CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
COOPER finally got it. He understood now what put that swagger in a guy’s step and that pride in his voice when he walked his woman into a room and introduced her to his friends, peers, co-workers. He could feel how nervous Harley was next to him, her palm damp in his, but he didn’t feel any nerves at all. He was thrilled to finally be walking into an event with a woman who he thought was all that and then some.
MJ wasn’t nervous either. She was leading the way into the lounge where the fund-raiser was being held. The room was dim with some kind of red backlighting. There were tufted velvet sofas and leather club chairs scattered around in seating groups, while waiters moved around with trays of cocktails. The downside of his schedule was that he’d been forced to leave Harley on Wednesday—Valentine’s Day, as a matter of fact—and travel ahead without her. She and his sister had just arrived on Friday on the first commercial flight Cami had been able to secure after she’d gone to Rhett and Shawn’s wedding reception, and they had barely seen each other in the ensuing twenty-four hours. He knew it had contributed to her nerves, but he was hoping she would be fine once he introduced her to some of his friends.
“You look beautiful, baby,” he said, squeezing her hand and leaning over to brush a kiss at her temple. “Like an absolute angel.”
She had wanted to wear a simple black cocktail dress. He had talked her into wearing a fitted yellow dress that showed off her curves and made her stand out. He thought she looked amazing. She kept pressing her hand down over her stomach.
“I feel sick,” she said. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“Of course you can. Look, here’s Ty and Imogen.” His sister had disappeared, probably off to eavesdrop on conversations. “Hey,” he said in greeting, raising his free hand to wave at the approaching couple. “How was the honeymoon?”
“I’m still on it,” Ty said, raising his eyebrows up and down and smacking his wife’s backside.
She jumped. “Oh, Lord. I don’t think I will ever get used to your chosen form of affection.”
“You love it.”
“I didn’t say I don’t enjoy certain aspects of it. But I’m definitely not used to it.”
“Do you all remember Harley, my girlfriend?” Cooper asked, loving the way that rolled off his tongue so easily.
“Hi, nice to see you again,” Harley said. “I was at your wedding with Eve Monroe, her plus one since her husband had to work.”
“Of course, it’s nice to see you again,” Imogen said with a smile.
But then Ty had to open his big mouth and say, “I thought you were Cooper’s nanny.”
“I am.”
“Well, now that’s convenient.” He gave Cooper a nudge. “You get to live with her without actually living with her. Now that’s a setup.”
“Shut up,” Cooper said. “You’re making Harley uncomfortable.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Harley protested.
“I’m just giving you shit,” Ty said. He looked at Harley. “I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s a guy thing, ribbing each other.”
“I know. It’s fine.”
Imogen gave her husband a look before hooking her arm through Harley’s and leading her out of Cooper’s hold. “So please tell me how you manage children effectively as a nanny. I watch Tamara with her kids, and Suzanne with baby Track, and I’m just terrified about the possibility of procreation. I’m a bit of a control freak, I believe.”
“You believe?” Ty gave her a look of amusement before putting his hand out to shake Cooper’s. “No hard feelings, right?”
“No, of course not.” Cooper shook it harder than was necessary. “You have the right to give me shit since I stood there at intro not two weeks ago and insisted she was just my nanny.” He was a grown-ass man and he could admit it when he’d been wrong. Or flat-out lying to himself and everyone around him. “But I didn’t think she was into me, bro. Turns out I was wrong.”
“I wouldn’t have thought she’d be into you either,” Ty said with a grin.
“Suck it, McCordle.” Cooper took a cocktail off a passing waiter’s tray. “What is this?”
“I don’t know. Just drink it.”
“Let me get one for my lady, too,” he told the waiter, grabbing another glass. “Harley, you want a drink?”
But she turned and shook her head at him. She still had a look of panic in her eyes. Maybe it was better if she didn’t toss them back.
“Damn, now I have two.”
“There are worse things in life.” Ty gestured to the right. “Here comes Monroe.”
“Which one?”
“Elec and Tammy. I’m ditching out of here. They’ll corner me again with nine thousand pictures of their baby. I can’t take all that cuteness, I’m going to wind up with diabetes.”
“I would just like to point out that maybe you and Imogen don’t need to be having kids any time soon.”
“I agree,” Ty stated emphatically. “I’m too busy enjoying my wife right now. Babies are for later.”
Cooper had never given much thought to babies beyond the certainty that at some point he’d like to have some. But now . . . the thought of knocking up Harley in a couple of years did strange things to his insides. “I hear ya.”
Ty gave him a long look. “I don’t think you do. Damn. You fell hard and fast, my friend.”
“Don’t we all? I mean look at Evan over there. He’s carrying Kendall’s purse.”
That made Ty laugh. “Never thought I’d see that. Shit, I’m outta here.” He gave a wave as Elec and Tammy approached, then ditched out, even abandoning his wife.
“Where’s he going?” Imogen asked, raising her head from her conversation with Harley.
“Call of nature.” He greeted the Monroes and introduced them to Harley.
It wasn’t two seconds later that Elec had his cell phone out and was showing Cooper pictures of the baby he and Tammy had adopted. “Did I show you our son?”
“No, you haven’t. Congratulations again, my friend, that’s awesome.”
Elec was beaming as he swiped through his phone. “He’s amazing, Brickman, I gotta tell you. And our older kids are doing fantastic with him. They’re super protective.”
A picture of a roly-poly baby sitting in the sink, sporting a drooling grin on his chubby face, was shoved at Cooper. “Wow, he is cute.” Babies looked so freaking happy all the time. Then they grew into Mary Jane. Cooper found himself a little envious, he had to admit. “What’s his name again?”
“Eliot. Named him after my father.”
“Another generation of Monroe drivers, huh?” They were a driving dynasty at this point. Cooper wouldn’t mind starting one of his own.
“Yeah, but before this little guy hits the track, it will be our daughter, Hunter. She’s Briggs blood, Monroe training. The other drivers won’t stand a chance.”
The pride in his voice as he swiped through and found a picture of Hunter holding her baby brother, wearing a 56 shirt, was palpable.
Tammy leaned over and checked out the screen. “Is he boring you, Cooper? Just tell him enough’s enough. Not everyone wants to stare at our kids for an hour.”
Cooper laughed. “It’s fine, Tammy. He’s entitled to a few minutes of bragging.”
Tuesday Jones and Diesel Lange joined them. “Brickman, your sister has Kendall cornered and is grilling her on her sponsorships and Evan’s brush with daddyhood.”
“Oh, Lord.” Just when he was enjoying himself.
“I’ll go get her,” Harley volunteered.
Cooper eyed her. “You sure?” He didn’t want her to feel like she was on nanny duty.
She nodded. She actually looked relieved to have something to do. “Absolutely.”
“Alright then. Tell her I’ll send her ass back to the hotel if she doesn’t leave people alone.”
But Harley raised her eyebrows at him in a way that indicated maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say. He was about to ask her what she was thinking when she started off in the direction Tuesday pointed her in.
“So as part of this evening’s entertainment, we’re playing the infamous scuffle between Eliot Monroe and Johnny Briggs,” Tuesday said, with a grin.
Diesel shook his head. “I can’t believe my uncle agreed to that. He’s spent years bargaining and blackmailing to never have that footage shown.”
“They’re in their sixties, for crying out loud. It’s time to bury the hatchet and what better way to do it than in public, for charity?” Tuesday asked.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you see them shoving each other by the open bar before the night is out,” Diesel commented dryly.
“Dad says he’s all for it,” Elec said. “Though I think he could do without seeing that video on the big screen.”
Cooper wasn’t known for being a hothead on the track, so he couldn’t imagine spending thirty years at odds with another driver.
These guys and their wives were his friends, and he was damn pleased to be at the fund-raiser with Harley. He was frankly as happy as he’d ever been, and when he saw Harley returning with Mary Jane in tow, he knew he was grinning like an idiot.
This was his family. His two best girls and the racing world.
* * *
HARLEY was half listening to Mary Jane as she went on and on about someone’s dress. “I’m so glad you don’t have your boobs bouncing all over the place all the time,” Mary Jane commented.
That got Harley’s attention as they crossed the room. She looked down in amusement at Cooper’s sister. “No. I like to keep the cookies in the jar, thank you very much.”
“Why do men think that’s sexy?”
“You got me. I guess they’re just fascinated by what they don’t have.”
“Men are weird.”
“I can’t argue with you.” Harley studied Mary Jane. “Now please don’t grill the guests or Cooper is going to get upset. These are his co-workers, honey, and what you do reflects on him. You have to respect that your being here is a privilege.”
“Fine.” Mary Jane linked her arm through hers and tilted her head to smile up at her. “I was just curious. But if I go back to the hotel, you have to, too, and there is no way Cooper wants you to leave.”
Harley knew Mary Jane had her there. Cooper wanted her at the party. She, on the other hand, would be perfectly content to go back and hang out with Mary Jane in their pajamas. “This isn’t really my kind of thing,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to say to any of these people.”
“They’re not royalty. They’re just people.” Mary Jane made a funny face and used a low and goofy voice. “Be yourself. Keep it real, yo.”
That made her laugh. But when she got back to Cooper there was an older gentleman in the group now and he gave her a wink. “Hear you’re the nanny turned girlfriend, huh? I’m all about a good cliché.”
She smiled weakly at him, not sure what to say.
Then suddenly Nikki Strickland was upon them, her beefy husband tagging along behind her. She was wearing hot pink and lots and lots of diamonds. She weighed approximately twelve pounds as far as Harley could tell.
“Hey, y’all!” she called out, waving and beaming. She homed in on Harley. “Who are you?”
“I’m Harley. Nice to meet you.” Not.
“This is my girlfriend,” Cooper said, slipping his hand into hers. He sounded confident and comfortable.
Harley felt anything but. She wasn’t even sure how she felt about the label of “girlfriend.” All of this was moving very fast and she was just a country girl with zero experience being at these types of social and corporate events.
“Nikki, meet Harley. Harley, Nikki, and her husband, Jonas, known on the circuit as Spark Plug.”
The guys all laughed at the nickname. Jonas seemed to take it good-naturedly. But he clearly had to have a good nature to tolerate his wife.
Nikki looked confused. “Your girlfriend? Are you kidding me right now?”
“No, I’m not.”
“But you’re so plain!” Nikki said, taking Harley’s free hand into her own. “Oh, sweetheart, you are my new pet. We’re going to give you a glitz-over.”
Fabulous. Harley waited for the earth to open up and swallow her. “Oh, um, thanks, but . . .”
“But hell no,” Cooper said. “You touch a hair on her head and I will be one pissed-off driver. Harley is beautiful the way she is.”
That was somewhat mollifying. But it was still damn embarrassing.
“If you want a pet, get a pug,” Mary Jane told her.
“And who is this charming child?” Nikki asked with a frown.
“I’m Mary Jane Rawlings. My daddy was Bud Rawlings. Jeff Sterling is my stepbrother and Cooper is my half brother.” Her chin was up and the implication was loud and clear. She was somebody and don’t mess with her.
Harley thought it would be nice to have the force of a name behind her. As it was, she was just Harley McLain, Charity’s quiet twin, and a nanny.
But she was also Cooper’s girlfriend.
And most importantly, she was a good person. She was not going to stoop to petty games, name calling, or bragging. “I heard that you’re expecting, Nikki. Congratulations.” Though Harley couldn’t see any evidence of a baby growing beneath the satin of Nikki’s dress, she’d read about it on Mary Jane’s blog, and for that reason, she would trust it as gospel.
“Why, thank you! Just seven months to go! I don’t even have morning sickness. That’s just for weak women and there is no way I’m going to put my head in a toilet. Hell to the no.”
Suzanne Jefferson snorted. “Not without sticking your finger down your throat first,” she said.
“What?” Nikki looked at her, puzzled.
Ryder coughed. “Babe, claws in.”
“Just an observation.” Suzanne winked at Harley. “I have a hard time keeping my thoughts to myself.”
Harley had the opposite problem. “I kind of envy you. It takes a crowbar to get my thoughts out sometimes,” she admitted. “But the upside is, if you have a secret I’ll take it to the grave.”
“Yeah, you do keep a pretty good secret,” Cooper said, his eyebrows raised.
She knew he was thinking about the whole sex-as-Charity thing. Whoops.
He bent over and kissed the back of her head to take the sting out of his words, but she felt compelled to tease him back. She wasn’t about to let him throw that whole business in her face every other day. “But just keep in mind secrets I know about you and might reveal if you don’t stop teasing me in front of your friends.”
The others all laughed. Cooper just grinned and shrugged. “What secrets do you have on me? That I can’t figure out the coffeemaker? Honey, I’m an open book.”
“Oh, I don’t think they know everything about you.” Like that sweet spot she had hit when she was giving him head. Or how generous he was with his tongue.
Wait. Actually, they probably did know that.
He seemed to get what she was hinting at, though, because his eyes widened and he coughed. “Point taken, sweetheart.”
“It’s okay, we all know you have a small dick,” Ryder said. “That’s no secret.”
“Christ, Jefferson! My kid sister is standing here.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.” Ryder looked sheepish.
“Just watch your tongue.” Cooper looked annoyed and embarrassed. “Look, the video’s starting up. Y’all watch that and leave my girlfriend alone.”
Harley definitely wanted the attention taken off of her. At the front of the room a man was giving an introduction and an explanation of how the money earned from the evening was going to fight children’s cancers. It made Harley wonder how much it had cost per plate to attend. She had a feeling this was not a fifty-dollar ticket she was on. In fact, she was so curious that she leaned over to Mary Jane and whispered, “How much was each ticket for this?”
“Five hundred.”
“Oh.” So Cooper had paid fifteen hundred dollars just for the three of them to walk in the door. That made her cheeks feel hot and her stomach flip. This was not her world. It just wasn’t.
A video started playing of a race from 1981. The announcers were talking about how the cars were running, and even though the footage was grainy Harley could tell it was Daytona. The track was unmistakable.
Suddenly there was a tap and a spinout and while the announcers exclaimed in shock, they all could see Eliot Monroe climb out of his car and instantly get punched by Johnny Briggs. They both had thrown down their helmets and were rolling around in the dirt in a full-on fistfight.
“Cracks me up every time I see it,” Ryder said, chuckling.
Elec shook his head. “Evan and Eve inherited that disposition from my father. It skipped over me.”
“What cracks me up is their hair. Damn, Farrah Fawcett had nothing on the two of them,” Cooper said.
Harley had to admit, that was some glorious feathered hair on both men. She’d only seen Eliot Monroe on TV and he had a silver buzz cut now. It was a startling comparison. “In thirty years we’ll be looking back on your hairdo and saying the same thing,” she remarked.
“What?” Cooper looked at her, horrified. “Are you saying I need a haircut?”
“I said no such thing. I happen to like your hair.” She did. But that didn’t mean in the future it wouldn’t look dated. But she was amused by his reaction.
“I think you need a haircut,” Mary Jane said. “It’s time to trim the hedge.”
That made her laugh. But then her laughter died out when Cooper’s expression fell and he swore under his breath. “What’s wrong?”
He sighed. “MJ, it looks like Mom is back from France.”
“What?” Mary Jane spun around and followed Cooper’s gaze. The stricken look on her face made Harley’s heart hurt. “She’s here. What is she doing here? Why didn’t she come home?”
Cooper’s hands had risen to rest on his sister’s shoulders from behind her, his gesture protective. Harley scanned the crowd and spotted the only woman who looked the right age and enough like she could be the mother of either of them. She was thin, blond, wearing a black cocktail dress, with a man in his twenties in a tux leaning over to whisper in her ear. She laughed and it was the kind of flirtatious but elegant laugh that Harley would never achieve on her best day.
“Come meet my mom,” Mary Jane said, stepping forward and taking Harley by the hand. Her voice was cold, expression stony.
“Of course,” she said lightly, but she glanced at Cooper over Mary Jane’s head. He looked furious.
As they approached her, their mother finally seemed to realize they were in front of her. “Oh!” she said, hand coming up to her throat. “Darlings!” She moved to air-kiss Mary Jane, but the girl shifted out of the way.
“Mother,” was her icy response. She sneered at the man with her mom. “Fallon. Nice to see you.”
“Oh, sweet pea, this isn’t Fallon. This is Sebastian.”
“Oh, sorry,” Mary Jane said with exaggerated sweetness. “I can’t keep track of all your boyfriends.”
“Cooper,” his mother said, leaning over to offer her cheek for him to buss. “I see my daughter hasn’t learned any manners while I’ve been gone.”
Mary Jane’s mouth opened and Harley hastily interrupted to avoid what could be shaping up to be an unpleasant confrontation. “I’m Harley,” she said, sticking her hand out.
Perfectly groomed eyebrows rose. “Hello. I’m June.” She briefly took Harley’s hand before releasing it.
“She’s my nanny,” Mary Jane told her mother.
“Nanny? How positively British.” She laughed. “Aren’t you a little old for a nanny?”
“She needs someone to look after her,” Cooper said pointedly. “While you’re, you know, busy, with Sebastian.”
These were family undercurrents Harley just did not understand. Her family was a typical two-parent family with just her and Charity. No one fought beyond the usual squabbling, and her parents still lived in the ranch house she’d grown up in. This tension, this passive-aggressive picking at each other, made her very uncomfortable.
“Then maybe have her take Mary Jane to the salon.” June’s finger reached out and smoothed her daughter’s eyebrow. “Good Lord. Look at these caterpillars. She got these from her father. Bud was like a grizzly.”
Considering Mary Jane was blond with wispy hair, her comment was ridiculous. But aside from that, Harley was utterly horrified that a mother would say something so critical to her own daughter. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with her eyebrows,” she said, before she could stop herself. “I don’t think you should be suggesting her appearance needs improvement.”
It wasn’t her right, but damn it, this mother had no freaking right either. Where the hell had she been? Off playing with her boy toy, that’s where she’d been. Harley felt the flames of indignation flare on Mary Jane’s behalf. This was bullshit, pure and simple.
“And did anyone ask your opinion?” June asked, voice dripping with disdain. “Just cash your paycheck and keep your mouth shut.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Mary Jane said.
“Mom, Harley is my girlfriend,” Cooper said. “You really don’t want to go there with me.”
“You’re dating the nanny?” June rolled her eyes. “Good Lord, what is wrong with men? Why do you always feel the need to bed the help? It’s such a pathetic need to feel powerful.”
“Unlike dating a man thirty years younger than you who has no money of his own,” Cooper said.
Ouch. Okay. This was firmly in ugly territory.
June reached out and slapped Cooper firmly across the face.
“Oh, my God,” Harley blurted out, shocked to see Cooper’s head snap to the right with the violent force of his mother’s blow.
He didn’t react at all, just accepted the slap. His hands remained in his pants pockets.
“Speak to me with respect. I’m your mother.”
But then he just smiled and it was bone chilling. Harley knew how absolutely and utterly angry he was. He was controlling it only by pure willpower. “I’ll see you in court, Mother. I’m filing papers for permanent custody of MJ.”
June’s jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“The hell I wouldn’t.”
Sebastian was glancing around, looking like he wanted to back away from the scene entirely. Harley understood where he was coming from. But she loved Cooper and Mary Jane and wasn’t about to slink away. They needed her to have their back.
Harley put her hand on Cooper’s arm. “Maybe we should discuss this privately.”
Mary Jane put her hand in Cooper’s. Then she reached out with her other hand and grabbed Harley’s. She looked scared, like she was afraid her mother was going to snatch her and whisk her away. For the first time really since she’d met her, Harley was conscious of just how much a little girl Mary Jane still was.
“There’s nothing left to say,” Cooper said. “My lawyers will be contacting you, Mother. Until then, stay the hell away from us.”
Cooper dragged Mary Jane away, and by default Harley.
The night was clearly ruined. He was keeping a tight lid on his anger and nothing more. Cooper chose a lounge chair in a dark corner and plunked down there, tugging at his tie. Mary Jane ran off to the dessert display, waving Harley off when she offered to go with her.
“Are you okay?” Harley asked Cooper, sitting down next to him and touching his knee. He looked so unapproachable, so ferocious. She didn’t know this Cooper, had never met him.
“No. But I will be.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” His words were curt and he wasn’t looking at her.
Harley sat there for a minute, then decided she needed to give him a minute alone. “I’m going to the restroom.”
He nodded.
Harley crossed the room, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed their scuffle, but everyone’s eyes were fixed on the front of the room, where Johnny Briggs and Eliot Monroe appeared to be hugging it out. She appreciated the distraction they created.
Unfortunately, when she entered the restroom, Cooper’s mother was at the sink freshening up her lipstick. Damn. Harley tried to retreat, but she’d already been spotted.
“Don’t run away. I want to have a word with you, Mary Poppins.” June spoke to her in the mirror.
Part of her wanted to leave anyway, but then she thought that would just look wimpy. So she continued forward and said to June, into the mirror, if that’s the way she wanted to play this, “Yes?”
“I’m sure you think you have a good thing going right now, and given that you’re not exactly a supermodel, you clearly have managed to score big for yourself. But that good-girl act will only take you so far before Cooper gets bored with you.”
It stung. It was offensive. But it was also just a mean-girl move, and Harley wasn’t falling for it. “I don’t think you really know anything about your son at all, so I feel confident that he appreciates my positive qualities.”
“Keep telling yourself that. As for my daughter, I see what’s going on here. You’ve got a little ‘Hand That Rocks the Cradle’ thing going on. Swoop in, save the day with baking bread and crafts or whatever the hell women like you do. But Mary Jane is my daughter and you are not going to replace me. Cooper has a lot of money, but so do I and I will fight him tooth and nail for custody. As for you, you don’t want to mess with me, honey.” June wiped the corner of her mouth where her cherry lipstick had strayed. Her blue eyes were hard, cold. “I’m mean when I don’t get my way. I play dirty. And I never lose.”
For most of her life Harley had avoided confrontation. She hated to think that anyone didn’t like her. When she’d been bullied in school she had usually played the game to appease them until Charity caught wind of it and intervened with either fists, words, or underhanded methods of humiliation designed to shut the other person up. It had also worked, but it had always made Harley uncomfortable. It wasn’t her style.
But June Rawlings was a fifty-five-year-old bully, and that might be something Harley could ignore if it weren’t Mary Jane’s future at stake. That she couldn’t back down from. So for the first time maybe in her life, she found her backbone. “I’m not really sure what you’re getting at, Mrs. Rawlings. If you’re suggesting I quit, I can assure you I have no intention of doing that. I would also like to point out that you are free to waste your money if you like, but I don’t think any judge in the world is going to award custody to a mother who abandoned her daughter so she could screw her way across Europe with a man half her age. I’m pretty sure there isn’t so much as an e-mail or text or phone call from you asking about Mary Jane’s well-being during that time. Do you know when her last checkup was? What foods she likes? How her grades in school are? Where she wants to go to college? No? Well, Cooper does, and I do. So we’ll see you in court.”
Her voice was trembling from anger a little at the end of her speech, but damn it, it felt good.
Cinderella never really got the opportunity to read the riot act to the stepmother, but Harley enjoyed putting June in her place.
Even when Cooper’s mother said, “You’ll regret that, you little cunt.”
Harley was shocked by the language but just smiled at her in the mirror. “Not as much as you should regret that face lift. Very unnatural.”
With that, she left the restroom, palms and pits sweating, hands trembling, heart racing. That last dig had been catty and more her sister than her, but nonetheless, it had felt good.
Cooper and Mary Jane were her little family, and this woman was not going to hurt them if she had any say in it.