Kristin wanted to refute him, but knew that she couldn’t. She was teaching and working in a florist shop, when she wanted to be building a nursery with a beautiful garden for customers to browse around and get ideas from. She lived in her childhood home, when she longed for an old farmhouse like Evie and Kyle had bought. She wanted Cole, but she didn’t trust him not to hurt her again, so she chose to be alone.
“My life is okay,” she said. “I’m happy.”
“I wish I was,” Cole admitted, surprised as the words came from his lips. “I’m ready for my tour to be over. I know I did the right thing and the army has been good for me. I’m ready for the next phase of my life now. But, I signed up for my tour, so I’ve got to complete it.”
“And, then you’ll be able to go to college, to study engineering the way you planned,” she reminded him.
“I’m not sure I want that anymore, either,” Cole said thoughtfully. “I am part of an engineering corps now, and I think there might be something else I’d enjoy more.”
“So, what do you want?” Kristin asked, putting her elbows onto the crisp white tablecloth, and resting her chin in her hands.
“I want to come home. I still want to go to college, but not for engineering. I want to do something quiet, something that has meaning. Hey, maybe I could help you build your garden,” he joked. But, as soon as he said it, he knew he had unwittingly spoken the truth. It was exactly what he wanted to do.
“I could use a laborer,” she teased. “Are you happy for me to boss you around and tell you what to do?”
“Well, yeah! Sure,” he said. “But, all joking aside, I mean it, Kris. I have money saved up. If you looked for the perfect place while I finish my tour, I would like to buy in and be your partner. If anyone can make something like that work, it’s you. I’m good at organizing things, and was always good with numbers. I’m thinking of getting a business degree with a focus on entrepreneurship”
“You really are serious,” Kristin said, incredulously. Cole could see that she was tempted, but there was something holding her back from saying yes.
“I wouldn’t expect anything more from you than friendship and the business partnership,” he assured her. He thought that was what she needed to hear, so was stunned when a flicker of pain flashed across her pretty face.
“I know,” she said softly. “It’s a lot for a girl to think about, before she’s even eaten supper.” She smiled weakly at him, and her eyes pleaded with him to drop it. “I’ll think about it, but let’s just enjoy dinner for now.”
The waiter emerged from the kitchen with piping hot plates of pasta at that very moment. Cole could see the relief in Kristin’s eyes, and wished he hadn’t blurted out his ridiculous spur of the moment ideas like that. The evening had been going so well, and now he had ruined it.
He’d offered Kristin her dream, but with a high price tag attached. Just because he wanted to be around her all the time, didn’t mean that she wanted anything more than friendship from him. He had to remember that it was quite possible she didn’t feel the same way he did.
15
Work was busy the next day, so Kristin had no time to dwell on Cole’s offer to come in as a business partner in her nursery—the business that didn’t even exist except in her dreams. Working with someone required trust, just as much as being in a romantic relationship did. Though Cole seemed to be reliable and honest since he’d been back home, she knew he could keep secrets better than most. Could she truly place her trust in him? Could she let him back into her life?
“Kris, Jeremy’s here for you,” Martha called.
“I’ll be right through,” Kris replied, taking off her apron and washing her hands quickly.
Jeremy was stood, holding a small bunch of irises, looking a bit sheepish. “I’m sorry, Kristin,” he said. “Will you forgive me, and accept this peace offering?”
She moved to give him a hug, and took the flowers from him. “Of course. Now, I am really hoping you’re here to take me to lunch?”
“I am,” he said, then turned back to Martha, “I’ll have her back as quick as I can.”
“You brought me lunch, Jeremy, you can keep her as long as you like. Well as long as she’s back in forty-five minutes as we have a wedding in just three days!”
Jeremy herded Kristin into their favorite coffee shop, and requested their usual favorites from the counter. Kristin, thought about the difference between this approach, and Cole’s the night before, and wondered if Jeremy had ever asked her if she had changed her mind and wanted something different. She couldn’t think of a single time he had. She accepted the plain latte he offered her, and wondered what the caramel macchiato might taste like. In a moment of impetuousness, she jumped up, and butted in to order the drink she really wanted.
“But, you always have a latte?” Jeremy said, looking at her as if she had grown two heads.
“I know, but today I want a caramel macchiato,” she said, settling back down opposite him at the table.
“I heard that you went to Austin Sunday night,” Jeremy said, his eyes down, and his tone accusing. “You said you were tired.”
“And I was,” Kristin said.
“So tired you went out with Cole Wright, rather than spending time with the friends who have been her for you through everything?”
“Yes,” Kristin said, exasperated. “Jeremy, you’re not my keeper. You’re not even my boyfriend. I am a grown woman, and if I choose to go out with someone other than you, it does not mean that I care for you any less. It just means I want to do the thing that the other person has suggested.”
“Yes, yes, of course you can,” Jeremy agreed, clearly taken aback by this new, angry Kristin. She placed her hand over his, where it lay on the table between them.
“Jeremy, please, we need to stop fighting over this,” she said. “Cole is here for just a few more days, and then he’ll be gone again.” She wondered if she should tell him about Cole’s proposal, but decided against it. Jeremy really didn’t see anything clearly when Cole was involved. This was a decision she would have to make without any input from her childhood friend.
Kristin was oddly glad to go back to work after lunch. It was exhausting having to deal with all Jeremy’s outbursts whenever Cole’s name was mentioned. She promised stop in to see him before she went to the rehearsal dinner the next evening, and went back inside the store. She busied herself with Evie’s bouquet at the workbench in the flower store. It truly was one of the most creative projects she had ever had, and she was really enjoying it. She was so lost in her endeavors that she didn’t hear the door bell sound, heralding the arrival of Evelyn to do her final checks on how progress was coming along.
“Oh, Kris, it is so much better than I ever imagined,” Evie sighed, as she snuck up behind Kristin and wrapped her arms around her waist. “You’re so creative.”
“I am glad you like it,” Kristin said, relieved. Brides could be so touchy about the weirdest things, so it was always a relief when they liked what you had created for them.
“Martha’s showing Cole the flowers for the boutonnieres for the groomsmen and I was supposed to wait until you brought it out, but I couldn’t stand it,” Evie gushed.
“We should go up to the front. You’ll want to see everything else,” Kristin said. “We’ve just got the arrangements set up for the church to do, on the day. Your table pieces and the bridesmaids’ crowns and posies are ready to have the flowers placed, but we’ll do that on Saturday so they don’t wilt. The flower girls’ baskets are all ready.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Evie said as they made their way back into the store.
Cole was standing by the counter, a look of admiration on his face, as Martha showed him the trays and boxes full of arrangements. Kristin nodded a greeting, he smiled back. She really wished she knew what it was that was causing the rift between him and Jeremy. She didn’t remember them being so at odds in school, despite Cole being super-popular and Jeremy being such a geek.<
br />
“What’s up, Kris?” Cole said. Kristin hated that he always knew when she had something on her mind. She hated it that he had cheated on her, and had never even considered confessing it. She hated that she was at odds with her friend, just because this man had thrust himself back into her life.
“What happened between you and Jeremy to make him hate you so much?” she burst out suddenly, unable to keep it in any longer. She was tired, her body ached all over, and she was fed up of being in the dark about everything. She need to know what had really happened, why Cole had cheated on her – and why Jeremy hated Cole so much for doing so.
Martha and Evelyn looked at her, then at Cole, then at one another, and tactfully went to the back to look at more flowers.
“Between me and Jeremy?” Cole asked, looking confused, his brow furrowed and his lips pursed. “Nothing, as far as I know, other than the mean things the football team did in high school.”
“Don’t play the innocent. Surely you have to know that he told me about you and Lindy-Sue.” Kristin said accusingly.
“Me and Lindy-Sue?” Cole asked, still looking utterly bewildered.
“Jeremy told me he saw you kissing her under the bleachers after the homecoming game,” Kristin said. “Said it was pretty hot and heavy.”
“Ah, so that was the real reason you dumped me,” Cole said, shaking his head as his furrowed brows relaxed. “That makes so much more sense now.”
“What do you mean more sense now?”
“I just never believed that you broke up with me because I sprung my final decision on you so close to when I was going to leave. I knew you were reluctant to leave Sandy Cove, but I didn’t think you’d really use that as an excuse to not be with me.”
“Well, the truth is, those things were true. I was angry at you for keeping your decision a secret. When you told me you were going after you’d said you were just thinking about it, I felt lied to. But I also knew about Lindy-Sue and your decision made me just cut my losses.” Kristin felt better about telling the truth, though the whole thing still hurt so badly—even after seven years.
“Okay. Fine. But the Lindy-Sue thing… I’m still in the dark about that.”
“You mean you didn’t make out with Lindy-Sue?” Kristin asked him, sinking down onto the floor by the counter, letting it take the weight of her body. She sat there, on the floor, looking up at the man she loved, despite her own better judgment, wondering if he was still lying to her, or if she had gotten it wrong. Maybe Jeremy had misconstrued what he saw? Maybe Lindy-Sue had thrown herself at him, and he had been trying to fend her off?
“Never. Why would I do something like that when I had the best girl in school?” Cole protested.
“I’ve often wondered why you’d spend time with someone with her reputation…” Kristin paused for a minute, not acknowledging Cole’s attempt to flatter her. “Well, not unless she would give you something I wouldn’t.”
“Kris, I loved you, I would never have hurt you that way. I never wanted anyone but you. And, if you remember, after the homecoming game I didn’t leave your side all night.”
Kristin squinted, trying to remember the details of that night and from her memory, they were together most of the night. But there was a time, immediately after the game when they hadn’t been together. There was still a chance that he had been with Lindy-Sue.
“But, were you under the bleachers, just after the game? Was there something that could have been misconstrued?” Kristin insisted, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks. She wanted to believe that Jeremy hadn’t lied to her, that there was a reasonable explanation as to why the two men had such conflicting stories.
“No. As soon as the game finished, I got changed, I spent some time with my folks – and you, and then we went to the dance,” Cole explained. “How can I make you see I never was with Lindy-Sue at all?”
“You have. There’s nothing else to say. Now I have some rather unpleasant questions I need to ask Jeremy,” Kristin said sadly, as Cole sank down beside her, and cradled her against him.
She sobbed. He rubbed her arm in a soothing way, crooning to her as he pressed kisses into her hair. All the hurt from the last seven years came pouring out as she cried. Then the added hurt over what was probably a betrayal by a friend she trusted made it all worse.
She cried for the lost years. She cried for the broken relationship with the love of her life. She cried for the friendship that might be over.
16
Kristin didn’t know what to think, or do about what she had learned. She threw herself into her work, trying to put off having to confront Jeremy. The anger inside her refused to subside, though, and so immediately when she finished work, she headed to Jeremy’s house to find out why he would have done such a hurtful thing.
He answered the door with a grin, clearly delighted to see her. But his face fell when he saw the hurt in her eyes. “Why, Jeremy?” she asked simply.
“What has Wright told you now,” Jeremy said, but his eyes were flicking all over the place, he seemed unable to look her in the eye. “Remember, he’s the one that cheated on you, and with the town tramp, too.”
“Did he? Did he really, Jeremy? Or was it something you made up? Cole says he wasn’t ever anywhere near the bleachers that day, and I believe him – as there are people who can back up what he says. But there is nobody else who saw him with Lindy-Sue is there? And she conveniently left town just two days after graduation, so I can’t exactly ask her, can I?” Kristin spat.
“He would only have hurt you more,” Jeremy said. “You would never have coped with him being sent overseas. Every time he went away you would have been in bits.” He looked at her, his eyes pleading with her to see his point of view, but he wasn’t telling her the truth, she knew it. She knew him so well, knew every expression, every nuance in his voice.
“Why did you do it, Jeremy?” she asked again, crossing her arms and tapping her foot on the porch.
He stared at her. “What’s happened to you? You’d believe him, over me? Did you forget I’m your oldest friend?”
“Some friend, if you’ve been lying to me all this time,” Kristin said spitefully.
He paused, looking wounded. “Okay,” he said finally. “I was scared that you would give in, that you’d follow him wherever he went. Going into the military was madness, you said it yourself, and you didn’t want to be a military wife – left behind, never knowing if the man you loved was alive or dead. I had to make sure you stayed true to yourself.”
“Jeremy, you know, I think you truly believe that you did it for my benefit. But, I think you did it because it meant you would be the only man in my life once he was gone. I think you hoped that with Cole out of the way that I would turn to you? I think, you believed that Cole was the only thing standing between me falling in love with you,” Kristin said accusingly.
The look of shame and surprise on his face told her that she had finally gotten to the heart of it.
“You really did, didn’t you?” she said more softly, almost feeling sorry for him. “That’s why you’ve been so angry and rude since Cole got back in town.” She paced a few steps, thinking. “But, Jeremy, he’s been gone seven years and I have never so much as given you a single indication that I might feel anything more for you than friendship. I never gave you any encouragement for that before or after he left.”
Jeremy still looked away from her, miserable and horrified that he’d been found out.
“And, now, I don’t know if we can even be friends again. You know how much honesty matters to me, and I just can’t trust anything you’ve ever said to me now.”
Tears welled up in Jeremy’s eyes, but he still didn’t utter a word. He turned on his heel, and slammed the door behind him. Kristin heaved a long and drawn out sigh. She had trusted the wrong boy all those years ago. She hadn’t even given Cole the chance to explain himself, and in the end all three of them had paid the price for it.
She went home, heading str
aight up to her bedroom, where she went to the closet. She reached up to the top shelf and pulled down a battered shoebox. She took it to the bed, and began to rummage through the contents.
Everything Cole had ever written to her, every card he had sent, every trinket he had bought her was inside. But, what she was looking for was the letter she had written to him, just before he left. She pulled it out, and began to read it. She cried as she realized how young and foolish she had been.
17
“So it was Jeremy that got in the way by lying to you?” Evelyn said, cradling a cup of hot chocolate as they sat around the kitchen table. “I can’t believe that jerk would have come up with such a scheme!”
“Well, he did. And, if my guess is right, he did it because he’s been in love with Kris all along. I’m sure he convinced himself he was doing it for the right reasons,” Cole said calmly.
“I cannot believe that my hot-head brother is taking this so well,” Evie marveled. “I would have expected you to be over there as soon as you heard to knock his block off!”
“I kind of feel sorry for him, don’t you? He was never going to get Kris, even if she hated me. No matter what he did, he would have still lost. I don’t think I would have tried what he did if I’d been in his shoes, but I’d sure have been trying to think of something.”
“Men, you’re truly a peculiar breed,” Evie said with a grin.
“I just wish she’d said something at the time. We could have fixed everything, so easily if I’d just known.”
“Do you think she would have gone with you, if she’d known it was a lie?”
“We’ll never know. I was convinced something else was going on, but I didn’t have a clue what it could be. It’s pointless and solves nothing to worry about that now, though. Honestly, Jeremy’s intervention probably hurried things up, but I think it was inevitable under the circumstances,” Cole admitted sadly.
A Christmas Surprise (Second Chance Christmas) Page 7