“Gemma, you don’t deserve this,” Cole said. “I don’t know why you’re giving this guy the best of you when he’s clearly not doing the same. You deserve better.” He was surprised to discover he meant it. And while he knew Gemma didn’t love him, not really, he did want to see her with someone other than Max.
Nobody deserved to be mistreated like this.
She dragged the back of her arm across her nose, still crying. “I really messed up with you.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, you did.”
She found his eyes. “Would you ever want to start over? Try again?”
The ill-timed question hung there, and while his heart knew the answer, his sense of duty seemed to be arguing.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out, looked at it, and then looked at Cole. “It’s him.”
He didn’t say anything as she clicked a button, then held the phone to her ear.
“Gem, I’m so sorry.” The volume was up loud enough that Cole could hear Max on the other end. “Where are you?”
Gemma looked at him. “I’m with Cole.”
Just like that, he was plunged back into a world he’d tried to leave behind a thousand times. The world where he was the pawn in Gemma’s game with Max. Their relationship was the unhealthiest thing he’d ever seen, and the fact that Cole had ever been in the middle of it would always remain one of his biggest regrets.
He stood.
She pulled the phone away and covered it with her hand. “Where are you going?”
“I forgive you, Gemma,” he said. “But you need to get a little self-respect. That starts by dumping that guy.”
“And what, be alone?”
And that’s when he realized Gemma’s insecurities made her do what she did. She believed she wasn’t worthy of being loved. She believed that this—Max—was all she deserved. She sabotaged everything else. She thrived on the pain Max inflicted. She seemed to crave it.
“I heard someone say once that you’ll accept the love you think you deserve,” he said. “I don’t know why you don’t think you’re worth it, Gemma, but I hope someday someone comes along and you realize you deserve better than Max.”
She stood.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t the one to make you see it,” Cole said. “But being alone is better than this.”
40
The day after the fair, Charlotte woke up early and checked her phone.
Nothing. No calls or texts from Cole, leaving her with the memory of him and Gemma walking off into the darkness together. She’d returned to the table where Lucy and the rest of her new friends sat, and when her roommate asked what happened to Cole, it took everything in Charlotte’s power not to cry.
“Um, Gemma showed up,” she said, swallowing the lump at the back of her throat. “She was upset—crying.”
“And he left?” Lucy practically spat the words.
She nodded, aware that her lower lip was trembling.
A collective concern wound its way around the table—not for Gemma and not for Charlotte, but for Cole.
“This is what she does,” Betsy said. “She’s a snake.”
“She seemed genuinely upset,” Charlotte said, though she wasn’t sure why she was defending her. By now, even she was suspicious of Gemma’s motives.
“I’m sure she was,” Lucy said. “Max probably spent the weekend with his wife.”
They sat in silence for several seconds, then Lucy turned to Charlotte. “Are you okay?”
“I kind of want to go home,” she said. “But my car is at the studio.”
Lucy nodded. “I’ll take you.”
They made their way out of the tent into the darkness, and Lucy sighed. “You really like him, huh?”
Charlotte kept her eyes ahead of her as they walked around the outskirts toward the fair entrance. “If there’s a chance they can patch things up, they should. They were married.”
Lucy shook her head. “They might’ve been married, but Gemma was never faithful. Cole deserves better.”
Now, lying in bed, light streaming through the window, Charlotte tried to name the emotions bubbling up inside her. She’d let herself get too close to Cole, and that had been a mistake. He was clearly still sorting through his feelings for Gemma—and even she knew marriage vows meant something, even if they’d gotten divorced. Charlotte wasn’t about to come in between a possible reconciliation.
A knock on the door drew her attention. “Come in.”
The door opened, and she expected to see Lucy, but it was Cole standing on the other side.
She pulled the covers up to her neck. “Oh, hey.”
“Hey,” he said. “Can we talk? Downstairs, I mean?”
“How’d you get in here?”
“It’s Harbor Pointe,” he said. “No one locks their doors.”
That was a fact. Charlotte always locked it on her way to bed, but Lucy must not have done the same when she left for work. “Why didn’t you call?”
He watched her for a long moment. “I guess I wanted to see your face.”
“I’m not even out of bed yet,” she said.
He grinned. “Yeah, I timed it perfectly.”
She threw a pillow as he closed the door. “I’ll be downstairs,” he called from the hallway.
She hurried to make herself presentable—brushed her teeth, brushed her hair, put on her bra—then made her way downstairs and found him sitting on the porch.
She braced herself for whatever he was about to say. After all, he could be here to tell her that he and Gemma were going to try again. And she’d have to pretend that it wasn’t breaking her heart.
She pulled open the front door and found a cup of hot coffee from Hazel’s Kitchen waiting for her.
“What, no pity pastries?” she asked as she sat down next to him.
He produced a small white bag. “Give me some credit.”
She smiled, took the bag, opened it, and inhaled the aroma of a fresh cinnamon roll.
“I wanted to apologize in person for leaving so abruptly last night,” he said.
She rolled the top of the bag closed and set it aside. “It’s okay.”
“No,” he said, “it’s not. But I think it was good I talked to Gemma.”
“Yeah?” Charlotte dared a glance in his direction, bracing herself for whatever emotion she might find on his face, but she found this particular look unreadable.
He held his cup of coffee with both hands, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “I think I actually forgave her.”
Charlotte stilled. “Wow, that’s a big deal.”
“You have no idea,” he said. He took a drink.
She looked away as a car drove by. Down the block, a jogger rounded the corner and disappeared.
“Gemma kind of tricked me into marrying her,” he said.
Charlotte remained still, not wanting to spook him. Was she finally going to get the rest of the story?
“I didn’t know it, but when I started dating her, she and Max had already been an item for several months,” he said. “She found me one night and struck up a conversation with the sole purpose of making Max jealous. He was at the same restaurant with his wife.”