Page 64 of Second Chance Wedding
A part of him resented that she’d given into her parents’ demands that she attend even though she’d given up so much of her youth already by dating him and missing the high school dances and proms. But Ana hadn’t been listed among the names and images Cole had found of the event. “Why didn’t you go to the cotillion?”
She stared at him in surprise.
“I know you didn’t go. I searched for a picture of you later. You weren’t in any of them, and you weren’t listed as a debutante.”
A wariness filled her gaze that Cole couldn’t begin to understand.
“The closer it got to summer, the more upset I became. I was Bella Swan mourning her glittery boyfriend,” she said dryly. “I wasobsessedwith you coming home again for graduation, and I even convinced myself that once you were home, I could talk you into running away somewhere where the military would never find us.”
“I would’ve been AWOL, Ana.”
“Iknow. But I-I had the dress and my crazy teenage fantasies, and even though I was ridiculously freaked out over being a military wife, I thought it had to be better than constantly fighting with my parents.”
She shot him a hesitant glance.
“Ifully admitto being more than a little crazy during this time period because despite it all, Istillimagined us going to the courthouse as soon as graduation was over.”
He groaned softly. “And while you were going through all of this, I got deployed and told you I wouldn’t be home for a year or so.”
“I wasdevastated. Completely and totally inconsolable. And it was all the ammunition my parents needed to double down on their attempts to convince me I couldn’t handle military life and—” She broke off and rubbed her face, like she could scrub away the memories and the pain.
“And my mother kept on andonabout the stupid cotillion. Like it would somehow fix everything I was feeling. I became so sick of it all that one day I kind of lost it. That’s when I broke up with you, grabbed the dress and…set it on fire.”
Shock rolled through him. “You torched the dress?”
“Yup,” she said, popping the P until a raw chuckle left her chest. “And I’d addedwaytoo much lighter fluid, so it…kind of blew up.”
“Ana.”Rough laughter rumbled through him, but he couldn’t help it. Couldn’t stop it. Not when he could picture her performing some kind of boyfriend-parent bashing bonfire ritual on the front lawn of her parents’ fancy beach house.
“Oh, it gets worse.”
“Worse?” The word was a gasp as he laughed to the point of wheezing. “Baby, please tell me you didn’t set the house on fire, too.”
She grinned and giggled at his words and then they were both laughing, managing to simmer down after a bit until they’d look at each other and erupt again.
Finally, after one last bout of laughter, she swiped her hands over her eyes to remove the tears and shook her head.
“I didn’t burn the house down, but a few pieces of outdoor furniture might have been sacrificed because they were too close. Anyway, after the fire trucks and neighbors left, the Taylors found out I’d broken up with you, and they finally backed off and changed tactics. They let me wallow for a few days and instead of punishing me, they had my friends come kidnap me for the grad party. In my mother’s words, I was to go ‘do something normal.’ They thought it would help. Instead I wound up drunk and pregnant.”
“That is a heck of a story, sweetheart.” No wonder her parents hated him. After all, as good parents, they couldn’t blame her for the depression and fears that had set in, but they could certainly blame him as the root cause of things.
Lost in her fear and rollercoaster emotions, she’d lashed out, set a fire, and made decisions she wouldn’t have normally made. Ana wasn’t the party type and had only ever been with him. She wasn’t the girl that got drunk and hooked up with random guys. She’d been completely lost in the hurt and the pain, desperate to make it disappear any way she could.
He understood that place because he’d been there. Done the same thing when he’d volunteered as a target on those back-to-back missions and placed himself in harm’s way.
Cole inhaled until his lungs couldn’t take an ounce of air more and then exhaled slowly. That was a lot to unpack. “So back at your parents’ house today when they heard my name…”
“My father exploded, Ben became a font of information and revealed his recent misbehavior, and…for a moment, I was that girl again. Thankfully Mom didn’t have any candles on the table or things could’ve gotten sketchy.”
He chuckled at her wry attempt at humor and leaned in to press a lingering kiss to the top of her head. “Sounds like you handled the situation admirably. I hate that I caused you so much pain and that’s all your parents think of when they hear my name.”
“It’snotyour fault, Cole.”
Ana tilted her head back so that it rested on his upper arm, staring up at him. Cole lowered his gaze to her lips and ached to kiss her.
Ana must have sensed his desire because she abruptly shifted and sat forward, picking up the wine glass she’d set aside and downing what was left.
“I couldn’t be what you needed me to be, and I’m definitelynotthe daughter my parents wanted. From start to finish, I take full responsibility. What did you call it? The good, bad and ugly? It’s all on me.”
