Sydney looked at her phone again. It was half-past five. Cole had said to meet him at five. Her first instinct had been that something was wrong, she didn't think he was the type to be unpunctual, but the longer she sat alone and in the silence, the more she began to believe that it had been some cruel joke.

Her mind replayed her and Cole's last few months together, and she was still trying to pinpoint the moment that he had changed from distrustful and angry to kissing her and wanting to know everything about her.

There were a few defining moments, when he had knocked her off her bicycle, in his childhood bedroom, and the day she had saved Timmy, but even though she could pick out these moments, she didn't know what had changed.

Then it was as if someone hit her over the head with a brick. They were all moments when she had been honest with him. She had let him see the real her. But what did that mean, why would he possibly like her? She didn't doubt that he was attracted to her, but he had said that he wanted to know everything about her, why?

And what had he meant when he had said that she didn't trust him?

Sydney looked at the time again and sighed, it was forty-five minutes past the time he had wanted to meet, and she was done waiting. She had been sitting on the hood of her car, and she jumped down moving towards the door. She had just opened it when Cole's truck pulled up next to her, stopping hard.

"Follow me back to the trailer," he said as he looked down at her from the truck's window.

Sydney looked at him, noting that he looked tired and strained. It was apparent that something was wrong. She nodded and watched as he turned the truck around and left. Sydney climbed into her car for the short drive back to the trailer.

When she arrived, Cole had already loaded up the dogs, and he told Sydney to jump in next to him. She did so, concerned at how tired he looked.

"You look tired, are you O.K. to drive?" she asked.

He gave an exhausted smile. "Yes, I'm fine, but I've been at the hospital all day, Aunt Viola fell and had to have emergency surgery. Thank goodness Sam was here, he was able to advise us on what needed to be done."

"How?" She continued to watch Cole, drinking in his profile.

"He's a Cardiovascular surgeon, one of the best in the country. Aunt Viola's fall wasn't heart-related, but he knows most things medical, my parents were glad he was there," Cole explained.

"I'm sure Aunt Viola was as well."

"If she had been conscious she probably would have been," he agreed.

Sydney's brow creased in concern. "What happened?"

"She slipped getting out of the tub this morning and hit her head. She also broke a shoulder and a wrist."

"Who found her?" Sydney couldn't' imagine Viola in a hospital bed injured.

"Mom did. Aunt Viola is a creature of habit, and when she didn't show up to the breakfast table, Mom went to check on her and found her unconscious on the floor. Sam and I had driven up last night, so we were both there."

"I'm sorry Cole." Sydney reached for his hand, which was resting on the console between them, and squeezed it.

He turned his hand upwards and grabbed hers, lifting it up to his lips.

"I thought for sure you would be spitting mad that I was late. I was worried about getting there at all, we had to reschedule Sam's flight, and I had to get him to the airport."

Sydney cleared her throat and gently pulled her hand from his grasp. His lips on her skin was doing funny things to her insides. "I never spit." She tried to lighten the tension Cole's natural move had created inside of her.

"I'm sorry I was late," he apologized.

"That's alright, part of me knew you would have a reason." She looked out the window, speaking without thinking.

"And the other part of you?" he asked, picking up on her slip.

Maybe if she ignored the question, it would just go away.

"Sydney?"

She sighed in resignation. "The other part of me thought it was some cruel joke you were playing."

He shook his head. "Why would I do that Sydney?"

"Because I'm hardly worth all of the attention you're paying me, and you'll realize it soon enough."

"Where on earth do you pull that bullshit from?" Cole sounded frustrated.

"Bullshit?" she yelled back."My feelings are not bullshit!"

"Yes, they are, they are a steaming pile of bullshit that is based on a bunch of lies that were told to you by some guy."

Sydney gritted her teeth in anger, how dare he assume to know what she felt and why she felt it. "You don't know anything about it! You're beautiful and rich and loved."

"Fine, then tell me how hard your life has been Sydney." His tone was hard, and she could see his jaw ticking where he was clenching it.

"No, this isn't the time, your aunt-"

"No this is a perfect time, we have an hour ahead of us, you have nowhere to go, and no one is around to interrupt us," he insisted, not taking no for an answer.

She would tell him, she would tell him every miserable detail, and then he would see the truth, and he could put her out of her misery by walking away.

She started with her father and how her life had been so different from his, her father had never wanted her, and neither had her step-mother. Angel had been the one that got all of the extras, the dance lessons, piano lessons, and horseback lessons. They had both been sent to the same private school, but there were no school trips for Sydney, only for Angel. She had told herself it was fine that she wasn't wanted because she just wanted to live in her books.

Books that gave her a warped view of reality as she quickly learned the summer after high school and before college when Joey had come on the scene. Joey was her step-mother's step-brother, and he had come to spend the summer with them. He had been in his late twenties and had seen Sydney as the easy prey she had been. Joey had wooed her hard, telling her all of the things she had always wanted to hear, and she had fallen for it. They had started an affair, and she believed that it was more than just a fling until end of the summer, when he had laughed and told there was no way that their relationship was ever going to be permanent. He had a reputation to consider and a family name to uphold, and a man that had any common sense wouldn't saddle himself with a plain and poor girl like her. He knew all about her father's financial difficulties and good luck to her if she could land a husband without a bankroll.

Then he had wrapped it all up by telling her she had been fun, and her body was terrific but one had to get past the rest of the package to get to the good stuff, and that she was lucky he was willing to do it because it was likely the only experience she was ever going to have. It had devastated her and opened her eyes to a few home truths about herself in the process.

When she was done telling all of this to Cole, she looked over at his stony profile, and his hands were white because they were clinching the steering wheel so tightly. At his continued silence, she turned to look out the window, fighting back the tears. She was taken by surprise when Cole pulled the truck over and stopped it on the side of the road.

He looked at her, angry sparks shooting from his eyes as they raked her body. "That is complete and total bullshit, and you're a dumbass for believing it. Now stop trusting and believing some asshole who filled your head all those years ago with his lies. Trust and believe me when I say I see you Sydney. I see ALL of you, and I think you're beautiful, smart, and sexy, and he will, by no means, be the last experience you ever have. At least not if I have anything to say about it." He leaned over and pulled her towards him grabbing her lips with his in a harsh kiss.

When he broke away, they were both breathing hard, and Sydney stared at him in silent shock at his outburst. He shook his head at her again as he put the truck in drive without saying a word. Well, if she was honest, she thought she heard him mutter another dumbass under his breath but she couldn't be sure.

"We're almost there, and I AM mad enough to spit, so we'll finish this conversation later, and trust me, we will finish it."

Sydney sat in shocked silence for the rest of the drive, unable to quell the small flame of hope that was stirring in her heart.