Speed of My Heart (5 page)

Once we arrived at the one and only diner in town, we settled ourselves into a booth and placed our orders with Carol, a waitress in her fifties with over processed hair and eighties style makeup. She had a raspy voice that came from a lifetime of smoking cigarettes, and a terrible habit of chomping on her gum while she talked. After having to repeat our orders several times, she finally got it right and left our table, calling our orders out loudly to the cook behind the counter across the room. Cole raised his eyebrows at me.

I laughed. "Welcome to Russell Springs."

He grinned. "Yeah, it's been a while since I've visited. I had almost forgotten how interesting people here could be."

"Interesting is a good word for her." I was just getting ready to tell him about how
interesting
Frank the cook was, when a familiar voice caused me to freeze before I could get a word out.

Oh. My. God. I’d know that voice anywhere —Marcus.

Why did he have to come here tonight? What were the chances this was coincidental? I was starting to get the sneaking suspicion I was being stalked.

I closed my eyes for a second, praying that Marcus wouldn't come over to our table. This could be very bad.

When I opened my eyes, I was looking directly into Cole's concerned brown ones. He was looking at me intently.

"Mara? Are you okay?" he asked.

I glanced to where Marcus was beating a steady path to our table, and then back to Cole. I was pretty sure my face was stricken with panic. Cole followed my gaze, his face hardening when he saw who I was looking at.

Cole placed a protective hand over mine where it had been shaking on the table in front of me, and looked directly into my eyes.

"You don't want him near you, do you?" he questioned, his voice hard.

I shook my head, unable to push the sound from my tightening throat.

"Say no more. I'll handle this," he assured me grimly.

I was terrified. Cole had an athletic build and was a tall, but I knew for a fact that Marcus worked out like his life depended on it. He'd also had years of practice using his broad shoulders to plow down huge guys on the football field. I would die if Cole got hurt because he felt the need to defend me.

For some reason, Marcus thought he still had some kind of claim on me. I could see it written all over his face the moment he saw Cole and I sitting in the booth together. It was like revisiting the hell of a year ago all over again.

I watched, horror-stricken, as Cole slid out of the booth to stand. As Marcus approached our table, he slowed to the cocky stride he was known for, smirking at me before giving Cole the death glare.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked Cole. His eyes were glassy, a sure sign he had been drinking. Warning bells went off in my head
Marcus was a mean drunk. Without waiting for a response, he turned his cold stare back on me. "I see you haven't changed any, Mara. You wearing that little miniskirt for easy access?"

I gasped, my mouth dropping open in shock, though I shouldn't have been surprised. Unfortunately, I could tell he wasn't done tormenting me yet
not by a long shot.

I glanced over at Cole, whose face was completely expressionless. I couldn't tell what his reaction was to Marcus' words. On the inside, I was somewhere between wanting to die on the spot and wanting to pummel Marcus with my fists. Sadly, I was frozen in mortification and did neither.

Marcus turned his attention back to Cole, before saying, "I can attest to the fact she's a good piece of ass; I've been there done that. But unless you don't mind watching her flaunt herself in front of every guy she comes across; I wouldn‘t bother."

The last word was barely out of his mouth when Cole used his right fist, cast and all, to slam Marcus across the mouth. Blood instantly gushed from Marcus' face and he looked at Cole in livid shock. People rarely stood up to Marcus.

While part of me was grateful for Cole's defending my honor the way he was, another part was freaking out for him. I knew first hand just how vicious Marcus could be.

I watched as Marcus lunged for Cole, his fist raring back. Cole dodged the punch just in time, and barely had the chance to right himself when Marcus jumped on him, causing them both to crash to the floor.

My eyes darted around the restaurant wishing desperately that someone, anyone, would step up to separate them. I couldn't stomach Cole getting hurt. Here he was trying to recover from injuries so he could go back to racing, and now, because of me, he was in a fight that could very well reinjure him and prolong his recovery. I felt like it was all my fault. If Cole hadn't come out with me, none of this would be happening. And what would he think after seeing who I'd been involved with in the past, and hearing Marcus' insults to me?

Just as I was considering jumping in to try to stop things myself, I caught a glimpse of Sam, a family friend and deputy sheriff, barreling through the door of the diner.

Pure and unadulterated relief poured through me.
Thank God
, someone was going to end this before one of them got seriously hurt. And no one knew what an ass Marcus was better than Sam, who had been dealing with him for years. He was one of the handful of people in this town that knew Marcus for what he was —an arrogant brute. I think Sam had his suspicions about Marcus' abuse, though I had never told him about it. Sam was about five years older than me and had always been like a big brother. During my relationship with Marcus, I had all but avoided Sam in fear that he'd discover what was going on and confront me about it. Looking back, I wondered why I was so desperate to protect Marcus. It was one of the things that I would never fully understand about myself.

I watched as Sam, probably deducing that Marcus was at fault just based on his history, yanked him to his feet. Sam looked at Marcus with disgust. "I heard you were back in town. I was hoping it was just a rumor."

Marcus wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve. "Yeah, I'm back. I was just trying to see my girl, Mara."

Sam, knowing Marcus the way he did, wasn't fooled for a minute. I know a look of pure outrage had to be on my face. It would be a cold day in hell before I ever held that title again. Sam glanced at me and then back at Marcus. "I think Mara takes exception to you calling her
your
girl. Hell, I take exception to that." He signaled to Cole, who was standing off to the side wearing a surprisingly calm and unaffected expression. And thank goodness, he had nothing to show for the fight besides a split lip. Sam sighed. "Follow me outside so I can sort this situation out."

My eyes met Cole's briefly, but I couldn't read a thing. I had no doubt that once he was free to go, he'd want nothing else to do with me. I was pretty sure Marcus had done the damage he'd came to do —and that was to destroy any chance I had at a relationship that didn't involve him.

As Sam, Marcus, and Cole headed out the front door, I did my best to avoid the eyes around me as I made my way to the bathroom. I was barely holding on to my composure. That was the way Marcus worked... had always worked. He tried to control my life. And now, here he was forcing his way back into it, whether I wanted him to or not.

I took a few minutes to calm myself and walked out the front door of the diner. Cole was striding in my direction. I'm sure it had taken Sam all of two seconds to figure out that Marcus had started things.

Cole came to a stop before me, his eyes raking over my face. "Are you okay?" he asked. His voice sounded concerned, caring even, but I wasn’t buying it. I couldn't believe he would want anything to do with me after what had just happened.

I cleared my throat. "I think I should be asking you that, but I... I don't know," I faltered.

That was probably the best response I could give him right now, because honestly I didn't know. I might not be physically injured, but emotionally, I was a mess. Why wouldn't Marcus just leave me alone? There were billions of other girls out there, and he wanted one that wanted nothing to do with him.

Anger sparked in Cole's eyes and I felt my heart sink. I couldn't blame him for being angry that he’d been put in such a bad situation.

"I'm sorry, Cole," I said softly.

Cole looked at me in disbelief. "What the hell are
you
sorry for?"

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that because of me." I looked at his broken arm with regret and concern. "Please tell me you haven't hurt yourself worse."

Cole glanced down at his arm dismissively, and then back to me. "Are you kidding me? Mara, that guy just put you through hell in there and you're worried about me? The way he talked to you; I wanted to do more than what I did to him."

"Still," I apologized again. "I'm so sorry that you were even in that situation with Marcus tonight."

My breath caught on the next thing I was going to say when Cole gently placed his hands on my upper arms, stopping my apology. Stepping closer, he brought his face just inches from mine. I use to hate it when Marcus grabbed me by the upper arms, but with Cole it was different. Even though he held me in place, there was a tenderness in his grip and I knew he'd let me go if I wanted. I discovered I could really like being held like that; as long as Cole was the one doing the holding. My heart skipped a beat when the tips of his fingertips grazed my skin as he brushed my hair from my face.

"Mara, please don't apologize again. You have nothing to apologize for. That guy is obviously an asshole, and the only problem in there was him. What I want to know, is how long have you been having to deal with this?"

I let my gaze fall to the ground between us, trying to hang onto the little strap of emotional strength I had left. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to tell Cole about my past with Marcus, but I also didn't know how much I could hide with him looking at me so intently, searching my eyes for answers.

I hated that I could feel them filling with tears, because I really didn't want Cole to have to deal with an emotional train wreck on top of everything else. The night had already gone to hell in a hand basket without adding that to it.

The next thing I knew I was being pulled against Cole's chest and wrapped in his strong arms. He didn't say anything, and he didn't have to.  I felt the support and comfort he was giving, and I realized that I might be falling a little bit in love with him right then and there. It would have been so easy for Cole to want nothing else to do with me after tonight. And I wouldn't have blamed him. He was in Russell Springs trying to recover before returning to a highly public profession, and now he was getting wrapped up in my problems right from the get-go.

After several minutes in his arms, it was amazing how much better I felt. When I pulled back to look up at him, he smiled down at me, showing those adorable dimples. I really hoped that Marcus' attempt to scare him off had failed.

"Holding you just then," he murmured, “made tonight completely worth it."

Those words were exactly what I needed to hear. I was discovering Cole was great at that. I smiled back. "You can hold me anytime," I promised. I took a deep breath. "Thank you for defending me. What Marcus said about me..." I trailed off, unable to bring myself to repeat his words.

Cole didn't give me time to finish my sentence. "I make my own determinations about people; and I like you —a lot. You just happen to have a real asshole for an ex. It's obvious he was only running his mouth. We've all got people in our past we wish we could erase."

He placed his hand on my back as he guided me toward his jeep. The spot where his hand rested felt like it was on fire. It was incredible that after everything that had happened tonight, my attraction to Cole was still undeniably strong.

Cole gently helped me into his jeep before climbing in on the driver's side. On the way home, he distracted me from thinking about the craziness with Marcus by describing what it was like to race cars for a living. And hearing him talk about the high he got from driving at speeds of almost 200 miles per hour was surprisingly interesting. Of course, I think I'd be interested in anything that had to do with Cole. And it was apparent how passionate he was about racing. I could tell in his voice how hard it was on him being on a forced break from it.