Cole was expecting Phoebe to come in with a vanquishing potion and her sisters waiting outside. Not that he would blame her, not after all that he had done and all the pain he caused for her. But still the fact that she was there proved that she was indeed the person he thought she was. The woman that he fell in love with and was still very much in love with her today. Unfortately that wasn't an option anymore. Phoebe was married and had children Cole wasn't going to ruin yet another thing in her life. So he just stood there instead of saying what was on his mind at the moment.
He took a breath and looked at Phoebe. Her pain was all to obvious to him. He didn't have to be a cupid to know Phoebe's feeling, to know what she was thinking. "I'm sorry Phoebe," he said as he took a step toward her. "I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't involve myself in your life anymore." A promise that he broke the second he heard that some extremely powerful demons were targeting the Halliwell children. He wasn't about to let them find out too late. "I'm not as connected in the demon world as I used to be but I have heard talk. A demon targeting the Halliwells." Even Phoebe would know that if it was an easy vanquish demon he wouldn't have come.