Page 31

Chapter 31

A fucking ugly green dress

Callie

I got nothing done for the rest of the day. It was Cooper’s fault.

Everyone who could think of a question for me stopped by to ask it and then mention Cooper. I seized the excuse he had given that it was a tax issue. Mr. Anderson even came by, curious as to whether this meant Cooper might become a client. He almost promised a partnership if that happened.

Cooper would do it if I asked him to. The documents he’d left with me proved it. But I didn’t want to earn my place by using him, so I told Mr. Anderson no and ignored his look of disappointment. Years of hard work, and it was someone I could be dating that had tipped the scales in my favor.

Leonie gleefully told me that Benson’s department was getting a new female lawyer they’d poached from another firm, and rumors were that she’d been promised partnership consideration. Would that be more competition for me as well as him? I should care, but I smiled and thanked her and stared uselessly at my computer screen for the rest of the day.

For once, I left right on time. I’d texted Darcy, told him we needed to talk, immediately.

I ordered pizza as soon as I got to the condo and changed into sweats. Then I paced until Darcy arrived with the pizza in hand—he’d met the delivery guy in the lobby.

He frowned when I made another lap around the living room. “Okay, what’s the 911?”

“Cooper.”

He set the pizza down. “Give me a minute. I have to get out of this shirt. It’s covered in popcorn butter. Don’t ask.”

While I waited for him, I opened the pizza boxes, got plates, and found a bottle of wine.

Darcy returned with wet hair and his own sweats on. He grabbed a plate. “Okay, spill.”

I passed him a glass of wine, settling on the couch with my own piece. “Cooper came to the office. He may not be mentally competent.” That would explain what he’d done today.

Darcy did a spit take with his wine, spraying over his T-shirt. “Damn, I just cleaned up. What did Cooper do? Serenade you with a boom box? Buy you an expensive painting?” Darcy did love a rom-com.

I explained the less exciting reality of Cooper’s visit.

This time, Darcy choked on his pizza. “OMG! He’s in love with you!”

I frowned. “He didn’t say that.”

“Callie, he’s giving you everything he owns to show he trusts you.”

“But he didn’t say it. He didn’t say the word.”

“He’s saying it in a different way. And damn it, Callie, it’s the way you understand. If he said ‘I love you,’ would you believe him?”

I chewed on my bottom lip. I’d had people say it before. My mom, each time she’d rescued me from foster care, only to drop me off later. Boyfriends, or guys I’d thought were boyfriends but were only using me.

Darcy said it, but it was his being there, all the time, that told me he lived it. And Cooper…

“I have to think.”

Darcy enfolded me in a hug. “I know, sweetie. But do more than that. Feel. Figure out how you feel about this guy. Because he’s making a grand gesture, and you could really hurt him. I totally understand why you don’t want a relationship, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need it. If you’re willing to go all in, then this is your chance. But don’t go in only halfway.”

I leaned back, eyes annoyingly damp. “I don’t know, Darce. You’re right, I don’t want to hurt him. But if he left too…”

“He’s showing you he won’t.”

“But how can he know that? People love to make promises but they don’t keep them. And for this…well…” I looked down at the faded, stretched-out gray T-shirt I had on, long enough to mostly hide my figure. “There’s no way I’m enough.”

Darcy grabbed my chin. “You damned well are enough, Callie.”

I whispered through a mouth that couldn’t move thanks to his grip. “I’m scared.”

“Oh, sweetie, I know. How brave can you be?”

I didn’t know.

* * *

Thankfully the next day was Friday, because I needed the weekend to work out my thoughts. I got through the day at work, somehow, and came home to an empty condo. Darcy was working closing, so he’d be gone till after midnight.

A list. That should help. A list of pros and cons. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and sat at the table with a glass of wine and dragged a line down the middle of the sheet.

Pros on the left, cons on the right.

The cons came easy. Risk of getting hurt. Risk of hurting him. Sudden public exposure—I could only imagine pictures of me showing up with Cooper at things like that charity dinner in the papers. Conflicts from two demanding careers. Kids. Did he want kids? Did I? His popularity, my lack of hockey interest, his family.

Time for the pros. Sex. Money. I wanted to stand on my own, but even though I had no intention of keeping his assets, having a wealthy partner did mean there was a buffer, a big one, between me and living in dingy motel rooms and eating ramen. Never wanted to repeat that.

The con list was winning. Were there more pros?

I’d never have to worry if I’d chosen the right outfit, if I was with Mr. It’s Not Hard to Look Good. I could get better at golf, so I’d be able to do well at the annual tournament. I might eat out more, with someone to go with and who had a budget that could handle meals. Darcy’s schedule was all over the place, and even with the minimal rent I charged him, his budget was tight.

Maybe I could learn how to drive.

I was filling up the pro side with frivolous issues to try to even out the cons. Which told me I already knew the answer. I was just scared. The pen fell from my hand.

I drew in a breath. I wanted this. Enough to do it. My breathing grew shallow, and I dropped my head into my hands. I wasn’t just scared, I was terrified.

* * *

I spent the rest of the night watching some of Darcy’s rom-coms. Assuring myself that people with different backgrounds and circumstances could make a go of it. Trying to lose myself in the stories so I wouldn’t start panicking again. I was still there when Darcy came home.

“You okay, Callie?”

I was almost vibrating in my seat. “No. I’m not.”

Darcy crossed the room and dropped on the couch beside me. “What’s wrong?”

I huffed a nervous breath. “I made a decision.”

He cocked his head. “It’s a little concerning that I can’t tell what you decided based on the way you’re acting.”

I nodded. “I know. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I should say no.”

He put his hand on his chest. “You decided…yes?”

“I made a list but I kept pushing things to the pro side so I must want it but I’m freaking out. Seriously. That must mean it’s the wrong decision, right?”

Darcy put his hands on my shoulders. “Breathe, Callie. Take some deep breaths.”

I focused on him and drew in several long breaths, expelling them slowly. “Okay, thanks.”

“I think this freak-out isn’t because you made the wrong decision. I think it proves it’s the right one. Because you’re pushing out of your comfort zone, and it’s scary, but it’s good.”

“It’s going to be so far out of my zone. I never planned on anyone like him.”

“Did you call him?”

I shook my head. “I needed to sit on it first. Do my freaking out.”

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

“I have no idea how we can possibly work. We both have challenging careers, we’ve never discussed children, I’m a fashion disaster and it’s his, I don’t know, love language.”

“And yet?”

I bit my lip. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone before. I want to be with him, and not just because of the sex. I’ll even watch hockey if he wants. I think…” Another long breath. “I must love him.”

The words felt awkward and yet, a relief.

Darcy’s grin split his face. “I’m so happy for you, Callie.”

“His goddaughter calls him Kook.”

Darcy fell back on the cushions. “I’m swooning here.”

I dropped back with him. “It’s too late to call him now. He’s training and doing, like, practice games.”

Darcy rolled his eyes. “You have a lot to learn. And after he went to your office, you need to do something a little better than sending him a text.

“Like what?”

“Hmmm. Let me think.”

* * *

Cooper

“You don’t have to do this,” I said.

I hadn’t heard from Callie, and the days had moved on leaden skates. Hunts had dragged me out to the Top Shelf for a guy’s night. Pretty sure it was as much about getting away from Hailey for a bit as anything else. He looked way too happy for bro-consoling-bro time.

He shrugged. “You’d do the same for me.”

I would. I had, back in college, and again when he and Faith were doing long-distance for the first year after we graduated. I’d helped him plan out the proposal he’d put together for her when she came home that Christmas. Since that year, they’d been together, and he hadn’t needed cheering up for anything Faith-related. When he’d had to retire, I’d been there for him. So, he owed me.

“No news is good news, right?” He held up his glass and I touched mine to his.

He was right. Callie hadn’t said no. But she hadn’t said yes, and I was afraid the longer she spent in her own head, without me there in person to tip the scales in my favor, the likelier she was to run. I had to give her space though. I’d pushed all I could.

I’d expected Hunts to invite some of the team to come out with us. If his plan was to distract me or cheer me up, him sitting across from me without speaking wasn’t really working. Instead of talking, he was preoccupied, staring past me toward the door and the bar.

Which, now that I thought of it, was sketchy as hell. I was about to ask him what was up when an expression crossed his face—it lit up like when Faith appeared. Was that his plan? I turned around, but what caught my eye wasn’t Faith.

It was a green dress. A fucking ugly green dress. With shocking red hair above it.

The noise around me faded, like the volume of the music and conversations had been dialed down. Everything around that green dress was muted, forming a flat frame around Callie. The blood in my veins slowed, and my entire body was cold and frozen in place.

She walked toward our table, biting her lip. She was nervous, but she was here. Fuck, she’d decided. And suddenly I didn’t want to know. I’d rather live in a limbo where she hadn’t yet said no.

“I’m heading out,” Hunts said. He passed by Callie and she smiled at him.

The sound and colors rushed back in. This was a setup. Hunts had brought me here on purpose, and he knew Callie was coming. That meant she’d set this up. She’d set it up, and worn the fucking ugly green dress, and there she was, standing by the table, waiting for me to do something other than stare at her.

Shit. My mouth was hanging open. Was I drooling?

“Cooper?”

I snapped back to something like my normal self. “Callie— Sit down. You look…”

She smirked. “I look?”

“Beautiful. Fucking beautiful.”

She frowned down at her dress. “Really?”

“Absolutely. You can wear that every day of your life as long as I can see you in it.”

She bit her lip again. “I think that’s more convincing than trying to give me all your worldly possessions. You know, that you plan to stick around.”

Calling her beautiful in that dress was all I’d needed to do? Shit . But she still looked hesitant. She was questioning if I’d stay around. “Oh, I do. And you damned well better be saying yes if you’re here in that dress.”

She drew in a long shaky breath. “Yeah. That’s why I’m here. I’m in.”