Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 39538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 158(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 158(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
“Cole, there’s no way you’ll be able to convince me you haven’t heard about me.”
“I don’t listen to gossip.”
“Depends on who told you if it was gossip or not.”
When Cole remained silent, a dull pain start started in the pit of her stomach, extending upward toward the region of her heart.
“I get it. Too many to say? Don’t worry; I won’t ask who. I should have told you myself.” She shrugged. “Lord knows I gave them plenty to talk about.”
“I don’t take into account what people say about other people. I like to form my own opinion.”
“You’re starting to sound more Kentuckian every day.” She laughed.
Cole laughed, too. “I found out the first time I came here. Last year, after I went back to Texas, it took me a good month to lose the accent.”
Megan turned serious. “I’ll never be able to lose the accent.”
“I don’t want you to. I like it.”
“When I was younger, I would watch YouTube videos on how to get rid of your accent.” Megan gave a short, bitter laugh. “My husband would make fun of me. He told me I couldn’t make a purse out of a sow’s ear.” She cut the wheels to drive back down the main drag of town. “When I told you I had married someone older than you, you weren’t surprised.”
“No.”
Megan nodded at Cole admitting the truth. “I like that you don’t lie to me. That’s all my husband ever did—lie after lie. But you want to know the sickest part?”
“No,” he replied softly, turning more fully toward her to brace his long arm on her seat. “But if you want to talk, I can listen.”
“You don’t want all the sordid details of my marriage? At one time, I couldn’t walk down the sidewalk without someone asking me about Curt.”
“What was the sickest part of his lies?”
“Could you turn the heat up? I’m starting to get cold.”
Cole leaned forward to tap a button, increasing the heat.
“The sickest part was I knew what was coming out of his mouth was lies.”
“Before you married him?”
“Yes.” She turned down another neighborhood.
“Then why did you marry him? Did you think you could change him?”
“No. Curt was never going to change, and he certainly didn’t care about me enough to make the effort.”
Leaving the neighborhood, she went straight, then cut down another street. She passed the back of the church before she pulled into the parking lot, where she braked and put the car in Park.
“You’re the first person to ask me why I married Curt, did you know that?” Megan stared sightlessly at the plot of land next to the church playground. The headlights from the car illuminated the untouched beauty of the newly falling snow. “Several people tried to talk me out of marrying him, but none of them asked me why.”
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
Megan bent her head, hating herself. “I don’t want you to look down on me,” she whispered.
Cole’s hand left the back of her seat to slide around her shoulders while his other hand went under her chin to lift her head and turn it so she was staring directly at him. “I could never look down on you, whatever you tell me.” Cupping her face, he leaned forward to brush a soft kiss across her forehead. “If talking about your husband is making you upset, we can wait. There’s no rush.” Cole nodded his head sideways. “How good are you at making a snowman?”
“I’ve never made one,” she confessed.
“I bet I can make one better than you.”
Giving a shaky laugh, she reached into her coat pocket to take out her gloves. She cut the engine, then gave him a competitive smile. “I’ll take that bet.”
They got out of the car and ran toward the empty lot.
Megan watched Cole gather snow to form a snowball then roll it across the ground to make the ball grow bigger and copied his actions.
“Joel will think I’ve stolen his car,” she said only half-jokingly.
“No, I’ll text him.”
She continued to work on her snowman as Cole text Joel, then compared hers to his. It was pathetic. She was still rolling her base, while Cole was forming his second snowball. Rolling the sleeves of her jacket up, she pushed the snowball harder, making it bigger. Satisfied, she started on her second snowball.
“Joel said it’s cool. If the station is closed when we get back, he told me to leave the key under the mat. I told him I’d give you his number so you can talk to him about buying the car.”
“That was nice of him.”
“He is,” Cole agreed, lifting his second ball onto the base. “Not as nice as me. He doesn’t give free refills.”
Giggling at the aggrieved tone in Cole’s voice, she pushed her second snowball over to her base. On her second attempt of lifting it, she found it pulled out of her hands and placed on the base.