Heavy Secrets - Elle Aycart Page 0,22

at the clock. Eight. Big frigging deal. She recalled a period when Martha used to wake up even later. “He must be at the gym. Or working. Or with his brothers.”

“Right. Maybe you should call him. He’s been rather…scarce lately. I wonder what might have him so occupied? Or should I say who?”

Christy ignored that last loaded jab. No way was she going to call him or text him. She didn’t want Cole to think she was checking up on him. “I don’t have to call him. I trust him.”

“A woman must pretend she doesn’t see, but she has to see.”

“You need to stop watching talk shows.” There was only one thing more annoying than Martha criticizing her, and it was Martha giving her advice. While criticizing her. “Cole has been very busy.”

Her mother’s strident laughter grated on Christy’s nerves. “You can say that again. Don’t you have even a smidgen of curiosity to know where he is?”

“No¸” Christy lied.

“Come on. Call him.” Martha kept poking, that smug smile on her face. “If you trust him so much, then you don’t have anything to worry about.”

An instant later, she heard the ringtone of Cole’s phone, almost as if the sound had been conjured by Martha.

Christy followed it to the table. It looked like Cole had forgotten his cell.

The phone vibrated in her hand. She didn’t recognize the number, and there was no name on the screen. Before Christy could decide what to do, Martha grabbed the device and, putting it on speaker, answered. “Cole Bowen’s line.”

“Cole?” a female voice asked.

Martha smirked, satisfied. Almost gloating. She was already opening her mouth again, when Christy yanked the cell from her hand and said, “Cole’s not available. Can I take a message?”

The connection was horrendous. Christy only caught several words, and very distorted at that.

“This is Vanessa…service…a date…blow out…payment.”

She said something more before the connection finally broke, but it was all gibberish.

Christy tried calling back. No service.

“Now, Christy, breathe and calm down. Do not exaggerate,” her mother said.

“I’m calm,” she replied. She was rattled, but surely there was a very reasonable explanation for this phone call. Had to be. The same voice in her head that insisted she needed food to take the edge off life, that she wasn’t good enough to do it on her own, was whispering insidiously that the truth was always the most likely explanation, but she shrugged it off. Cole was not Todd.

Martha totally ignored her. “You knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Try handling it better than you did with Todd. Let’s work together and keep the endgame in mind.”

“By ‘it’ you mean cheating, and by ‘endgame’ you mean wedding, right?” Christy asked, attempting to control the anger in her voice.

“Of course, silly. No need to make a mess of things this time around. Cole strayed, like most men do. Now the priority is to get him to forget this Vanessa. You might have to be more accommodating from now on in bed. Yelling at him after sex is not the way. Yes, I heard you the other day.” Martha shook her head, tsking. “Throwing a hissy fit at him. What were you thinking? You want your lover to wallow in bliss afterward, not to pull him into a screaming match. Men have needs, and the world is full of Vanessas, all of them younger and skinnier.”

What her mother was implying would perfectly explain Cole’s behavior. His continuous absences, his emotional unavailability, the growing distance between them. Why he hadn’t wanted her with him during his trips. His excuses and his refusal to admit something was wrong. They were all standard signs of cheating.

And yes, the world was full of younger and skinnier Vanessas, as Martha so eloquently had put it. Then again Cole had had all those younger and skinnier Vanessas throwing themselves at him, and he’d chosen her.

He’d done nothing but support and love her. She wasn’t going to be the one doubting him.

That was it. She was not listening to one more word coming from Martha’s mouth. Her mother sounded very much like the insidious voice in Christy’s head. Cole had been right from the very beginning: Christy needed to stand her ground. To hell with acceptance and learning to live with toxic people.

“Listen to me. Cole is not cheating. I have absolute faith in him, and I won’t tolerate anyone doubting him. ‘Most men’ does not include Cole.”

“Good. Let’s ignore it. Make like it never happened. That’s the right attitude