Page 75 of This Means War

I sigh. “I’m not honestly sure I even want to winanymore.”

“Really?” Lydia looks at me in surprise. “But…it’s your dream.”

“I thought it was my dream,” I admit, “but lately I’ve been wondering if being a politician is actually just something I was doing to try and make my dad proud.” I take a deep breath. “Growing up I only ever got my parents’ attention for excelling at things, but even then, my dad’s clients always took precedence over me. Lately I’ve been feeling like maybe that’s what this was all about for me…becoming a politician so my dad would have to pay attention to me. That’s why I fought against including him in my campaign, because I wanted to show him I could do it on my own. Having him help, well, there’s no way he’ll be proud of me now, even if I win.” I close my eyes, not wanting to see her reaction to this confession. “It’s pathetic, I know.”

A second later I feel Lydia shift next to me, then move herself between my legs so that her own legs straddle my waist, her stomach pressing up against my own. She places her hands on either side of my face. “Cole, open your eyes and look at me,” she commands. When I do as she says, I see her beautiful green eyes staring straight at me. “You…are…not…pathetic,” she enunciates each word. “And the good news of the gospel is that even though you may never feel fully loved by your earthly father, when you get to know your heavenly Father, you’ll realize He has always fully loved you and will always fully love you.” She leans forward and kisses me gently on the mouth. “And also, I love you,” she adds, “and I will always love you.” She cocks her head. “But not in a Whitney Houston sort of way, because that song is mega-depressing.”

I laugh, and it’s my turn to kiss her.

“Are you kidding me? You’d really rather kiss her than me? I know she’s pregnant or whatever, but still…eww.” An angry voice breaks our kiss, and we both turn to see Ashley standing there, high-heels in one hand, phone in the other, a glare on her made-up face. Even from a few feet away I can make out the Find My app open on her phone, she actually tracked me here. Is she insane? “You’re a real idiot, Cole!” Ashley exclaims. “So just so you know, our deal is off!”

My blood runs cold. How could I have forgotten to tell Lydia what Ashley is now about to tell her. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I have to act fast.

“We have no deal, Ashley,” I say forcefully as I hop to my feet. “We never had a deal! That was all in your head.”

“Do you know that I got fired today?” Ashley continues as if I haven’t spoken. “Saul fired the firm, so Harrison fired me. He seemed to think I had something to do with you quitting, and he wants you back so he can try and get Saul back.” She stalks toward Lydia, scowling down at her. “This is all your fault. You swooped in and wrecked all my plans. You wrecked my life!”

“That’s enough,” I step between them. “You’re not going to talk to my wife that way.”

“Your wife,” Ashley snarls. “I was supposed to be your wife! She was just for practice!”

“What?” Lydia says at the same time that I shout, “That’s enough, Ashley! You know that’s not true.”

“He didn’t tell you?” Ashley’s rage turns into a catlike smile. “Well, isn’t that interesting.”

“I didn’t tell her,” I say, “because it has nothing to do with her.”

“Nothing to do with her?” Ashley laughs. “I think I’d want to know if my husband had proposed to another woman just a few months before marrying me and that woman had told him he needed a practice marriage before she’d marry him.” Her eyes find Lydia’s. “Wouldn’t you agree, Lydia?”

I suck in a breath. “Lydia—” I begin, but her laughter cuts me off.

“Are you… are you laughing?” Ashley says incredulously. “Did you not hear what I said? He proposed to me first! You’re just a practice marriage!”

Lydia just laughs harder. “Oh my gosh,” she says through laughter. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. A practice marriage! Who says that to someone?!” She shakes her head at Ashley reprovingly. “You do realize we only got married because Cole got me pregnant, right? So I’m pretty sure that me being his practice marriage never factored into it.” She gasps. “Oh my gosh, is that why you didn’t tell her about us right away?” She looks at me now, understanding dawning. “You didn’t want her to think that I was that practice marriage shesuggested?”

“Yes.” I nod, relief pouring over me. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell her.”

“I thought that maybe you were still in love with her,” Lydia admits.

“I don’t think I ever really loved her,” I explain. “I thought I did, but then you came back into my life, and I discovered what love really is.”

“Oh my gosh, gag me!” Ashley screeches. She shoots Lydia a scathing look, “I hope you’re happy with your never-going-to-be-a-politician husband, because I for one am going to go find someone better.” She tosses her hair and turns to go back down the sand dune, stumbling a little in her haste.

“Maybe your friend Deb has some ideas,” Lydia calls after her. “After all, she has a lot of politician friends. Oh wait, most of those are probably enemies.”

Ashley turns and rolls her eyes. “Yeah I get it, you know I was the source for the Deb’s Deets article. What are you going to do about it? Everything in that post was true.”

“No, it wasn’t,” I speak up, something having just occurred to me. “You see Lydia did get into law school. So some people might call your statement that she didn’t, libel.”

“What?” Ashley frowns. “If she got in then why would Delia tell me she didn’t?”

“Delia told you that?” I say in outrage.

“Did you not know that she was my source?” Ashley cottons on to this. “I guess sometimes youcan’t even trust family.”

“Actually,” Lydia corrects, “I think a better statement would be that sometimes you can’t even trust friends, because I’m pretty sure Delia had no idea you would take that information and run to the press with it. And I’m also pretty sure that’s why the two of you aren’t friends anymore.”

Ashley glowers, but I smile over at Lydia. She’s got this whole thing handled and it’s pretty fun to watch.

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