Coda Books 04 - Strawberries for Dessert (MM)

innocent” face on. “Paris is out, love. Sorry. Jonny seems to think it’s terribly pretentious of me to even offer it. How about the Hamptons? I have a house there too. And with summer on the way, it might be the better choice anyway. The pool will be ready any day now, I suspect, and my lawn is beautiful. Flowers everywhere. And my gardener—”
    “Cole!” I said again. He didn’t answer, but he reached over and gripped my wrist in his slender hand. He squeezed just a bit, giving me a quick look out of the corner of his eye as he continued to talk, and I had a feeling it was his way of telling me to shut the hell up.
    “—well honey, I’m pretty sure you won’t find him as intriguing as I do, but there is a lovely widow who lives next door. I think her name is Martha, but don’t quote me on that. She finds me horrifying — it’s actually rather amusing. Sometimes I think about dressing in drag just to see her run screaming back into her house. But you? I have a feeling she’ll like you just fine. She’s not much of a cook—at least that’s what Margaret tells me—but she does make fabulous lemon meringue pies.” My father was smiling now, looking a little less stunned, but obviously unsure how seriously he should take Cole. “Do you golf?”
    “Not really.”
    “Thank goodness. I don’t even know where the nearest course is.
    Do you fish?”
    “Why?” my dad asked, and he really was smiling now. “Do you?”
    “Heavens no,” Cole said. “Just look at me, honey. Do I look like a fisherman to you? Can you even imagine me trying to bait a hook?” He gave a dramatic shudder and—
    My dad laughed. Not like the nervous chuckles from earlier. It was a true, from the stomach laugh. I looked at Cole, worried that he would be offended, but Cole was laughing too.
    And I realized then what an idiot I was.
    At our first dinner together, I had been so worried that my father would laugh at Cole and that Cole would be offended, or that Cole would embarrass himself in front of my father. I spent the entire meal wondering why Cole was being so over-the-top and trying to shelter each of them from the other’s derision. I saw now that Cole did not need my help in any way. Not only that, he didn’t want it. He had his own way of putting my father at ease, and if it involved my father laughing at him, he didn’t care in the least. My clumsy attempts to interfere had only made things worse.
    “—and it’s a bit of a drive, but honey, they have the best lobster bisque I have ever tasted—”
    And at that moment, I loved him so much, I wondered how he and my father couldn’t feel it pouring out of me. He was still talking, and I leaned over and kissed him. He didn’t cooperate at all—he didn’t even stop talking, and my kiss landed somewhere around his left temple, but I didn’t mind. My dad blushed a little, but he was laughing at something else Cole had said, and he didn’t look away.
    “He skis,” I said in Cole’s ear, and this time the surprised look he gave me was genuine.
    “Oh good lord, Jonny, you’re only telling me this now?” he asked, pushing me playfully away. “You could have saved me a great deal of time by stating that up front, you know. George, honey, I have to tell you, you did a terrible job raising Jonny. Now listen, I have a condo in Vail—”
    I got up and went in the kitchen to get the dishes we would need for dinner, leaving them to talk—or, to be honest, leaving Cole to talk my father’s ear off. Cole followed me in a few minutes later, and I grabbed him as soon as he walked by. “I’m sorry about last time.”
    “You’re forgiven.”
    “I was so worried he would offend you, or you would offend him—”
    “I’m not that easily offended. And if people can’t laugh, they can’t relax, love. He can think I’m foolish all he wants if it means he’s comfortable with you and I being together.” He stopped short at that, and his eyes started to get that sad look again.
    “You’re amazing.”
    He smiled a little. “I really am, love. The annoying thing is you’re only now figuring it out.”
    “I think I lov—”
    He stopped me again with his fingers on my lips and a hint of panic in his eyes. “Don’t say it,” he whispered, shaking his head. And then he kissed me. He wrapped one arm tight around my waist and the other around my neck, pulling me hard up against him. It was a more aggressive kiss than I was used to from him, and it was