Meant to Be (RightMatch.com Trilogy) by Kathryn Shay Page B

doll?”
    “Come on in,” Cole told her, stepping aside.
    The apartment was huge, but as she scanned the living area, she saw it was littered with kid things—a playpen, toys, a bouncy harness hung from a door frame. Beth was confused. She turned to him, to where he stood watching her. “She’s beautiful, Cole. Just beautiful. And she looks like you. Did I miss something in one of our emails? Is she one of your brothers’ kids?”
    He said tenderly, “No, love, she’s mine.”
    When Peter had died, he was holding her hand and suddenly…he wasn’t…a blackness had clouded Beth’s vision. Then, the sensation of doom had been so strong, Beth couldn’t breathe. Now, when Cole spoke, a similar cloud came over her, not as intense as it had been when she’d lost her husband, but something that was still foreboding. She took in a long, deep breath. “I don’t understand.”
    The baby squirmed in Cole’s arms and she reached out to Beth. Beth stepped away from them. And Cole’s scowl was immediate.
    “Come on,” he said. He kissed the child’s head. “Let’s go in your Jump-Up.” He crossed the room and set the girl’s chubby little legs in the harness, strapped her in and dropped down next to her. Ellie began to babble and bounce.
    Cole looked up at Beth. “She’s my daughter, Beth.”
    She didn’t move. “Y-you said you’d never been married.”
    “I haven’t. I had a relationship with a very nice woman who was in med school. She got pregnant, didn’t want a child now—or ever—she thought, but I did. So after nine months, I got my little girl. Her name is Ellie, by the way. After my mother.”
    At the mention of her name, Ellie squealed and pumped her legs harder in the jumper. Cole smiled at her and Beth saw the undiluted love on his face.
    She couldn’t take it all in. Dropping down onto his couch—nice, taupe leather like she’d expect from a bachelor pad—she tried to think straight. This was no single guy’s den. It was clearly a family home. She simply stared at Cole, then at the child. Suddenly, the dreams she’d had since last Sunday, when they were together again, melted like snow in the sun. Cole didn’t speak, either. The room was filled with delighted baby chatter juxtaposed with incredible tension arcing between the two of them.
    Finally, Beth said, “You lied. Again.”
    “Well, I consider this part of the first lie. I was planning to tell you that weekend we met in person, but things went south so fast, I didn’t. Then, when I got home and talked to Dad about it, about what had happened between us and asked his advice, he told me that given all your reservations about my age, I should just leave things as they were. I shouldn’t contact you again.”
    When she just watched him, he reached out and snagged one of the coffees she’d brought and took a sip. “I agreed. She’s why I didn’t call you for a week or try to change your mind.”
    Well, she’d have to give him that. He’d behaved honorably there. But before…
    “Let me get this straight. You pursued a relationship online with me but didn’t tell me two huge things about yourself: that you’re eleven years younger than I am and you have a baby?”
    “Yes. But as I said earlier, I didn’t plan on it going this far between us, Beth.”
    She swallowed hard and bit her lip.
    Until he said, “I love you, for what it’s worth.”
    Tears began to trickle down her cheeks and she swiped at them impatiently. She loved him, too, but his lies had been so huge, so important.
    “Tell me what you’re feeling, what’s causing the tears.”
    She said only, “I’m sad.”
    “Don’t be. She’s the light of my life, Beth. She’s given it meaning in a way nothing else could.”
    “I know what joy babies bring, Cole. I had two.” She added, drily, “Twenty-five years ago.”
    He nodded. Sat staring at her and alternately giving the baby a squeeze, a toy, a peck on the cheek. Beth felt like she was watching a TV