Page 88 of Second Chance Wedding
Once again Ana grimaced, well able to imagine the pain Ben suffered seeing the man who didn’t want him or her with the family he obviously did want. “I…knew, yes. He, um, he was recently featured in a publication I get on local businesses, and it showed them.”
And even though they’d never been a couple fifteen years ago, it had still hurt to see that he’d accepted and claimed his other children but not Ben. It had torn her to shreds which was why she’d had to protect Ben from feeling the same way.
“I got to watch him. Isawhow he was with them, the way helookedat them. I hope she leaves him. He was a total jerk to her and those little kids. It was late, and his little boy just wanted to be picked up, but he couldn’t be bothered. He was too busy sucking up to the crowd and singing karaoke.Thatwas more important to him.”
The words painted a picture similar to the one Ana had drawn in the moments after informing Ben’s dad that she was pregnant. The man-child had left her no doubt whatsoever that he had no interest in her or his baby. Apparently not much had changed.
“I feel sorry for her. For them. I hope… I hope she can be the mom to them that you’ve been for me.”
“Ben… the journals…. That’s why you started acting out. Isn’t it? You found them and read them?”
Silence followed, broken only by a shuddering breath from Ben.
“I had to read it. Them. I couldn’t stop.”
She squeezed her eyes tight, remembering how she’d poured her pain into those pages. To know he’d read them… “I wish you would’ve talked to me. Told me. Ben… I wasn’t much older than you when I wrote all of that.” She should’ve burned them. She wasn’t even sure why she’d kept the journals except as motivation and proof of all she’d endured and survived. To read in those times when she wondered if she could go on and know she’d made it throughthatand could make it through anything.
Ben suddenly rolled and spooned her, wrapping his arm around her and hugging her from behind. She felt his forehead press into her scapula, and her heart stuttered with a mixture of pain and love and devastation.
“I’msorry,” he said again, his voice thick and thready. “I read about him and the Taylors. How much you—you regretted that night.”
Oh, baby.“Not you, Ben. Ineverregrettedyou.”
“I know. But I didn’t want to hurt you again. Not when I’d already hurt you throwing the phone at you. I’msorry, Mom. I didn’t mean for the phone to hit you like that. I’m sorry for that and all the crap I’ve said, too. I really am.”
She wrapped her arms over his and held tight.
“I don’t knowwhyI had to see him, but I had to. And even though you’re mad, I’m not sorry Cole took me—but Iamsorry it hurt you. I mean it.”
She squeezed his arm tighter and hugged him closer to her back, reveling in the scent of her baby boy like only a mother could. “Oh, Ben, I’m sorry, too.”
ChapterTwenty
Cole was in a bear of a mood when Frankie called to say the limo was ready for pick up.
Cole pulled Ky from the convenience store long enough to drive him to the garage to drop him off, and then Cole drove the limo back to park it along the outside of the rental business.
He made his way inside and found Gage, Brooks, and Alec in the office at the back of the convenience store. “Limo’s ready to go.”
“Just in time for Christmas and New Years,” Alec said.
“And hopefully an exclusive contract with the new hotel,” Gage said. “Get them on board and we might need a second vehicle.”
Cole saw Alec do a double take and frown.
“You okay? You look like you haven’t slept in a month.”
Alec’s statement drew the attention of the other two. “Bad couple of nights.”
He hadn’t slept Saturday night after Ben’s stunt because he’d spent most of the night talking to Ben and making sure there weren’t any repeat performances. And last night— Ana appeared in his mind, and he wiped a hand over his face.
“What’s going on?” Alec asked as he leaned back in his chair.
Cole was too tired and too frustrated by what had happened to guard the details. Maybe their opinions could help him sort through the mess he’d made of things. “I might have screwed up.”
“Might have? Or did?” Brooks asked.
Cole ran his hands over his face and rubbed hard, the scene from Ana’s return replaying in his head like it had all night. “I don’t know. My gut says I did the right thing, but Ana made it clear she feels differently.”
