A sense of excitement filled the air that night. The house looked absolutely perfect. Green holly boughs dotted with little red berries circled around the stair banisters, while sprigs of pointy mistletoe hung above doorways. Even the door looked festive with its red bow and eternal wreath.
Glad that Jake was already in bed and that she would have one less thing to worry about that night, Phoebe added the last touches to her makeup. Just as she was finishing up with her lip gloss, she heard a light knock at her door. She pulled her knee length blue cotton robe tightly around her body and called, "Come in."
Cole's face appeared on the other side of the door. His eyes immediately took in Phoebe's state of undress and the smile dropped from his face. He found his tongue tied and his hands clammy.
"Wow," he said taking a deep breath. "You look...you look," pausing a moment to clear his throat, he continued, "good. You look good."
"Thank you," Phoebe smiled shyly. "You don't look so bad yourself."
Flashing her one of his charming dimpled smiles, Cole blushed for the first time since she had known him. "I got a little something for you," he said, handing her a large white box wrapped with a red silk ribbon.
Phoebe took the box with a suspicious look at Cole. "What is this?" She asked as she slowly pulled the top of the box open and parted the blue tissue paper that filled the inside of the box. When she finally got through all of the decorative paper, all she could do was stare. Nestled in the middle of the box was the most beautiful ball gown that she had ever seen. A midnight blue cupped sleeve dress with a lace detailed bodice and daring side slit lay inside the cardboard box. Barely daring to take a breath, she slowly lifted it from the box with the tips of her fingers. She looked up at Cole and had to quickly wipe the tears that were starting to slide down her cheeks.
He came over to her and worriedly offered her a clean handkerchief to dry her tears. "Phoebe, if I had known that giving you a gift was going to make you cry..."
Shaking her head, Phoebe put her finger to his lips. "No," she said with a watery smile, "I love your gift more than anything I have received before."
"Then, why are you crying?"
"Because," she laughed at him through glittering eyes, "nobody has ever given me a gift this beautiful before. Thank you." She chastely kissed his cheek.
As she pulled back, she noticed the desiring widening Cole's pupils.
"Phoebe," he groaned reaching for her arms.
"You had better go so that I can fix my face." It was hard for her to deny herself and Cole what they both so obviously wanted, but she was not going to go to that place outside the sacred confines of marriage. IT was too big a risk for her heart.
Cole, fully aware of what had been about to happen, nodded and backed towards the door. "I guess I will see you downstairs." With another quick grin, he was gone.
Phoebe fell back onto the bed tightly clutching the beautiful gown to her chest. She could no longer deny or hide the fact that she was completely in love with Cole Jargen. He was her dream man – kind, considerate, good with Jake and, most importantly, he seemed to feel the same way about her that she felt about him.
After carefully applying her makeup once again, Phoebe slipped on the gown and twirled around in a circle wanting to get the full effect. This was the perfect dress for the perfect party. Not wanting to be late, she checked herself in the mirror one last time and slipped on the black strappy heels frosted with faux diamonds that she had purchased especially for tonight and headed for the door.
When she came to the head of the magnificent marble staircase, now covered with a crimson carpet, she took a deep breath. This was it. Lifting the hem of her dress so she wouldn't trip on it, Phoebe gracefully drifted down the steps. She felt just like Cinderella with her elegant gown and upswept hair. Every eye was on her, including the only one that really mattered, Cole's. He closed his hanging mouth and offered her his arm as she descended the last of the steps. She took it with a grateful nod and entered into the party.
"You look absolutely gorgeous," Cole said as he kissed the top of her hand.
"It's this dress," Phoebe stammered with a blush.
"No," he replied shaking his head. "The dress is merely the icing on the cake."
"Everyone is staring as us," Phoebe whispered, hiding her face in his neck.
"I believe that everyone is staring at you, not me," he whispered back with a laugh. Seeing how uncomfortable she looked in the limelight, Cole took pity on her and pulled her into the crowded living room to introduce her to his family and friends.
"This," he said pulled her over to stand in front of a suave looking gentleman in a tux, "is my business partner and best friend, Zach Towers. Zack," he said hugging her tightly to his side, "this is my wife, Phoebe."
"It is very nice to finally meet you."
Phoebe smiled and shook Zach's hand.
He looked from her to Cole and back to her again. "If you ever get tired of living with this bum," he teased with a grin, "I would be happy to—"
"I don't think so," Cole replied teasingly, but with a hard look in his eyes. "Don't you have somewhere else to be? I saw Melissa over by the punch bowl a few minutes ago."
"Oh, no," Zach groaned as he looked around to make sure she was nowhere close by. "Why did you have to invite her? You know how she acts around me." Not waiting for an answer from Cole, he looked around one more time and headed in the opposite direction of the punch bowl.
Phoebe watched him go with open curiosity in her eyes. "And who, pray tell, is Melissa and why does your friend appear to dislike her so much?"
"Well," Cole said with a laugh, "Melissa is a secretary who has worked at Business Tech for about six years. Zach, apparently, thought that her pixie looks were attractive, because he asked her out one Friday night. Consequently, she developed something of a crush on him and hasn't left him alone every since that time. She seems to think that she can tame his bad boy ways."
"I think that is so romantic," Phoebe sighed.
"Yeah," Cole snorted. "I guess it would be, except for the fact that she and Zach will never happen. She will just get hurt once she realizes that Zach enjoys his current lifestyle and is not interested in settling down any time soon."
"You never know," Phoebe replied with a sly smile tilting her lips. "Sometimes people fall in love despite their best efforts to the contrary."
Cole slanted her a curious look. Before he could question her further about her cryptic comment, an old business acquaintance pulled him into the middle of a political discussion centered on the latest court ruling. Unable to help himself, Cole jumped right in with his very definite and unchanging opinions. With a grin at his predicable personality, Phoebe headed for the center table covered with beverages of every kind filling containers of every shape. Picking up a porcelain, she carefully ladled a small portion of sparkling cider and set the ladle back into the crystal bowl.
As she looked around at the sea of unfamiliar faces filling the house that she and Jake had quickly come to think of as home, a lonely and desolate feeling began to tighten in her chest. Even if she was to tell Cole that she loved him and even if he were to answer that he loved her, too, she and Jake would never fit into his rich and organized life style. Their worlds were just too far apart.
Phoebe gripped her cup until her knuckles turned white. She stared deeply at Cole's ease in the group of men talking and laughing with him on the other side of the room. Knowing that this was one relationship that just wasn't meant to be, Phoebe, still holding her cup half full of liquid beverage, swung around towards the stairway with every intention of escaping to her room. Her escape was stopped short when she immediately bumped into an elderly woman.
"Oh, excuse me," Phoebe exclaimed. "I am so sorry. I was just...not looking at where I was going." With a smile, Phoebe nodded kindly at the grinning woman and tried to step around her.
"Phoebe Losste?" the woman asked, still smiling.
"Yes," Phoebe began, unsure of who this woman was and how she knew her name. "I'm Phoebe." She studied the oddly dressed woman, trying to think of where the two might have met. The frail, white haired woman was cloaked in a black smock covered in brightly colored cats. To complete the crazy outfit, she wore a lace shawl around her shoulders. Phoebe couldn't think of anywhere she and this woman may have met. That dress, while a bit unusual in appearance, still looked as though it had probably cost a fortune.
"It is so nice to finally meet you," the woman replied warmly. "Cole has told me all about you and your wonderful son." Obviously noticing Phoebe's distress at not being able to recognize her, the woman continued, "I am Cole's great Aunt May."
"Oh," Phoebe replied with a relieved smile. "I have heard a lot about you, too. Cole thinks very highly of you."
"As do I of him," May replied with a youthful and appreciative smirk. "So, what exactly was it that made you and my nephew marry so quickly? In my day, a man courted a woman at least a couple of weeks before he announced his intentions to take her hand in marriage."
"Well...I...uh...Cole and I..." Phoebe stuttered and tripped in her explanation. She had no idea what Cole had told his great Aunt May, nor what he would want to tell her regarding their relationship. Phoebe wracked her brain trying to come up with some kind of plausible reason that the elderly aunt might accept for the quick marriage. She looked towards Cole for help, but he was nowhere to be seen. The group that had commandeered him away from her was still talking and laughing on the opposite side of the room, but Cole was no longer among them. She looked back at May, still trying to form an explanation.
"It's all right, dear," May said before Phoebe could speak. "From the look in your eyes just now when you were looking around for your husband, I would think that it is very obvious that you married him because you are madly in love with him."
"Oh, no...I mean, yes...I mean..." Phoebe took a deep breath before continuing. "Yes, I do love Cole. Very much so, in fact."
"Does he know?"
"Does he know?" Phoebe repeated, confused. "What do you—"
"I may be getting on in my years, but I am still young enough to know when two people are truly in love. And you and Cole, my dear, are truly a match made in heaven. You're so good for him. Maybe now he will concentrate a little more on family than on work," May finished. Picking up an already filled cup from off of the rectangular table, she gave Phoebe a wink and turned to walk away.
"Wait," Phoebe called, her fists clenched with nerves. "Are you sure that he really loves me? I mean...how do you know for sure?" Phoebe shrugged her shoulders and let out a deep breath. She didn't really even know why she was asking the question. Cole had only married her to ensure that nothing happened to Jake. There was no way that he would have fallen in love with her. That was one dream that was definitely too good to come true.
If may was disturbed or confused by Phoebe's question, she didn't show it. She simply gave her a reassuring smile and patted Phoebe's back. "But, isn't it obvious? Every time he looks at you - especially when he thinks nobody notices – I can see the love filling his heart in his eyes. If that wasn't obvious enough, then there is also the possessive way that he holds onto you whenever you're together. It's almost as if he is afraid to lose you. He is a man in love."
Phoebe stared at May's departing back and was hard pressed to find a time in her life when she had felt more relieved, and terrified at the same time, in her life. If Cole was really in love with her, as his great aunt suspected, then maybe things had a chance of working out after all. Maybe her life with him didn't have to come to an end. There was only one way to find out. She would have to find Cole and admit to him her true feelings. Phoebe set down the teacup, grabbed the edge of her voluminous dress and headed off to face her fears and, hopefully, obtain the man of her dreams.