A round of laughter led him onto the back deck. Wherever that girl ended up after this, she’d have no problem holding her own. That he was sure about.
The unsolicited realization that she’d be moving on soon slammed into him with the day’s already-building humidity. This whole arrangement with Quinn had an expiration date from the beginning. The idea of it ending shouldn’t be getting to him now.
He polished off his coffee, leaving his mug and any unchecked feelings on the patio table, and trekked down to the dock with his tools.
An hour into replacing the boards, Cooper wiped off the sweat running into his eyes with his sleeve and sat back on his heels. Loraine had been so good to watch Brayden last night. She’d make an awesome grandma. She and Mrs. Thompson both.
He tossed his hammer in his toolbox and buried the thought. Aside from both women having their hands full with their own family members, Brayden needed more than a doting grandma.
When an incoming call flashed his lawyer’s name on his cell, Cooper reached for his phone and the hope that he’d found an answer Cooper wasn’t thinking of. “Jim, what’s the latest?”
“Like I advised you earlier, the courts are more likely to grant termination in order to facilitate adoption. You’d have a greater chance of the petition falling in your favor if you already had an adoptive family lined up.”
When Cooper didn’t respond, his lawyer went on. “But if there are no family members you can ask, we can contact the Division of Health and Human Services and connect with a caseworker.”
Pressure began to build between Cooper’s eyes, a headache on the verge of following. He dragged a hand down his face. Though he already knew the answer, the question twisting inside him came out anyway. “Will I get to be in contact with the potential parents?”
Jim didn’t respond at first. “Cooper, maybe you should take a little more time on this.”
“Time for what?”
“To decide if you want to stay in Brayden’s life or not.”
The choice burned into him with the early afternoon sun. “I don’t have time.”
“Then you better make a decision soon.” Another line beeped in the background. “I need to go, but give it some thought. We’ll touch base when you’re ready.”
What if he never would be?
The minute he hung up, his brother’s ringtone went off with the answer Cooper had fought from the beginning. Drew was the better man. Always had been. As hard as it was to admit it, Cooper knew Drew and Ti could give Brayden the nurturing upbringing he couldn’t. More than that, he wouldn’t trust anyone else. It was time to let go of his pride.
He rose, raked his damp hair off his face, and cleared all traces of emotion from his voice. “What happened to your surprise trip?”
“Hello to you too.” Drew chuckled. “If it were a surprise, we’d show up without warning. Be glad I talked Ti into letting me actually plan the trip.”
Grinning despite himself, Cooper lifted a foot to the bench and hunched over his knee. “I bet she loved that idea.” His sister-in-law was the queen of spontaneity.
“I might’ve had to promise she could drive on the way home . . . and stop wherever the wind blew her.” He laughed through the line, a sound Cooper missed more than he realized. But when his niece’s sweet voice rang in the background, his heart begged him to end the call.
“Is Maddie coming too?” he managed to get out.
“You been swallowing too much lake water up there? I’m not about to stand in the way of my daughter getting to say goodbye to Uncle Coop.”
His foot slid off the edge of the bench, his voice all but tanking into the water. “You guys really don’t have to make the drive. I’ll try to be back for Christmas. There’s no need to—”
“Cooper. We’re coming. Get over it.”
He bit back a response and rotated his neck.
“No one likes goodbyes, all right, but that doesn’t mean you avoid them.”
Cooper shook his head. “You sound like Dad.”
A pause passed between them. “The man usually knew what he was talking about.”
Same way Drew did. They were so much alike. The ache of missing Dad wedged itself between his ribs. He’d give all the money in the world to have his father here again. To hear his advice. Would he be disappointed in his choices again? He had to know Cooper was trying to do what was right for everyone.
He switched the phone to his opposite ear, strolled to the end of the dock, and peered across the horizon into a decision it was past time to make. “Listen, Drew, there’s something I want to talk to you about when you’re here.”
“We’ll be there Saturday.” An audible smile filled the line. “So, don’t be staying out late with Tabitha Friday night.”
“Tabitha?”
“Tiffany, Tanya? Sorry, man, I lose track. Who are you dating right now?”
His stomach curled at the insinuation. “I haven’t been on a date in weeks.”
Again with the weighty pause.
“Really? So, who’s the girl?”
Cooper strode back to his toolbox. “What girl? I just told you—”
“That you’ve fallen for someone.”
He shoved his hammer to one side of the box. “And you talk to me about swallowing too much lake water. The salt there’s obviously getting to you, hoss. I’m moving out of the country. I’m not looking for a relationship.”
“Love doesn’t usually care whether you’re looking or not. Trust me.”
Sunlight drilled into his neck and burned with irritation. He dragged the front of his shirt over his face while pushing off the box to stand. “We’re not talking about you and Ti.”
“No one said we were. Doesn’t mean you can’t fall in love too.”
He let out a sardonic laugh. “What’s the point?” He’d either end up hurting her or getting hurt. That’s how it worked. “You’re the family man, Drew. Not me. Why do you think I’m selling this place? I don’t need anything tying me down.”
It didn’t matter that Drew was six hours away. Even over the phone, Cooper could feel the impact of the look he knew was on Drew’s face right now.
“Then you better make sure the girl you’re with knows that too.”
His words steered Cooper’s gaze up to the back of his house, and his thoughts to moments he’d spent with Quinn these last couple of weeks. Despite all the warning bells blaring in his head half the time, it was like logic disappeared when he was with her, overriding everything he’d tell himself only minutes prior.
A flicker of the For Sale sign out front flashed to mind. Steeling himself, he pulled his shoulders back. “There’s nothing going on between us.”
“Uh-huh.” A weary exhale seeped through the line. “We’ll see you Saturday, Coop.”
If he made it till then.
He tossed his phone in his toolbox and matched Drew’s heavy exhale.
He couldn’t blame Quinn if she was reading more into his actions than what he had to offer. Honestly, he was too. Ignoring it wouldn’t make it go away. Drew was right. He had to clear the air and make sure she knew where they stood before this next week ended in nothing but casualties.
Chapter Seventeen
Games
A rich chocolaty aroma stopped Cooper by the nose the minute he stepped through the sliding door. His legs moved on their own, drawn under a spell. The sound of music, laughter, and clanging drew him around the doorway to the kitchen and into a scene he’d pay to have on film.
While Quinn was entranced in her usual baking-slash-dancing routine, Brayden sat in the middle of the floor, surrounded by pots and pans he must’ve dragged out of the bottom cabinet. He looked up from his makeshift instruments and expanded a chocolate-coated smile at Cooper. Shrieking in delight, he banged a wooden spoon over the back of the nearest pot.
“Nice beat, hoss.” He rubbed Brayden’s hair.
Quinn turned from the counter where she was using a spatula to smooth out a decadent
looking mixture in an aluminum pan. “Oh good. I have something I need to talk to you about, but give me twelve minutes or so.” She opened the oven and slid the pan inside. “And you can try these cheesecake brownies I’m testing out for Ginny’s party first.”
“Looks like you guys have been taste testing without me.” Cooper sauntered across the tiles and wiped a dollop of batter from her bangs.
A coy smile spread flour smudges across her cheeks. “Maybe a little.”
Loose wavy strands of hair falling from her ponytail fluttered under the vent, and Cooper simply stared. He’d come in to make sure they both knew where things stood between them, but all he could do was stand there like a speechless idiot.
“What’s wrong?” The faintest collection of freckles wrinkled on her nose. “You look like something’s on your mind.”
More like tearing his mind apart. He pulled on his ear, downplaying. “Just surprised to see you okay with a big mess like this.” A panoramic glance around the disheveled kitchen ended in a sideways smirk. “All without a single sticky note, no less. You’re really taking this leap stuff seriously, aren’t you? I’m not sure if I should be impressed or nervous.”
The stiff grin she doled at him morphed into something almost devilish. “Making a mess can be kind of fun.” She unrolled a bag of flour on the counter. “When someone else gets to clean it up.” With the last word hanging in a laugh, Quinn flicked a handful of flour at his face.
Cooper didn’t move except for a single blink. “You did not just start this.”
“Oh, more than start.” She grabbed the beaters and turned them on high speed, splattering chocolate batter across his face. “I just finished it, hoss.”
Giggles erupted from the floor as Brayden waved his giant spoon in the air like a conductor. “’Gain. ’Gain.”
Quinn backed up, her pinched lips barely restraining a laugh.
Nice try. Cooper lassoed her at the waist before she got more than five steps away. “You think that’s funny, do you?” He whirled her around and wedged his head past her flailing hands to smear the chocolate from his face to hers. “It’s on now, girl.”
She squealed while reaching for more flour to dust his hair with.
He intercepted the bag, flung a scoop at her, and caught her wrists when she tried to retaliate. “You’re right. It is fun when someone else is cleaning it up.”
“Don’t think you’re getting out of this one, buddy.” She squirmed harder, but Cooper backed her into the corner by the sink with no way to escape.
“I’m sorry, who’s the one needing to get out of something?”
Quinn braced her palms against his chest. “You’re lucky Brayden’s here.”
That made two of them. With her backed against the counter, bookended between his arms, his pulse jack rabbited past the adrenaline of horsing around into a sphere far more uncontrollable.
Emotion shifted in her eyes as she reached a thumb to a smudge of batter that’d ended up by the corner of his mouth. “The kitchen isn’t the only thing that’s a mess.”
She had no idea, and he was only making it worse. But instead of listening to reason, a yearning he couldn’t douse kept him in place. His pulse drowned out the music coming from her phone and hedged all logic back to the dock where he’d obviously left it.
On instinct, he let go of the counter and cupped the back of her neck. Breaths passed between them, each one anchoring him in eyes drawing him deeper. The sweet fragrance of chocolate mingling with honey consumed his senses until nothing else mattered.
Quinn held his gaze with earnest, and the spell that’d lured him in from the beginning overtook his heart. He lifted his free hand to her cheek and pressed in till his lips barely grazed hers.
She leaned back, looking torn between two opposing emotions. His heart sank. What did he expect? He’d crossed a line they both knew needed to stay intact.
The doorbell blared from the entryway, but he didn’t move at first.
Quinn pulled the hair band out of what was left of her ponytail and stared at the grout between the tiles.
Good job, Anderson. Instead of clearing things up, he’d made them even more convoluted and uncomfortable. He kneaded his shoulder, stalling. If he found the right pressure point, maybe he’d unlock something half decent to say.
Not even close.
When the doorbell rang a second time, he shuffled backward. “I should go . . .” Put an end to the awkwardness overtaking the room? Stretching it even further instead, he made a clumsy about-face and almost smacked right into the edge of the open doorway. He tapped a hand to the trim. “Nice and sturdy.”
Really? Forget awkward. How about pathetic?
Cringing, Cooper made a beeline to the hall and opened the front door.
On the other side, his realtor stood with a middle-aged couple beside him, looking like they’d just come from a country club. The blatant once-over they cast down the brownie batter left on Cooper’s face joined Ray’s mortified stare.
Cooper ran his hands across his cheeks and through his hair, as if there was any dignity left to salvage. “Ray, why didn’t you tell me you were stopping by?”
His realtor’s phony laugh filled the stagnant air hovering on the porch. He splayed an arm between the couple and Cooper. “Businessmen. We’d all be lost without our secretaries. Am I right?” He clamped a hand on Cooper’s shoulder and pitched his suave smile at his clients. “Give us just a quick moment.”
Ray steered him through the door. “Since when aren’t you answering your phone? I left you two messages.”
Cooper patted his empty pockets. Clearly, his head wasn’t the only thing he’d lost recently. “I’m sorry. I got caught up in—”
The oven timer went off.
“I know exactly what you’re caught up in.” Ray’s line of sight ricocheted down the hall and landed on Quinn, setting the pan of brownies on the counter. “This isn’t the time for games, Cooper.” He pointed to the closed door. “You have potential buyers expecting a tour today. Do you want to sell this place or not?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then start acting like it.” Ray adjusted his tie. “Listen, I want to help you out, but you’ve gotta decide whether you’re leaving or staying.”
A tendon on Cooper’s neck flexed. “There’s nothing to decide.”
“You positive?” He flicked a glance at Quinn again. “’Cause that sure looks like a complication to me.”
First Drew, now Ray. His phone call with his brother stormed to mind, sparking his frustration with people’s perceptions of him and his lifestyle.
“She’s the nanny, all right. There’s nothing holding me back from leaving. Certainly not a temporary employee.” The heated words came out louder than he meant them to. When he caught a flash of hurt move past Quinn’s eyes, complication didn’t come close to covering it.
His shoulders slumped. Releasing a hard breath, he started toward her without thinking, until Ray cut him off. Cooper glared at the hand on his shoulder.
Ray let go. “The ball’s in your court. When you’re ready to make a move, you call me.” He backed up and showed himself out while Cooper just stood there. Lost.
What the heck was wrong with him?
Back in the kitchen, Quinn dabbed a washcloth to the corners of Brayden’s chocolate mustache.
His heart tanked again. He wasn’t playing games, but Ray was right about one thing. He had to start living like his choice was the one he truly wanted. No more getting sidetracked by feelings that didn’t matter. No more giving in to spells. Just truth, facts. They’d be parting in a week. It was time he made it clear what that meant.
A knock at the door stopped him mid-step down the hall toward Quinn. Ray couldn’t really think he’d cleaned everything up in two minutes.
He hustled back to the door, swung it open, and froze. Not Ray. “Livy?”
His good friend from Ocracoke raised her delicate shoulders. “Surprise.”
After Livy had a chance to settle in and meet Quinn and Brayden, Cooper got cleaned up and then gave her a quick tour of his place. Out on his dock, he nudged his toolbox beside the bench to clear the path. “I still can’t believe you drove up here without telling me.”
“Correction. I tried to tell you. Someone isn’t answering his phone very often these days.” Livy tossed him a pointed look.
If she didn’t know him better than most, he would’ve tried to dodge it. “Yeah, guess there’s been a lot going on around here.” He scratched his jaw, expecting her to dish out an intuitive comment about Quinn.
When it didn’t come, he angled to catch her gaze. “I’m sorry for losing touch lately. It really is good to see you, Liv.” He raised a suspicious brow. “But Drew didn’t happen to put you up to coming, did he?”
Saying everything and nothing at the same time, an evasive smile clung to the sunlight as she turned toward the lake. “I can see why you like it here. It’s beautiful.”
He’d let her sidestep the question. For now. “It’s nothing like the ocean, though.”
“It has a different kind of charm. You can feel the peacefulness here, you know? The seclusion, serenity. It’s almost . . . freeing.” She watched an osprey glide across the water, as though wishing she had wings of her own.
Cooper sidled up beside her at the end of the dock. “Something going on you wanna talk about?”
“Just feeling like I’m ready for a change, I guess.” She slipped her hands into her back pockets and rocked on her feet. “I don’t know, Coop. This past year, things have been . . . different. You’re gone. Seeing Grandma Jo and Mr. Fiazza together is just plain weird.” She laughed. “And Drew and Ti are adorable as ever.”
“They’re not making you sick, are they?” Grinning, Cooper grabbed a chisel from his toolbox along with a file.
“I’ve never seen Drew and Maddie so happy.” Her expression turned wistful. “Or Ti, for that matter. They’re so perfect together. It still amazes me—last summer, I mean. After everything they went through, now look at them.”
“As Grandma Jo would say, things have a way—”
Just Maybe (Home In You Book 3) Page 15
