ANTE UP (7-Stud Club Book 3)

by Christie Ridgway

  Slice. Jab. Thrust. “Right.” Stupid tears stung the corners of her eyes.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Peachy.” Her chin came up. “I just met Nessa.”

  He blinked.

  Did he not recognize her name? Scoundrel. Rogue. Villain.

  “You know, LeeLee and Emmy’s mom?”

  “Oh. Sure.”

  Had he forgotten her, his once-fiancée, the one who’d somehow gotten beneath his extra-strength bachelor skin or at least the I’m-a-just-fun-and-games-guy shell?

  Another dancing couple tripped into them and this time Cooper hauled her against him, ignoring her resistance. “There’s too many people out here,” he muttered, and somehow sway-towed her from the crowded space to the relative quiet at the mouth of the office hallway.

  She could breathe better here, but that meant breathing him in, and tears stung her eyes again, threatening to betray her. Her forehead met his shoulder, and she let it rest there, hiding her emotion, even as she knew this was foolishness.

  More moments she’d be forced to forget.

  I think I was afraid you weren’t real.

  Damn it, he’d said that! A tender line, so sweet and honest, she’d thought. But it had been flimsy, like tissue that shredded at the first sneeze.

  As they continued dancing, his hand tightened on the small of her back. She recalled it touching her other places, other intimate and not-so-intimate places, and shivered.

  “Talk to me,” he said.

  “Nessa told me you left her at the altar.”

  “What?” His feet came to a halt. His finger tucked beneath her chin, lifted. “That’s not true.”

  She set her mouth. “‘Once engaged. On the way to the altar and everything.’” Funny, how she could recite each syllable perfectly.

  His mouth twitched. She glared.

  “In fourth grade,” he explained, a small smile quirking the corners of his mouth. “She was joking with you. In elementary school there was a time when weddings were big business during recess. You had to pay one of Beau’s buddies a quarter to pronounce you man and wife. Nessa wandered off to the monkey bars before our turn.”

  Heat crawled up Willow’s neck. “Well.”

  Then, his gaze on hers, his whole being went serious. Eyes steady, shoulders squared, voice low. “I’m sorry that keeping quiet about Brad’s…situation hurt you. I promised we’d be friends forever, I professed my loyalty, and then I made you feel you couldn’t trust me.”

  “You were right not to say anything.” She had to admit it. “It’s true that wasn’t your secret to tell.”

  He took both her hands in his. “But it made you feel foolish to hear it, and more so, to learn that I’d known before you.”

  “You understand me so well.” She gave him a weak smile. “So given that, you’ll also understand that I need some…distance from you now.” Would he buy it? That the blow to her pride meant she was putting a permanent stop to their sleepovers or even anything less intimate. The fact she was in love with him must stay locked away in her heart. “I’m done with my design duties here at the pub, Pat will deliver your grandpa’s recovered chair when it’s ready, and your mom and I are managing the lake house plans.”

  “Right.” His hands released hers, his arms falling to his sides. “I get it.” As he turned away, she heard his low murmur.

  “What was that?” she asked, uncertain if she would ever speak to him again.

  “Nobody’s luck lasts forever,” he said, moving on before she remembered that had been her plan.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sprawled in a chair at Fun & Games, Cooper undid another button of his shirt and checked the time. Nearly midnight. Though the Daggett family remained, almost all the anniversary party guests were gone, as well as the caterer, servers, and bartenders. The final stragglers were heading for the exits, some out the front and others through the rear door. In the alley behind the brew pub, he’d propped open the gate to the back lot that he’d cleared in time for use as temporary overflow parking.

  Sophie emerged from the hallway and dropped into the chair beside his, going boneless. “We did it.”

  He glanced over at her, then cleared his throat. “Willow?”

  Following their conversation during that endless song, she hadn’t left the brew pub as he might have guessed. If she’d planned an escape, it was stymied by his mother, who’d snagged her by the arm and dragged her around the party for introductions that led with the words “design genius.”

  Not that he’d been monitoring the situation closely or anything. But she’d made it through the rest of the evening on site, always teamed up with Sophie, one of her circle, or some of the poker crew.

  Five minutes ago he’d watched her head in the direction of the rear exit with Hart and Sophie, her purse over her shoulder.

  “Willow’s on her way home,” Sophie said now. “Or almost.”

  “Okay.” Maybe this damn ache in his chest would go away now. Since their talk, he’d felt like a walking skin suit, his insides hollowed out yet still exuding breath-stealing pain. Then his thoughts snagged on his sister’s last word. “Almost?”

  Sophie’s gaze iced over. “Hart said she looked like she needed some good news.”

  “Really?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “She appeared plenty happy every time I caught sight of her.” Laughing with girlfriends. Smiling up at Shane and Raf, those flirting rat bastards.

  “Well, he spilled the beans she won the Sawyer Shores design contract—the official word is going out Monday. She’s really excited.”

  Cooper’s mood lightened a fraction. “That’s great.” For a second he saw himself sending her flowers and champagne. But no, she needed distance from him. She’d said so.

  “They’re in your office while she makes a few notes. She said she can’t wait to get started.”

  He could go to her right now, he thought, despite what she’d said. Just to offer those congrats.

  Ready to push up from his chair, a large hand clapped on his shoulder, keeping him down. Then his brother took the seat on the other side of him. “Great party, Coop.”

  His parents joined them too, both collapsing into a love seat that had been dragged from the employee break room.

  His mom still had a piña colada in hand, and she beamed at her children with a wide and slightly tipsy smile. “Hello, beloved fruit of my loins,” she said, toasting them with the frozen concoction.

  They all groaned.

  “The mental image, Mom,” Beau complained, wincing. “Give us a break.”

  “What your mother means to say is thank you,” their dad said. “We enjoyed our party very much.”

  “Even the location?” Sophie asked, with a sidelong look for Cooper. “Your younger son worried you might not appreciate holding it at Fun & Games.”

  “What?” Beau said, looking between father and brother. “What are you talking about? This place is great. I can’t tell you how many people said so.”

  Cooper shrugged. “Good to hear some appreciate it.”

  Randy Daggett frowned. “I’ve just mentioned that the food and beverage business is risky, that’s all. Cooper could take his degree, his know-how—”

  “Dad, really?” Beau asked. “Are you still on him like this? Your attitude makes it sound like he’s eleven and planning to join the foreign legion.”

  Cooper had to laugh. “It’s possible I did make plans to do that.”

  “You’d probably be a grand success at that too,” Sophie said. “I’ve always admired how you’ve never limited your dreams.”

  Touched, he stared at his sister. “Hey, thanks.”

  She leaned close. “You suck with women, though.”

  Beau snickered even as his father frowned again. “Not true,” Dad said. “He has very good taste. Why there’s Willow—”

  “Messed that up,” Sophie said, flinging up her hand. “Walked away, whatever. His usual thing.”

  “Oh, Co
oper.” His mother sent him a sympathetic glance.

  “I don’t want to be tied down,” he said, defensive. Though, technically, he figured she’d broken up with him.

  “You don’t want to be tied down,” his mom repeated, blinking. “Not even to the right person?”

  Without answering, he reached to swipe the piña colada out of her hand and guzzled it down. The slushy mixture burned his throat then sent a shaft of freeze straight up to his brain. “Aghh.”

  The pain cold-branded his mother’s words across the surface of his gray matter. You don’t want to be tied down. Not even to the right person?

  What was wrong with everyone? Didn’t they get that he wasn’t right now high-fiving or slow-kissing Willow because he didn’t do deep, feel deep, fall deeply in love, and she deserved that?

  He was fun and games only. Ever.

  We can all change.

  The echo of his dad’s voice sounded in his poor aching head, still recovering from that blast of frozen rum and fruit. The old man had said that. We can all change.

  Had Willow renovated Cooper after all?

  He stared off into space, seeing nothing in the room, just seeing images of her, laughing, talking, walking, kissing. Willow at his side, the right person for him.

  Damn. She’d done it, he thought, awed. Just like his sister had promised.

  Willow had rearranged his world. Renovated him.

  He jumped from his seat.

  “What are you doing?” his mom asked.

  Not another minute should go by without Willow knowing she was everything to him and that he was in love with her. Halfway across the room his common sense kicked in, making him pause. Would she trust him now? Would she trust him to take good care of her? Perhaps this was a bad idea.

  But hadn’t his dad said something about that, too?

  You’ve done all right following your heart instead of your head. Maybe you should keep doing that.

  So he ran. To his destiny, he thought, letting in every syrupy emotion and romantic notion for the first time in his life. A string section played a swelling chorus. The back door was illuminated by the glowing overhead EXIT sign, but he caught himself on his office’s doorjamb, remembering she’d been in there with Hart, and glanced inside.

  Empty.

  As he began to pivot back, his attention caught on the computer screen on his desk. The view from the new security camera. A phantom hand seized his throat and he went cold-hot-cold.

  Fuck.

  Willow, beside the trash dumpster. And beside her, a knife in one hand and his other around her upper arm, Big Ed.

  Cooper leaped, in one Superman bound making it to the exit door which he shoved open so hard it slammed against the outside wall as he breached the alley.

  Wild-eyed, Big Ed yanked Willow close to his chest.

  Wide-eyed, she stared at Cooper too.

  He sucked in a sharp breath. “Ed, Big Ed.” He held out his hands, waist-high, palms flat, fingers-splayed. “You, uh, okay?” His gaze swept the area and took in the purse at Willow’s feet, the contents spread.

  What the hell was going on? “You need some cash, Big Ed?” His voice sounded tight, and he could barely hear himself over the whush-whush in his ears.

  The man lifted the hand with the knife and he rubbed the top of his head with the hilt. “Bad people, Coop.”

  “Okay.” He looked at Willow, trying to calm his pulse. “Can you, uh, let my sweetheart go, Ed?”

  He looked down in surprise. “Sweetheart? This your girl, Coop?”

  “She sure is.” He edged nearer, his focus on that knife. “I think you might be scaring her a little.”

  “She saw the bad people too.”

  “Right,” Willow said, swallowing. “I’m glad you know this person, Cooper, because—”

  And then more hell broke loose because the rest of the Daggetts spilled into the alley, just as a siren sounded down the block. A patrol vehicle, light bar flashing, sped up on them, causing Big Ed to huddle closer to the dumpster, bringing Willow with him.

  With his chaos training lacking, Cooper went with instinct. He Supermanned to Willow’s other side and when Ed let her go to shield his eyes from the glare of the cop headlights, Cooper didn’t hesitate to pull her into his arms. Then he swung around, shielding her with his body.

  “You’re safe,” he said against her ear as the whoop-whoop-whoop of the police siren surrounded them. “Baby, you’re safe.”

  But not him. His heart had turned into a kettle ball, stone-hard and heavy as shit.

  It took some time to sort through the tangle of witness accounts. Cooper’s mom made tea in the kitchen—apparently his manager had a stash of the stuff in the office supply cabinet—and served it in beer mugs along with the leftover petit fours that had been the anniversary party dessert. The Daggetts had resumed their previous seats and were joined by Hart and Willow—she’d been commandeered by Sophie while Cooper helped his mom passing out the hot beverage. Big Ed sat at a table by himself and a couple of uniformed cops stood, legs spread like they were on the deck of a ship, making notes in small books. Mad showed up at some point, out of his party duds and in jeans and T-shirt.

  “I called him,” Hart said, when Cooper took the empty seat beside him.

  He pressed his palms to his temples as his friend went over the story for the detective now in their midst. Hart and Willow had walked through the alley on their way to the temporary car lot. There, they’d surprised a couple of men fooling around under Hart’s car.

  “Attempting to steal the catalytic converter,” Mad said. “We’ve figured out that’s their angle. It’s been happening all over town.”

  Upon being caught in the act, the pair had pushed past them, returning to the alley on the run. Hart had taken off after them, directing Willow back to Fun & Games, but before she’d made it inside, Big Ed was there.

  Big Ed with his big knife, which apparently he’d drawn to protect himself and the damsel. His intentions had been gold.

  It was just the possible outcome that tasted like ash in Cooper’s mouth.

  The cops left, accompanying Big Ed who was going to call his sister from the station and whose pocket was full of the “reward” cash that Cooper had emptied from his own wallet. Mad left. His parents gathered their things, including boxing the umpteen bottles of wine and champagne they’d received from friends despite the “No Gifts” admonition on the invitation. Then they left with Beau.

  Sophie and Willow went to the restroom, paired up, as women do.

  “You going to drive her home?” Hart asked Cooper. “She shouldn’t be heading out in the dark by herself.”

  “Well…uh…” His lungs had to work overtime to draw in air around the leaden thing in the middle of his chest.

  “I see the way you keep looking at her,” Hart said. “You know, buddy…”

  “I know, I know,” Cooper said testily. But it was hard to overcome a bachelor’s lifetime of avoidance of commitment. A habit, you see, and it was…

  Bullshit.

  He glanced at his friend. “I’m scared, all right?”

  “I’ve seen how she looks back—and don’t forget you’re a charmer. You’ll convince her to take you on.”

  Cooper was shaking his head. “I was so damn scared when I saw her with Big Ed, that huge knife in his hand.”

  “Coop—”

  “I was scared I would lose her.” His fingers fisted. “I’m scared I can lose her. Like…”

  Hart drew in a breath. “Like I lost Kim.”

  “There’s a thousand ways that could happen,” Cooper said, staring at the floor. “I just don’t know what to do.”

  “It’s worth it,” Hart said, his voice quiet.

  Cooper’s head came up. “Shit, Hart.”

  “That’s what you want to know, right?”

  Willow had told him to ask that very thing and the question had been on his mind since. Have you ever asked him if he considered loving her not worth th
e losing of her?

  “You gotta take the risk, man,” his friend said now.

  “Suppose—”

  “I would do it again,” Hart said. “Over and over. Because Kim deserved it. Kim deserved my love and if I can be happy about anything, it’s that I gave her that for the time we had together.”

  The voices of the women interrupted the moment. The two came into sight, and Cooper couldn’t keep his gaze off Willow, hair mussed, mascara a little smudged, lipstick gone so that her pretty mouth, those naked lips, were just as God had made them.

  For him.

  Okay. Decision made. Heart committed.

  He squared his shoulders. Groveling to commence.

  Without looking away from her, he addressed Hart. “Take Sophie home, will you?”

  “I’m driving him,” Sophie said. “The police want to look over his car again in the morning.”

  Willow glanced at the other couple. “Or I can—”

  “You’re here with me,” Cooper said. “We didn’t get to finish our dance.”

  She didn’t comment on that until they’d said goodbye to his sister and friend. Then she eyed him, clearly nervous, as he made his way to the sound system across the room. The piña colada song, damn its ugly hide, began playing through the speakers.

  “I thought you said everybody hates this song,” she said as he approached.

  “It’s a cheating song, you know,” he said, putting his arms around her.

  She held herself as stiffly as before. “If it’s a cheating song, why exactly are we dancing to it?”

  Swaying, he looked into her face, so…dear. So dear. “Family tradition. My mom and dad were dancing to it when he told her he loved her for the very first time.”

  Glorious pink flushed her glorious skin. “Cooper?”

  “I’ve fallen for you. Deeply. Seriously.”

  Her lips formed his name again, though no sound came out. Cooper.

  “Do I need to enumerate my best qualities?”

  Her eyes huge, she shook her head. Her body had loosened and he drew her closer to him, able to finally breathe, and breathe her in. “I’m in love with you, Willow. And it doesn’t scare me any longer to leave behind my bachelor ways.”