CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
COOPER’S lawyer advised him not to speak to his mother directly. Cooper didn’t listen. He had a key to the house she’d shared with Bud and he let himself in. He found her in the hot tub on the back patio with Sebastian. Fortunately, they were both wearing swimsuits.
“Cooper Brickman! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she shouted at him, looking every inch the outraged mother of a misbehaving teen.
He’d give it to her. She never backed down on being the one who had been mistreated. “Sorry to interrupt, but I am here to ask you to not interfere in my personal life. I don’t want to argue with you. I don’t want be one of those families who only see each other in court. But unless you see Harley and tell her she does not need to quit in order for you to relinquish custody, that’s exactly where we’re going to be. And I won’t pull punches.”
She took a sip of her wine and he knew it was a ploy to gather her thoughts. It was cold outside, but his anger was keeping him warm.
“For heaven’s sake,” she said. “Don’t get so worked up. Your little Mary Poppins was already here asking the same thing and I said yes, so maybe the two of you should discuss this and leave me to my relaxing.”
That gave him pause. “Harley was here?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yes. And Jeff Sterling should mind his own goddamn business. Can you believe he brought her here? To my home? Zero respect for privacy.”
“Why would she come here?” That made no sense at all. She had left him. Why would she confront his mother?
“Because apparently she is devastated at the idea of having to leave you and Mary Jane.” His mother rolled her eyes. “It was all very dramatic. I swear she was vying for an Oscar. I had to give her points for acting like she was going to die a painful death if she didn’t get to be with you.”
Cooper wasn’t sure what to say. If you had asked him the day before, he would have said that Harley absolutely wanted to be with him more than anything. But he was still reeling from the fact that she had left him. “So what did you tell her?”
“I thought about it, and honestly, I don’t want to fight with you. It would be a brutal court battle. I would have to parade a bunch of your bed partners through court, and point out that you aren’t any more fit to parent than me considering how much you’re on the road. I figure we each have a fifty-fifty shot of winning and really, do we want to do that to each other?” She took another sip of her wine.
She was right. Cooper hadn’t really thought about it from that perspective. While he hadn’t abandoned Mary Jane, he was trusting her primary care to a nanny, and really, he was only her half brother. There wasn’t any guarantee that the court would rule in his favor. He understood a little better where Harley had been coming from. He didn’t like that she hadn’t allowed for the two of them to discuss it, but the edge of his anger was shaved.
“I don’t want to drag our family through court, no. But I do think MJ is better off living with me for now. She’s happy and it’s a stable environment, even though I travel. And until this morning, she had a fantastic nanny.” He was trying really hard not to sound emotional, not to lose it, but his voice cracked a little on that last part.
“Oh, relax. You still have your nanny extraordinaire. With me dropping the contest of your custody, there’s no reason Harley can’t continue working for you.” She turned to her boyfriend and presented him her back. “Sebastian, can you rub my shoulders? All this drama is causing tension.”
Sebastian dutifully obeyed. Cooper wanted to check the bottom of the hot tub to see where the guy had dropped his balls. He’d never even heard the guy speak. Apparently his role was to see and be seen, not speak.
“Anyway, I thought she was going to your house to plead forgiveness, which frankly, she doesn’t even need to ask for. She was trying to do the right thing, and if you can’t see that, then you’re a fool. It’s not every day you’re going to have a woman actually willing to sacrifice for you. God knows I never will for any man.”
Sebastian didn’t even pause in the rubbing.
Cooper suddenly wanted to laugh. Well, at least his mother was honest. Brutally so. But honest.
He was so relieved she was dropping pursuit of the custody, for a second he just paused to let go of the immense burden of anxiety he’d been feeling since she had shown up on Friday night at the event. “I’m glad we could work this out ourselves,” he told her sincerely. “Bottom line is we both want what’s best for MJ.” He wasn’t entirely sure that was what motivated his mother, but it was a good parting line.
She nodded. “Now go away. You make me feel old.”
Cooper grinned. “Sorry, Mom. I can’t help the fact that I’m thirty-five now.”
“Oh, my God, don’t say it out loud!” She shuddered and reflexively touched her face, like his age was manifested on her face in wrinkle form.
“But I’m twenty-three,” Sebastian said suddenly, sounding startled, like it had just occurred to him that his girlfriend was in fact more than thirty years older than him.
Before his mother threw the bottle of wine at him for speaking the unspeakable, Cooper gave her a wave and said, “I’ll be in touch with papers to sign. Don’t get pregnant. I hear that can happen in a hot tub.”
The corner of her mouth turned up in a smile before she recovered and pasted a censorious frown on her face. “Very funny.”
“It can?” Sebastian asked, his hands dropping.
Oh, Lord. On that note, Cooper was leaving. He thought about calling Harley but decided to just go home first and see if she was there.
He needed to see her eyes when they spoke.
He needed to tell her that he loved her. He’d never told her, and the day had shown him that there was no point in dancing around emotions. For all he knew, Harley had doubts about his intentions.
By the time they were done talking, no matter what the outcome, she would know he loved her more than any woman he’d ever met.
He’d put that on a piece of paper and sign it, damn it.
* * *
HARLEY looked at Mary Jane, sitting sullenly on her chaise in her room, and wished that she’d been given a better mother and that Harley had been given better words to take away hurt. “I know you don’t entirely understand why I did what I did, but I did it to guarantee that you could stay with Cooper.”
Mary Jane was picking at the knee of her jeans. “I know. But it still sucked. And why did you leave just to come right back again?”
“Because I convinced your mom to drop her petition for custody.” Harley wasn’t sure how exactly she had done that. Maybe it had been allowing herself to be pathetic and blubber in front of June. It made their mother feel like she had the upper hand and there was no reason to feel threatened by Harley. Or maybe she had just thought about how much easier life was if Cooper had Mary Jane. She didn’t know. She just knew that June had been remarkably agreeable when all was said and done.
Hopefully it wasn’t a ploy of some kind. But even if it was, Harley wasn’t caving this time. It had been agonizing to see Cooper and Mary Jane hurt by her actions, no matter how noble in intent they had been. “The absolute last thing in the world I wanted to do was leave, but I wanted what was best for you. That’s what adults who love kids do.”
“What are you saying, that you love me?” Mary Jane made a face and rolled her eyes.
“I do. I love you a whole heck of a lot. I think you’re funny and smart and sweet and I like hanging out with you. You’re my favorite thirteen-year-old in the whole world and I am looking forward to watching you take over the fashion blog industry.” She took a chance and planted herself on the chaise next to Mary Jane. “There is a lot I admire about you. I’ve been the kind of person who floats through life, you know. I’m a good person. I don’t do anything that is rude or obnoxious or morally wrong. But I just . . . float. You and Cooper, you’re doers. You get things done. And I wish I were more like that. Maybe if I were, I would open my mouth more and tell people how I feel about them.”
“But you take care of other people,” Mary Jane said. “That’s not floating. You do an awesome job taking care of me and Cooper.”
That made Harley’s heart swell. She touched Mary Jane’s knee, her throat tight. “Thanks. I hope I can take care of you both for a long time. And I’m going to be honest and tell you how much you mean to me.”
“Are you going to tell Cooper, too?”
She nodded. “I love Cooper. A lot. Like the squishy kind of love you and I talked about.”
“Good. I think you and Cooper should get married. If you have kids, I’ll be an aunt and I will dress them in the cutest clothes ever.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.” Though nothing would make Harley happier. She’d been born to be a mother. It felt like her one true calling.
“He likes steak, you know. Maybe you can make him dinner,” Mary Jane suggested.
Harley wondered if that was too grasping. Like she was trying to blackmail him with beef into taking her back. “He does like Tex-Mex. Lots of salsa.”
“I do like salsa, that’s true.”
She snapped her head up and saw that Cooper was standing in the doorway. “Cooper!” How long had he been standing there? Normally Mary Jane’s door was closed, but she’d opened it to Harley and turned to walk away and Harley hadn’t bothered to shut it. “I hope you don’t mind I’m here without permission.”
“Of course he doesn’t mind!” Mary Jane said.
Harley stood up, thoughts jumbled. She wasn’t sure what to say first or how to say it.
“I don’t mind. Can I speak to you privately?” He looked serious, intense. Nary a smile in sight, but he seemed calm. It was a big improvement from when he had left that morning, anger etched across his face.
“I was just leaving,” Mary Jane said, leaping off the chaise and pushing past her brother.
Cooper raised his eyebrows at her retreating form. “Wow. I’ve never seen her move that fast.”
Harley was used to waiting. Just waiting for someone else to direct the conversation. Her relationship with them. But she couldn’t do that now, not after what had happened. She stepped forward, not sure what his reaction was going to be. “I’m sorry for this morning. I should have discussed it with you. I should have explained better that the last thing in the world I wanted to do was hurt either of you, that I did it for both of you. Cooper, I love you.” Her voice cracked. “I am absolutely and completely in love with you.”
“I heard your whole conversation with MJ.” He reached out and took her hand loosely, absently rubbing his thumb over her skin.
Harley took it as a good sign. “Everything I said was true. I’m no Charity. I’ve spent my life letting her speak for me. I wait for her to touch something to find out if it’s hot or not. I don’t take risks.”
“There is nothing wrong with caution. I know why you did what you did. But sometimes it’s better to go for it and lose it all than to just hand it over without even trying.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I think I realized that about five seconds after you left the house.”
“I talked to my mom. She said you were there.”
Harley nodded. “She may be planning a full-scale secret attack, or she was sincere about dropping the case.”
“I think she is actually sincere.” He touched her cheek with his free hand. “I love you, too, you know. You’re the first woman to genuinely capture my heart.” Dropping her hand, he thumped his chest with his fist. “Like, this, right here? It’s all yours if you want it.”
The tears came openly now. “I want that more than anything. I didn’t realize how insecure I was feeling about that until I left. It means a lot to me to hear you say that. I don’t want to be here just because Mary Jane needs a mother.”
He winced. “I’m sorry I said that earlier. I just meant that you have to take your worth at face value. You don’t need to do stuff for me to have value in my life. If you want to mother, let’s make a baby. But I’m good, baby. I want you as a best friend, not here to take care of me.”
“I want you as a best friend, too.” Harley felt so immensely emotional, so overwhelmed by the way Cooper looked at her, that she leaned into his chest, needing, wanting to touch him. “I’ve never been best friends with a guy before,” she whispered.
He laughed. “And I’ve never lived with a woman before, but I’m about to start. Because I think we should just accept Rosa’s evil eye and move you into my room.”
“I think that’s the best idea you’ve ever had.”
“The best?” Cooper gave her a dirty grin. “I can think of another one.”
Yes, please. “So you forgive me?”
“If you forgive me for throwing a temper tantrum. And if you can forgive me in advance for how often I’ll be on the road and how many important occasions I will probably miss because of my job. And you should probably forgive me for my inability to control myself when you’re in a bikini. And for bugging you to make coffee for me every morning.”
It wasn’t every girl who got so lucky, and Harley kissed him with everything she had inside her. “Done.”
And so Cinderella and Prince Charming lived happily ever after.
Or something like that.