“You can stop being nice to me,” she chuckled sadly. “I assure you, I don’t deserve it.”
Immediately I was filled with a sense of dread as I wondered what she had done, but my heart also went out to her.
“Why don’t you just tell me why you’re here, and we’ll see how much I hate you afterwards?” I joked, but she didn’t laugh. I sighed audibly as I looked out at the trees in front of the house.
“I knew Cole was getting married this weekend,” she told me haltingly. “I just… I needed to hear it from him.”
“That he’s getting married?” I wondered, slightly confused. It seemed more than a little crazy to drive all this way simply to confirm that fact.
“No, not that,” she said, hanging her head and refusing to look in my direction. “I needed to hear him say that he didn’t want me.”
Oh, God help me. I think this very pregnant woman came here with designs on trying to steal my fiancé, or confuse him, or who knows what. How am I supposed to deal with this?
I can’t be nice.
Impossible – I can’t.
“This is not happening,” I whispered under my breath, laughing a bit at my misfortune.
“I can only imagine what you must think of me,” she whimpered pathetically, and I looked over and studied her carefully.
“Honestly, all I’m thinking right now is that you’re not nearly as perfect as I thought you were, what with all the snot and everything,” I told her in the most tolerant voice I could muster. She immediately started laughing and put her head in her hands.
“I know I completely deserve that,” she said. “Whatever you wind up saying to me, I definitely have coming.”
Pop came running up to us about then, and I was extremely glad for the distraction, because it gave me a moment to think. Naturally, I was fairly angry about the fact that she had come here, but the more I thought about it, the more I recognized a different emotion taking over: pity. I honestly, completely felt sorry for her. How could I be upset with her for being in love with Cole, when I myself knew how impossible it was not to fall in love with Cole? No, it didn’t make me feel any better about what she was doing, but it made me see her in a different light.
“Well, I think it’s a pretty well-established rule that you can’t hit a pregnant woman, so you might have to deal with the sarcastic comments,” I finally blurted. She looked over at me sadly, and I took a deep breath. “What about your husband?”
“Brian?” she asked, starting to cry once again. “Brian’s so wonderful, and I love him, I really do. It’s like I’m two different people inside. Memphis Steph knows I belong with Brian. What am I going to tell him about this, though? I’ve made such a huge mistake.”
“You’ll just tell him you were feeling nostalgic, and you wanted to visit your hometown,” I offered. “You haven’t done anything yet, other than acting insane. God knows I’ve done enough insane things in my own life to give you somewhat of a pass on that.” She chuckled as she stared over at me.
“Why do you have to be so nice?” she wondered. “It would be a lot easier to dislike you if you would just tell me off.”
“Trust me, that card is still on the table,” I teased, shaking my head. We both turned our attention to the driveway then, where we heard Ted’s truck before we saw it. She tensed noticeably beside me, and I wondered if she thought it was Cole. As he came closer, she let out a sigh and clasped her hands around her knees.
“Is that Mr. Parker?” she asked, to which I nodded. “This is so embarrassing.” He pulled his truck all the way up to the house and then started walking slowly toward us, with Pop spinning around him in circles.
“I just needed to grab one of Cole’s tools from the garage,” he told me, as though he had to explain his presence.
“No problem,” I assured him, glancing over at Stephanie. “Ted, you remember Stephanie, don’t you?”
“It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Parker,” she stated nervously.
“You, too,” he said simply. “Everything okay?” I knew he was referring to the evidence on her face of the tears that she had been shedding, and I suddenly felt the need to protect her.
“Oh, you know,” I informed him, holding up my hand sideways as though I was telling him a secret, “pregnant women and their hormones.” I rolled my eyes for effect.
“Yikes,” he replied, staring so intently at me that I felt sure he knew I was lying. I instinctively reached over and put my arm around Stephanie so he would be assured everything was okay. After a moment that seemed like it took an eternity, he finally turned away and went to retrieve whatever he needed from the garage. Before we knew it, he was headed back up the driveway.
“I don’t get all of this,” I told her as soon as he was gone. “If you were so hung up on Cole, why didn’t you just tell him a long time ago?”
“I really thought I was doing the right thing,” she assured me. “When he asked me to marry him, I didn’t want to say no. It was all a game I was playing. I know he thinks I was doing him this great favor, but it wasn’t like that at all.” She paused to look out at the trees, and I continued to watch her somewhat cautiously. “When he came back from college, he was just so different. It wasn’t even the way he talked or acted, but almost like his personality changed. There was an edge to him – to the point of seeming frantic. I knew there was something really bothering him, and I could tell he didn’t really want to marry me. Wow, I wanted to marry him though. More than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
Dear God, help me, I don’t know if I can take much more of this.
“But you said no,” I replied, and she nodded, another tear escaping down her cheek.
“Yes, because I thought he would go to Nashville for a couple of months, get whatever it was out of his system, and come to his senses. I thought he would come back to me. I thought we were meant to be together.”
“And he didn’t come back,” I said quietly.
“No, not for me, at least,” she whispered hoarsely. “Eventually, it seemed pathetic not to give up.”
“I’m sorry, Stephanie,” I attempted to be comforting, but she laughed coarsely.
“Please, do not feel sorry for me,” she demanded. “I don’t know why I came here, really, but I do know you didn’t deserve it.”
“No, I hope not,” I agreed, “but it isn’t hard for me to put myself in your shoes. If I thought Cole was going to marry someone else, I’m sure I would be doing something equally crazy.”
“I’m usually not crazy,” she stated with certainty, followed by a chuckle. “Listen to me try to defend myself to you. Some mom I’m going to be, huh?”
“You know, I just got back from helping my sister-in-law with her newborn, and when I got there she was sobbing pretty much like you were a few minutes ago,” I teased. “I think you’ll do fine.” She laughed and seemed to cheer up just a bit.
“I didn’t even pause to think before I left this morning,” she said. “I haven’t eaten, and I’m starving. Yep - great mom.”
“Well, I would offer to cook you something, but when the authorities showed up I wouldn’t want to have to explain how you died,” I joked. “I would be fine with taking you into town for lunch, though, if you think you can pull yourself together.”
“You would do that?” she asked incredulously. I stood up and extended my hand, helping to pull her to her feet.
“Yeah, as long as you stop crying. And, no more trying to steal my fiancé. I have a hard enough time keeping him as it is. Besides, any funny business, and all those rules about hitting a pregnant woman are out the window.”
“Point taken,” she agreed, and I took her inside to clean up before we headed into town. After a few minutes calming herself in the guest bathroom, she emerged looking every bit the perfect Stephanie I remembered. In fact, when we walked into the café a short while later, I felt almost dowdy next to her. She was immediately greeted by a couple of people that were in high school with her, and I found u
s a booth next to the window. When the waitress walked over, she looked at me very quizzically, and I knew instinctively that she was wondering what the two of us were doing together. In response, I gave her a cheery smile and asked her to bring me some water.
After I ordered a salad, Stephanie proceeded to do the same, adding on a plate of onion rings. That made me laugh, and she smiled guiltily and told me they were for the baby. After that, she seemed to relax a little.
“So, tell me what Cole was like in high school,” I instructed, thinking that she might not really want to talk about that stuff with me, but she did try to steal my fiancé, so I was entitled.
“What was Cole like?” she repeated, looking up at the ceiling. “Fun, goofy, never serious about anything…except baseball. He was always serious about baseball.”
“And what did you do for fun?” I wanted to know.
“Just normal teenager stuff, I guess,” she reminisced. “I tagged along to all of his games and practices and such, and we hung out with our friends a lot. Rachel was almost always with us, it seemed. Jeff, too, although I had no idea he was interested in Rachel at the time. It’s funny how I can see it now, though, when I look back.”
“Sara, too?”
“Of course, Sara was my best friend. She was the reason I decided to go to Memphis after…everything. She was a nurse there.”
“Right, because that’s where she met Tony,” I said with a chuckle, remembering the stories they had told around the campfire. “What do you think about Tony, by the way?” She bit her lip and thought for a minute as though she was trying to be diplomatic.
“Tony is definitely unique, I’ll say that,” she finally stated. “He and Sara bring out the best in each other, though, so you can’t find fault there.”
“No, I think they’re hilarious,” I told her, and she just smiled. She didn’t have time to answer, because I felt someone slide in next to me, and instinctively I knew it was Jake. It seemed that he always managed to be at the café when I was there, somehow.
“Ladies, I’m very curious as to whether Parker knows this is happening,” he queried with a smirk. “I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been quite so easygoing and lighthearted this morning if he did.”
“Two people can have lunch together without you making a federal case over it,” I jokingly told him.
“I seriously doubt Parker would see it that way, heartbreaker,” he insisted. “Steph, how’s it going? Haven’t seen you in forever.”
“Good, Jake,” she stated. “Everything’s good. What’s with the whole ‘heartbreaker’ thing?” I rolled my eyes as Jake chuckled quietly.
“Oh, that goes back to the morning Camdyn and I met,” he said. “Me and the guys were at Rosalie’s eating breakfast, and we were just talking about ordinary things, when all of a sudden there she was on the TV. I’ll never forget the look on her face when that news lady said, ‘There’s a heartbreaker on the loose.’ The name just kind of stuck for me after that.”
“You were on the news?” Stephanie asked, looking intently at me.
“Oh, she doesn’t know?” Jake laughed loudly, causing a couple other diners to glance over at us. “Our friend Camdyn here is the queen of proposals. She apparently was proposed to at the World Series, which was all over the TV. Then, she got proposed to right before she came here by some guy who had arranged some kind of choir behind him. And of course, she managed to snare Parker after…what was it, heartbreaker? Two, three weeks?”
“Come on, Jake, I didn’t snare anybody,” I insisted, but Stephanie gave me a very quizzical look.
“Three weeks, seriously?” she wanted to know. “Is that true?”
“Something like that,” I agreed. “That other stuff, though, it isn’t as bad as he made it sound.”
“I’m sure the guys you dumped didn’t see it that way,” he joked, standing up. “Well, I’ve got to go. Steph, take care of yourself. Heartbreaker, if I don’t see you before then, I guess I’ll see you at the wedding.”
As he walked off, I gave Stephanie a wary grin, and she chuckled under her breath.
“I see Jake hasn’t changed much,” she said quietly, to which I widened my eyes slightly. “All that stuff he was saying about other guys… You do love Cole, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I stated sincerely. “More than anything.”
“Well, you certainly put on a good show of it, if not,” she whispered. “Every time you mention him, this look comes over your face.”
“Yes, I’m afraid I’m not the best at hiding my emotions,” I admitted. “We probably should go. If I know Jake, and I think I do, he’s already on the phone with Cole telling him all about who he ran into at the café.”
“Well, let me pay for lunch,” she insisted. “It’s the least I can do.”
“Yes, that is the least you can do,” I teased, making sure I smiled so she knew I was kidding.
Okay, partially kidding, at least.
As it turned out, by the time we pulled into Cole’s driveway, someone had definitely alerted Cole to the fact that Stephanie and I were together, because his truck was parked next to the house. As I put the car in park, we both watched as Cole stepped out onto the porch. He walked to the edge of the steps and then he stopped, watching us cautiously.
“Camdyn, before we get out, I just have to say how sorry I am,” she started. “Maybe I am a little hormonal, or something. Not that I’m blaming my actions on that at all… You know, I think maybe I just needed to put a ‘closed’ stamp on that section of my life, and I hadn’t been able to do it before. Right now, though, looking at Cole looking at you, that’s enough to close it forever.” She paused for the briefest of moments before she continued.
“He looks good.” She chuckled when I glared at her. “What I mean is, he looks like a man in love, and that looks good on him.”
“I’ll take that,” I said, giving her a slight smile.
“I know that, given the situation, you and I will never really be friends,” she went on, “but I think in another world, we could be.”
“Yes, we definitely could,” I agreed before opening the door. The closer we walked to Cole, the more worried he looked, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. As I made it to the last of the steps, he took my face in both his hands and looked deeply into my eyes.
“Okay?” he whispered, and I nodded.
“Yes, I’m okay.” He kissed me on the forehead and stared at me one more time, and I gave him a wink and a little smile. He smiled in return and shook his head at me.
“You are a crazy woman,” he chuckled as I stepped back from him. I glanced over at Stephanie, and she managed to smile at me as well.
“I think I’ll just go upstairs and finish putting my stuff away,” I told them, opening the door. “You two have things to talk about.”
Upstairs in Cole’s bedroom, I tried not to think about the two of them. I felt fairly certain after the time we spent together today that she wouldn’t attempt to throw herself at him, but the fact remained that they did have a history. He had asked her to marry him, after all, whether he regretted it now or not.
It only took a few minutes to put the remainder of my clothes in the closet, and then I slid my suitcases against the closet wall as well. When I was completely finished, I walked over to the windows and stared out at the land behind the house. Knowing they were outside was starting to drive me a little crazy, but I didn’t want to look like the jealous fiancée and go down to check on them.
Eventually, I heard the sound of the front door being shut, and I took a deep breath, knowing that Cole hadn’t seen Stephanie in years, and remaining a little unsure what effect her presence would have on him. I heard him taking the stairs two at a time, and I turned at the windows, waiting for his appearance in the doorway. When he showed his face at last, all I could do was look at him expectantly.
“How in the world did you do that?” he breathed, sitting down on the bed and raking his right hand through h
is hair. “I keep imagining what I would do if Trey showed up here, and I can’t come up with a scenario that doesn’t end with me knocking him flat.” I moved around the bed and sat next to him, studying him for any sign of an adverse reaction.
“Well, I couldn’t very well hit a pregnant woman,” I stated.
“You know what I mean,” he insisted, looking slightly like he had seen a ghost. “It wasn’t just that you didn’t tell her off. Steph said you were really nice to her, and Dad… He said he could tell something was up, but you were covering for her.”
“It really wasn’t a big deal,” I reiterated.
“Cam, you took her to lunch!” The intent look on his face made me slightly nervous.
“She was hungry,” I stated simply. He placed his hand on my cheek and drew himself within inches of my face, those deep brown eyes impossible to avoid.
“Do you have any idea how much I love you?” he asked, sliding closer on the bed.
“No, tell me,” I whispered, causing him to chuckle.
“I love you so much, I can’t even think of anything to say to you right now.”
“So don’t say anything,” I told him.
He didn’t. Instead, he leaned over and gently kissed me, taking my breath away. His hand moved to circle my waist, and I responded by wrapping my hand firmly against his upper arm, feeling the muscles beneath my fingers. Kissing me deeper, he leaned me back against the bed until I could feel the entire length of his body pressed against mine.
Hmm… Cole hasn’t kissed me like this since he started that ridiculous stuff about not being alone.
Oh, no.
Ever so briefly, the thought flickered through my mind that this was rapidly going to get out of hand, but I pushed it away as quickly as it came. There was no part of me that wanted him to stop, and I wasn’t about to be all noble at that moment.
A Reason to Be Alone (The Camdyn Series Book 2) Page 28