How Many Chances (13 page)

Ally smiled a
t Cole and leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips.

The
y drove for a few minute in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Ally thought about what James had said to Cole, and although she stood up for Cole she actually agreed with James.

She couldn’t believe the first thing Cole hadn’t insisted on
, was a paternity test. She was surprised his legal team hadn’t insisted on it too. She knew she should let it go but she couldn’t. It was far too important just to sweep under the carpet.

“Cole,” she said nervously.

“Yes, gorgeous girl,” he said as he turned and smiled at Ally.

“How come you didn’t asked for a DNA test?” Ally said, her voice barely a whisper.

Cole sighed and his face dropped and Ally was immediately sorry she had asked the question.

“Ally, Ben is my son,” Cole replied. “
I can feel it in my heart every time I hold him. I know that sounds stupid, but I know he is part of me. He is my child. And I am not going to put him through some test to prove what my heart already knows.”

Ally wanted to argue the point but the expression on Coles face made her rethink and she said nothing else. She glanced towards Nick and once again, their eyes met in the rear view mirror. She knew just by the look in his eyes he agreed with her. But she also knew he would never say anything against Cole, so she just turned her face out into the night and stared at the vast blackness.

Although they didn’t argue, Ally could feel a sudden distance between them and it made her feel sad and a little disappointed.

Later that night when the
y climbed into bed and Cole kissed her goodnight and turned over to go to sleep. As she lay there in the darkness, she swore to herself she would never bring up the subject again. She had promised him she would be there for him and stand beside him from now and that was just what she intended to do.

When Cole woke the next morning he was surprised to find Ally’s side of the bed empty. He sat up and immediately, he felt anxious.

He wasn’t happy the night before that she had question
ed him about the paternity test and he had behaved like a child and sulked.

And the reality was, she had every right to ask him these questions. Sh
e had agreed to be his wife. She should be allowed to discuss what she wanted with him. But he was so tired of the same argument every time he spoke to his father. He always went on and on about the same thing. So had George Statham, his solicitor. He had demanded Cole get the DNA test the moment the baby was born. But the minute he held Ben in the hospital, Cole had fallen in love with him. He was his son, of that he was sure. George went berserk when Cole told him he was not going to push Steph for a paternity test.

But Ally wasn’t his dad or George. She was Ally,
his Ally, the love of his life, the woman who he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

But now she was gone
and he wasn’t sure where. He jumped out of bed and headed to the bathroom thinking he would find her in there but the bathroom was empty too.

H
e opened the bedroom door and called out her name but there was no response. He could feel the panic rise in him. What if she had bolted again?

He searched room after room but there was no sign. Then finally he reached the door of the gym, he found her on a tread mill, with her iPod in her ears and lost in a world of her own.

He stood for moment as watched her jogging nowhere special, with her eyes closed and her music blaring, completely in the zone.

Suddenly he had an over whelming urge to hold her. He walked up behind
and wrapped her in his arm and lifted her off the treadmill.

“Cole
, what are you doing?” she cried out with fright as he stood her down on the floor next to the tread mill. He turned her to face him and took her face in his hands and kissed her softly, yet passionately.

“I’m sorry,”
he said as he parted his lips from hers and stared deep into her eyes.

She stared up at him in confusion.

“I acted like a child last night,” he explained and sudden realization filtered across her face. “I want you to be part of my life. And I mean every part, so that includes Ben too. You had a right to voice your concerns last night, I was just being stubborn and impossible. But I promise I will think about it.”

“Cole you don’t have to prove anything to me,” Ally reached up and gently stroked
his face. “If you say Ben is yours I believe you. I just want you to be happy that’s all.”

“I was scared when I woke and you weren’t there
, I thought that you had left,” he whispered as he pressed his head against hers.

“You have to stop this,” Ally sighed, “Cole I love you, I am not
going anywhere. Ever. You can’t keep panicking every time we have a disagreement or every time you don’t know where I am. I have promised to marry you. I swear I am going nowhere.”

He pressed his lips against her and drew h
er closer to him, pressing her body shear against his. Ally could feel how much he wanted her and she wanted him just as much too.

A cough from the door
way snapped Ally out of it but Cole didn’t seemed phased at all.

Ally looked behind Cole to find Nick stand
ing there, his face red with embarrassment, having caught them once again in a compromising position.

“Sorry, sir,” Nick began nervously, not looking directly at Cole or Ally. “I think there is something you need to see.”

Cole turned and looked at Nick. He knew Nick well enough to know by the tone of his voice, this was serious.

“What’s wrong?” Cole asked turning to
face Nick completely. Nick didn’t speak, instead he glanced towards Ally then back to Cole. Ally could feel her face blush when she realised he didn’t want to talk in front of her. Then it struck her this could be something bad.

“It’s okay,” Cole
assured him, knowing his reluctance to speak in front of Ally. “Anything you have to say to me you can say in front of Ally.”

“If you are sure Mr Thomas,” he said, but the uncertainly was still clear in his voice. He handed Cole a newspaper. “It would seem our friend Fitzmaurice has had a lot to say for himself. And about Ms Brody
too.”

He looked at Ally and the expression on his fa
ce was all Ally needed to know that whatever was written was definitely not going to be good.

“That lowlife son of a bitch!” Cole snarled as he quickly read down through the newspaper article.
His words made Ally’s heart crash against her chest. She took a deep breath, trying her hardest to remain calm.

“Can I see?” she
finally managed to say, her voice sounding a hell of a lot calmer than she was feeling.

“Ally,
you sure you want to?” Cole asked, although he already knew the answer.

She nodded and he handed her the newspaper without saying another word.

She took a deep breath and looked up at Cole one more time before her eyes dropped to the page.

The story told about
how long-time rivals Cole Thomas and Sean Fitzmaurice came to blows in a top class London restaurant the night before over Cole’s mystery woman. And how she was in fact Fitzmaurice’s estranged daughter Alexandra. The story went on to talk about Ally’s mother and her death and how it had left the then teenage Ally out of control and unmanageable. How she caused nothing but trouble between him and his then second wife. About how she had broken his heart with everything she had put him through that in the end he had to walk away.

And now, how Cole had chosen her, in a sad attempt to rub his nose in it and reignite old argument
s they had at a business level. How he was disgusted Cole would stoop so low as to use his obviously unhinged daughter to get back at him.

“UNHINGED!!!” Ally exclaimed angrily, as she slammed the paper to the floor
in pure temper. ”I will show that son of a bitch who is unhinged.”

She pushed passed Cole and Nick and storm
ed out, heading straight for Cole’s bedroom.

“Ally, sweetheart,” Cole called after her as he followed her
quickly to his room.  “Sweetheart, please calm down.”

“I am going to kill him!” she retorted over her shoulder and she disappeared into Cole
wardrobe and she began pulling out clothes and underwear. Cole followed her into the wardrobe.

“Ally, you need to calm down,” Cole said taking hold of her.
He turned her to him and wrapped her tightly in his arms and Ally began to sob. She was so angry. She had promised herself a long time ago she was never going to let him make her crazy again. “It’s okay gorgeous girl, I will fix this. And I will fix him too. For once and for all.”

“Why can’t he just let me be happy?” she sobbed
bitterly into Cole’s chest. “I have never once asked him for a single thing since the day he walked away. I have never even tried to contact him. Why would he do this to me? I was not the one who ruined our family. He did with that tart. He was off fucking her while my mother was dying. I was the one left listening to her cry for him while he was with that tramp. And then thought it was fine to move her in barely a month after my mother died. He did this, not me.”

She pressed her face against Cole’s chest and sobbed harder. And once again she was the 15 year old
girl who had just lost her Mom and was destroyed by her lying, cheating father.

“Ally, sweetheart, this isn’t just about you,” Cole
said trying his best to calm her down. “I have come up against him so many times and he has never been able to get the better of me. Unfortunately he has seen a way to make me look like a low life and get at me, and sadly he just didn’t care enough that what he was saying would be destroying you too.”

“I don’t get why he would tell such nasty lies about me,” she said trying to bring he
r breathing back under control.

“Because he is a parasite,”
Cole replied. “Please don’t let him get to you, I will take care of this. I promise.”

Cole held Ally tightly until she had finally calmed down and composed herself.

Ally’s phone began to ring in the other room and she knew it would have been someone from home, who had seen the paper too.

She
looked up at Cole, kissed him and smiled.

“I should answer that,” she said, before she headed to the bedroom in search of her phone. When she picked it up she saw Nan’s number flash on the screen. She took a deep breath before she accepted the call.

“Hey Nan,” Ally said as brightly as she could as she flopped down on the bed.

“Ally, sweetheart,” Nan said
, the worry in her voice was very clear and it made Ally feel even more sad. Not only was her father getting to her, but he was hurting her grandparent once again too.  “We saw the newspapers. Are you alright pet?”

“I’m okay Nan,” she lied. “I promise. I bumped into him briefly. We didn’t even talk.”

“Why would he say such horrible things about you,” Nan asked and her voice was so sad the tears filled Ally’s eyes again. But she coked back the lump of grief in her throat. She could not let her grandmother hear her so upset.

“He and Cole are business rivals,” Ally explained. “And that’s why he did it. It
was to make Cole look bad, not me.”

“I have half a mind to get on a plane,” she could hear Pops saying in the background. “I will teach h
im the lesson I should have taught him years ago.”

“Oh hush now,” Nan snapped at him. “We don’t need that talk, beside Ally has Cole to fight her battles now. So you can calm yourself down.”

Ally smiled listening to them argue. No matter what happened in her life. She knew her grandparents were always there for her and they would never let her down. She looked at Cole, who was pacing up and down inside the wardrobe on his phone. Now she had him and she knew he would never let her down either.

“Nan, I am okay,” Ally said turning her attention back to her grandmother. “But I need to go. I promise you I will ring you this evening. And please don’t worry about me. I am fine.”

When Ally said her goodbyes she hung up and walked back into the wardrobe just as Cole hung up the phone from his call too.

“Everything okay with Nan and Pops?” Cole asked
with concern as Ally slipped her arms around him.

“They are angry and upset,” she answered then looked up into his face. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I am okay,” he smiled brightly at her. “I have you, don’t I?”

“
That you do,” she agreed as she leaned up and kissed him.

“Okay, I need
you to get ready.” Cole said looking down into Ally face. “Put on something really nice. You have about two hours to get ready.”

“Get ready for what?” Ally asked, confused.
She had no idea what the hell Cole was up to.

“There will be a report
er and photographer here in two hours,” Cole explained and held his breath as he waited for Ally to go postal.

“What for?” she asked stepping back from Coles embrace. He quickly stepped forward towards her and took her into his arms again.

“Please don’t freak out,” he pleaded. “I won’t have the world having this soiled, negative image of the most important person in my life or of our relationship. I want the world to know I love you and how incredible you are. I want to tell them you have agreed to be my wife.”

“Cole I haven’t
even told my grandparents or my friends yet…” Ally began to protest but Cole stopped her with a kiss.

“I know,” he said when he released her lips from his. “The story won’t run till next week in the magazine. By then we will be back in Dublin and you
r family and friend will all know first I promise you.”

Ally stared at Cole for a moment and considered what he had just asked her to do. Could she, Ally Brody, ordinary, everyday girl next door, sit next to this gorgeous man and be interview
ed for some glossy magazine. For god sake she didn’t even read them. They were more Caitlin and Hannah’s type of thing. She was more likely to be found with a copy of Auto trader than Hello

“Trust me,” Cole pleaded with her
.

“Okay,”
she agreed and smiled up at him. Could she really do this? Time would tell.

Exactly two hours later she was sitting next to Cole on his big leather sofa, her hand clasped in his, in front of a pretty brunette called Jules, who talked rapidly
and shot one question after another at Ally.

Ally was way out of her comfort zone but Cole stepped in every time he sensed Ally was panicking
and with his easy going charm he smoothed things over.

After a while Ally st
arted to relax and became more and more comfortable with the girl. And the girl seemed genuinely interested in the fact the Ally was a mechanic and just the girl next door. She loved the whole romance of how Ally came to Coles recue at the side of the road and how Cole had then searched her out.