Page 108 of Just One Fake Date

“You’re not pushing me about that story,” Shannyn said finally.

“I told you. I like winning propositions.” He smiled when she laughed. “You’ll either tell me or not. I’m good with whatever you decide.”

“Are you really that patient?”

“No, but I trust you that much. You said you’d tell me, so I’ll wait. You will when you’re ready.” He could feel her watching him, as if she couldn’t figure him out, and he was relieved to be a little bit interesting to a woman who could confuse him completely when she chose.

“I met Cole in my last year at college,” she said softly, staring out the opposite window. Her voice was tight and Ty wondered whether he really wanted to know the story or not. He didn’t like his sense that her reaction to Ethan involved Cole. “We met at a party and just clicked. He was impulsive and energetic, in love with the world. He seemed sincere and down to earth, and when I was with him, everything felt shiny and new. When he kissed me, it just felt right.” Ty saw her trace the edge of her purse with one fingertip. “We slept together that first night and I don’t think we were apart much after that. It became serious fast. Maybe it was serious from the outset. I don’t know. In a week, we were inseparable. In a month, we’d decided to get married. A month after graduation, we were married and sharing a teeny apartment in Brooklyn.”

So, their night together hadn’t been the first time she’d been impulsive about intimacy. Ty could believe that whatever had happened with Cole, Shannyn feared that they were on the same trajectory. “What was his major?”

“Biology. He’d talked about med school, but didn’t get in and decided to teach instead. We couldn’t afford to both stay in school, so I worked and he went to teachers’ college. It was only for a year.”

“What did you do?”

“I worked in a bridal store in Brooklyn. My mom knew the owner and I knew the business. She got me the job. It was a good shop, busy, and I worked a ton of hours. More than full time, because we needed the money. We celebrated when Cole graduated and got a job right away.” She fell silent, as if lost in memories.

“Did you go for your certification next?”

“That was the plan, but once Cole got a job, he began dreaming about the future. He talked about starting a family and doing it sooner rather than later, so that we could keep up to our kids. We laughed about that. He said it would be easier, but that was a lie.” Shannyn took an audible breath and spoke in an undertone. “There wasn’t one damn easy thing about it.”

Ty drove and waited.

Eventually, she cleared her throat and continued. “We bought the house then. It was love at first sight for me, but he always wanted a more modern house. He made a big deal of ceding to me, finally admitting that it would be a great house for kids to grow up in, that they’d have the kind of childhood that everyone dreamed about. So, the house only had merit for him as a place for kids to grow up.”

“Not because you loved it,” Ty guessed.

Shannyn shook her head. “I guess that was a warning flag.”

“Another one. You abandoned your career plans for his.”

“I didn’t think of it that way. I didn’t think I was giving anything up. I thought I was playing for the team. Even when...” She frowned and fell silent.

“Even when?”

“I wanted to be married in Harte’s Harbor but he wanted to be married sooner, with less fuss.” She shrugged and her careful tone revealed that the decision was more important than she wanted him to believe. “We went to city hall.”

“I’ll bet your mom was disappointed.”

Shannyn nodded and her tone was neutral when she spoke. “It was years before she told me she’d been making my wedding dress for me.”

Ouch. Cole had really fucked that up.

“I’ll wait for the bit he gave up,” Ty said wryly, guessing that Cole had never surrendered anything.

Shannyn turned to look at him, but he kept his gaze fixed on the road. “You’ll wait a while,” she said quietly.

“That’s what I thought.” Ty knew he sounded hard but he didn’t care. His urge to be a reckoning to Cole was stronger than ever, and Shannyn had only started her story.

“I had three miscarriages in eighteen months,” she confessed and he was surprised one more time. “My GP said I was young, and that it wasn’t cause for concern. I have a tipped uterus, but she said that just made it harder, not impossible. She suggested we keep trying. She thought that stress might be a factor, so Cole insisted that I quit my job.” She took a breath. “From that moment on, every facet of my life was about conception. What time of the month was it? What was my temperature? What were the best positions for conception? What douche should I use to ensure implantation? What should I eat? What shouldn’t I eat?” Shannyn’s voice rose. “Everythingwas about getting pregnant. It was the only thing Cole and I talked about, and the elephant in the room when we didn’t talk about it. When I had another miscarriage, Cole booked us for fertility counseling.”

Without even asking her. Ty knew that anything he said about everyone on the team contributing to a decision wouldn’t be welcome—and anything he said at all might stop Shannyn’s story.

“It was three and a half years of hell,” she said. “There’s no other word for it. It’s intrusive and consuming, it destroys the intimacy and the spontaneity of your relationship, and every failure leaves you feeling even more worthless than dirt. It’s expensive, too—that’s why there’s no equity in the house. We spent every nickel.”

“Couldn’t someone have helped you out?”

She shook her head. “My mom didn’t have any money to lend us and I wouldn’t have asked her. She has to take care of her own retirement and security.”

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