When I don’t continue, he squeezes my hand. “And your mom?”
“She lives in Vegas. We speak on the phone occasionally, but…” I have to clear my throat before continuing. “We’re very different people.”
“How so?”
I wasn’t expecting him to ask that. Most guys would leave it alone, guessing from my tone that I don’t want to get into it. But I have Cole’s full attention now. I’m not even looking at him, but I feel it. How the air has charged. How he grips my hand a little harder.
“She drinks a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean she starts around noon and doesn’t stop until she passes out. She’s got congestive heart failure now, but even that hasn’t made a difference in her drinking habits.”
Cole lifts my hand to his lips and kisses it again, pressing his mouth against my skin for a long momen
