Page 12 of Fierce-Colson

Did his mother get close to Bella in the past two years?

Yeah, they had. But not like it was a grandparent type of closeness. More like a place for Bella to go when Colson had to be at work and he couldn’t leave his sister alone.

More like an older, closer friendship than a maternal bond.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said. Because if there was one rule he’d lived by his entire life, it was not relying on someone else for anything.

He’d figure it out somehow. Even if it was going to be painfully embarrassing for them both.

The nurse nodded, the bell went off, half the kids that were in the room when he entered left, Bella walking in and seeing him coming out of the private office.

“I’m ready,” she said.

“Let’s wait for the mad rush to subside first.” She put her head down as other kids moved around. He nudged her out of the way. She looked up at him. “Feeling better?”

“A little,” she whispered.

When the halls were quiet and empty, he walked out with his sister, and they made their way out of the building and into his car.

“In your words, what is going on?”

“I told you my stomach was off this morning,” she said.

“Did the coffee upset it?” That would make him feel like shit. That maybe he should have waited to let her try it on the weekend.

They’d had enough hits and misses over things in life and he just told himself he couldn’t plan it all out.

“No.”

“Did you drink it all?” he asked, a big grin on his face.

He expected her to say no.

“I did. It was really good. Can I have one every morning?”

He groaned. Guess he lost that one.

“Sure.” And then inspiration hit. “If you’re feeling up to it, we can go get one of those machines now.”

“Really? You’re not going to bring me home?”

“You’re going home, but Target is on the way. I’m sure they’ve got one there.”

She sent him one of those tentative smiles that made him think she worried there was a catch. “Can I get flavored pods?”

He groaned. “We can look at that since we’ve got to get pods anyway.”

His mind was racing through the silence in the car. He parked in Target’s lot. The two of them got out and made their way there.

Maybe it’d be less awkward for them both if he let her get the coffee she wanted.

Anything to get through this with them both not stumbling and tripping over their feet.

When he found the aisle and looked over the different models, his eye twitched that he was going to spend a few hundred dollars on something so he could get through a menstrual cycle talk.

“Are you going to use it?” Bella said.

“What?”