The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River #3)

“For what?” she asked with disgust. “For not lying?”


“More like for being honest.”

She shifted, her back straightening, her hands going to her knee. “Funny, that’s the thing about me that people find so annoying—I’m usually too honest.” She stood up. “Okay, Cooper. You’ve got what you wanted. You can go home now. You’re going to leave Pine River, right? No more pretending to look at cliffs or whatever it is you’ve been doing?”

The expression in her eyes was wistful, and that look did not match the words coming out of her mouth. “Is that what you want?” he asked uncertainly.

“Yes. I want you to go back to LA and not come back. Is that plain enough for you?”

Very plain, and Cooper was more than a little annoyed by her blunt honesty. And by his goddamn fickleness. A moment ago, he despised her for trying to use him. Now, he was stung she wanted him to go.

“What?” she demanded impatiently.

“I thought we were getting somewhere,” he said simply.

“Where? Where were we getting?” she exclaimed. “You know what? We were getting somewhere,” she said, sounding angry now. “But we got there too fast. And now it’s over. So in the end, we got exactly nowhere, which is exactly where we were destined to go from the beginning.”

He would have bought that explanation had she not spoken so angrily and looked so sad. Whatever was going on in her head was a spectacular mystery, and Cooper grudgingly admitted to himself that he was more interested than he wanted to be. “Okay,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll go.”

“Good.” She moved to leave the room.

“But I could also stay a little while,” he said, uncertain where those words had come from. All he knew was that he wanted to unlock the mystery in Emma Tyler. It was like reading a thriller and being denied the last few chapters. He’d figure her out, and then he’d go. But in that moment, staying felt . . . important.

Apparently not to Emma. She whirled around to face him with a murderous gaze. “Not a good idea. Are you deaf, Cooper? Are you dumb? I want you to go. I want you to leave and never come back. In other words, get the hell out of my life!”

It made no sense to Cooper that he should stand up and grab Emma then, much less kiss her. But he did, kissing those words off her breath, nibbling them off her lips, his tongue sweeping into her mouth and swallowing them whole. Emma struggled weakly at first, but then responded to him, pressing against him. He was heating up again, his body swelling with desire. He kissed her neck, her shoulder. His hands swept up her body to her breasts, then down again, over her hips.

He didn’t know how long he kissed her, but Emma shoved against him and backed away from him. She unsteadily touched her fingers to her swollen bottom lip. “Bastard,” she spat, and walked out of the living room.

Cooper could hear the stairs squeaking under her weight as she went up. He slowly sat down, an image of Emma shimmering in his thoughts. He was not an obtuse guy—she certainly spoke like she wanted him gone. And yet there seemed to be a major contradiction lurking in her. Maybe he was crazy, maybe he was trying to see something there because he wanted to make love to her—but he couldn’t rid himself of the idea that she was not what she presented.

Emma Tyler was more intriguing than any woman he’d met in a very long while. He rubbed his scalp. He didn’t have the time or the energy for this! He was too old for games. He was way past the point in his life that he would be strung along in ways and for reasons he didn’t understand.

Yeah, he’d get out of the mountains before it snowed again, and head back to LA.

Cooper lay down, pulled the quilt over his chest. But his sleep was even more fitful than before.




He was dressed and ready to go when Luke came downstairs. Cooper was anxious to get off this mountain. He wanted the sunshine of LA, the predictability of women there. He wanted to see Braden and Brodie and give them the kiddie sombreros he’d picked up at Tag’s Outfitters.

Cooper told Luke on the slow drive down the mountain that he was heading out after their ski date. Luke had looked at him strangely, apparently waiting for Cooper to say something more, perhaps about the thing he’d come to get from Emma. But Cooper didn’t mention it, and Luke apparently knew not to ask.

Luke dropped him off at the Grizzly. Cooper grabbed a bear claw pastry and coffee from the Grizzly Café, then went up to the Beaver Room and called his mother. “Hi, Mom,” he said through a yawn.