Storm
Cooper dragged a hand along his face after trimming his scruff. He rolled up his shirt cuffs, took one last glance in the bathroom mirror, and then flipped the lights.
It didn’t matter what he looked like. This wasn’t a date. Just a guy giving a girl a break from making dinner for the night. If he really wanted to get technical about it, Quinn was actually an employee.
Yeah, and when did employers ask their staff to dinner? Smart move, Anderson. He hadn’t exactly meant to ask her out. The question just sort of came out on its own.
Around the door to the nursery, Cooper stopped and grinned. Brayden was standing up in his crib, holding the railing.
“You ready to eat?”
“Eat.” He bounced up and down the closer Cooper neared. “I sweam!”
“Ice cream?” He laughed. “Wow. Loraine really did spoil you, didn’t she?”
Brayden extended both arms to him, and Cooper’s chest tightened at the open trust and acceptance Brayden offered him so easily.
Curbing his reaction, he hauled him out of the crib. “I’ll tell you what. You’ll get some ice cream if you help me get through dinner first. I need you on your game tonight, hoss. No letting me slip up and almost make a move like I did on the dock today. Deal?” He couldn’t afford to complicate things.
Brayden swung both hands over his mouth.
“Uh-huh. Don’t even act like you haven’t fallen for Quinn too. I saw you earlier, smacking that kiss on her chin.”
Brayden flung his hands away and blew his lips in a blubber sound.
Cooper laughed. “Yeah, well, let’s hope I at least didn’t look like that.”
He kicked his legs in excitement. “I sweam! I sweam!”
“You’re gonna be a lot of help, aren’t you?” Shaking his head, Cooper got him dressed and carried him into the hall.
Two steps into the living room, he halted at the sight of Quinn coming down the hall in the same outfit she had on the day she first arrived. She’d caused a double take then, but now, he couldn’t look away.
Long brown waves flowed over her shoulders and onto a cream blouse that shimmered in all the right places. She bent her leg behind her and adjusted her heel, the simple pose causing an unjustified spike in his pulse.
Brayden squirmed in Cooper’s arms, obviously wanting Quinn.
She turned and smiled at him. “Look at you in your cute polo.” She smoothed her hands down her skirt and met Cooper’s gaze. “I wasn’t sure what to wear. Is this too much?”
For him? Right now? Maybe. “You’re perfect.”
The implication behind those two words zinged inside him like a pinball. He started forward to hide it. Surely, movement would help.
Fat chance.
Brayden practically soared from his arms in an attempt to settle into hers, and whatever acrobats his insides were doing, seeing his son’s affection for Quinn upped the intensity tenfold.
What was his problem tonight? Nothing had changed. So, they’d almost kissed. And something in him came alive while watching her thrive on the WaveRunner. And the way she viewed him—believed in him—left him more than a little undone. And—
Stop, just stop.
“Cooper?”
He snapped his head up. “Sorry?”
“I asked if you’re ready to go.”
“Of course.” He opened the door for her. Behind them, he eyed Brayden’s bubbly grin above her shoulder. Way to help me out, hoss.
Outside, wind tunneled up from the backyard and whirled Quinn’s hair in a beautiful mess. Cooper clicked the fob to his SUV. While she fastened Brayden in his car seat, Cooper peered toward the shadowy sky. A single raindrop splattered onto his forehead. .
By the time they turned onto the street for Watersview Restaurant, an all-out downpour was assaulting the pavement. Quinn darted a glance from the sheet of rain cascading down the windshield to her open-toed shoes as Cooper pulled into the full parking lot.
A Ford pickup backed out of a spot directly across from the entrance.
“Go! Before someone else scoops it up,” she said in response to the hesitation on Cooper’s face.
“I can drop you off at the door.”
“It’s fine. We can run for it.” She slanted a brow. “You should really take more leaps in life, you know.”
One dimple reached for the other. “I’ll try to work on that.”
Meanwhile, she’d better work on not blushing when he looked at her that way.
Parked, he flipped the locks and handed her his jacket. “I’ll get Brayden. Ready? On three.”
Quinn tossed the jacket over her shoulders and grabbed the door handle. On cue, she sprang into the rain, squealing at the cold pellets beating onto her hair. Puddles engulfed her shoes, but she kept running. At the entrance, she wiped down her legs while laughing.
At least Brayden had a blanket draped over him. Cooper, on the other hand, got as drenched as she did. His white button-down clung to his skin, accentuating muscles defined through both work and play.
“Good job, QT.” He shook his wet hair back from his face. “See? A little water isn’t so bad. We’ll get you in that lake yet.”
She lifted on her toes to pull a leaf from his hair. “Don’t hold your breath.” Her hand slid down to his collar as her heels eased back to the ground. The look in his eyes deepened, and holding her breath was about all she could do.
A hostess opened the door. “Welcome to Watersview.”
Quinn flung her hand back to her side, where it belonged, and slipped inside. “Thank you,” she said on her way past the young girl.
Goose bumps peppered her skin from head to toe under the waves of A/C circulating mouthwatering scents throughout the restaurant.
Once seated, Cooper set a pen with Watersview’s logo on it beside his silverware.
“What is that?”
He looked from the pen to her and shrugged. “They were giving them away up front.”
“Because you needed one more to add to your endless collection?” She picked up her menu. “You know there are steps for overcoming addiction, right?”
While he laughed, she tried to ignore the way her toes were sliding over her wet shoes.
“What’s wrong?” Cooper asked, surveying her face.
“The rain. My shoes are all slimy now.”
He reached under the table, cupped a hand to her ankle, and slid her shoe strap off. “There’s an easy remedy to that.” He unrolled his silverware and shook out the cloth napkin.
“Cooper, don’t you dare.”
“They have to wash it anyway.”
Solving problems, once again.
She covered her face. “I can’t believe you.” But worse than embarrassment, a sensation far more dangerous followed his gentle touch to her ankle. With the way he was tending to her foot, she was going to need an entire carton of napkins to mop herself up off the floor when he was finished.
Brayden waved the menu in the air and swatted it against the tray on his high chair, rescuing them from yet another moment she couldn’t keep letting herself get drawn into.
They both turned to Brayden and laughed. He’d teepeed the menu over his head as though expecting applause.
She stole the opportunity to collect her focus and scanned the menu.
A waiter, probably in his early forties, stopped by the table. After a quick introduction, he turned his attention to Quinn. “Can I get a drink started for the lovely lady? A red wine, perhaps? Something to complement her natural beauty.”
Cooper coughed.
“Just a water, please.” She returned the drink menu to him.
“Same for me,” Cooper added. “And a milk for the little guy.”
“My pleasure.”
When he left, Quinn met an unreadable grin from across the table. “What?”
He ran a knuckle along his brow. “Nothing.”
Rather than press, she let it drop. Probably better not to get sidetracked. The talk they needed to have tonight was going to take every ounce of strength she had as it was.
No one there could’ve known the anticipated conversation was already choking her, but chatter throughout the noisy restaurant seemed only to heighten the silence at their table.
The waiter returned to take their orders. As soon as Quinn got her drink, she sucked down a third of her water like she’d find the words she needed at the bottom of her glass.
Cooper stared across the table. “Are you all right?”
Of course he’d notice. She set her fidgety hands in her lap. “Cooper, I . . . I need to tell you something.” Except, that required intelligent sentences, breath—things failing her in every way right now.
She twisted the straw wrapper around her index finger and looked up to face the consequences of letting things go this far. “I wasn’t completely honest with you about why I came back.”
“I know.”
The wrapper unfurled. “You do?” Her pulse spiked.
“Cooper Anderson?” A guy in a short-sleeved white dress shirt and loose tie approached their table with a drink in his hand. “Tonight must be my lucky night.”
Cooper looked him over. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
“Chad Peters with the Hatteras Tribune.” He withdrew a business card from his pocket and held it out for him. “I’ve been trying to secure an interview with you for months.”
When Cooper stared without taking the card from him, Chad set it on the table instead. “Maybe we could get some drinks. Even talk off the record if you want.”
Cooper’s hand clenched around his water glass. “I realize you may have missed it, but I’m in the middle of a dinner date.”
Chad’s focus strayed to Quinn long enough for assumptions to swirl. He looked behind him to the woman he’d left at his own table. “Me too.” He pitched an insinuating brow. “But I wouldn’t mind introducing you to my date. We could always hook up afterward. Go down to that beach around the lake I hear you enjoy taking the ladies to, eh?”
If Cooper’s jaw got any tighter, it’d be stiffer than that drink Chad was about two seconds away from getting poured over his head. No wonder Cooper held such a distaste for the media. What gave this guy the right to infringe on Cooper’s privacy, waltzing over here like he had him all figured out, when all he was doing was insulting him?
Quinn shot to her feet before she thought better of it. “I think you need to leave. Now.”
Chad studied her then. When something too close to recognition flitted across his eyes, her knees buckled. Quinn sat right back down. If he was a journalist from Hatteras, their paths had probably crossed at some point. He didn’t look familiar, but that didn’t mean the opposite wasn’t true.
Defying the A/C, sweat beaded under her shirt. One word, and the jerk could expose her for being more of a fraud than he was. Guilt seared into her. How could she judge him when she was even worse? She’d weaseled into Cooper’s life with the same exact presumptions and gall Chad had. The only difference was, a guy like Chad didn’t hide behind pretenses or rationalize his motives.
Quinn strained to swallow, strained to pretend he didn’t unnerve her. But his silent appraisal felt like a floodlight drilling heat onto every hidden nook and crevice she’d tried to ignore since stepping foot in Lake Gaston again.
A screech from Cooper’s chair legs grinding against the floor jerked Chad’s attention back to him. The second Cooper rose, Chad’s smug demeanor wavered.
“I think you heard her.” He jutted his chin toward the table Chad had abandoned. As usual, Cooper’s commanding presence rendered words unnecessary.
Chad sent one last look over Quinn, nodded in submission, and backed away. “You have my card if you change your mind.”
Their waiter came over, his brow knitted with concern. “Is everything all right, sir?”
“Fine.” Cooper returned to his seat and pulled his chair to the table.
When the waiter still looked uncertain, Quinn offered him an assuring smile. They didn’t need any more attention drawn to themselves.
“Fresh bread will be up in a moment.”
“Thank you,” Quinn managed. Once the waiter left, she tried to gauge Cooper’s mood. How they’d go back to having a normal dinner now, she had no idea. But maybe it wasn’t fair to hope they could. If anything, running into Chad only fueled the urgency to get the truth out in the open before it reached the point where Cooper would never forgive her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. For so many things.
“I’m used to it.”
“That doesn’t mean you should be.” She straightened the silverware on her napkin and inhaled. “Cooper, the reason I came home . . . I’m not proud of the way I—”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed about.” He sat back. Traces of his frustration with Chad receded behind a look of tenderness Quinn couldn’t reconcile with the conversation. If he really knew why she was here, how could he hold anything but animosity toward her? Especially after how he’d reacted to Chad.
He leaned both arms on the table. “I know you don’t want to admit it, but it’s obvious you want to reconnect with your family. I saw it that day at your parents’ place. The way your face lit up around your brother, your dad. You miss them, Quinn. And who wouldn’t? You have a great family.”
It was a good thing he kept talking, because whatever she had planned to say lodged itself halfway up her throat.
“I know it wasn’t easy for you to come home. You needed an excuse to be nearby without it coming off as if you’re the one waving the white flag. I get it.”
Cooper reached across the table and rested a compassionate hand over hers. “But why not? Why not go all in? If you admit you were wrong in leaving, they’ll admit they shouldn’t have let you go.” His thumb grazed the top of her hand. “Love instead of fear, right?”
Her eyelids finally moved in a single blink. Another. But her mouth wouldn’t budge, words still trapped.
“You’ve already taken a bunch of leaps today. Just keep going.”
His cell vibrated on the tabletop. Before he dismissed the call, Quinn caught a flash of the name on the screen—Livy.
So much for his not giving out his cell number to girls.
A twinge of reprimand broke through her momentary lapse in jealousy. Stupid. He’d already made it clear he viewed relationships as baggage that weighed him down. Sure, maybe they had some chemistry, but it didn’t matter in the end. She shouldn’t let misconstrued feelings get in the way of what she needed to do.
Quinn wriggled up in her seat. “Cooper, this isn’t about family. It’s about business.”
The waiter’s uncanny timing returned him to their table with a basket of freshly baked bread. He faced Quinn again. “I’ll have your food out in another few minutes. Anything else I can get for you?”
A do over?
“This is great for now,” Cooper answered. “Thank you.”
Quinn ran her fingers along the condensation on her glass. She just needed to come out with it. Shoot straight. He’d be mad at first. But if anyone could be levelheaded about business, it should be Cooper Anderson. She placed her hands on the table, looked up.
Her cell rang inside her purse, but she didn’t move. One more interruption, and so help her . . .
“You gonna get that?”
“No.”
He fed Brayden a piece of warm bread the waiter had brought. “What if it’s your mom?”
Even more reason to ignore the call.
“QT.”
“Fine.” She withdrew her cell. Mama, of course. Reluctantly, she dragged her thumb across the screen and covered her opposite ear. “Hey, we’re in a restaurant right now. Can I call you—?”
“Quinn, honey?” The tremor in her mom’s voice traveled through the line and up Quinn’s spine.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
The heavy pause dragged Quinn’s free arm down to her lap. She wrapped it around her middle, her voice shrinking to a whisper. “Mama?”
“Baby, it’s your dad.”