed away. So she just stashed them somewhere she thought was safe. Her mind wasn’t the best after her fall. I think she probably forgot about the money.” She paused. “Thank you so much for going through it all.”

He grinned. “I’m not quite done so I might find ones that are even more valuable. But no need to thank me. I’ve had a lot of fun looking them up, reviewing the history behind them, researching the value. Do you want me to bring you the ones I’m done with? The ones I think are worth keeping? Or do you want me to hold onto them?”

Sarah smiled at Cole’s idea of ‘fun’. “I can take them back. I just opened a safety deposit box so I’ll probably just bring them straight to the bank.”

“Sounds good,” Cole said as the waitress approached.

“Which one of you ordered the lobster ravioli?” She asked as she appeared beside them.

“She did,” Cole said with a grin.

*
*
*
*
*

Because Cole had been working at her house nearly all day, every day, she had grown used to spending time with him. However, now that they were
out
on a date, walking around town, it felt different. It felt more real. After this past week, the time apart was starting to feel like it had never happened.

Cole held her hand firmly in his as they meandered down the sidewalk. Dinner had been lovely. When they emerged from Bianca’s, the music floating from the pavilion was impossible to ignore. Sarah had gazed in the direction the music was coming from.

“We could go check things out,” Cole had suggested. His tone had been apologetic when he said, “It seems to me that I probably owe you a few dances.”

She knew he was referring to her junior prom. Just another casualty of the mess created by Mike and Steve.

Now they were following the music and the people streaming toward it.

“I can’t believe how many people came out for this,” Sarah said as they edged closer to the downtown square. It appeared that half the town was there.

The sun had begun to sink below the horizon. Twinkle lights decorated the square and as Cole had thought, there were booths set up flanking each side of the pavilion. A band was playing but Sarah didn’t recognize the music. People were milling about everywhere, some faces looked vaguely familiar but not many. The night had a carnival like feel to it.

Cole kept a firm grip on Sarah’s hand as they wandered through the crowd. They browsed over the items for sale in the tent-like booths that were set up and skimmed past the booths that contained food.

As they drew nearer to the covered pavilion where people were dancing, the music slowed. Cole pulled Sarah a little closer.

“Do you dance?” she asked as she gazed up at him.

He laughed. “Not well. And not often. Not if I can help it, anyway. But right now, I just want an excuse to hold you.”

The dance floor was crowded with people and Sarah didn’t protest when Cole began to sway with her off to the side. There were hundreds of people buzzing around but once he pulled her into his chest, they might as well have been the only people in the town. She looped her arms around his neck then rested her he reoplad against his shoulder. Her eyes drifted shut. There had been nothing extraordinary about the evening, but it had been perfect nonetheless.

With her eyes closed, it was easy to imagine that she was dreaming. But she wasn’t and the fact that this was her reality was so much better. She nestled into Cole’s chest and she felt his chin rest on top of her head. His arms held her possessively and she loved the feel of them. As her fingers grazed against the back of his neck, making lazy little circles, she heard him moan in contentment. She felt his chest rumble with it.