Twenty-Four
Will You?
Two and a half weeks later
“Joe and Hayden have been asking about you. Every day,” Cooper said, sitting down next to me on my couch.
“They have? Did you tell them I’m okay?”
I hadn’t seen or talked to them since I ran out of Joe’s bar that night. I felt bad about that, but I’d needed this time to do my therapy. I was definitely feeling better. I no longer felt swallowed up like I did before. I still felt sadness, but it wasn’t the crippling kind of sadness anymore.
“Yeah, I’ve told them you’re okay. I’ve told them that every day for the last four weeks, but they’ll keep asking until they see you with their own eyes.”
“I’m ready to see our friends again. Let’s go see them tonight.”
“Really? You sure? I don’t want you to do anything until you’re ready. No one is rushing you, especially me.”
I caressed Cooper’s cheek with the palm of my hand. “I’m sure. I am totally one hundred percent sure.”
“Okay. Should we tell them?”
“No. Let’s surprise them.”
“You got it, love. Hey, listen, I’ve got some things I need to take care of so I’ll be back in a few hours to get you.” He held my face and leaned back to search my eyes. “Okay?”
“Okay. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Besides, your grandmother is here. Go do whatever it is you need to do.” I stood up on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Be back soon.”
Cooper and his grandmother were the only two people I’d wanted to see while I worked through my grief, other than my therapist of course. Actually, Ms. Sophie showed up on my doorstep after finding out what happened and just kind of never left. She stayed most of the day, and would leave in the evenings. She was definitely the grandmother I never had, insisting I eat when I wasn’t hungry, and occasionally bestowing some sage advice when she deemed it appropriate. She never pushed me too hard and always gave me the space I needed. I guess in a way, having her here these last few weeks had been its own kind of therapy. She actually gave me the courage to go into my daddy’s bedroom. I’d only been inside a couple of times since I moved back. I never felt the need to change anything. I left his things as they were, but maybe it was time that I started thinking about boxing his things up. He wasn’t coming back and if I wasn’t sure of anything else I was sure of that. That’s when I found it. A letter tucked away in his bedside table. One he had written to me five years before. He never gave it to me, so I didn’t know whether or not I should read it, so I haven’t. Not yet. I brought it back to my room and placed it in my bedside table.
“I’m going to go, dear, so you can get ready to go out tonight.” Ms. Sophie reached over and hugged me and stood up to leave.
“Thank you, Ms. Sophie. For everything.”
“Oh now stop. No need to thank me. I wanted to be here, dear. Now, you go get yourself ready and let Cooper take you out tonight. It’ll do you good to get out. And if I know Joe and Hayden they are going to choke on their own tongues when they see you walk in tonight.” Laughing, she continued. “Those two think the world of you. Good boys, all of them.” She patted me on the hand. “Now scoot. I’ll see you tomorrow, dear.”
I gave her a salute, “Yes ma’am. I’m scooting.”
Before walking into Joe’s I felt slightly apprehensive, and Cooper noticed.
“He won’t be here, precious. I can promise you that.”
“Are you sure?”
After Warren confessed that his twin brother was my attacker as well as the driver of the vehicle that killed my father, Cooper did some investigating. The police report from my father’s accident confirmed that the names matched. Wilson Pratt. Cooper had turned the information that Warren had provided over to the police and let them handle it from there. Warren had been cooperative, I’d been told.
“Completely sure.” He brought my hand up to his lips to kiss the backs of my fingers. “Come on. We’ve got some surprising to do.” He smiled brightly then wiggled his eyebrows at me.
I laughed.
“What are you laughing at?”
“You. I love it when you wiggle your eyebrows at me, because you look goofy when you do it.”
“Hey, if it makes you laugh…”
We entered the bar and the usual sights and sounds ignited my senses. We spotted Joe and Hayden immediately. Joe was behind the bar as usual, and Hayden was sitting on one of the barstools. He took a pull of his beer and then I watched some girl try to shamelessly flirt with him. He didn’t look particularly interested, but Hayden would never be outright rude to someone. I laughed to myself watching him struggle to keep her hands from roaming freely over his bicep. Joe noticed about the same time, and didn’t even try to contain his amusement. Before he said anything to Hayden, his eyes flicked up toward the door and saw Cooper and me standing there.
“Lily!” he shouted, then proceeded to jump over the bar tapping Hayden on the shoulder in the process. “She’s here, man.”
Hayden jumped up and left the flirty girl by herself, and he and Joe made their way over to us.
I was instantly embraced with smiles and arms. First Joe’s, then Hayden’s.
“Let me look at you,” Joe said. “I know Cooper has been taking care of you, but I need to see for myself.”
“I’m good, Joe. Really.”
“Yes, I can see that,” he said, bringing me in for hug. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
I look over at Hayden, who opened his arms wide. I took my cue and walked in to them. He wrapped his arms around me protectively.
“I’ve missed you too, Lily. I’m so glad to see you. We both are.”
“I’ve missed you too. I’m sorry I haven’t been around lately. I’ve just been…”
“No need to explain. We’re up to speed. We understand,” Hayden said quietly.
Cooper had been standing back, allowing his best friends to get their hugs in, and when I made eye contact with him he grinned. “I told you they’ve been asking about you.”
I laughed and Cooper took me out of Hayden’s arms, squarely into his.
Hayden feigned hurt feelings. “What the…?”
“Get your own girl,” Cooper joked. “I think I saw one making a play for you at the bar.”
I laughed again. “Oh yeah, I saw that. She’s cute.”
Hayden shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess. Not really my type.”
I looked back over to where she was and realized she’d been watching us. More specifically, she’d been watching Hayden.
“Don’t look now, but she’s got her eyes on you.”
Hayden chuckled. “Come on, let’s go sit in our booth and catch up.”
It felt comfortable and familiar being there again laughing and joking. I loved those guys and I felt protected around them. I know none of them would let anything happen to me in their presence, Cooper especially.
“Hey, Lily, I got a joke for ya,” Joe mused as he brought his bottle up to his lips.
The usual groans come out of Hayden and Cooper while we waited to hear it. I, however, had missed his corny jokes.
“Let’s hear it, Joe,” I said with a big smile on my face.
“How do you make an egg-roll?”
Looking around the table I answer with an anticipated laugh, “No idea.”
“You push it.”
Silence.
And then – laughter.
“Joe, you kill me,” I said laughingly while he smirked at me.
He winked at me and leaned across the table. “It’s good to see you laughing.”
“Yes,” Cooper cooed in my ear, “it is.”
Those guys were good for me. I started feeling sentimental so I excused myself to the ladies’ room. When I returned, Cooper was gone.
“Where’s Cooper?” I asked the guys.
“Oh, uh, he’s doing something. You’ll see him in a minute,” Joe said, setting his bottle down on the table.
“What are you talking about?”
Joe shrugged, indicating he wasn’t going to answer my question.
“Hayden?”
“Lily?”
“What’s going on guys?”
Hayden laid his arm across the booth behind my head and leaned in. “Just wait a minute, you’ll see.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but then I heard the soft sound of a piano playing from the stage. I looked up and saw Cooper sitting on the piano bench with his fingers on the keys, playing them beautifully. He didn’t introduce the song or speak to the audience. None of that. He just… played. It was a stripped down and slowed down version of ‘Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself)’.
The bar hushed. Not even a whisper was heard when Cooper opened his mouth to sing the first words. So beautiful, his voice. I felt Joe sit on the other side of me and my heart settled in my throat watching Cooper sing. He never once took his eyes from mine and mine never left his. He was telling me through music what he felt for me; completely captivating my shattered heart and healing it piece by piece. When he finished the song, silence engulfed the room. Everyone was moved by the song, as evidenced by their quietness.
When Cooper stood up, that was when the crowd began to applaud. I didn’t move until Joe stood and reached for my hand to help me to my feet. When Cooper made it back over to me I threw my arms around his neck and held on to him like someone might try to take him away from me.
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.”