and over again.
Adrian wasn’t Cole’s standard client. As a hand surgeon who specialized in sports medicine, Cole usually treated highly paid professional athletes.
He’d been informed that Adrian was autistic, mostly nonverbal, and skittish around strangers. Adrian particularly disliked being touched.
Volunteering for these special athletic games challenged Cole’s doctor-patient skills. He wasn’t familiar with treating athletes with mental challenges, but he had stepped out of his comfort zone to fill in for one of the future partners who’d had a family emergency.
Family—something else Cole wasn’t too familiar with.
Cole could relate to the boy, though. He himself was more of a thinker than a talker. Thankfully, professional athletes rarely required much chit-chat.
Still, he felt the need to be encouraging. “That was quite a race you ran, Adrian.” Cole kept his voice calm and low despite the noise of the cheering crowd around them.
Adrian smiled with his eyes, showing acknowledgment of the compliment.
“Tough luck about the fall.”
Adrian showed no anger, or even frustration, over the accident. Good sportsmanship personified.
“Adrian’s mother is here, Dr. Lassiter,” the assistant warned.
Before Cole could stand and turn around, Adrian’s mother asked over his shoulder, “Honey, are you all right?”
He knew that voice.
Even after fifteen years, it rasped down his spine. Who would have thought a voice from his past could slam into his gut like this?
Calling on all the stoicism he’d developed over his career, Cole stood and moved aside so she could take his place. Isabella Allante was more beautiful now than the last time he’d seen her—sound asleep in his bed.
For the sake of the boy, Cole used every ounce of professionalism he had to reassure the anxious mother. “Adrian is fine. Just a scrape.”
“Cole,” Bella said in a monotone, as if she’d turned off a switch to her emotions. Her face registered nothing, a mask of calm.
She had always been good at keeping her emotions in check, a trait that would have made her a good doctor if she had gone to medical school as they had planned.
He did the math. Had marriage and pregnancy, not necessarily in that order, caused her to drop out? Had it been her choice or her husband’s?
That husband should have been him.
Betrayal and anger made him turn away from her, even after all these years. No other woman had ever affected him this way. He’d hardened his heart to make sure of it.
Bella bent down to inspect Adrian’s knee.
“Doesn’t look too bad, huh?” she asked her son, the compassion switched on again.
Cole watched Adrian’s face as his eyes shifted up and to the left, then back to his mother’s mouth. Adrian’s way of agreeing, Cole guessed, when Bella gave him a gentle smile.
Feature by feature, the boy didn’t look much like his mother. His eyes were dark, almost black, while hers were a crystal shade of violet. His hair was dark, too. Thick and wavy compared to hers, straight and honey-blonde. At fourteen, he was at least three inches taller than his petite mother. Maybe it was his gestures or the way he held himself that looked so familiar.
Cole glanced at Bella’s bare ring finger. Nobody had told him that her marriage had broken up—if, indeed, that was what her ring-free state meant. But, then, he’d made it clear to everyone back in New Orleans that he didn’t want to hear the name Isabella Allante ever again.
“Worth the ribbon?” She held up a medal dangling on a red ribbon.
Again, Adrian spoke with his eyes, delight showing through their dark depths.
“Want to wear it?” She lifted the ribbon to place it around Adrian’s neck.
His left hand started to pat the air while his shoulders tensed and his eyes took on a wild and startled cast.
Bella rocked back on her heels, giving her son space. “Okay, honey. Why don’t I hold it for you?”
Adrian calmed and smiled, a sweet, pure smile like his mother’s could be. “Momma.”
Bella sucked in her breath. “Yes, honey. Momma. Thank you for that.”
The loudspeaker crackled and the commentator announced refreshments for all the athletes and their guests. Adrian’s eyes lit up. He pushed himself off his chair, not even wincing as he put weight on his injured leg.
Without looking left or right, he started for the snack bar. Abruptly, he stopped, pinned Cole with those deep, dark eyes and gestured, more a command than an invitation. Adrian might not use a plethora of words but his body language spoke volumes.
Cole could feel the tension radiate from Bella.
He had no problem reading her body language either. While Adrian clearly wanted Cole to accompany him, Isabella wanted exactly the opposite.
“Adrian, honey, Dr. Lassiter is busy. I don’t think he can take a break with us,” she said, making herself clear.
The odds were stacked against her. First off, Cole was thirsty. Secondly, Adrian wanted his company—and Cole sensed a specialness in that. And, thirdly, Bella had just issued a challenge Cole wouldn’t walk away from.
“Au contraire, Mrs. Beautemps. I’m ready for a nice cold drink.”
Cole had once lived or died by Bella’s slightest desire, but now he wanted nothing more than to prove that what she did or didn’t want had no influence on his decisions.
“It’s Allante,” she corrected.
“Divorce?” Not that it should matter. He wondered purely out of curiosity. He’d always thought she and David Beautemps would stay together forever. But, then, he’d thought that about himself and Bella, too, until she’d dumped him.
“My decision,” she clarified, as if that would mean anything to him.
He shrugged. “Not my concern.”
“Then you shouldn’t have asked.”
Sorry. The flippant apology stuck in his throat.
“You’re right,” he forced out, swallowing down the bitter taste of concession.
He and Bella were ancient history—bad ancient history at that—and long since archived under “foolish youth.” Any feelings between them should have been put to bed a long time ago.
Put to bed. Not the best metaphor to choose, not when he still remembered how that honey-gold hair spread across his pillow and down her trim, bare back all those years ago.
He took
