Page 21 of Second Chance Wedding
She lifted her head, her gaze meeting her best friend’s. “I tried to leave, and Cole stopped me.”
“Stopped you how?”
“He just…pressed his hand to the door.”
“Okay, and…?”
This was the hard part. The part she didn’t want to admit to Quinley. “He asked—demanded—to know if…Benji had ever struck me.”
“And you told him the brat likes to shove into you like a linebacker, right?”
She didn’t speak.
“You didn’t tell him,” Quinley said. “Ana.”
“Of course I didn’t tell Cole. Benji is my son.Myresponsibility.”
“And he’s bullied you ever since his last growth spurt. Benji might not put his hands on you in the traditional sense, but his intent to intimidate is clear. That happening once would’ve been one thing, but you can’t deny Benji’s behavior is getting worse. Stealing the limo is the cherry on top at this point,” she said with more than a little exasperation.
Quinley meant well. Ana knew her friend spoke out of concern for her, but it was a hard pill to swallow.
Quinley leaned back in the hard chair, and Ana had a hard time meeting her friend’s too-knowing and visibly disappointed gaze.
“I will call,” Ana stressed. “I promise. I just…don’t know how I’ll manage to make Benjigo. It’s not like I can force him into the car.”
“Sounds like your long-lost lover boy and his brothers could do it.”
“Not how I want it to happen, Quin. What good would strong-arming him do? Benji has to want to go and seek help.”
Ana watched as Quinley accepted the statement with a roll of her shoulders, slow blink, and lift of her chin.
“Fine. I get that. But I am glad you have Cole’s number just in case.”
“Benji would never hurt me.”
Quinley didn’t comment and Analise hated that her friend held such a bad impression of her son. But Quin had seen Benji’s dive into snark, backtalk andshouldering. And while Ana had handled the behavior with various punishments as the parenting books said to do, they hadn’t worked.
“Sooo, did Cole say anything else to you? How did things end?”
Ana tossed the foam lipstick squeeze to the desk, her hand cramping a bit from where she’d squished it so hard. “He grabbed my phone, input his number and said to call him when Benji…hurt me.”
Silence followed her statement, and Ana fussed with straightening her desk, unable to look at Quinley. When she finally snuck a peek, Quinley met her gaze dead-on.
“I know things didn’t work for you and I’ve never met this guy, but I like him. Sounds like he still likes you, too.”
A horrified laugh burst from her chest, and Ana gave up the pretense of doing more than shuffling papers around. “Colehatesme.”
“You sure about that?”
Another huff left her, and after a moment, she nodded. “Yeah. I am, actually. His brothers do, too. I can tell.”
But Cole and his family weren’t the only ones who hated her. She hated herself. She’d let fear and her parents and immaturity, andall the things,get into her head. Mess with her brain. “Them hating me is something I know for a fact.”
Quinley got to her feet and refolded the chair before lifting it and hanging it back up on the wall out of the way.
“Well, if that’s true I don’t envy you the next year or so while Benji works for them. It’s never easy to face an ex, but if Cole and his family hate you, that’s going to be a whole other level of drama.”
Ana froze.
