Chapter 2

LAUREN

The sound of his voice sent shivers down my spine.

I almost hated myself for having such a strong reaction to him, after all these damn years, but the truth was, I’d never gotten over him.

Had never managed to look past the first and only man I’d ever loved.

As dramatic as that sounded, it actually wasn’t.

Cooper had been special. So special that the idiot had dumped.

I hated him for giving me up so easily, for putting us through the torment of separation.

Six years after I’d last seen him, five years and six months after I’d last heard his voice, he was back in Maine.

More than that, he was in Willow Hearth. More importantly, he was at the Gandy Estate.

Call me Cupid but I’d orchestrated this. I wasn’t chasing him. My love hadn’t died, but that didn’t make me a fool. I just… I wanted to see him. Wanted to know the man he’d become and wanted to learn if he was as talented as I’d always known he was.

I’d come from a good family. A solid background. My father had a great steady job and had paid for half my college education. I’d been fortunate.

Cooper, on the other hand, had had to work for every thing he’d ever wanted.

College had come with four part time jobs. His career was built on the back of his nearly breaking his back to attain his goals.

I’d been so proud of him, and when I’d been checking out ad agencies and found his picture on one of the sites… I’d pushed that one to the top of the pile, knowing Justin would trust in my opinion.

I hadn’t abused my position. Not really.

Justin could always say no to Leviathan and Dronig’s proposition. And, the truth was, no matter what Cooper did, he always put his all into it. If Justin went with them and asked for Cooper like I’d recommended, he’d get his money’s worth.

Without a doubt.

I don’t even have to know the man now to realize that. One of Cooper’s strengths was his reliability.

He was one of those guys you could depend on in a crisis, and I knew that wouldn’t have changed. Driven and determined, he’d been a force to be reckoned with back then. Now? I could only imagine how success had further strengthened him.

The fact he left school with a job offer at the agency he’s still working at, having worked his way up to Ad Exec told me so much about the man.

He hadn’t changed.

Was I counting on that?

I wasn’t sure.

He’s a ghost I needed to exorcise, that I did know.

It wasn’t that no man compared to him. It’s that every guy I’d dated… well, Cooper had left a shadow of himself imprinted on me. I needed to get rid of that ghost once and for all.

My boss, Justin, had been rich from birth. He had a silver spoon in his mouth but he wasn’t a bastard with it.

If anything, he’s too kind.

It’s weird to work for one of the Gandys. They were the family everyone in the town talked about because they were old money. Seriously old too.

Like railroad baron rich.

That’s why, when I’d applied for the job with Justin, I was surprised at the fact that he was, a, nice, but b, a great boss too.

His estate consisted of one large property; and when I said large, I meant it. It was the size of some office buildings in the city. Three stories high and designed to be like an old English mansion in the Palladian style. Tall and narrow with grand windows and elegant molding.

When he inherited after his parents died, he added on a kind of greenhouse to the back of the property. Part greenhouse and part conservatory.

That’s where I worked.

It was a great place to have an office too. I overlooked an expansive garden that made a football pitch look small, and in summer, the gardeners created the best floral displays out on the lawn.

From the conservatory it was a decent walk to the front door—the one downside.

I got to my feet and straightened out my skirt. Peering into the mirror behind my desk, I messed with my hair, and made sure my make-up was right.

I looked as I’ve pretty much always done.

My hair was the same wren brown as always, and as ever, flat and impossible to do anything with. My skin was pale but creamy, and my dull hair actually contrasted with it—not in a bad way, either. I had dark brown eyes with super long lashes that were a mascara-free blessing, and my lips were painted a ruby red I’d stained them with that morning as I’d known today was the day I’d see him again.

Cooper.

The man I’d loved and lost.

A shuddery breath escaped me as I checked out my blouse, made sure I’d buttoned myself up properly, and slipped into my shoes which I’d discarded as soon as I’d taken a seat.

I headed out of my spacious office complete with garden view and out into Justin’s domain. He had a smaller study sectioned off because he did most of his work in the atrium. Not that he’d be in here today though.

He was in businessman mode, and whenever that happened—on those seldom occasions—he stuck to the study.

I strode through the hall where the random pieces of metal and electrical wiring sprawled here and there, past a Hegner saw that had made an appearance in the workspace yesterday and was still in the process of being unpacked, and made my way through the main house toward the front door.

I opened it and saw that, even with my dithering, Cooper had yet to make it down the drive.

Maybe it was cowardice that had me closing the door and pressing my back to it. My hands were clammy as they connected with the wood and I closed my eyes, scrunching them tightly.

As I stood there, a thousand thoughts flooded me. I wondered if I’d made a huge mistake. Wondered how I’d react to the first sight of him in so long. Would I be happy? Sad?

I didn’t know, and that was my major concern.

I’d like to think I was a pretty controlled person. Rarely lost my temper, was great under stress—I knew that. My control had been tested a lot as I worked with Justin—so to feel so out of sync with myself was more unsettling than I was accustomed to. But Cooper always had been able to get to me ways no other man ever had.

Maybe he was my kryptonite?

It was habit to stick my nails in my mouth and start gnawing at them, but the minute I did, I pulled them back like they’d been dipped in poison.

Eying the black polish, I sighed in relief that I hadn’t chipped them.

My nails were always black as a deterrent to stop me from biting the damn things. It usually worked, save for when I was nervous. Case in point now.

The sound of gravel singing under a car’s tires had me clenching my eyes shut again. I froze in place, my heart banging like a drum as I waited for him to climb the five steps to the front door and to use the Lion’s head knocker.

I pulled back as I heard his heels clicking against the flagstone steps, then waited for the booming sounds of the door pull.

Counting to twenty so as not to look too eager, I reached out, tried not to hyperventilate, tried to look cool and breezy and unsuspicious, and pulled the doorknob.

The minute it opened, my gaze connected with Cooper’s.

Everything froze.

We both looked stunned. This I knew. And I was really the one who’d orchestrated it! He was here totally unaware yet I felt just as floored. Just as aghast.

As I took in his handsome visage, his strong jaw, the dark hair and bright blue eyes, the All-American Boy looks that hadn’t faded with age, a strange sensation overcame me.

I wasn’t sad. Nor was I happy.

No.

I was angry.

Furious.

I was more furious than I’d ever been in my life.