“And it was stupid of us. But that’s what guys do, right? Guys do stupid shit sometimes, and hopefully, girls like them for it. Or at least get a little amusement from it.”
“I’m somehow not finding anything about this current situation amusing.”
“Maybe it was stupid to make a bet like that. I kind of like to think, though, that if we hadn’t, maybe you and Cole wouldn’t have gotten together in the first place.”
“That might’ve been better,” I said. “Spared me all of this heartache.” Ben could think whatever he wanted, but I was pretty sure that Cole and I would have hooked up regardless of whether or not there had been any bet. Maybe it would have taken longer, but it would’ve happened. “He was my doctor, you know,” I said. Ben looked at me in surprise. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You probably know already.”
“No, I didn’t. He wouldn’t tell me something like that.”
“Obviously, I’m not going to continue to have him as my doctor. And I’m not planning to go talk with him. Yes, I’d like some closure on it, but really, I got closure. He ended the relationship. I wasn’t the one who initiated the breakup in the first place. So I’m sorry, but I think you wasted your time riding over here. I mean, can you give me one good reason why I should go talk to him about this?”
“He deserves it,” Ben said quietly. “He deserves someone like you. I don’t even know you that well, but I can tell that you’re a good person, and you’re hot as hell—if you don’t mind me saying—and the two of you make a great pair. And if anyone deserves to be with someone like you, it’s Cole.”
“Is that so,” I said. “And would you care to let me know why he’s so deserving of this? I mean, I get that he’s successful and good-looking, but so what? Plenty of people are, and that doesn’t mean that they’re somehow more deserving than someone else to be in a relationship.”
“It’s not that,” Ben said.
“Then what is it?”
He paused. “I don’t... I don’t know if I should tell you.”
I looked at him closely. “Well now you have to tell me. You can’t just say that and now not tell me.”
The two of us stood there for several moments of silence. I could see him wrestling with whatever it was that he wanted to say but felt like he couldn’t. What the hell was going on?
“Let’s just say that Cole has done some things in his life that most people never would do.”
“Right,” I said. “I’m not going to even begin to tell you how ambiguous that is. You’re going to have to be more specific.”
Ben bit his lip. “Okay,” he said. “But what I’m about to tell you needs to stay between us, okay? I have never told anyone this before, never spoken of it, and the only reason I’m doing so now is because I trust that you’re going to do the right thing with what I’m about to tell you. And that is not say anything.”
“I am so confused about everything at this point, I highly doubt there’s anything you could tell me that would make things worse.”
He paused again, and I tried to conjure up whatever it was he was going to tell me. Cole had a terminal illness? He was really a woman? (except I knew he wasn’t.) Those were the only two things I could come up with: that Cole was either dying of cancer or he’d had a sex change operation. I held my hands up.
“Just tell me,” I said.
“Declan’s not his son,” Ben said.
“What? What are you talking about? Of course he is.”
But Ben was shaking his head. “No, he’s not. Well, not biologically. Declan is technically Cole’s... nephew. Declan’s mother is Cole’s sister, Marissa.”
“The one who died?”
“Yes. And Declan’s father was her boyfriend, this guy Sam, who Cole’s parents hated. With good reason, seeing as he was the one who got her into the drugs and shit.”
I frowned, trying to process everything that he was telling me. Declan wasn’t Cole’s son?
“I’m not going to get into all the details,” Ben said. “In part because I don’t know them all. But that’s basically why Cole moved out here, so he wouldn’t run into anyone that we’d grown up with, who might later say something to Declan. So when I say that he deserves this, when I say that he should be with someone who makes him as happy as you do, I really mean it. Because I can’t say that I’d be able to step up and raise someone else’s kid the way he has, even if that kid was related to me. I’d like to think I could, but I just don’t know.”
“I had no idea,” I said softly, shaking my head.
“You wouldn’t,” Ben said. “And that’s what is so awesome about this whole thing. No one would ever guess because Cole has always treated Declan like he’s his own son.”
It was, in a way, a stunning revelation, yet at the same time, there was a part of me that wasn’t surprised at all. That was just the sort of person Cole was. He would step up and do the right thing, even in a situation where some other people might not.
“Thank you for telling me,” I said to Ben.