Page 30 of Too Good to Be True

“What’s going on? What time is it?”

He tried to peer at the clock on the nightstand, but she was blocking it and didn’t budge.

“You left your phone in your pants,” she said, struggling to keep her voice even. “Who is D?”

He dropped his head and pressed his palms into his eyes as his shoulders slumped in defeat. He was bare-chested, and his hair stuck up in every direction. There was a time when she’d found him sexy and adorable, but right then, he looked like a mess. A mess was what she would come to think of their marriage and subsequent divorce.

“I asked you a question,” she said, her voice low yet surprisingly strong. She’d need that strength for the days ahead.

He dropped his hands and looked at her. “Deanna.”

“Deanna as in your admin, Deanna?”

He barely nodded and then averted his eyes.

She threw the phone on the bed. “How cliché, Cole. She’s what, twenty-three years old?”

“Twenty-five,” he said, his fingers clutching the sheets in a death grip.

Suddenly she couldn’t stand to be so close to him, and she took a few steps back. “Why?” It wasn’t an easy question, and she stiffened while she awaited his answer.

“I don’t have a good explanation.”

She’d talked to Deanna a few times when she’d called Cole at work. She’d also met her once when she’d gone there to meet him for lunch. She remembered thinking Deanna was a pretty girl. Now she realized that Deanna looked like her opposite—long brown hair, big brown eyes, and a tall, athletic build. She’d greeted Stacy enthusiastically and with a perky smile. “So you’re Cole’s wife. It’s so nice to meet you!”

Yeah, right!

“You could get fired!” Of all the accusations Stacy could have hurled at him, she’d chosen that one. It was a real possibility, though, and she wondered if he’d been too blind to consider it. His entire career could go up in smoke, and Deanna could be fired too.

“We’ve been discreet.”

“Discreet? She sent you text messages at night when you’re at home with your WIFE! I don’t call that discreet.”

He hung his head and shook it. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what you did or that I found out? That’s always the question, isn’t it, when someone gets caught with their pants down?”

She’d said it to hurt him, but it pained her too. An image of him and Deanna having sex sprang to mind, and she shoved it away. Then something else struck her.

“I hope you were smart enough to use protection.”

He looked up again, his brow furrowed like she’d insulted him. “Of course.”

There were so many other questions she could have asked, but she realized the answers would only make things worse. The fact was, the man she’d pledged her life to, the man she’d been married to for eight years, had just irrevocably changed her life forever.

Now, two years later, she thought she’d gotten past it, but sometimes the memories snuck up on her, causing a familiar ache in her chest. She hadn’t wanted to become one of those bitter divorced women who trash-talked men. Cole was one man. One man who’d cheated on her and broken his vows, but she wouldn’t assign the blame to all men.

However, as she’d been doing with Nick, she couldn’t help but look for flaws, poking at the outer layer to see what was underneath. In Nick’s case, she shouldn’t be doing that at all for the reasons she’d mentioned and then some.

She wasn’t sure if Cole and Deanna were still together, and she didn’t care. However, she’d never forget that he’d fallen for a younger woman, and she didn’t want to do the same thing in reverse. Of course, there was a major difference—she was single and free to be with whomever she pleased.

Kelsey and Paige were the only ones who knew the entire story. She’d told her family that Cole had been unfaithful, but she hadn’t revealed any of the details. She’d have been humiliated no matter what the woman’s age; however, the fact that Deanna was younger made it worse somehow. It reminded Stacy that she was approaching middle age, and maybe that made her less desirable, not only to Cole but to other men too. The thought was sobering.

She was perched on the edge of her stripped bed when her phone buzzed beside her. Glancing down, she felt a jolt when she saw Nick’s name on the display. She picked up the phone and read his text message.

I forgot to get your address. Will you send it to me?

She stared at the message for a few seconds, temporarily stunned by the irony. A younger woman had texted Cole, and now a younger man was texting her.