With a sigh, I turn back to Coop. “Why are you here, by the way? Surely you didn’t buy a ticket to Ireland just to come in here and talk to me?”
Coop shakes his head, and that beautiful dark hair shimmers. I want to touch it, but I remain steadfast in my anger at him, so I don’t move. “I can’t afford a ticket to Ireland. Got wiped out flying back and forth across the States over the last twenty-four hours. But I only needed to buy a ticket to get past security. I went ahead and got a return one to Atlanta.”
“So you’re here to talk?” I say.
He shakes his head again as he reaches out and takes my chin in his hand. “I’m here to get you back.”
“Get me back?” I whisper, my eyebrows knitted together. This is not the conversation we had night before last.
“Eden,” Coop says with a patient smile. “I came down from that shower, saw you were gone, and I knew immediately I’d made a mistake. Fuck, I knew it while I was in the shower. No, wait, not true. I knew it as I was saying the words that were pushing you away. Knew it was all a mistake from the start. I pushed you away from me because I was a fucking coward and was afraid to try to make it work.”
“Oh, that’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” Colleen coos from across the table. Coop releases his hold on my chin and we both turn to look at her.
“Colleen,” I say gently. “Think you could give us some privacy?”
“Hell no,” she says crossing her arms over her chest in defiance. “I want to listen to this.”
I sigh and turn back to Coop, but he’s looking at his watch. His eyes come back up to mine and they’re both frustrated and apologetic. “Doesn’t matter. My flight’s boarding now and I’ve got to go.”
He stands up and I stand up too. “Wait. You can’t just run in here, say those things, and run back out again.”
“I do in fact have to run,” Coop says with a grin. “The doors will be closing soon.”
“Coop,” I say in exasperation. “I have no clue what to even say to you.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” he says softly, and steps toward me. His hand wraps around the back of my neck and he peers down at me earnestly. “Come back to Newberry after you finish filming in Ireland. I’ve got it all worked out and I’ll explain it then.”
“But—”
He cuts me off with a hard kiss that has my head spinning. But then his lips are gone and so is he as he heads out of the lounge.
“Coop,” I call out, still thoroughly confused as to what in the hell is going on. “You know you could have just texted that to me…that you wanted to work it out and you’d had some things figured out.”
He shakes his head, gives me a beautiful smile, and calls back, “You never would have taken me seriously without me flying all over the place to catch you.”
I smile back at him, completely charmed in this moment.
Damn him.
Coop winks at me and then he’s gone.
I sit back down slowly and turn to Colleen. I give her a stern look. “I can’t believe you made him chase me back and forth across the country.”
Her gaze back to me is impassive, unapologetic. I have no clue what she’s thinking.
But then she snickers, and so do I, and then we are both doubled over with laughter.
Chapter 24
Oh those crazy kids…
Coop
After screwing in the bulb, I replace the top of the cast-iron sconce and tighten the screw on top. It’s a pain in the ass to change these lights that flank the front door of Goodnight House because they’re just high enough I can’t reach them without a ladder. Of course, I can reach them from just the bottom rung of the ladder, so it pisses me off they couldn’t have been placed just six inches lower, which would be far more convenient for me.
Normally, something like this would roll off my back, but I’ll admit to being a grumpy, frustrated son of a bitch the last week. It started by me making a colossal mistake in the way I’d handled things with Eden, causing her to vanish like a ghost. It got exponentially worse when Colleen made me chase her to the West Coast and then back to the East Coast, which ended up costing me a few thousand bucks in plane tickets.
Okay, I probably deserved that, but then this past week just got crappier and crappier as I realized that without Eden, I was one miserable dude.
I think things are going to be all right, though. I’ve got it all figured out, and once Eden shows up, I can explain it to her.
After I probably do some more groveling.
This week hasn’t been radio silence between the two of us. I thought it might be, as Eden had a right to make me suffer, I suppose. But she actually texted me quite a bit while she was filming in Ireland, and of course, I texted her right back. We didn’t speak by phone, and that was a good thing. The things I needed to tell her had to be face-to-face, so we kept our typed conversations light and engaging, but short. I think she reached out to me and gave me that lifeline because she knew I’d probably be worried that I’d fucked things up beyond repair. The mere fact she was communicating with me gave me hope. I was still a grumpy SOB, but I was a hopeful one.
I hop down off the first rung of the ladder and move it over to the other sconce. Grabbing the teardrop bulbs that go in the fixture, I step back up on the ladder.
But then I immediately go still as I hear a car turn into the driveway. Looking over my shoulder, I see a white four-door sedan pulling in. I don’t know anyone who drives a car like that, so my heart immediately starts a mad thumping as I realize it could be Eden. She wasn’t supposed to get in until late tonight, but still…it could be.
I step off the ladder, lay the bulbs on the cushion of one of the outdoor rockers, and step to the edge of the porch. The sun is bright and the glare on the windshield prevents me from seeing who’s in the car as it drives straight at me.
But once it makes that turn into the circular drive and I can see in the passenger window, I recognize Eden immediately.
Fuck yes…she’s here.
She turns the ignition off and gets out of the car, and yet my feet are rooted to the porch. I don’t know whether to swoop down on her or wait for her to come to me, because I’m not sure if she’s here to listen to my solution or to tell me to fuck off in person.
So I wait.
And it’s worth it because she looks amazing even though she just flew across the Atlantic. She’s got on a pair of white denim pants that come above her ankle with a navy and white striped shirt. Paired with white tennis shoes, the outfit looks very nautical. Her hair is up in a ponytail, and although she looks tired, she still looks just fucking amazing.
“Hey,” she says with a smile as she rounds the front of her car.
“Welcome back,” I return as she comes to stand at the bottom of the porch, looking up at me.
“Am I welcome back?” she asks, and while I hear the humor in her voice, I also know it’s a serious question.