His face twisted into a sad kind of smile. “She broke her promise to you a few weeks before the end. She was worried about you and made me promise to watch out for you. She seemed to think you would be too stubborn to ask for help, even when you needed it.”
Oh, Lili. She had known Juliet so well. She gave a small laugh, even as she felt more tears trickle down. “I miss her so much.”
He rubbed his thumb against her tears. “So do I. But here’s the thing. She didn’t want me to spend the rest of my life mourning her. She made me swear. She wanted more than anything for me to keep living. She hated that the damn cancer was winning but said it was more important than ever that I squeeze all the joy and happiness out of life that she would have to miss out on now. She said I owed her.”
Juliet sniffed, feeling as if her heart was going to break and overflow at the same time.
“We both owe her,” Henry said. “I fought falling in love with you. I fought it hard. I told myself your friendship was enough for me, that I wasn’t strong enough to let myself love someone again, especially after I read about what you might be facing down the road.”
She slid away from him. “I understand, Henry. I do. It’s too much.”
“I didn’t say that.” He came closer and pressed his forehead to hers, their gazes locked.
“And then I realized that your MS doesn’t matter to me. I love you and I want a life with you, no matter what.”
“You can’t be sure. We don’t know what might happen.”
“I know that whatever time I have with you will be worth anything that might come. Remember that bare patch of ground at Hidden Creek? Together, we created something amazing. Is it perfect? No. It will always have a few problem areas that will need special care. But the result is a beautiful thing that brings beauty to the world.”
Henry loved her, was willing to embrace a future with her, no matter what might come. How had she been so blessed to be loved so deeply by two wonderful men?
“You really knew, all this time.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to say something. I thought for sure you would tell me after your accident. You’re not planning on climbing any ladders again, right?”
“No. I promise. I’m a woman who learns from her mistakes.”
“Good. I hope that also means you won’t shut me out ever again.”
“Never,” she promised.
As he kissed her again while the storm raged outside and his sweet old dog stretched out in front of the hearth, joy and relief flooded through all the cold, empty places in her heart.
35
COOPER
He had a daughter.
Hours later, Cooper still hadn’t adjusted to the news. None of it felt real, like some surreal dream that came out of nowhere. He had a feeling he would be pinching himself to make sure he was awake for a long time to come.
Caitlin was his and Natalie’s, created in a moment that should never have happened but one he would never again regret. He had a child and felt as if his entire worldview had now changed.
Melody had been shocked, of course, but once that wore off, her reaction had been exactly as he’d expected, sheer delight.
“I have a niece. And it’s someone we already love,” she had exclaimed, looking dazed and happier than he’d seen her in a long time. “What an unexpected miracle.”
She was right. Finding out the truth about Caitlin felt like a gift, one last precious piece of the friend he had loved and lost. He couldn’t explain all the emotions in his chest as the reality began to filter through.
He couldn’t wait to get to know his daughter in the coming days. At the same time, his happiness in discovering his connection to her was tempered by the knowledge that in finding Caitlin, he had lost Olivia.
He had wanted to tell her his feelings earlier when they were out on the porch of Sea Glass Cottage, then had realized how totally unfair that would be to her.
She had a life in Seattle. When his own life had suddenly become so much more complicated, how could he ask her to give up everything to come back here, the place she couldn’t wait to leave?
Lightning flashed outside, followed by a clap of thunder. Normally he loved these dramatic storms over the ocean, but right now he yearned for a little calm in his world, a chance to catch his breath and figure out where to go from here.
Jock, his retired fire dog, wandered to the front door and stood beside it with a worried kind of expression. Cooper might have thought the dog was afraid of the storm, but Jock was mostly deaf and had never been bothered by them before, as far as he knew.
“What’s up? You don’t really want to go out in this, do you?”
The dog sat on his haunches, continuing to look expectantly at the door.
Jock always went out to the fenced backyard of the small house Cooper rented near the fire station, so why was he suddenly so interested in the front door?
Puzzled, Cooper went to the back door and held it open, despite the cold wet wind that blew inside. “I’m not going out in that, but if you need to, have at it.”
Jock didn’t budge, stubborn thing.
“Come on,” he said. When Jock still just looked at him, Cooper shut the door and headed back toward him.
“We’re not going for a walk right now,” he started to say, but just as he muttered the last word, the doorbell rang.
“How did you know someone was here?” he asked the dog.
And who the hell was at his door so late? He really hoped it wasn’t someone else with some other revelation that would rock his world.
Jock just looked between him and the door, as if wondering why he didn’t answer it. Finally Cooper pulled open the door and was astonished to find Olivia Harper standing there, hair drenched, looking bedraggled and wet and so beautiful she took his breath away.
Her face was pale in his porch light, her eyes huge in her face. She looked at him uncertainly, and he could see she was upset.
“Olivia. Come in. What’s the matter?”
She stepped inside and stood dripping on his mat. “I shouldn’t have come. This was a mistake.”
She reached for the door handle as if intent on leaving, but Cooper and Jock did a pincer move. Cooper closed it behind her, and his smart, wonderful dog approached her from the other side, then sat again, almost on top of Olivia’s wet shoes.
She looked down at the dog, gave a raw-sounding little laugh and reached to give him a pat.
Why was she here? What had happened?
“You’re soaked through. Did you walk all the way here in the middle of this storm?”
“No,” she said, her voice small. “I was...standing outside in the rain for a few minutes before I found the courage to ring the doorbell.”
He pictured her as he had seen her a few weeks ago outside the door of The Sea Shanty, her mouth trembling and her eyes haunted as she tried to convince herself to face the crowded tavern, nervous after that attack she had witnessed in Seattle.
What could she possibly fear inside his house?
“Let me find a towel for you.” He grabbed a fresh one out of the dryer off the kitchen and brought it to her, warm and fragrant. She stood holding it as if not quite sure what to do with it. She was shivering and he couldn’t bear to see it, so he finally took the towel from her and started drying her face, her hair, her arms.
“You’re upset. What’s happened?” he finally asked, when she remained quiet, as if trying to gather her composure.
She gave a raw-sounding laugh and took the towel from him. “What hasn’t happened today? This has been quite a day. And in other news, my mom has multiple sclerosis. She’s known for years but I just found out tonight.”
More shock rippled through him as he pictured the strong and resilient Juliet, keeping such a secret from her daughter. “Oh, Liv. I’m sorry.”
&n
bsp; “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that. It’s her diagnosis, after all. Her business, as she so plainly told me tonight. On the other hand, you’re her granddaughter’s father and she said herself you’re family now. There have been too many secrets in the Harper family. If she didn’t want you to know, too bad. She’ll have to deal with it.”
Was that why she had come here? To tell him about Juliet, because she needed a friend to confide in? He was touched and honored that she had turned to him, even as he ached to wrap her in his arms.
“MS is a serious condition but it’s not a death sentence. There are new treatments being developed all the time. Your mom is tough. She’ll deal with whatever comes her way with dignity and strength, like she’s done everything else in her life.”
She lowered the towel from her face and gave him a tremulous smile. “You’re right. She will. Thanks. I needed that reminder.”
“Glad I could help. Would you like something dry to change into?”
She looked down at her clothes, still dripping. “No. Sorry. I won’t be here that long. I just came to...ask you something.”
So she hadn’t come about Juliet. Or at least not only about her. “Sure. Ask away.”
She swallowed, her eyes nervous again. After a pause so long even Jock started to look anxious, she released a long breath. “Earlier today, you said something and I was too afraid then to ask what you meant.”
“Oh?” he asked, suddenly wary. He had told her many things he had never shared with anyone else.
“When we were out on the porch of Sea Glass Cottage, you...asked if I had to go and you said you wanted me to stay. I should have asked you why but I didn’t. So I’m...asking you now. Why do you want me to stay in Cape Sanctuary?”
He had a hundred reasons. Thousands. He wasn’t sure he could put them into words. “Because you’re my friend and I care about you. And because your mom needs you and so does Caitlin,” he finally said.
“Oh.”
She looked crushed suddenly and he knew he had said exactly the wrong thing. He could do better. If he could jump out of airplanes and bust people out of vehicles with the Jaws of Life, surely he could find the right words to tell Olivia Harper he was in love with her.
He grabbed her hands, seeking the peace he found whenever he touched her. Her fingers were cold and trembling, but she didn’t pull away, and he felt calm determination flow through him. “Those are all important things. But the truth is, I don’t want you to go back to Seattle because I need you here. Because the thought of not having you in my life makes me want to go into The Sea Shanty and start knocking down that crappy paneling with my bare hands.”
“Does it?”
She looked astonished and maybe a little alarmed. He couldn’t blame her. He was seriously screwing this up. He had to tell her. All of it.
“I don’t want you to leave because I want to see where this goes between us. I’m crazy about you, Liv. Every time I’m with you, I fall in love a little more.”
She blinked, gazing at him as if she wasn’t sure whether to believe him. Finally, she smiled, eyes suddenly radiant.
“Oh,” she breathed. “That’s a good reason.”
“The only one that matters,” he murmured, then tugged her toward him, wrapped his arms around her and lowered his mouth.
As she settled against him, damp and still cold, joy crackled through him, strong and powerful. She kissed him fiercely, with a heat and passion that left him light-headed. She was so much more than he deserved, but he wasn’t about to let her go now.
“Please stay,” he said gruffly. “I didn’t feel like I could ask earlier, with everything that has happened and everything I’ve done, but I’m begging you now. It’s not easy for a guy like me to admit to being scared of anything, but the thought of not having you in my life straight-up terrifies me.”
“Oh, Cooper.” She smiled, a radiant, take-his-breath smile he didn’t know how he could ever live without. “I don’t want to leave Cape Sanctuary. I want to stay here, with my mom and Caitlin and Mel and her boys. And, just like you, I want to stay here so we can see where things go between us.”
If he had his way, he knew exactly where they would go. He wouldn’t let her out of his arms or his life ever again.
“Because I’m crazy about you, too,” she finally said in a rush. “It helped that you said it first but I probably would have gotten around to it eventually. I’m in love with you, Cooper. You might find this surprising but I kind of have been since I was twelve years old.”
“You have not,” he exclaimed.
“Ask Caitlin. She has the diaries to prove it. You were everything I ever wanted in a man back then and you still are.”
He wasn’t. He was so unworthy of an amazing person like Olivia Harper, but he couldn’t wait to spend forever trying to be better.
“What about your job?” he asked a long time later, after they were cuddled together on his sofa under a blanket, his gas fireplace on, while the storm raged outside.
She lifted her shoulders against him. “I want to see where I can take Harper Media. I’ve been too worried about failure to throw my whole energy behind it before, but I have a million ideas and want to see what I can do. I’m done being afraid.”
He hugged her close, overwhelmed all over again that she was here with him and that a lifetime of possibilities stretched out ahead of them.
She would do amazing things, he had no doubt. And he would be here to support her in whatever she tried.
Epilogue
CAITLIN
Thirteen months later
“What a beautiful day. Isn’t your aunt a lovely bride?”
“She is,” Caitlin said, pressing her cheek against her grandmother’s as they watched her dad twirl Olivia around the wooden plank dance floor that had been laid down in the beautiful gardens at Sea Glass Cottage, overlooking the ocean.
“I can’t tell who’s prettier. My aunt or my new stepmom.”
“It’s a toss-up,” Mimi said with a smile. “Especially as she is the same person.”
Olivia and Cooper did make a great-looking couple, she had to admit. More than that, they just seemed perfect together.
She thought of the journey they all had been on over the past year and some of the changes. It hadn’t always been easy. At first, she had been a little jealous of Olivia, she had to admit, until she realized she was being stupid.
Olivia had been supercool about stepping back and urging her and her dad to spend time alone so they could get to know each other. She also had been the one who had encouraged Caitlin to become a junior EMT, something she never would have done on her own but which she’d unexpectedly come to really love—and not only because it gave her a great opportunity to be with her dad.
She wasn’t jealous now of the two of them. Her father, she had discovered, had a huge heart, with plenty of room for her and for Olivia—and for the kids she suspected he and her aunt would someday have down the road.
“The bride might be beautiful,” she said now to Mimi, “but she gets it all from you.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Henry said from Mimi’s other side. Her grandmother rolled her eyes but she smiled, looking pleased. In reality, Caitlin thought Mimi really did look younger and prettier than she ever had. Marriage obviously agreed with her.
So many changes over the past year. Henry and Juliet had married at Christmastime, a beautiful ceremony at their church followed by a reception inside the largest greenhouse at Harper Hill Home & Garden, bedecked with garlands and Christmas trees and poinsettias by the hundreds.
Caitlin and Olivia hadn’t been the only people who cried watching their joy together, these two who had both lost someone they loved dearly but who had found happiness again.
Henry never stopped holding Juliet’s hand, which Caitlin found the sweetest thing. He and Jake had
moved into Sea Glass Cottage while Olivia and Cooper were now renting Henry’s house down the hill, though she knew they had plans to build their own house. She split her time between both houses, feeling lucky to know she was loved by people in each.
The dance with Olivia ended and her aunt started dancing with Henry, which made a lump rise in Caitlin’s throat. She was pretty sure Olivia was a bit sad her own dad wasn’t there on her wedding day to dance with her. Yay for Henry for stepping in. His calm presence in their lives seemed to make everything better.
“May I have this dance?” She looked up to find her dad there, looking handsome and distinguished in his Air Force reserve officer uniform.
“I’ll step on your toes,” she warned.
“I’m willing to risk it.” He held his arm out and she took it, a lump in her throat as they danced together to a song she particularly liked.
When she started on the quest a year ago to find her father, she had no idea how important he would become in her life. The more she’d come to know him over the past year, the more she’d come to love him.
Her mom may have made a lot of mistakes in her life, mistakes that ended in tragedy for her. But she had certainly picked the best possible man to be Caitlin’s dad.
“You’re good with this whole wedding thing, right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Dad, you can stop asking me that any minute now. I’ve told you a hundred times, I’m thrilled for both of you. You two belong together. You make each other happy and I’m totally cool with it.”
He hugged her close and she tried not to sniffle a little. Would she ever find a guy who looked at her like her dad looked at Olivia? Instinctively, she searched the crowd until she found Jake, tall and handsome, now dancing a little awkwardly with Mimi, which made her smile.
When the music ended, somehow she and Cooper were close to the other couple, and before she knew it, they all traded partners and she was dancing with her best friend.
Jake had grown a lot in the past year. She knew she wasn’t the only girl at school who had noticed. He’d gotten taller and had filled out. She didn’t like the breathless feeling she got whenever he was around, which was all the time since they lived in the same house. For now, anyway, until he went away to college in a few months.
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