He lifts his head and his face is inscrutable. Finally, he smiles slowly and brushes his lips against mine. “Okay…and we can figure out when I get back what we want to do today.”
Coop had told me he generally takes weekends off unless there’s an emergency—I guess like this irrigation issue—but I don’t want him to assume he has to spend it with me.
“Um…if you’ve got something else you’d rather do today, don’t feel like you have to keep me entertained,” I tell him hesitantly.
“You in my bed is absolutely entertaining,” he says before he pushes backward off the mattress. “But I thought maybe we could take a drive and spend the day at the beach.”
I sit up further in the bed and cock an eyebrow. “I thought this was just rebound sex.”
“We can have sex on the beach if you want,” he says mischievously as he whips his towel off. My mouth goes dry and he laughs at me eyeballing him. “Maybe you can run into town and grab us some breakfast. The fridge is pretty bare.”
“Yeah, sure,” I say as the idea of us spending a day at the beach together is sounding pretty fantastic. Coop walks away bare-ass naked out the bedroom door, presumably over to the one he’s staying in to get some clothes. I go ahead and ogle as he’s admitted to doing the same of me when I was on the cover of SI.
As Coop disappears out the door, my phone starts ringing again and I turn my head to glance at it. Colleen isn’t giving up.
With a sigh, I go ahead and answer so I can get her off my back and enjoy the day. “Colleen, it’s seven thirty in the morning here. Which means it’s four thirty there. For the love of God, it’s a weekend. Take a break.”
Colleen merely grunts her disdain for my suggestion before saying, “You know I don’t have a personal life. You’re my life, and when there’s work to do, I do it. Even if it’s four thirty in the morning.”
“What could possibly be wrong at four thirty in the morning?” I ask as I give a dramatic eye roll to Coop, who walks back into the room holding clothes in his hand. He smiles at me as he walks to the bed, where he tosses the clothing. He does this so I can get an up-close-and-personal view of him while he dresses, and I very much appreciate it.
He starts with his boxer briefs, and they look damn good on him.
“Brad’s going apeshit wondering where you are,” Colleen says with frustration. “Which includes calling me at four thirty in the morning. Will you just call him?”
“I don’t want to talk to him,” I tell Colleen, continuing to stare at Coop as he pulls on a pair of jeans. His gaze narrows in on me as he listens and realizes we’re probably talking about Brad. I don’t know what makes me do it, but I pull the phone away from my ear and hit the speaker button so Coop can hear this conversation. I’d already admitted my dirty secret about why I said yes to Brad. He might as well hear all of it. “I’ll talk to Brad when I’m not as angry, but right now…he just needs to leave me alone.”
Colleen huffs with frustration, but I don’t care. She insinuated herself firmly into my life when I hired her almost eight years ago. I was drowning in the business. Colleen became my life vest and I grabbed on hard, relying on her probably too much. She transitioned into Hollywood with me and there’s no denying she’s been my right hand since then. She can be bossy and blunt, but she also keeps me on track.
“I’m not going to do the movie with Brad,” I tell Colleen, and then brace for her explosion.
“What the fuck, Eden?” she shouts at me. “You’re under contract. You’re going to get sued. The press will kill you over this.”
“I don’t care,” I tell her, my voice strong and assured. I realize that Coop’s come to sit on the edge of the bed, staring at me while I talk to Colleen. He’s actually poised and ready to give me advice or comfort if needed. “If he wants to sue, he can sue. The bad press will go both ways. He needs to move on, because that’s what I’m doing.”
“This is a bad decision,” Colleen warns.
“But it’s my decision,” I tell her softly. “I need to make more of those, I’ve realized.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I can tell I’ve totally offended her so I tread softly. “I think I’ve overrelied on you to take care of too many things for me. I need to be more involved in my own life and not just doing my job as an actress. That oversight with the request for the money for my middle school…that’s really bothered me. I just need to be more involved in those types of things.”
Coop’s hand goes to my thigh covered by the sheet and he gives me a reassuring squeeze. He doesn’t like that I’m still bothered by Colleen’s error.
Colleen is silent a moment, but then she asks me in a very soft, very serious voice. “When are you going to do that, Eden? You spend almost ten out of every twelve months filming. When you’re filming you work fifteen hours a day on a good day and twenty on any other. You do over a hundred appearances and interviews a year, fly over a hundred thousand miles, and you sit on seven charity boards. You haven’t taken an actual vacation since I’ve known you, because you don’t have time. So really, Eden…tell me when you’re going to screen your mail?”
I’m speechless. I mean…I know I’m busy, but really, she makes it sound almost impossible to carry that lifestyle. And maybe it is, and that’s why I have Colleen in my life, because who can manage buying toothpaste and toilet paper when I’m needing that time to get in a few hours of sleep each day?
My eyes cut over to Coop and his return gaze is hardened but tempered with worry. He’s getting a crash course in what it means to be Eden Goodnight right now.
With a sigh, I admit to Colleen, “You’re right. My life is impossible sometimes. It’s just…I feel out of control, and maybe I need to make some changes. Maybe cut back on the amount of movies I do.”
I brace again and even squint in preparation for another blast from Colleen. In addition to keeping me on track, she drives me down that track. She knows I’m a hard worker and she makes sure every bit of potential is squeezed out of me.
Instead, she almost knocks me over when she says, “Eden…maybe you do need to make some changes. Maybe this thing with Brad was a wake-up call.”
“What do you mean?” I ask cautiously, almost unable to get the words out because she’s struck me sort of stupid. Colleen’s never spoken to me with—what is that, tenderness?
“I mean Brad wasn’t what you needed in your life,” she says, and I can’t help my eyes…they slice to Coop again. He’s standing up from the bed now, pulling on a T-shirt, covering his amazing chest and abs. “Now you have to figure out what you do need and then we’ll go from there.”
God that was good advice.
“Thank you, Colleen,” I say, my voice husky with emotion.
“Don’t you fucking cry on me,” she warns. “I don’t have time for it. Now, do me a favor and call that rat bastard so he stops calling me. I’ll let the appropriate people know you’re backing out of the film. We’ll talk soon.”