“You thought a fake romance would please me?”
“You were so happy when you thought we were dating. When Adam proposed, I thought your heart would jump out of your chest.”
Her mother looked down at the floor, then back at Teddy. “I was. I thought you’d finally found the man of your dreams and instead of running everyone else’s wedding, you could finally have your day.”
Teddy moved to where her mother stood. Only a foot separated them. “That happened, Mom.” She took a moment to swallow.
The expression on her mother’s face turned from confusion to apprehension and finally to understanding.
“You are in love with him.” She said it like a person struggling with a foreign language, and comprehension finally made all the words make sense.
Teddy nodded, unable to speak over the lump clogging her throat. “He doesn’t know. It wasn’t part of the plan. But it happened and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Mother and daughter gazed at each other for a long moment. Then Gemma Granville pulled her daughter in her arms and held her as if she were a five-year-old who’d scraped her knee.
“Come on, let’s make some tea,” her mother said. “You can tell me all about it, starting at the beginning.”
* * *
Two days later, Adam couldn’t remember the details that followed the conversation with his mother and Teddy’s. What was burned into his visual memory was that Teddy had asked who Chloe was and the question went unanswered.
Adam had told her about Veronica, told her he’d been married to Chelsea, but never had he mentioned that he’d been about to marry a second time. Teddy was honest with him, but he’d held back. The reason didn’t matter. He was no longer hurt by Chloe. Just as Veronica was old news, Chloe had found her place in the far reaches of his mind. Her betrayal no longer stung. He had no feelings for her, yet he’d kept her a secret. Everyone did, except Quinn. Quinn would mention Chloe’s name, but the rest of his family took their cues from Adam and never mentioned her. They all knew how hurt he’d been by her that they’d agreed to his unasked request to never mention her.
Sitting in his family room, he could see Teddy everywhere he looked, even on his phone. The image of her in the wedding gown at the fashion show came up when he selected her number. She smiled from the small screen, innocent of the news that would change her opinion of him forty-eight hours after that photo was snapped.
In his hand was the engagement ring he’d bought her. Despite what people said about diamonds being cold, he could feel the warmth, Teddy’s warmth. He felt like a heel, an idiot, a jerk. Putting the ring on the table, he lifted his coffee mug and took a drink.
He told her he’d call. But he hadn’t. It had been two days since he talked to her. Adam had opened his phone a hundred times and gone to her number, her photo, but he couldn’t bring himself to press the call button. What could he say? Would she understand? Could he make her understand?
Staring at her photo, his heart ached. He never wanted to hurt Teddy, yet somehow he had. He’d broken her trust. It didn’t matter that their relationship wasn’t real. It didn’t matter that they weren’t really engaged or getting married. They had a deal. They’d made a pact and he’d held out on her.
Adam jumped as the phone in his hand rang. He expected Teddy’s photo to disappear and the caller ID photo to show up, but it remained on the screen. It was her. Adam swallowed hard. He wanted to talk to Teddy, but he wasn’t ready. The phone rang a second time and a third. If he didn’t answer now it would go to voice mail.
He pressed the answer button and said hello.
“Hi,” Teddy said. Adam sat forward in the chair, pressing the phone closer to his ear. His heart was beating so fast he could hardly hear her. Yet the sound of her voice lifted his spirits.
“How are you?” he asked.
“I’d like to talk to you.”
“I think that’s a good idea. Should I come over?”
“No,” she said.
“No?”
“I’m outside. Can I come in?”
Adam was at the window of his condo in a second. He looked down on the parking lot. Teddy looked up at him, holding her phone to her ear. He signaled for her to come up and immediately went to open the door.