One Night with Hemsworth (One Night Series Book 1) (17 page)

Cole has a problem.

“I’ve got it from here. You two should get going home,” Hunter said.

“I’m staying,” I said.

“That’s not a good idea. I can handle Cole.”

“I’ll stay out here, not in his room. I just want to make sure he’s okay.”

Hunter ran his hand through his hair. “I dunno. He saw you today and now he’s drunk. And you just told me he was drunk when he met you. I think … you shouldn’t be around him when he’s like this.”

“He won’t hurt me. I know he won’t.” I was adamant I knew Cole well enough to know he’d never hurt me.

“He wouldn’t want to even risk it, Paige. You know that. I can handle him, I promise.”

“Hunter’s right, P,” Danny said. “If he was out drinking tonight because of you, he probably won’t want to wake up with you here.”

I threw my head back on the couch. I knew they were right, but I just didn’t want them to be. “He thinks our breakup isn’t getting to me. I have to show him—”

“Paige, he’s drunk,” Hunter cut me off. “His mind goes to a dark place when he drinks and he always thinks the worst. You need to leave him with me. There’s no point in trying to show him anything right now. He either won’t remember it or won’t believe you.”

“He’s not your responsibility. You do so much for him. He—”

“He’s not your responsibility either, Paige. Not even when you were together. He has demons that he needs to deal with. I happen to love the guy like a brother, and I’ll be there for him no matter what. I’ve pulled him out of his hole before, and I’ll do it again. And
that
makes him my responsibility.”

My resolve was weakened, but I still didn’t move to get off the couch. Neither did Danny, but I think that had more to do with the inability to with his tired muscles.

“You’re too good for him,” Hunter said with a shake of his head, but smiling. “I’ve got this, okay? I think you both need time away from each other until you can handle being in the same room without going all emo.”

I huffed a sad laugh.

“Come on, sis, let’s get you home,” Danny said standing.

When I stood, Hunter approached and wrapped me in a surprising hug. “As much as I think Cole needs to own up to what he did, if you can get to Reece’s phone, do it,” he whispered quietly in my ear.

I nodded as he released me and fought tears as Danny started dragging me away. “Sara was wrong about you. You’re not a complete wanker.”

As the words tumbled out of my mouth, Danny’s grip tightened on me. “Sara? My Sara?”

Oops.

“
Your
Sara?” Hunter snapped but then averted his gaze from both of us. “I didn’t realise she was seeing anyone.” His voice was quiet but his new stance was defensive.

I narrowed my eyes at his behaviour, confused by his reaction. He was a complete dick to her a few weeks ago, and now he was suddenly caring who she was or wasn’t dating?

Both of them were looking at me for some type of answer. I threw my hands in the air in defeat. “I’m so not touching this one. And now, seeing as I’m not allowed to stay, I’m going home.” I turned to Hunter. “I’ll see you at the wedding.”

“Wedding?” Hunter asked.

“Oh, right. You guys skipped out early. Seems Dad and Reece don’t want to wait. The wedding’s in three weeks.”

“Great. Another thing Cole’s going to have to deal with. I guess I’ll see you in a few weeks then.”

“Give me your phone,” I said.

Without question, Hunter handed it over. I dialled my number, hit the call button, and then hung up as my phone started ringing. “Just in case this happens again. Or if you need me.”

Danny and I left. Danny didn’t even give Hunter a goodbye.

We were halfway home before he even said anything to me. “Sara was with Hunter?”

“Way long before you.”

His grip on the steering wheel hardened.

“Why do you care? You’re leaving again in a month, and I don’t think Sara will put herself through saying goodbye to you again … well, correction, having you leave her again without any closure. Not even a goodbye, Danny? That was low. It’s no wonder she’s pissed.”

“I know.” He sounded boyish.

“Help me swipe Reece’s phone, and I promise I’ll put in a good word to Sara for you.”

“Really?”

“I can’t guarantee she’ll listen to me. In fact, I can probably guarantee that she won’t. But I promise to try.”

He put his foot down on the accelerator, making his car rev and drive off faster. “Deal, li’l lady.”

“You sound so Texan when you say that.”

His lips curled up at the edges, confirming my fears. He loved Texas and had every intention of going back. I was half-hoping he might’ve been staying this time. Maybe I’d talk to Sara anyway. If anyone could get him to stay, it’d be her.

With our mission in place, we walked through the front door of Dad’s house with only that on our minds. However, as soon as we reached the living room, we found Dad and Reece standing there with their arms folded. Reece looked pissed, Dad seemed confused, and I felt small.

Reece held out her hand, her phone facing up.

“Everything is your fault.”
Cole’s slurred voice made my lip tremble in fear and my stomach leap into my throat.
“You fucking bitch. I lost Paige because of you, I lost Cody because of you. I lost everything I ever fucking cared about…”

Reece hit stop. “He goes on and on like that for about a full minute.”

I stood, shocked, unable to move.

“I think that’s my cue,” Danny said, turning on his heel to walk out.

“Don’t even think about it,” Dad barked. “We’re all going to sit down, and you’re all going to explain to me what the hell has been going on.”

All I could think was
Shiiiiiiit.

****

“So you’re telling me you were with Cole?” Dad asked. “Not Hunter?”

I’d explained everything, from meeting him before we knew who each other was to carrying on a relationship with him after.

“Not anymore,” I mumbled, looking at Reece.

“Good. It needs to stay that way. He’s not good for you,” Dad said.

“You don’t even know him.”

“Way to play the immaturity card, P.”

I glared at Danny. He just shrugged.

“And what do you have to do with any of this?” Dad asked Danny.

“Nothing. I just gave Paige a lift.”

“To?”

“We took Cole home. I got a phone call saying he needed help,” I said.

“Because he was drunk?” Reece asked.

I couldn’t deny it, the proof was on her phone. I nodded.

“You’re not to see him again,” Dad ordered.

I wanted to stand up and fight, tell them that I was a grown woman and could do whatever I wanted, but I also couldn’t see the point. Reece had made her threats known, and Cole and I were over anyway.

“It’s over,” I reassured him. “Thanks to your fiancée’s threats, she made sure it was over.”

Dad’s brow wrinkled in confusion, but he didn’t ask me or Reece what I meant.

I scoffed. “Typical,” I muttered. “And just because you think he’s all wrong for me, doesn’t mean he is. I’ll keep my distance because I’m being forced to, but you need to know that you’re with someone who’s completely wrong for you, and yet you’re still marrying her.”

Reece’s mouth dropped open, and Dad scowled. Danny covered his laughter with a fake coughing fit, and I stood and stalked out of the room, muttering to myself, “That probably could’ve gone better.”

23

- COLE -

Why does my head hurt?

As I rolled over in bed, it took a while for my eyes to adjust and my mind to clear.

“Get up.” Hunter’s voice pulled me out of my stupor as I sat up and saw him sitting in the corner of my room on a chair he’d dragged in from the dining table.

“What the fu—”

“Don’t you think that should be my question?” Okay, he was pissed.

Then it all came flooding back to me. My urge to drink, spilling my guts to the bartender, drinking … a lot. Then everything was black.

“I screwed up,” I muttered.

“Understatement of the century, my friend.”

I groaned. “What did I do?”

“What didn’t you do? You got wasted at a bar. The bartender called Paige to come pick you up. Her brother carried you up three flights of stairs because your drunk ass was passed out. Shall I go on?”

“There’s more?” I felt sick. It was probably the hangover, but more than likely it was the guilt churning my stomach. I burped, and all I could taste was Jack Daniels.
Nope. Definitely the hangover.

I’d never screwed up this bad … okay, apart from the Reece incident. But I was moving on, I was doing better. I wasn’t like my father.
And then I went and did this?

“Paige saw what you were truly like under the influence. Apparently you told her she didn’t care you were broken up and that she’s a bitch.”

“Fuck.” I rubbed my temple, the pressure not easing.

He took out his phone. “And according to the text Paige sent me after she got home last night, you called Reece and yelled at her for taking Paige away from you. So apparently Paul now knows everything.”

My stomach continued to churn, but now it was joined by heart palpitations.

“You didn’t just screw up this time, Cole. I don’t know if this is fixable.”

Yup, it was happening. Just like a high school kid with his first hangover, I rushed to the bathroom and puked my guts up into the toilet.

I couldn’t see him, but I knew Hunter had moved to the bathroom door.

“I don’t want to deal with this,” I mumbled, my head still in the toilet bowl. I meant in general, but that also included the vomiting.

“Too fucking bad. I’ve already called your psychologist’s office, you have an appointment tomorrow after work.” Hunter paused. “You are going to work tomorrow, right? There’s not going to be a repeat of last night?”

I lifted my head, glaring at him. He just cocked his eyebrow at me. He had a right to ask; he was there three years ago when I was in my dark phase. Calling in sick to work a lot was merely a side effect of my descent into self-destruction. I shook my head, a silent promise that I wasn’t going to drink again tonight. But somehow, the gesture felt like a big fat lie.

****

Hunter knew I was lying. He guarded the front door all day like his life depended on it. He’d just finished tipping all the beer out that he had sitting in the fridge, and it was clear he was on a mission—Keep Cole Sober. I could imagine the hashtag on Twitter like it was some charity event.

“I don’t need you to babysit me,” I called out from the couch where I’d settled in to watch TV for the night. Not that I cared what was actually on it.

“Bull-fucking-shit.” That’s all he replied with.

Deep down, I knew he was right. I hadn’t called Reece yet to explain. I hadn’t called Paige to apologise. It was mainly because I wasn’t entirely sure I wouldn’t do it again, but also partly because I knew how those conversations were going to end. Reece was going to take Cody away from me, and Paige was going to tell me she never wanted to see me again.

I’ve lost everything.

Hearing the actual words would only make me want to drink more, and if Hunter hadn’t been watching over me like some sort of prison guard, I was fairly confident I’d be drunk right now.

A knock at the door startled both of us.

Hunter opened the door, and I froze at Paige’s voice. “Hey, can I come in?”

Please say no, please say no, please say no.
I didn’t want to do this now.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Hunter said.

I let out the breath I was holding.

“Sorry, let me rephrase. I’m coming in.”

“Paige,” Hunter said in warning.

“Move, Hunter.” She matched his tone.

I definitely don’t want to do this now.

Hunter retreated.

Dammit.

“How’s the head?” she asked me, stepping into the apartment. I couldn’t decipher her tone. It wasn’t playful, but she didn’t seem pissed off.

“Uh … not as bad as the stomach,” I replied.

She nodded once and came into the living room, sitting on the recliner that was far away from the couch where I was. That wasn’t a good sign.

Hunter moved to give us privacy, but she stopped him. “You can be here for what I have to say.”

Bile began to rise in my throat again.

“All right,” Hunter said warily, taking a seat on the other recliner.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a manila folder stuffed with papers. “Okay, first things first. I haven’t been able to get a lot of information together on such short notice, but I’ve been at it all day and I think it’ll be enough.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked while she shuffled her papers about, trying to get it in some kind of order.

She leaned forward, handing me a piece of paper and started to explain what was on it. “In Australia, signing away parental rights doesn’t mean you give up your rights for visitation.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“You’re still obligated to pay child support, which I assume you do, but basically that form you signed a couple of years ago just means you can’t make medical, schooling, or any of those types of decisions for Cody. If Reece wants to take Cody away from you, she needs to get a court order and prove you’re an unfit parent.”

“Why did you do this?” I asked. My heart started trying to leap out of my Goddamn chest. Was there still hope for us? Even though it wasn’t the thing I should’ve been focused on in that moment, it was the only thing my hungover brain seemed to care about. She was looking for a way I could still be with my son and, hopefully, with her.

“Because I’m not going to let you lose Cody just because you and I had a fling.”

A fling?
All hope dissipated.

“I have to take responsibility that what happened last night was partly my fault, so instead of giving up like you were so ready to do, I’m providing you with options. You can do whatever you want with them, but it won’t be on my conscience anymore.”

Anger burned in my chest, but I wasn’t entirely sure who I was angry at. Her or me. She was in no way responsible for what I did last night, but she was acting as if I meant nothing to her.
Is that really how it’s going to be?

“Last night was not in any way your fault, Paige,” Hunter said.

The idea of escaping the rest of this conversation and drowning myself in a bottle was starting to sound really good to me. “I don’t need your help,” I said, practically throwing the paper back at her.

All she did in response was to raise an eyebrow. A very pissed-off eyebrow.

Hunter shook his head at me. “Stop being self-destructive. Granted, Paige isn’t exactly handling this the right way—”

“What?” Paige snapped at him.

Hunter sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Why the fuck am I playing mediator now?” His words were mumbled, as if it was more to him than us. “Coming in here and telling Cole that you were only a fling and you’re only helping him because you don’t want it on your conscience is bullshit, and you know it. If neither of you are willing to admit how you feel about each other, fine, but behaving like you mean nothing is ridiculous, and I’m calling bullshit.”

Thank you, Hunter.

Paige nodded. “I’m just trying to make this easier on him.” She refused to face me, talking as if I wasn’t even in the room.

“Trust me, that won’t make anything easier,” I answered her anyway.

She pulled the next sheet of paper out, hesitantly deciding whether to give it to me. “Well, this is just going to piss you off, so I may as well get it out of the way.”

I reached for the paper and found it was research into alcoholism. “Holy hell,” I muttered. “I don’t have a prob—”

“Yes, you do.”

Hunter nodded in agreement.

Well, fuck.

“You fit basically every attribute of the young adult subtype of alcoholics. They usually become an alcoholic at a young age, around twenty. They don’t believe they have a problem because they’re able to go long periods without drinking with relative ease. Therefore, they don’t seek treatment for their problem. When they do drink, they binge.”

I sucked in a loud breath.

“And because of what you did last night,” she continued, “Reece has perfect reason to go get that court order to keep you away from Cody. But”—she reached for another set of papers—“if you can prove that you’re doing something to right your problems, that your plan is to stay sober and healthy, they won’t have a reason to take him away. You’ve done the work before, you can do it again. But you have to want to do it.”

She handed me a bunch of information on AA programmes and support groups, online and in person.

“And what about us?” I asked, still looking at the papers. I couldn’t bring myself to give her eye contact.

“There’s too many factors right now. You need to decide what you want to do. If you want to fight for Cody, I’ll be your number-one supporter, and I’ll be there for you. As your friend. There’s fear inside me that last night was just the beginning, and I can’t go through that, I refuse to.”

“I’ll get help.” I was adamant I’d do whatever it took.

“You need to do it for you, not for me. No matter how much we want it, we won’t work. Being together will still cause drama with our family. Dad went out of his mind last night when he found out about us. I keep hoping for some sort of divine intervention that will solve all of our problems, but I think that’s unrealistic and just a wish for a fairy-tale ending.”

“Uh …” Hunter said, standing, “I think it’s time for me to … uh … not sit here awkwardly and listen to this.” He quickly disappeared down the hall.

“He’s totally forgetting the walls are paper thin, isn’t he?” she said with a small laugh.

“He probably didn’t want to leave at all, he just thought he should be polite.” I matched her minuscule smile.

“I’ll be there for you no matter what, Cole, but nothing’s changed. Our main fear before was Cody, but now Reece is pregnant, just adding to the fucked-up factor.” She shuddered. “How sucky is it that we’re both tied to the same woman for the rest of our lives? She’s going to be my brother or sister’s mother.”

She was right about one thing. This was really sucky.

“One last thing before I leave,” she said, handing me the last stack of papers. “The guilt you carry around regarding Reece’s miscarriage is bullshit.”

The papers in front of me were pages of statistics.

“She showed me the doctor’s report, and she was less than six weeks pregnant when it happened. Statistically, there’s more of a chance that it was a chromosomal abnormality than anything else. Thirty percent of all pregnancies fail. There’s no way to ever know if what you did contributed—maybe you did, maybe you didn’t—but chances are it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with statistics.”

My mouth opened to talk, but nothing came out. I was speechless. All those years of being told I was the cause, of believing that it was my fault …

“I’ll leave you to it,” she said, standing.

As she went to walk by me to get to the door, I grabbed hold of her hand and looked up at her. “Thank you.”

She nodded and made her way out, leaving me absolutely astounded.

****

There was too much to organise, too much to look into, before I could call Reece and explain my actions. She hadn’t tried to call to find out what was going on, so I figured I’d wait until she either contacted me or I turned up on her doorstep in two weeks when it was my weekend with Cody again, seeing as we’d swapped weekends and she had him this weekend and next. We could talk it all out then.

Until then, I had counselling sessions, AA meetings, and work to focus on. I knew I needed to get my shit together, but if I was completely honest, the meetings were a bore and my psychologist just rehashed all of my old issues. I was determined to get straight, though. Not just for me, not just for Cody, but for Paige as well.

Even though she said there was no hope, I heard the crack in her voice, the lack of conviction in her words. I was holding out for my fairy-tale ending. Not that I would’ve admitted that to anyone aloud.

I needed to prove to everyone—including myself—that the old Cole didn’t exist. I had a minor fall, a slipup. Dwelling on it wouldn’t help. Learning from my mistake and moving on was my only option. I couldn’t go back to my destructive ways, as much as my head and body screamed for it sometimes.