Page 26 of Echoes of Us
Before Ashley could respond, his gaze locked with hers across the room.The recognition in his eyes was instant, electric, and entirely wrong.He looked at her like a predator spotting prey, his smile sharpening at the edges as he deliberately traced his eyes down her body.
Heat bloomed across her skin – familiar and foreign all at once.Her body remembered him even if this version wasn't truly him.She watched as he pushed off from the counter, ignoring the blonde's pout as he started moving through the crowd toward her.
"Incoming," Sarah muttered, but Ashley barely heard her.The music seemed to fade, the crowd blurring until there was nothing but Cole, moving with the fluid grace of someone who knew exactly how attractive he was.
He stopped just close enough for her to catch his scent – not the subtle cologne her husband wore, but something darker, headier.When he smiled, it held none of the warmth she knew, only heat and challenge.
"You've been watching me," he said, his voice pitched low enough that she had to lean in to hear him over the music.The movement brought them dangerously close."Got a name to go with those accusing eyes?"
"You're not exactly subtle," she countered, proud of how steady her voice remained.
His laugh was nothing like her husband's – all sharp edges and dark promises."Neither are you."He leaned closer, his breath ghosting across her ear."Still waiting on that name, by the way.Unless you prefer 'sweetheart'?"The endearment dripped with mockery, nothing like the way her husband used it with such tenderness.
"Ashley," she said, the name feeling like a betrayal on her tongue."And you've mistaken curiosity for interest."
"Have I?"His grin turned predatory as he moved into her space, backing her toward the wall."What exactly are you curious about, Ashley?"
The way he said her name sent shivers down her spine – familiar and foreign all at once.She forced herself to meet his gaze, even as her heart thundered in her chest."I'm trying to figure out what everyone sees in you."
Something flickered in his eyes – interest, maybe, or challenge.He braced one hand beside her head, caging her in."What do you see?"
She tilted her chin up, letting her eyes trace the scar above his eyebrow – the one from a childhood accident he'd never told her about."Someone playing at being a man.All swagger, no substance."
His eyes darkened dangerously."Careful," he murmured, his free hand coming up to trace her jaw.The touch sent electricity, skittering across her skin."You don't know me."
"Don't I?"She smiled, sharp and sad."I see more than you think."
Before he could respond, a brunette appeared at his side, pressing herself against him with practiced ease."Cole," she purred, her fingers trailing down his arm."You promised to dance with me, remember?"
The moment shattered.Ashley watched as his attention shifted, his hand dropping from her face as he turned to the brunette with that dangerous smile."So I did."
He glanced back at Ashley once, something unreadable in his expression."See you around, Ashley."
The brunette's fingers curled around Cole's arm as they disappeared into the crowd, becoming a twisted mirror of another life – her own hands tracing those same muscles in the quiet morning light, in a future that now existed only in her mind.His casual dismissal cracked something deep inside her, the final proof that the man she'd married was truly gone.Or maybe he'd never existed at all.
The reality she'd been fighting since she arrived crashed over her like a tidal wave.Her hand instinctively moved to her stomach – flat, devoid of the life that had been growing there just days ago.Their baby.Their baby.Gone like the morning mist, erased by a moment of anger and a wish she could never take back.
She pressed her other hand against the wall, its solid reality anchoring her as her world spun apart.The bass from the speakers matched the frantic beating of her heart, each thud a reminder of what she'd lost: The way Cole – her Cole – would sing off-key while making breakfast.The sound of his keys hitting the bowl by the door.The gentle press of his lips against her temple when he thought she was sleeping.Their child's first ultrasound is still stuck to their fridge with a picture magnet from their wedding.
All of it – gone.
This Cole, with his flirty smile and reckless attitude, wasn't a younger version of her husband.He was a stranger wearing familiar skin, and the whiplash of seeing him shift from dangerous intensity to casual dismissal made her chest ache with pain so fierce she could barely breathe.
She watched him disappear into the crowd with the brunette and something in her crystallized.This wasn't a dream.This wasn't a nightmare she could wake from.This was her reality now – a second chance she'd never wanted in a timeline where her greatest love and deepest loss had never existed.
Ashley took shallow, shaky breaths, suddenly disoriented.The room tilted sideways, the ancient chandelier's lights spinning into nauseating streaks of color.Her lungs refused to expand, each desperate gasp bringing less air than the last.The wall at her back was the only solid thing in the world that had become liquid and unstable.The crush of bodies around her, the thundering music, the heavy scent of alcohol and perfume – it all pressed in, suffocating, overwhelming.
Sarah appeared with a drink, pressing it into her trembling hands.
"You look like you need this."
Ashley stared at the liquid, seeing in its amber depths the death of one life and the forced birth of another.With deliberate slowness, she raised the glass.A toast to everything she'd lost – her husband, their baby, the future they'd planned.A toast to the death of Ashley Westwood and the rebirth of just Ashley Carter.
She drained it in one go, welcoming the burn.She had a feeling she'd need many more before the night was through.
An hour and several drinks later, Ashley found herself sandwiched between Sarah and Marie on a plush couch, their laughter bubbling up like champagne.The alcohol had softened the edges of her pain, but couldn't quite dull it completely.Especially not when she caught glimpses of Cole through the crowd - now standing by the stairs, the brunette pressed against him as they whispered and laughed.
"To bad decisions!"Sarah declared, raising her cup.
