Stolen Breaths

by Pamela Sparkman

  I’m not gonna cry. I’m not gonna cry.

  “I didn’t know you could play the piano.” There, no tears.

  “Well, love, you never asked me.”

  “It was beautiful… the song. You’re always surprising me.”

  He leaned back to search my eyes. “I meant every word, Lil. Every. Word.”

  “I know,” I whispered.

  Cooper took me by the hand. “You ready to get outta here and get something to eat?”

  “Yeah, let’s go.” I turned to Joe and Hayden. “I love you guys. Thanks for tonight. I had fun.”

  “We’ll see you soon. Y’all go on and enjoy the rest of your night,” Joe said as he was giving me a hug.

  “Take care, sweetie,” Hayden said. “Cooper, thanks for bringing her by.”

  “You got it, man. We’ll see y’all later.”

  “You mind if we swing by my house a minute? I need to grab something,” Cooper asked, tapping a beat on the steering wheel.

  “Sure. Do you want me to wait in the car?”

  “Yeah, it won’t take long.”

  We pulled into Cooper’s garage, and he jumped out and ran in. I flipped through the radio stations while I waited. Nothing good was playing on any of them. After a few minutes passed my cell phone rang. I looked down at it and saw that it was Cooper calling.

  “Hey, you mind coming in?” he asked when I answered the call. “I can’t find what I was looking for and I don’t want to keep you waiting in the garage.”

  “Oh, okay, sure. I’m coming in now.” I hung up, turned off the engine, and went inside the house. Most of the lights were off but there was a soft glow that flickered throughout the main part of the house. Candles outlined a path, and along the path was a red velvet ribbon that started at the place I was standing and seemed to travel beyond my line of sight.

  “Cooper?”

  I waited for an answer but I didn’t get one. “Cooper? Where are you?”

  No response.

  I touched the red ribbon and walked further into the door, smoothing my fingers across the velvety texture. I stopped when I got to a note attached to the ribbon.

  Remember that day at the airport? My heart stopped when I saw you. And started beating again at the same time. Two conflicting reactions and yet you make it make sense.

  I couldn’t help wondering what all this was about, but I continued to follow the ribbon to the next note.

  Remember that day at the Country Club when I called out your name? When you turned around and settled your beautiful brown eyes on me I thought I would melt right there on the spot. It took everything in me not to kiss you right then and there. You didn’t even notice that all eyes were on you when we walked through the dining room. I did. You don’t realize the affect you have on other people. You hypnotize them with your beauty and you don’t even know it.

  I remembered that day perfectly. It was the first day we spent time with each other. My heart knew what it wanted even then. My fingers continued to glide to the next note.

  Do you remember the first time I cooked dinner for you? That was the night I kissed you for the first time. I had wanted to kiss you for forever.

  That kiss couldn’t have been more perfect. I smiled at the memory. So perfect. I continued on my candlelit path to the next note.

  The kiss. Yes, I’m still talking about that. You have to know that I loved you even before I kissed you. But kissing you that night – it was everything, and I knew I would never be the same.

  That makes two of us. I followed the ribbon as it led me into the living room.

  Right now, you’re standing in the room where you admitted that I would be your first. You have no idea what it does to me to know that. But you, Lily, you are my one and only, my forever, my world, my always. You are my life.

  A tear slowly trailed down my cheek, and I felt like my heart might burst. I wiped away the tear and continued down my dimly lit plotted path as it led me to Cooper’s bedroom.

  I remember the first time you slept in my bed. Having you next to me was the best feeling in the world. It was the same night that we told each other how we felt – that we loved each other. It was also the same night that you saw my tattoo for the first time. You never asked me when I got it, but I’m going to tell you. It was the day after you made my heart stop and then beat again.

  The ribbon led back down the dark hallway around the corner and back into the living room where Cooper was waiting at the end. On bended knee. Holding a candle.

  Damn tears.

  I swiped the tears away, letting out a shaky laugh as I watched him watch me.

  He reached out for my hand and I took it. He looked up and into my eyes, blowing out a quiet breath as he prepared himself to speak.

  “I took you on this trip down memory lane so that you could see that your path led you right to where you are now – standing in front me. Sometimes the path was dark, but I wanted you to see that there is light at the end of it. I’ve been waiting for you. I always have been. I knew you were out there, and I’ve been waiting here for our paths to cross again like your dad believed they would. He was right, Lily. My heart belongs to you. You own it. It’s yours. Every piece of it.” He looked down at the floor for the briefest moment and then searched my eyes again. “So, be careful with it, precious. Every time I hold your hand, or hear your sweet voice, or see you from across the room, or when I hear you laugh… God, I love to hear you laugh. It’s the sweetest sound in the whole damn world. And I would suffer through hours and hours of Joe’s dumb jokes just to hear that sound. Do you know what you do to me? Do you know? You wreck me and heal me all at the same time. I don’t know when I knew I loved you, I just can’t remember a time when I didn’t. It’s like the moment you came into my life everything I was before you was erased, like I didn’t exist before you. Marry me, Lily. Be my wife and I promise to love you. I promise to love you for the rest of my life. No, that’s not long enough.” Cooper shook his head like he was trying to find his words. “I can’t say I’ll love you until, because that indicates that there will be an end to my love, and there simply isn’t. It exists beyond any measure of time. Please be …”

  “Shhh,” I say, and he looks at me with confusion in his eyes and maybe a hint of worry. “I was yours the day we met, Cooper – at the beginning.” The tears fell freely down my face. “It was always you.”

  And then another tear, but this one fell from Cooper’s eyes. “Are you saying yes?”

  I didn’t need to ponder the question or take a minute to think about it. I wanted to open my mouth and say, “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you, Cooper.” All I could do was desperately nod my head. Tears fell unapologetically and I wanted to look at his beautiful face but he’d turned into a watery blur.

  Cooper set the candle to the side, pulled out a handkerchief, and handed it to me. “I came prepared,” he said with a soft chuckle. “Dry your eyes, precious. You’ll want to see the next part.”

  Taking the handkerchief, I looked down at Cooper, who was sliding a ring on my finger.

  “Oh wow.” The lights from the candles bounced off the diamond giving it a sparkling glow, and I smiled because in truth, if he would have spent his last quarter on a ring from a bubble gum machine and placed it on my finger I would have cherished it exactly the same. “It’s beautiful, Cooper.”

  “It is, but never as beautiful as when you’re wearing it.”

  After he secured the ring nicely on my left hand he stood up. I wrapped myself around him furiously. “I love you so much, Cooper.”

  I actually made him lose his balance as he took a couple of steps back before regaining control. “Whoa, baby. You’re gonna make me drop you,” he chuckled in my ear.

  “I don’t care. I need to hold on tight. I’m afraid you’re not real.”

  Cooper answered in a throaty murmur, “I’m real, baby.” He pulled me back and searched my soul as only he could. “I need to kiss you.”

  “Then kiss me.”
>
  He didn’t hesitate. As soon as I got the last word out, his mouth was on mine. He caressed my lips with his in slow, purposeful movements, making me sizzle like water on an open flame. Sensing my knees going weak he lifted me up and took us to the couch, never breaking contact. He laid me back and we kissed languidly and passionately, then quickly and desperately. He moved from my lips to my neck, around my throat, and up to my ear, burning a path the whole way.

  “Lily, baby, making love to you is going to be heaven. Pure heaven.” A soft groan escaped his throat. “Our wedding night should be our first time. We need to stop. It’s old school, I know, but I don’t care. You are a gift, and I don’t want to unwrap you until you’re my wife.”

  I wish I could convey how much I loved this man. I touched his face and prayed that he saw. “I would go through it all again even if it meant I would only have one moment with you,” I said.

  He brushed a trail with his lips. “You’re stuck with me, baby.”

  The tears never stopped as he kissed each one.

  “Just promise me one thing, precious.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Promise me we won’t have a long engagement. I think I might die of want.”

  I laughed again. “No long engagement. Let’s get married next week.”

  He pushed himself up to judge my expression. “Are you serious?”

  “Very. I don’t need to wait weeks or months, Cooper. I don’t need a fancy wedding or a big production. I just need you.” I examined his face closely, praying I didn’t find doubt or apprehension. Nervous about what he might say I began to silently wish I hadn’t said that. Maybe he didn’t want to get married that soon.

  “Baby,” he murmured as he perused me carefully and skillfully, studying and memorizing. It made me feel cherished and adored the way his eyes thoroughly read me like an open book, taking his time to consider all of my many pages of thoughts and feelings. “I would marry you this minute. Tomorrow. Whenever. Wherever. If you want to get married next week, then next week we’re getting married.” He began to carefully place kisses on my face, shoulders, arms, hands. “Have I told you how much I love you?”

  “Not in the last two minutes.”

  “I love you more than the morning loves the dew.”

  Twenty-Five

  Stamped and Sealed

  “So when am I going to meet this man of yours?” Maggie asked from across the table. She sipped her Diet Coke from the straw and then proceeded to dip her French fries in the puddle of mayonnaise she had put on her plate. I was having a hard time trying not to let that ruin my appetite, but I think my disgust must have been obvious since she proceeded to make provocative noises as she dipped another fry through the glob that now seemed to dominate most of her plate. “Mmm, so good.”

  Shaking my head to dismiss her disgusting habit, I answered, “Soon. He needed to get some work stuff done today, but you’ll be meeting him later tonight.” Maggie had only been in town less than an hour. I’d picked her up at the airport a short while ago and it wasn’t until I saw her walking toward me that I realized how much I’d missed her. She was easy to spot with her fiery red hair and loose curls that seem to fall in all the right places. Maggie had always been a beautiful girl, but she somehow seemed to get prettier as time went by. Her fiery attitude matched her red hair too. There was no in between with Maggie. You either loved her or hated her. I loved her. She was fiercely protective, loyal, and wasn’t shy about telling you what she thought, although she wouldn’t bulldoze over you either. She seemed to have perfected walking that fine line between beating you over the head and letting you know she cared by opening her heart. She was intense at times, but Maggie wouldn’t be Maggie if she wasn’t.

  It took me a while to convince her when I called that I was indeed getting married in a week. That conversation went something like…

  “Hey Maggie, I have some very important news and you need to be sitting down for it. Are you sitting?”

  “Yeah, I’m sitting. Let’s hear it, chick.”

  “I’m getting married.” I sort of blurted it out.

  “Shut up! You are not!”

  “It’s true. I am. In a week. And I need you here. I know it’s short notice but I’m hoping—”

  “Back the trolley up a minute,” Maggie said. “In a week? A week? You’re getting married in a week?!?”

  “Yes, Maggie. In a week.”

  “But why so soon? What’s the rush? I haven’t even met this man of yours yet. I thought I made myself clear when I talked to him that day that you two aren’t official until my seal of approval has been stamped. What the hell?”

  “Maggie,” I said, trying not to laugh, “I have so much to tell you. Will you say you’ll come? I need you here.”

  “You don’t even have to ask that, Lily. Of course I’ll be there.”

  “Good. Cooper is paying for your travel, and before you even try to argue that point, save it. It’s no use.” Maggie hated to have other people do things like that for her, especially where money was involved, but she would have to get over it this one time. “You’ll stay with me, of course, and I’ll do my best to fill you in on everything that’s happened.”

  “Fine. Okay. But I better like this man of yours, otherwise…”

  “Otherwise what?”

  “I don’t know yet, but I have an entire plane ride to think about it.”

  I laughed. “Okay, Mags. I’m not really worried though, so think away.”

  That was yesterday. And now she was sitting with me at Sal’s Diner while I began filling her in on everything that had taken place these past few months since I last saw her. I think the only time she looked away from me was when she went to grab some more napkins off another table because we had used all the ones on ours. She had started crying first, so I blamed her for the waterworks today. I had resolved that I would not cry, but when I saw how upsetting it was for her to hear all of this it was automatic. I’d only seen her cry one other time, and that was at my daddy’s funeral.

  Maggie didn’t know what to say so she didn’t say anything at first. I didn’t want her to feel like she needed to say anything so I reached across the table and patted the top of her hands.

  “I’m okay, Mags. I am. And I’m happy, because I realized that I’m not broken. I have dents, bruises, scars, and cracks so deep that it’s a wonder I’m not in a million pieces, but I’m not – not anymore. I don’t know how, but Cooper put me back together.” I smiled. “Like a mosaic, taking all my broken pieces, he made something beautiful out of something ugly. The best part is he slowly began filling the cracks with himself. We aren’t two separate people anymore. Somewhere along the way we became one. He is a part of me, and I am a part of him. You asked me why so soon, why the rush to get married? Here’s my answer… because I’ve already waited my whole life for him. We’re not rushing. We should be the poster children for patience. There’s no reason to keep waiting, and a thousand and one reasons to leap with my heart and promise to love him forever and ever in front of our friends and family as quickly as possible, because I don’t want one more hour, minute, or second to go by where I’m not calling him my husband.”

  Maggie’s eyes were filled with an unspoken understanding, and she gave me her undivided attention. When I was finished, I saw a side of her I’d never seen before. I saw her hard edges soften and the coolness in her green eyes warm to a slightly darker emerald shade. She looked down at the table and poked the ice in her glass with her straw.

  “I love you, Lily. And I envy you.”

  Maggie and I had spent the rest of the afternoon together talking and laughing. Now it was time to meet up with Cooper and let them get acquainted. I was happy that the two of them would finally meet and I also wanted Mags to meet Joe and Hayden. Beth was planning on meeting us too until she got called into work at the last minute. I’d quit working at the diner weeks ago, and they had hired someone to replace me. Apparently that hadn’t been working out t
oo well, since the new girl who was originally requesting to work more hours than I did had a bad habit of calling in sick. Beth had said she would try to meet up with us later if it wasn’t too late.

  “Where are we going, Lily? I’m not sure what I should wear.”

  Maggie had an assortment of clothes spread out across my bed. I inventoried the options and chose for her a classic black dress that I’d seen her wear a million times and she always looked great in it.

  “Here, wear this one. I’ve always liked this dress.”

  I scanned my own wardrobe for something to wear and decided on the red dress; the same red dress that I knew Cooper loved because the last time I wore it he made a point to tell me how much he liked it a dozen times. I smiled inwardly knowing that it was going to drive him crazy.

  Cooper suggested that we all meet up at the bar, but Joe had suggested we go to dinner instead; somewhere less noisy.

  Maggie and I arrived at the restaurant early, because I wanted to have time for us to have a drink before the others got there. Plus I wanted to give Mags a chance to catch me up with her life. She was currently not dating anyone; at least not anyone serious. That was about as much as I got out of her before she looked over my shoulder and her mouth dropped open.

  “Oh my God, that guy is totally checking you out.”

  “What guy?” I started to turn my head to the direction of her stare.

  “No! Don’t turn around!”

  “Why?”

  “Because…” She looked back at me, choosing not to elaborate.

  I could feel something equivalent to little pinpricks on my skin now, and the only time I ever felt that was when Cooper was near me. “What’s he doing?” I asked, casually rubbing my arms to remove the chill bumps.

  Maggie glanced back over toward him semi-discreetly. “He’s got his hands in his front pockets and he looks like he’s maybe waiting for someone. But he’s totally got you in his sights, chick.” She got quiet for a minute as she evaluated him. Her eyes ran the length of his body as if her retinas contained some sort of computer chip for the purpose of downloading and viewing later. She was being pretty brazen about the way she was looking at him.