Bet On Love by Barbara Witek Read Free Book Online Page A

please fill me in?” Abbey looked from her father to me, and then back to Cole. “Dad? Who is this woman?”
    “She’s my wife,” he said matter-of-factly. His mustache twitched, and those blue eyes glowed with trouble. Oh, he was going to pay big time for this. If his daughter wasn’t the one asking all the questions, I’d play the game all right. But she was only thirteen and shouldn’t be deceived like this.
    “Only temporarily, honey.” The feet of my chair stuttered against the stone when I stood. I ignored Cole’s shocked expression, and moved to the chair on the other side of Abbey. “We acted spontaneously in Vegas. We should never have gotten married.” I glanced past Abbey’s face to see Cole’s flash to something I could only interpret as agreement, since he didn’t voice an objection.
    “I thought you said you guys go way back?”
    “We do.” I nodded, hoping this would be painless for everyone. “We were all caught up in the emotion of a mutual friend’s wedding. Add alcohol to all the fun memories, and voila! We did something stupid.”
    “So you don’t love each other?” The sweet girl looked so confused.
    “This isn’t about love. It’s about a misunderstanding.” I filled in the missing pieces since Cole continued not to say a word. I knew from the past that love couldn’t be one-sided, and that’s exactly what this was. “Everyone’s gotten the wrong idea, and there’s been no good time to correct it.”
    “Dad?” Abbey questioned, putting Cole on the spot.
    “It’s true.” He raked a hand through his muddy brown hair and heaved a sigh as if the weight of the world had suddenly fallen on his shoulders. “We thought we could get this taken care of before everyone found out. But once Grandma knew, she’s let the whole town know about it. Everything snowballed before we could fix it.”
    “Wow. So now you’re getting divorced twice?” Abbey stared at the table, letting it all sink in.
    I felt like a horrible person. We’d basically mocked the sanctity of marriage and set a horrible example for her. How I wished it could all be different, but Cole wasn’t objecting. He just sat next to his daughter like a statue, proving my suspicions right. He didn’t love me, never had, and never would.
    “Honestly, it hasn’t been that long. I don’t think it counts.” I tried to make light of the situation, then realized I wasn’t doing any good. “You know what? I’ll leave you two to talk while I go check flights online.”
    ***
    “Where’s Abbey?” I asked when Cole walked alone into the family room.
    “She called her mother to pick her up, said she needed some alone time.”
    “Oh. Is that a good thing?” In spite of the warmth of the room, with its shades of brown and outdoor sportsman theme, I felt a chill when Cole faced me with an intense stare.
    “You know, we didn’t have to tell her now. I can’t believe you brought it up just like that.”
    “Cole, she deserves the truth. She’s your daughter. We should have made the announcement to your family right away instead of letting them all assume this is anything more than it is.” I picked up a scented pinecone from a clay bowl next to the arm of the sofa and placed it back at the top of the pile.
    He stared at me for a moment, like he wanted to ask me something, but then rubbed his forehead in frustration and said, “Oh, that would have been fun. ‘Hey, thanks for bringing all the food and getting up so early, but false alarm--we’re not really married!’ Yeah, would have gone over real well.”
    “You know what I’m saying. It’s better this way.”
    “Is it?”
    “Of course, unless you want to stay married?” I stared into eyes I could no longer deny I had loved since forever, but for the first time I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Maybe because the connection I’d held onto for all these years was only in my head and not real. All the more reason to leave. “Which we can’t stay