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.

“Always,” I assure her, my eyes boring into hers so she understands the truth of what I’m saying.

Eden’s smile goes bright and I think I see her shoulders relax with relief. She takes two steps up toward me then turns around to sit down. She pats the spot next to her as she looks over her shoulder at me. “Come sit down and let’s talk.”

“You don’t want to come inside?” I ask her as I trot down to sit beside her. It’s hot as hell out here and the air-conditioning is blasting inside.

“No sense in going inside if I’m not staying, and I’m not sure I’m staying until I hear what you have to say,” she says softly.

My body tenses up under the threat that just because Eden came here directly from Ireland and is willing to listen to me doesn’t guarantee anything. While she may have been totally willing to compromise last week when we fought about this, I’m certain my jackass behavior may have had her reconsidering the meaning of compromise.

Reaching out, I take her hand closest to me and thread my fingers through hers. I lift her hand to my mouth and kiss her wrist briefly before I release her. Then I rest my elbows on my knees, look out over the vast expanse of the front yard of Goodnight House, and tell her, “I think you were right when you were offering some options. I think we could absolutely split time between homes so we could be together. But if that’s not something you’re willing to consider anymore, I’ll move with you to LA permanently.”

“What?” she gasps as her head whips to look at me. “You’d give up your business? Newberry?”

“Newberry? Yes,” I tell her without any doubts. “My business? Not exactly.”

“What would you do?” she asks with her head tilted, and I’m bolstered when she takes my hand now and pulls it over onto her lap.

“I’d hire a manager to oversee the maintenance business,” I tell her, thinking back to the tedious work I did going over my numbers to make sure I could afford it. “But I’d keep the design business. See about expanding it, maybe working some in LA. I’d have to travel a bit, but it wouldn’t be that much.”

“You’d do that?” She looks at me completely awestruck. “You’d give up your home here for me?”

“I’d do anything to be with you, Eden,” I tell her truthfully. “I couldn’t do it fourteen years ago, and I don’t think I was supposed to. I think what happened between us was supposed to happen. Needed to happen. We both went our own ways and we grew up and had experiences. But we were brought back together, and I know you felt it too, honey, but it was right between us. I mean…it was the most right thing I’ve ever felt in my life.”

“But you said we couldn’t make it work,” she reminds me. I knew this was coming and I’m ready for it.

“I was an idiot,” I tell her simply. And that’s my big comeback.

Eden snickers and looks back out over the front yard. “You hate LA. You’d be absolutely miserable there.”

“Not if you were there,” I say, although she’s right, I do hate LA. But she’d more than make up for it.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about this as well, and I’ve got some ideas you might want to consider,” she says as she turns toward me.

“I’m all ears.”

She takes a deep breath and launches. “We make our permanent home here in Newberry at Goodnight House. I’ll sell my home in LA. I’ll continue to act, but cut back on the amount of films I do, with the goal to spend as much time here as I can. When I do travel to film, I’d love for you to come with me. Maybe just for a few weeks here and there so you can attend to your business, or the entire time is great too. Whatever will work best for us both at that point in our lives. And that’s really all I have, but I think it’s the start of a good plan.”

“I’m digging it,” I tell her with a smile.

She doesn’t smile back. “But I’m not sure it’s sustainable.”

My stomach flips. “Why not?”

“Because I have no clue how you really feel about me,” she says softly. “These last few weeks together have been amazing, but they haven’t been revealing. It may have been a very young love we had all those years ago, but it was love. And even with love, we didn’t work out. So while we may have all these great ideas on how we can be together, I’m feeling like we skipped over something really important, and that would be the why of things. Why would we even bother doing this?”

And it’s clear. I mentally slap my forehead as I realize I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Well, that’s not it, really. I just got so panicked when Eden left, and I was trying to come up with the best game plan so she’d take a risk on me, that I forgot something very, very important.

“You want me to tell you I love you,” I say with certainty. I also say it with a confident, almost cocky grin.

“It wouldn’t hurt,” she mutters.

“Eden,” I say as I lean into her, brush my lips against her cheek briefly. Then I bring my hand to the side of her neck, thumb to her cheekbone. “Do you really think I’d fly all over this fucking country just so I could talk to you for two minutes face-to-face if I didn’t love you?”

“You’re referencing that whole ‘actions speak louder than words’?” she quips with a smile, and I’m relieved she finds me amusing.

But I’m also deadly serious. “I love you, Eden. Have since I was sixteen years old. Never stopped once. It may have been dormant, but it never died. And I will do anything to make you understand that, and I will give up Newberry so we can be together forever. I’m not letting you get away this time.”

“I don’t want to get away,” she murmurs, her eyes warm and tender. “I love you too.”

“Thank fuck,” I gust out on a relieved breath, then I’m yanking her into my arms. Wrapping my arms tight around her, I bury my face in her neck. She throws her arms around me too, we just hold each other for a few moments as we take in all that we just gave to each other.

When we finally break apart, I cup her face and give her a sweet kiss. Her eyes flutter closed for a second, then open when I pull my lips from hers. She smiles at me.

Clearing my throat, I say, “Last week…before you walked out…we had talked about kids and where they’d stay if you were traveling.”

“That’s right,” she affirms.

“And you didn’t freak out about the prospect of kids,” I remind her.

“Why would I? I love kids.”

“I know,” I say with a laugh. “But my point is, we were talking about permanent things that we both apparently thought were a given with us.”

“Agreed,” she says cautiously, because she can’t see where I’m going with this. “So…?”

“So we love each other,” I say, affirming the biggest plus we have going for us.

“We do.”

“We’re going to live here together permanently at Goodnight House.”

“True.”

“And we’ve known each other a long time,” I add.

“Most of our lives,” she says with mock disbelief. “That’s a long damn time.”

“I’m glad you agree on that,” I tell her, and then I get to the point. “Eden…will you marry me?”

“What the hell?” she exclaims as she jolts up from her seat next to me. She trots down the two steps to the ground and looks back up at me as if I’ve sprouted antlers or something. “You just throw that out there like that?”

“I’m sensing that was the wrong thing to ask you,” I say with disappointment.

She rolls her eyes at me. “It was the total right thing to ask me. It just wasn’t very romantic.”

My chest swells as I realize the answer will be yes if I can just ask it the right way. I push up from the porch and stalk down to her.

When we’re toe to toe and she’s looking up at me, I put my hands on her shoulders and squeeze them gently. “Let me try that again.”

Her lips curve upward.

“I’ve never loved another woman but you,” I tell her softly. “I lost you once, and it was an unbearable pain. But for some reason, God graced me with you again. You were brought back into my life as a precious gift that’s meant to be treasured…revered. I will never take you for granted. I will never take our love for granted. I know this with surety because I believe I was put on this earth with the sole purpose of loving you. So I’m asking you to make my purpose a reality and fulfill my destiny by agreeing to be my wife.”

I take in a deep breath and let it out.

Eden just blinks at me, her eyes wide and round. Slightly glazed. I don’t know what that means.

“I could do that whole speech over again if I need to get down on my knee,” I tell her. “I forgot that part.”

She just blinks. She stares at me unfocused.

“And I know I don’t have the ring,” I continue. “I could get a ring, get down on my knee, and do the speech again.”

And more blinking.

I snap my fingers in front of her face. “Eden…you in there, honey?”

“Yes,” she says as she blinks hard one last time and focuses in on me. Her voice is loud, clear, and confident. “The answer is yes.”

“That was more romantic, right?” I ask with a grin as I step in closer to her.

“That was so totally romantic,” she says dreamily.

“So…we’re getting married,” I murmur as I lower my forehead to touch hers.

“We’re getting married,” she whispers back, and my eyes close over the wonder and joy in her voice.

“You know…the town is going to go apeshit when they hear we just got engaged,” I say as I lift my head and take her hand to walk her toward my truck.

“It will be a vicious piece of gossip circulating if it’s not done right,” she adds.

“Which is why we need to go eat lunch at the Pit Stop right now and tell Bonnie.” I stop at the passenger door and open it for Eden. She climbs in, stepping up onto the running board first and accepting a hand from me for stability.

“It will be all over town by dinnertime,” she says as she plops down in her seat and grins at me.

“Or,” I say mischievously, “we could just go get married.”

“Married?” she asks with surprise. “Right now?”

“County courthouse is just fifteen miles away,” I point out. “There’s no waiting period.”

She cocks an eyebrow at me.

“I may have checked it out online recently,” I admit to her.

Eden tosses her head back and laughs, her eyes sparkling when she looks back to me. “You’re crazy, Cooper Mayfield.”

“For you,” I say as I lean in and press my mouth to hers.

“And I for you,” she mumbles against my lips. “Let’s go get crazy together.”