Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,119

in love with Vaughn. It was instinctive, it was pure and it sure as hell made no sense but there it was. Somehow, somewhere, this man had got inside of her head and she seriously doubted whether she would ever be able to convince him to leave.

Physically though, he had just left her - walked away. It was over. And as that realisation hit and reality sunk in she felt the world around her beginning to spin and sway, before the blessed relief of blackness claimed her.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Elise woke up in the first aid room at the office - the blinds were drawn and a warm flannel was being pressed to her head. The door was closed and the only light was from the corridor, which was being filtered through the gap underneath the door. She felt a hand stroke her cheek and turned to see Cole sitting next to her, watching over her with a worried expression on his face. As soon as he registered that she was awake, he relaxed and smiled, his chocolate brown eyes almost invisible in the dark.

“Hey, baby,” he whispered, “How’re you feeling?”

“I’m ok, I think. What happened?” she whispered back.

“You fainted in the car park right after Vaughn left. I carried you up here. The first aider wanted to sit with you but I insisted. I hope you don’t mind?”

She reached out to clasp one of his hands. “Of course not. I’d much rather wake up to you than her any day.” She laughed lightly and realised that her throat was really dry. “I could do with a drink though.”

Cole reached behind him and passed her a glass of water. At her look of surprise at his efficiency, he put his three fingers to his head in a mock salute. “I was a Boy Scout, you know – always be prepared!”

She drank the water gratefully as a sudden vision of a younger, gangly Cole wearing shorts, a khaki shirt and a necktie sprung to mind and she found herself giggling again. “You? A Scout? Well that’s one secret you sure managed to keep.”

“Seems I’m not the only one keeping secrets.” he said and then shook his head, “Sorry Elise, that was uncalled for. It just threw me for a loop, the whole nightclub thing. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know Cole. We’ve just not seen that much of each other over the last few of days and it never really came up. You’ve had your own stuff to deal with and it really wasn’t that big a thing. Vaughn and I just went back to his place and talked. It got late so I stayed the night and then he dropped me back at my car in the morning. That’s all. I had no idea that Olivia had seen us until I saw Stephen at work and he told me. I knew she had a problem with me but I didn’t realise that she would take it to these lengths. I guess she’s raw at Vaughn no longer being interested in her.”

Cole nodded, “Makes sense I guess but baby, you know that I am here for you – regardless of what is going on in my life. If you needed to talk you could have just called me. Don’t shut me out of your life, I couldn’t stand it.”

“Hey, Cole Andrews, there is no way in a million years that I am shutting you out. You don’t get off that easily! This thing with Vaughn, it just happened. It wasn’t planned. We bumped into each other in the nightclub by pure accident and things just got a bit out of hand. He started asking about Dale, he picked up on the bruises the same as you and I just found myself telling him everything. He’s a good guy, Cole; he wanted to help me.”

She continued. “These last couple of days with him have been the best of my life. We’ve shared something – a bond – something beyond the physical and he has helped me to finally realise that my marriage is over. I am going to leave Dale, Cole, as soon as Christmas is over. I haven’t told Vaughn that yet although I’m not sure that he would actually care anymore. I didn’t tell him because I didn’t want him to think I was leaving Dale for him. I’m not. I’m leaving Dale because it’s the right thing to do and it’s about time I started doing the right thing. I