Page 39 of Broken Heart

Ivy laughed and rolled her eyes. “I’m not some freak of nature, Cooper. I’m a woman, and we just excel at multi-tasking.” She turned her attention to me, smiled, and said, “I’m sure you know exactly what I mean, if what my brother told me is true, and you’re the owner of The Next Chapter.”

I returned the smile. Then, I didn’t know if it was the comfort I’d been feeling since I opened my door to Cooper or something else entirely, but I didn’t hesitate to share more than I thought I would in any other situation. “Yeah, I’ve had to handle more than one thing at a time there, especially now having a new hire. Lately, I’ve been pouring every ounce of my free time into work. ”

“That’s great. At least you were able to clear the time to make the event tonight. Cooper mentioned that this event is one that holds some significance in your life, so it’s wonderful you were able to make it this evening,” she returned.

I glanced up at Cooper, who took that opportunity to smile and wink at me. My knees got weak at the wink. “Yeah,” I murmured, my eyes still gazing into Cooper’s. “I’m very happy to be here with him.”

“Well, I’ve got to get back up front to take care of a few things, but I’ll come and say goodbye before I leave,” Ivy began. “And Cooper told me you’ll be joining all of us tomorrow, so we can catch up more then.”

I nodded at her. “That sounds wonderful.”

Ivy gave me one last look before turning her attention to Cooper. Then, with a look of approval on her face, she said, “Have a great time tonight.”

“We will. Thanks, Ivy.”

“Later,” she called out as she walked off and waved back at us.

Cooper tugged gently on my hand and urged me forward. And after we got inside the ballroom, which looked exceptional, Cooper led us toward the bar to grab some drinks.

And that’s when it happened. No sooner had Cooper given our drink order to the bartender, a voice I’d been dreading hearing called out my name.

11

SKYE

“Skye?”

My body had already tensed the first time I heard my name.

I had hoped I’d been hearing things that weren’t actually being said—perhaps my mind was playing tricks on me—but after hearing my name a second time, I realized it was time to face the music.

“Skye.”

Yep.

I had no choice now. That was three times in a row my name had been called, and the chance there was someone else standing nearby with the same name had to be close to zero.

Feeling uneasy, but knowing I just needed to get this over with, I turned around slowly and felt my stomach grow cold.

There they were. Two people I’d loved and trusted more than anything else in the world, and they never felt the same in return.

How could I have been so stupid to think they had actually cared about me?

Taking in the looks on their faces, it was obvious what I was witnessing. Maria was happy and hopeful; Simon looked rather smug.

That was the worst of it. Not only had they done what they’d done to me, but they had the audacity to stand in front of me after all this time, while expecting a baby together, and act like nothing bad had happened, like they hadn’t committed the ultimate betrayal.

Some small part of me wondered what they were thinking. Maria had made the attempt to approach me before today; she’d tried contacting me after it had all gone down. I’d gotten nothing from Simon ever since that email. That he hadn’t even tried to communicate even once with me, to prove that I had meant even just a little to him, had hurt. He’d picked up and moved on like I was merely a detour on the road he took to get to my best friend. It made me sick to think about it.

Instinctively, I shifted closer to Cooper and reached for his hand on my own. He didn’t hesitate to link his fingers with mine and support my weight as I leaned heavily into him. That one small gesture, not necessitating any words from him, provided me with a level of comfort and reassurance that I never imagined I’d be able to have.

When I made no move to speak—truthfully, I really didn’t have any desire to have an ounce of communication with either one of them‚ Maria took charge. It seemed she had no problem filling the silence. “We were hoping we’d see you here. I wasn’t sure if you were serious about coming when I saw you two weeks ago.”

I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing. She really didn’t think she’d done anything wrong, her tone indicating she felt not an ounce of shame for her disloyalty to our friendship, something I had wrongfully believed had the power to stand the test of time.

It was apparent she felt no remorse. And I was too stunned by it to be able to speak. How had I not known that this was the kind of woman she was? Was it there the whole time, and she was just that good at hiding it? Or was it simply that she’d done what she’d done, was now expecting a baby with my ex, and just thought it would be easy to be friendly again? She couldn’t have believed I could or would do that—maybe she was hoping I’d be willing to pretend.

Fortunately for me, Cooper must have realized I wasn’t going to be able to respond to what Maria said, and he didn’t hesitate to do what he’d promised to do for me. He let go of my hand, wrapped his arm around my back, and allowed his hand to settle on my opposite shoulder, so he could offer a reassuring squeeze. Then he said, “Well, there wasn’t a chance I was going to let her miss this. There was no reason for her to have to give it up in the first place.”

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