Cole's hands stilled on her skin. He tilted back just far enough that she could see into his eyes. "Sweet Anna, you know how much you mean to me, don't you? You know how happy I was to find you in that club in Vegas, don't you?"
The only time she'd seen him look this serious was when he'd been talking to his grandmother's doctors. "I'm happy, too, Cole."
But the frown between his brows didn't ease, but only burrowed in deeper. "I should have told you how I feel a hundred times by now, baby. I should have been sending you cards and flowers to let you know what you mean to me."
Her heart all but stopped pounding. She had to force herself not to hold her breath, to keep breathing. She'd hoped, prayed, for this moment.
Both of their phones rang again and he seemed momentarily distracted. Now she was frowning, too.
"Tell me now, Cole. Whatever it is, I'm right here. Listening."
His gaze bored into hers and she swore her heart actually quaked behind her ribs.
"I love you, Anna. So much."
Dreams really could come true. Even the ones that seemed impossible.
"I love you, too."
"Promise me that you'll remember, sweetheart. No matter what happens. Promise you won't forget that I love you."
She opened her mouth to promise, to tell him there was no way she could ever forget that he loved her, but just then his doorbell rang in unison with both their phones.
"What's going on? Why is everyone trying to get a hold of us this morning?"
He didn't answer her, just cupped her face in his big hands and kissed her with the very love he'd just professed.
He moved away from the bed and put on his jeans, looking like he was going to face the executioner.
"What's going on, Cole?"
He closed his eyes, stood in the middle of his bedroom like a man who was just about to lose everything. "I f**ked up, baby. Big time."
She was up out of the bed now. Her heart, which had been so full just moments before, was abruptly poised on the edge of a knife.
"How?"
"I said some things to Ty in the locker room. Stupid things. Because I was freaking out about everything." He ran a hand across his stubbled face. "The journalist came to the stadium to ask some follow-up questions. I think she overheard our conversation. I think that's what this is all about."
Everything froze for Anna in that moment. The very air went so still before her that she could see the dust motes stopping their dance in front of the window's morning light.
"What did you say to Ty?"
"I'm sorry, baby."
He was moving toward her, but when she held up a hand, he stopped immediately.
"What did you say?"
"Ty was pushing me, so I told him the truth about how we met. About why we got married." He ran a big hand through his hair so that it stood on end. "But the truth has nothing to do with how we met or why we got married. The only thing that's true is how much I love you."
The knife made its first cut into her heart.
"So, let me see if I understand you correctly. You told Ty our secret just because he asked you one little question, but I've lied to everyone I love again and again."
She couldn't believe her voice was so steady. But maybe it was because she was so cold.
Frozen from the inside out. Tears couldn't possibly come from a block of ice. There had to be warmth for water to drip.
And there was no warmth anymore.
"I'd take it all back if I could," the man she'd loved so much swore. "I'd rewind back to Wednesday night and say different things. I'd go back to that moment and tell him I was in love with you. Hell, I'd go back to that night in the club and know without a doubt that I was going to fall in love with you."
"Wednesday night? You talked to Ty on Wednesday night about us?"
A quick reel played through her head of all the ways he'd touched her in the nearly three days since then, all the times she'd told him she loved him. She'd thought she was safe with Cole. She'd thought she'd found comfort in his arms.
Lies.
They'd all been lies.
"We don't know for sure that she heard what I said to him, that she printed it in the paper.
Maybe everyone is calling to congratulate us."
"Don't lie to me anymore, Cole. At least respect me enough to admit that you know that's not why they're calling."
And the truth was, she didn't have to read the article to know that all of her dreams had come crashing down. Hadn't she known all along that this would happen if she were stupid enough--weak enough--to let herself fall for Cole?
She lifted her chin, standing there naked in front of him, her stupid body still wanting his despite the way he'd sliced through the center of her heart.
"We need to talk to your grandmother."
She saw the moment he realized the full ramifications of what he'd done, the way his face fell even further than it already had. "She doesn't deserve this."
"I agree. That's why I need to go apologize to her. In person." She paused, waited for her heart to start beating again, then realized it was going to take a hell of a lot longer than this. "And I want a divorce."
She couldn't look at him, couldn't bear to see his reaction as she picked up her phone and ignored the half-dozen messages blinking on it. She dialed the travel agent with whom she'd booked all of her siblings' wedding trips and honeymoons.
"I need to buy the very next ticket from San Francisco to Las Vegas, please."
Cole took the phone from her before she could grip it tighter. "Make that two tickets.
First class out of SFO. Yes, noon works."
Anna walked past him as he was reciting his credit card number from memory. She locked the bathroom door behind her, and as she stood beneath the spray of the shower she tried not to face the real reason her face was drenched.
She'd asked Cole for a divorce once before and it hadn't happened.
Looked like the second time was the charm.
* * *
"Hi, Mom." Anna was sitting in the back of a taxi on the way to the airport, Cole tailgating them in his car. She hadn't said a word to him since getting out of the shower and though he'd barely taken his eyes off her until the taxi came, he hadn't pushed her.
She'd pulled up the article on her phone the minute she'd climbed into the taxi. Each word Cynthia had written--about how she and Cole had seemed like a fairytale come to life, only to realize that, unfortunately, their relationship really was too good to be true--had ripped another chunk out of Anna's heart. Now, as her mother poured sympathy over the wireless line, another wave of sorrow gripped her.