Page 46 of Cole (Dirty Misfits MC 4)
I didn’t want to be seen, heard, or acknowledged.
I simply wanted to let Opie play around until it was time to leave.
“Oh, yeah,” I grunted as I sat down, “there we go. Easy does it.”
Opie barked and rolled around with a quick friend that he had found, and I couldn’t help but notice that the Australian shepherd he played with was absolutely gorgeous. The dog’s coat of pin-straight fur was this beautiful combination of white and auburn, with white patches on all four of his paws and his neck with a white strap streaking right down the slope of its nose.
And with the rest of him being auburn, the sun reflected off his coat of fur and almost gave it a warm, glittering sheen.
However, a sharp whistle that pierced the air caught the attention of both that beautiful dog as well as my Opie. The clapping of hands caused both of the dogs to look around, trying to track down the source of the sound. But the second the Australian shepherd’s owner called out its name, I froze.
“Come on, Rue! Time for some water! Good girl, that’s a good girl. Come on. Come on! I promise, it’ll be quick.”
And as my eyes slowly rose at the sound of her voice, I found Molly perched on a bench at the opposite end of the dog park.
With the most pregnant stomach I’d ever seen on any woman in my entire fucking life.
Twenty-Two
Molly
“There we go, there’s a good girl. That’s it, there we go. Just need a little bit of water if you’re gonna keep running around. You want a snack? Huh? Yeah, of course you do, I don’t even know why I asked. You love snacks just about as much as I do.”
I giggled as Rue practically inhaled her water, then I dug around in my purse for a couple of treats. It felt good to be back at the dog park, especially since you-know-who hadn’t even cropped up. I wasn’t even sure what I had expected. Did I really expect Cole to simply be sitting here with Opie, waiting for me to show up in all of my glory?
Nah, he had too much pussy to slay and too many hearts to break for that shit.
“There we go,” I said as I softly scratched behind Rue’s ear, “you’re such a good girl. Yes, you are.”
She nuzzled my belly with her nose and it made me smile. Rue would be so good with Bryson. She had already gotten into the habit of nestling up tightly at my side with her head resting softly on top of my stomach, as if she were protecting both me and the baby. It made my heart skip a beat every time I woke up and found her like that. While Bridget didn’t think I should get Rue in the habit of sleeping with me, I honestly didn’t care.
It comforted me to feel something next to me whenever I woke up first thing in the morning.
However, in all of my cooing and all of my doting, I didn’t hear anyone walking up to me. It didn’t occur to me to take a hard look at who Rue had been running around and playing with. After all, Bridget was still bombarding me with shit we needed for the places we had to choose from. And as we texted back and forth, I didn’t even bother looking up until Rue rushed back off to play.
I didn’t even bother looking up until a shadow loomed over me, blanketing me from the sun.
But when the shadow finally spoke, all I wanted to do was die.
“Hey there, Molly.”
The sound of his voice made my nipples pucker. The strength of his timbre made my knees tremble with weakness. And as I slowly gazed up into his beautifully stoic honey-colored eyes, dread filled my gut.
“Cole?” I asked softly.
His eyes fell to my stomach. “It’s uh… good to see you.”
I blinked. “I wish I could say the same.”
He cleared his throat. “I suppose I deserved that.”
I stood to my feet, my breathing still coming in shallow spurts. “Well, I know you deserved it, so if you don’t mind me, I really need to collect Rue and get—”
“Is it mine?” he blurted out.
My eyebrows slowly rose. “Nice tactic there, Cole.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry. It’s just—I looked up and saw you across the way and you’re just… well you’re so huge, and it caught me off-guard, and I thought—”
I scoffed. “Thanks for the compliment.”
“No, no, no!” he exclaimed as he gripped my arm. “Just—just stay and talk with me?”
Rue growled off in the distance. “I’d release me before Rue comes running. She doesn’t like it when people she doesn’t know touches me.”
He quickly dropped my arm. “Sorry.”
I shrugged off his touch and cracked my neck. “Does it even matter?”
