Coda Books 06 - Fear, Hope, and Bread Pudding (MM)

honestly, but I couldn’t make up my mind, and then it was too late. I think at first I believed he’d change his mind, but he didn’t. All he cared about was that I not tell his wife.”
    “And did you?” I asked.
    “No. I thought about it a hundred times, but I realized it wouldn’t accomplish anything. I’d still be single and pregnant and working at a coffee shop, and in the meantime, I’d have hurt some woman I’ve never even met.” She shrugged and rubbed her hand thoughtfully over her swollen belly. “It’s not her fault. None of this is her fault, so why punish her?”
    “That was noble of you, honey,” Cole said. “I’m not sure I could have been so gracious.”
    She smiled uncomfortably, but didn’t look up. “It’s not like I’m opposed to being a mom, but the timing is so bad. I have one year left of undergraduate school, and after that, I want to get my MBA. But I don’t see how I can do that while raising a baby. I barely get by as it is, and if I have to add daycare on top of that….”
    “What about your family?”
    “My parents don’t know. I haven’t told them. They’d try to help, but my dad has lung cancer. He’s in the middle of treatment, and my mom’s wearing herself out taking care of him. If anything, I should be helping them right now, not the other way around. The last thing they need is another burden.” She shook her head emphatically. “No. If I decided to keep the baby, I’d have to do it alone, and all I can think of is, what kind of life can I give her on minimum wage? Without the degree, I can’t make more money, but with a baby, I’ll never be able to get the degree. It feels selfish to say that school is more important—”
    “That’s not selfish,” Cole said. “Recognizing that you can’t give her the life you want her to have isn’t selfish at all.”
    “Well, I’ll keep telling myself that. Maybe someday I’ll believe it.”
    She wasn’t meeting his eyes, and Cole glanced over at me, obviously hoping I could help. “We’ve put you on the spot enough,” I said. “Now it’s our turn. Is there anything you want to ask us?”
    Her cheeks began to turn red, but she looked directly at Cole. “Thomas says you have a lot of money.”
    The question made me nervous, as did most discussions of his money, but Cole answered matter-of-factly, “I do.”
    “He says you have homes all over the world.”
    “I have houses all over the world, but my home is here.”
    “Does that mean you’d raise her here?”
    Cole hesitated, as if he felt he were walking into a trap. She must have sensed his unease, because she said, “It’s not my intention to insert myself into her life. I’m just trying to get an idea of what her life would be like.”
    “Well, sweetie,” Cole said, “the truth is, I’m not sure we’ve thought that far ahead. I feel like that’s a terrible answer, but it’s the truth.”
    “Can I ask where your other houses are?”
    “Of course. I have one in Hawaii, one in the Hamptons, a condo in Vail, one in Paris, and….” He glanced sideways at me. “I just bought a small villa in the Tuscan valley.”
    “You what?” I asked, sitting forward. “When did you do that?”
    He smiled at me. “I know how much you loved it there. It was supposed to be an anniversary present.” He turned to Taylor. “And sugar, it’s not easy buying something like that without your accountant knowing about it, believe me!”
    “So,” Taylor said, “the truth is, you could end up living in any of those places?”
    Cole turned serious again, and I resigned myself to waiting until later to find out about the villa. “Honey, that’s a fair question, but I’m not sure how to answer.” He stopped for a minute, apparently lost in thought, and she waited. “I spent my school years bouncing all over the world, from California to New York to Paris and back, following my father wherever he went in between, sometimes switching schools three times a year. I’d no sooner get settled than we’d be off again to the next place.”
    I reached out to take his hand. Nearly three years together, and yet I still knew so little about his life. “Did you go to public schools?”
    “In California, yes. But private schools everywhere else.”
    “That sounds awful,” Taylor said.
    Cole sat up straight, squaring his shoulders and flipping his hair out of his face. He hated to have people feel sorry for him. “It wasn’t all bad. I got to see more