That Fateful Night

Chapter Two

Cole's POV

The sunlight streams in on Cole's face as his eyes flutter open. He feels someone stir next to him in the bed and looks over to see a sleeping Anne. With a smile he lightly caresses her cheek, tracing lines between every gorgeous freckle dotting her face. He imagines painting her face in the sky, the freckles made into constellations, stories formed from the pretty pictures they make up in space where everyone can see them. His hand moves over her forehead and down her nose, touching her lips lightly, only trying to follow the line of freckles around them. 

Anne mumbles something, the sound so soft that he could barely make it out. It's almost as if she whispered a name. Not just any name...

Gilbert Blythe's name.

He chuckles softly as he continues to stare at his sleeping princess. The girl he had proposed to in their hideout in the woods many months ago. The only person he had ever made a promise to. The first person to know the truth about him, and to accept him. He'd protect her forever, he would make sure of it. He would be content to wake up next to her every day(or not, depending on how their marriage goes or if they ever get married).

He realizes that he may have to do a little -pushing- before Gilbert makes any moves. He resolves to talk to Jerry later after school, the french boy was in Avonlea while he was away, maybe he could help him devise a plan to finally get Gilbert to make a move. 

But of course, Cole could start on his own. At school today. His innocently devilish plan involving the letter Anne -his Anne- gave him yesterday. 

Anne stirs next to him again and Cole decides to wake her up, he doesn't want to be late to school on his first day back. He grasps her shoulder lightly, her skin letting off warmth through her thin white nightgown. With a smile that seems ever present when he's around Anne he shakes her lightly, watching as she mumbles something again and smiles. 

She opens her eyes to see Cole beaming right back at her, lost in each other's eyes they stare for what seems like forever. 'Anne's eyes are a gorgeous blue, they put the sky and the ocean to shame.

'I could paint her wondrous iris' for the rest of my life and never capture their true beauty' Cole thinks as he slowly pulls himself away from her burning gaze.

"Good morning, darling Cole!" Anne exclaims with a smile, her voice raspy with sleep. 

Cole leans forward slightly and moves his thumb up her nose towards her eye. He gently swipes away the sleep on the inner corner of her right eye, then moves to do the same with the left. 

"Good morning my dear Princess Anne" Cole replies with a smirk, "I'm glad you have decided to awaken from your beauty sleep." 

Anne giggles as she slides off the covers and slips down off the bed, her feet hitting the hard floor with a light thud. Cole slides off the bed as well, walking over to her wardrobe to pick out her outfit for the day as requested. 

Anne giggles with joy as he pulls out her new favorite dress and lays it across the bed. 

"Oh Cole!" She says, a smile stretching across her face, "You picked out the newest addition to my collection! Marilla bought it for me just the other day while she was in town looking for screws to fix the shed out back. Marilla told me she saw it in the store window and just knew Miss Jeannie had put it there specifically for me. When she went to go buy it Miss Jeannie told Marilla she knew I would love the new fabrics she had just gotten imported from France. France!" Anne says wistfully. Cole smirks, waiting for Anne to continue her story.

"She told Marilla that she used the old measurements Matthew gave her for my blue dress and adjusted them a teeny bit, as she knew I must have grown since they were taken. Dearest Cole, isn't the dress so lovely!"