Leap
It was official. Cooper had lost his mind. Quinn obviously had too, or she wouldn’t be shimmying a life jacket over her head right now.
From the dock, she peered at Ginny and Brayden sitting under the shade of a huge oak tree up shore and then back at Cooper. “How’d you even get my aunt’s number?”
He stopped wiping down his WaveRunner and faced her, his blasted dimples already answering. “She gave it to me.”
Of course she did. Quinn exaggerated an eye roll. “Just because most women are putty in your hands doesn’t mean I am.” Says the girl about to get on the back of a death machine with him. Stupid.
He tossed the rag on the bench and sauntered close. Too close. With hazel eyes dismantling her resolve a layer at a time, he grazed a cool hand along her ear while pulling a string of moss from the trees out of her hair. “Then what are you doing here right now?”
Trying to remember how to breathe? “I’m . . .”
“Being a wuss,” Ginny shouted.
Quinn whipped around. “Am not.” No, instead she was acting like a five-year-old. Nice. She turned toward Cooper’s simpering grin and swiped the keys from him. “A kayak’s too much work for you?”
“Too slow.”
Great. Quinn kept her fears from wrangling her play-it-cool expression.
Obviously, not well enough.
Cooper laughed. “Don’t worry.” He took the keys back and straddled the WaveRunner. “I’ll drive this first round. All you gotta do is hang on.”
To his shirtless waist. Sure, no problem. Tempering her nerves, she reluctantly climbed on. But as soon as the runner rocked, she dug her fingers into his arms.
He unclasped her death grip and wound her arms around his defined stomach. “Ready for some fun?”
Ready or not.
They took off, soaring across every rise and dip in the water. Wind coursed through her hair as cold mist sprayed her skin from all directions.
He picked up speed, and Quinn buried her head in his back, her grip tightening with each squeal the race against the water elicited.
Cooper finally slowed around the middle of the lake and looked behind him. “If you live with your eyes open, you might be surprised what you’ve been missing.”
“I live with my eyes open plenty wide, thank you.” And saw the world exactly for what it was. She could thank her past for that. Not to mention this job debacle she’d gotten herself into. Thankfully, Cruella hadn’t fired Ava yet, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t coming. For all of them.
She untangled her arms from Cooper’s waist. This whole thing was probably one giant mistake.
“C’mon, QT. I’m not talking about skepticism. I’m talking about possibilities, adventure, taking chances.”
She toyed with the clasps on her life jacket. “I’m not very good at that,” she mumbled.
“You gotta start somewhere.” He rose to his feet, the WaveRunner swaying. “Don’t overthink it. Just leap.” With one flash of a smile over his shoulder, he dove into the lake.
Quinn stretched to grasp the handle bars and waited for the runner to steady.
A splash brought Cooper’s head popping to the surface. He pushed his wet hair off his face and beamed at her like he’d just made the sanest move possible.
“You’re crazy.”
“At least I’m having fun.” He jutted his chin at her. “What are you gonna do?”
“Run you over?”
His laughter gave way to a look in his eyes rivaling the lake’s expanse. “I’ll get you out here sometime.”
“Time’s not exactly on your side, buddy.” She cocked her head, expecting a returned dig, but Cooper only exhaled.
“I know,” he whispered. Before she could interpret his expression, he swam back over to the WaveRunner and climbed on behind her this time. “But I’m at least getting you in the driver’s seat.”
Backed against his firm chest, Quinn breathed in. But when his cool fingers smoothed over hers along the handle bars, all breath disappeared with the wind that seemed to have gone on strike out of nowhere. So much for not being putty.
“Just go easy at first.” He turned one bar slowly, his low voice in her ear.
Easy. Sure. She swallowed and increased the gas a little at a time until they were flying across the lake top. The wind, the freedom, the adrenaline—it swept through her like a fire reigniting feelings she’d long ago written off. “We’re doing it.”
Cooper’s husky laugh clung to her with the misty water. “You’re doing it, QT.” He released the bars, circled his arms around her waist, and kept his mouth beside her ear. “Just takes a little faith to let go.”
Sunlight poured over her skin, his words over her heart. Her gaze gravitated to the white water churning beside the runner. .
Cooper slid his hands over hers again. “But in case you still need a little help . . .”
She knew that tone, knew it couldn’t be good. “Coop—”
Speed stole her voice. One wave, one jump, and they spun through the air. Her heart didn’t find its way back to her chest until the runner hit the water again.
Ginny cheered as they approached the dock. “That was awesome. Can I go next?”
Brayden clapped. “’Gain. ’Gain.”
Quinn eased off the WaveRunner like a city girl dismounting a horse. “You want to fly, huh, Dimpelstiltskin?” She took Brayden from Ginny and twirled him up in the air.
His laughter sent her heart soaring almost as much as that ride had. “’Gain,” he repeated.
She pinned him to her side. “Why don’t we leave the water tricks to Daddy.”
“Dada.”
Cooper came over with water still dripping from his hair down his body. He shook his head, dotting both of them in drops of water. Quinn shoved him away, while Brayden ate it up. “Boys,” she mumbled.
Cooper took an incoming call on his return to the dock. “It’s not a good night, Ray. . . . Yeah, I know, time’s running out. . . . Look, I’m almost finished with the deck. Everything else is set.” He cut a glance at Quinn and rolled his eyes at his phone. “What’s that? Sorry, hoss, I’m losing you. Yeah, let me call you later.” Hanging up, he shook his head and then winked at her. “Real-a-tors.”
She shoved him.
All joking aside, she couldn’t help half pitying Ray for trying to work with such a confounding client. Cooper was quick to troubleshoot other people’s problems. But his own? Sometimes, he seemed bent on making things happen right away, like the powerhouse executive he was. Other times, it was like his laid-back, free-spirited side took over. No wonder Ava called him Mr. Elusive.
He mussed Brayden’s hair and kissed the top of his head before helping Ginny onto the WaveRunner.
“Be careful,” Quinn called.
Not that Ginny was listening. Caught up on the Cooper dream boat, her cousin eagerly roped her arms around his waist, and all Quinn could do was laugh.
“I don’t blame you, girl,” she said once they took off.
Alone with Brayden, she moseyed to the shade and sat on the grass. Brayden held onto both her hands and bounced up and down, clearly ready to go for a few rides of his own.
“You’re going to be an adventure junkie like your Dad, aren’t you, mister?”
A devilish grin answered for him.
“Oh, you think you’re cute. I see. Give me that chunkamunka leg.”
As soon as she let go, he squirmed to crawl away. Like that was happening. She scooped him up and pretended to gobble up his thigh, releasing a round of giggles that were beginning to take up permanent residence in her heart.
Quinn smoothed back his damp hair from his red cheeks. “Don’t worry. We’re gonna get you walking in no time.” Her earlier comment to Cooper about time being the enemy speared through her with the reality that she might never see Brayden walk. Even more gut-wrenching, Cooper might not either. Unless she hurried up and did something to change that.
Another arrow trailed the first.
Brayden grabbed onto the front of her shirt, pulled himself up, and landed an almost-kiss smack to her chin. She took one look at the sweet hazel eyes beaming up at her, and she was head over heels lost.
For the next twenty minutes, she failed miserably at reeling her heart away from the electric fence called hope that’d burned her too many times.
But when the purr of the WaveRunner’s engine signaled its return, and Cooper’s smile came into view, she knew the chance to walk away unscathed had passed a long time ago.
“That was the coolest.” Ginny adjusted her windblown ponytail. “Quinn, would you take a picture of us?”
She rose, resituated Brayden, and snapped a photo of Ginny crowding Cooper at the dock like a groupie.
Her cousin took her cell back and inspected the picture, face still glowing.
Just as Quinn was turning, Ginny stopped her. “Now one of us.”
Brayden almost slipped out of her arms. “You want a picture with me?” She must’ve swallowed too much water out there.
She shrugged. “Why not?”
Alrighty then. Quinn passed off Brayden to Cooper and slid an arm around her cousin’s back. The camera snapped, and memories flashed of all the time they used to spend together. She couldn’t fault Ginny for being mad at her for leaving. She hadn’t even said goodbye.
She blinked back a sudden rise of emotion and reached for Brayden again.
“I got him.” Ginny intercepted him. When Quinn eyed her, she perched a hand on her free hip. “I’m not the same kid you left four years ago. I’m sixteen now. I know how to babysit.”
Quinn lifted her palms. Hard to argue with that. Quinn used to babysit at only ten years old. Not to mention, she’d known Ginny all her life. Trusted her.
Halfway up the slope to the back of the house, a squeal whirled her around. “Wait till my friend Bethany sees these pics. She’ll be so jealous.” Ginny disappeared up the steps to the deck in a bubble of adolescent excitement.
“Forewarning, that picture might show up on your Facebook page,” Quinn said to Cooper.
“Good thing I don’t do social media.”
Seriously? “Even my mom does Facebook.”
He shrugged. “I prefer to keep a low profile. It’s too easy for the media to invade your privacy. I’m not about to voluntarily give them something to distort and smear across the tabloids. I already have to field enough presumptions about my life.”
His confession jabbed like an ice pick dead to her gut. Her stomach churned at the possibilities of what would happen when he found out she was part of the media he hated.
“You’re lucky,” he said. “We haven’t had to dodge any reporters since you came, but I probably should’ve warned you to watch your back when we’re out in public.”
She’d dig out the ice pick if she could. Instead, it only twisted deeper. “All the drama that went down with Shore Corp . . . You didn’t leave because of that, did you?”
“There was obviously stuff going on while I was still there, but I didn’t know what. I left before any of it came out.” Cooper finished locking up his WaveRunner. “But as long as the media thinks there’s a story there . . .”
“They’ll keep digging.” She clutched her elbows, even more so when a streak of weariness slipped through his usual carefree exterior.
He cleared his throat and straightened. “It was cool of Ginny to take a picture with you.”
Evidently, she wasn’t alone in wanting to shift the conversation.
Quinn turned a skeptical stare on him. “Seems kind of odd to have a change of heart all of a sudden, don’t you think?”
“She’s sixteen.” He scratched his jaw. “Do you really need another explanation?”
“Mm-hmm.” More like he was at it again, trying to find solutions to all her problems.
Cooper tugged a T-shirt over his sun-dried skin. “You know, after getting so close to my niece that year I lived with them, I was pretty nervous about how she’d respond when I moved away again.”
“And?” Quinn sat on the bench and tucked her hands under her legs.
“She extended the same grace she always does.” A wistful expression lifted his cheeks. “That doesn’t mean she hesitates to put me in my place when I need it, but I wouldn’t trade getting to keep that relationship for anything.”
“Mm.” Quinn slid her toes in and out of her flip-flops. “I don’t suppose you mentioned any of that to Ginny while you had her out on the water.”
He pulled on his ear, dodging her question. “Life’s too short to live with regrets.”
His brow furrowed at the underlying meaning, and so did her heart. She’d lost her dad in ways, but not like he had.
Cooper dusted off his hands. “So, you wanna tell me what’s up with your fear of the water? I thought you grew up on this lake. Something happen?”
“Billy Finley. That’s what happened.”
Amusement coalesced with the intrigue in his eyes.
“Summer of sixth grade, this annoying boy in my class told me all these stories about the Loch Ness Monster.”
Quinn threatened to swat Cooper with her flip-flop when he snickered. “Hey, you try not freaking out as a little girl when something swims up against your legs after you just heard a horror story. I was scarred for life.” The silly memory settled across her face in a smile but evaporated a minute later.
She moved to the edge of the dock and wrapped a hand around the light post. “A few years later, a kid here on vacation drowned. I never went in again after that.”
“I’m sorry.” A consoling hand caressed the top of her shoulder.
Despite knowing she shouldn’t, Quinn gently leaned into Cooper’s secure body behind her.
“You know, one person’s fate doesn’t determine another’s.”
She turned and looked up at him. “But one person can change another’s.”
Cooper held her gaze with such intensity, her heart rate pulsed in her ears. She breathed in, held it. Too afraid to release it or the moment, but equally as afraid to press in.
He diverted his focus to the dock, then sat on the edge with his legs dangling above the water.
After stealing a moment to regroup, Quinn joined him. “Tell me about her.”
“Who?” He picked up three acorns on the board beside him.
“Brayden’s mom.”
His body stiffened. “Not much to tell.” He chucked one of the acorns across the water. “I was in Ocracoke helping my brother. Megan was there for a summer escape. We hit it off, had the kind of summer you’d read in one of your books, and then she left.”
“You never saw her again?”
“Once,” he said slowly.
Quinn ran her fingers along the grooves in the wood. “Did you love her?”
“I thought I did. Turns out it was just a fling.” He spun the two acorns ’round and ’round in his hand. “Hard to blame her. People vacation in Ocracoke to get away from everyday life, not to get tied down to more obligations holding them back.”
“Back from what?”
“Living unattached.”
“Unattached.” Her muscles tensed. “You mean, to a son?”
“You’re the one who said the more someone loves you, the more you can disappoint them, remember? The one who left to avoid hurting her family.”
But what happened when cutting yourself off from everyone turned out to bring nothing but emptiness?
“Why do you think Megan kept him from me, Quinn? She knew I’d let him down as much as I know it.”
Her voice grew small. “You can’t really believe that.”
Still staring across the lake, Cooper skimmed the last acorn over the placid water. He clutched the edge of the dock. “We’ve already been through all this.”
“But you’re not listening.”
He pivoted toward her then, eyes laden with beliefs they were never meant to carry.
“Can’t you see it?” she pleaded. “He loves you, Cooper.”
“And one day he’ll understand how much love motivated my choice to give him a reliable home to grow up in.”
Quinn clamped her lips shut, but the question broke through anyway. “Are you sure you’re not mistaking fear for love.”
He angled his head at her. “Are you?” With a flick of his chin at the lake, his mischievousness chased away the gravity he obviously wanted to avoid. “If you’re not ruled by fear, then jump.”
Of course it had to come back to that. She wasn’t going to win this argument. Not today.
She breathed in the fresh cedar and redirected the conversation to his dock project instead. If nothing else, maybe he’d at least recognize he had things to offer besides just money.
“You’ve really done a great job on this, you know? At some point, you should check out some of my dad’s woodwork. Working with your hands like that . . . creating something new . . . it’s kind of an art form.”
“Sorta like writing.”
She made a face. “They’re just words.”
“Words that matter. If you don’t share them, who will?”
“Anyone can tell a story, Cooper.”
“But maybe someone needs to hear yours.” He walked to the bench, opened it, and pulled out a small bag.
“You make it sound like I have some big gift to share or something.”
Cooper strode back over and handed her the bag. “I’d wager you’re the only one who believes you don’t.”
Torn between caution and curiosity, Quinn slowly unfurled the bag to find an embossed leather journal inside. She was supposed to be helping him see what he had to offer, not the other way around.
“If writing’s your passion, you should pursue it.” He nudged his shoulder into hers. “Even if that means taking a leap.”
“A leap.”
“Sure.” He shrugged. “Pick up your old blog again or start a new one. An online magazine, a book—anything.” Genuine belief looked back at her. “You never know who your words will reach.”
Quinn willed down the tears clawing to the surface at his unexpected thoughtfulness and sincerity.
Instead of pressing, Cooper returned to his spot beside her and seemed content to wait for her to respond.
Start her own business? It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about it, maybe even had wanted to a long time ago, when it was safe to dream. But things had changed.
She held the gift to her stomach and watched distant dragonflies glide along the top of the water. “My dad used to say God whispers our destiny to us through little moments every day.” Shaking her head, she pulled her knees up to her chest. “It sounds cheesy now, but I used to listen for them.”
Cooper pressed his warm arm into hers. “Seems like you had it figured out once.”
She thought she had.
“More than I want to admit.” He rubbed his stubbly chin.
“I don’t know. I’m probably not making any sense.” She twisted toward him. “It’s just . . . do you think you ?”
His eyes searched hers with such depth, her pulse quickened. “I think I’m starting to.”
Neither of them moved. Still half wet, his hair lay flat against his forehead in an image of the tender boy trapped beneath a persona few people saw past. Her hands slid from her knees to her ankles, wanting so much to reach for him. To show him—
What did she think she was doing? She was supposed to be writing a news article, not a romance novel, for crying out loud.
Breaking the connection, she pushed on the boards and shot to her feet. “I should, um, go get something started for dinner.” And give herself a solid head slap for being that vulnerable with him, while she was at it.
“Why don’t we go out tonight? My treat.”
Her head nodded on its own, succumbing to his impossible-to-turn-down eyes. At least in a public restaurant, maybe she stood a chance at thinking clearly enough to talk to him about the feature.
A whack to the back of her leg whirled her around to a nonchalant-looking expression.
“Did you just swat my thigh?”
Cooper hopped up and wiped his hands. “Nope. You didn’t see that? The Loch Ness Monster’s tail just swept up and almost got you. It was close. Lucky I’m here.”
“More like you’re lucky I don’t shove you into the lake right now.” She hedged him backward, welcoming the distraction from the earlier intensity. “Keep laughing, and you’ll get to meet that monster personally.”
His feet teetered on the edge, and he roped his arms around her waist. “If I go, you go.”
Her hands linked around his neck, panic spiraling. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, c’mon. You wouldn’t be going in alone. I’ve got you.”
This close, panic escalated for a whole different reason. Unless he was blind, he saw it too. Felt it. Even now, her pulse surged.
But instead of letting go, her insubordinate hand slid from his neck across the whiskers on his cheek. In a mirrored dance, his hand found her cheek in return. The rhythm of their breathing deepened, the cadence of the breeze drawing them closer. His gaze roved to her lips, already parted. Ready, waiting. Full of yearning and fear and—
“Awkward.” Ginny giggled from the top of the deck.
Quinn flinched away, and Cooper had to catch her hand to keep from falling backward into the lake. Once stabilized, they both looked in about every direction but at each other.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Ginny called on her way across the lawn. “But my mom’s here.”
Quinn’s erratic gaze finally landed on Ginny and Brayden. “Is it six already?” She hurried up the dock to take Brayden from her. “Thanks for coming out today. It was fun.”
Ginny leaned in and whispered, “I think you mean electric.” She bobbed her brows just when Quinn thought the mortification couldn’t get worse. At least Mama hadn’t been there.
Once Ginny disappeared around the side of the house, Quinn turned. “I should probably . . .” Go crawl under the house.
“Here.” He reached for Brayden. “I’ll take him while you get changed.”
“Changed?”
“We’re going out to eat, right?”
“Right.” She shook her head as if it would cause sense and dignity to magically regain a foothold. “I should probably put some clothes on. Not that I’d ever be around you without clothes on. I just meant fresh clothes.” And was clearly aiming to win an award on how many times she could say clothes in one breath.
Cringing at Cooper’s amusement, she closed her eyes and gestured behind her. “I’m leaving now.”
She made an awkward about-face and half jogged up the hill. Almost to the deck, her cell buzzed from her pocket. Mama. Perfect. The woman’s timing was almost as attuned as Cruella’s.
“Hey, Mama.”
“Oh good, I was hoping I’d catch you. How’d you all like to come over for supper tonight? Just the four of us.”
“Sounds lovely, but Cooper and I already have plans.” Thank heavens.
“Really?” she said in a simpering voice. “Well, then, you two have fun on that date.”
“It’s not—” Quinn cut herself off. No point. “Thanks. We will.”
“Be careful driving. It’s going to be a real gully washer tonight.”
Quinn craned her head toward the clouds moving in. “Thanks for the heads-up. We’ll be fine.”
“Okay, sugar. But make sure you’re free on Friday. We’re having another cookout.”
Massaging her forehead, Quinn plastered on a compliant smile. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
The doorbell rang from Mama’s end of the line. “Nurse Murphy just got here, honey. Let me go. Your Daddy’s got a real burr in his saddle today.”
Quinn wasn’t about to ask. “See you Friday.”
“If the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise.”
Right. Quinn overlooked the flood of crazy southernisms while stopping at the bottom of the stairs. “Mama?” She swirled her toes in the grass and tried to untangle her voice. “Tell Daddy I said hello.”
“I will, sweetheart. Bye.”
Quinn stayed in place after hanging up. Maybe Cooper wasn’t the only one confusing love and fear.
She peered behind her to the dock where he was dangling his keys in one hand while holding his son with the other. Brayden planted two pudgy palms to Cooper’s scruffy cheeks and leaned in to kiss him as he’d done with Quinn earlier. The moment he nestled his head under Cooper’s chin, Quinn’s insides split in two.
How could she tell a guy who wanted no roots that they already held her heart?