“She is, but how’s her mama holding up?” Tegan’s tone grew serious. Even though she was younger than Cici, she’d always been wildly protective of her and had become even more so after Melody was born.
When Cici had first told Tegan that she was pregnant and planned to keep the baby even though Cooper had walked away and was never going to come back, Tegan had wanted to track him down and tear him apart. But Cici had demanded that she not do any tracking down at all. She didn’t need a man to be a good mother, and she wasn’t about to spend time worrying over his life without her. Even though her heart hadn’t moved on, she was proud of herself for never turning into a stalker ex-girlfriend who needed to know everything he was doing. And once she’d learned to thicken the walls around herself, the only one who had ever been able to break through was her beautiful baby girl, and she’d done so from the very moment she was born.
Needless to say, Tegan knew how difficult it was for Cici to be here again, in the place where she’d fallen in love with Cooper Wild.
“I’m good,” Cici answered, because it was easier than saying that she missed him again already and be forced to listen to Tegan’s rant about how much of an asshole he was. Tegan was great at reminding Cici that she was worth more than being forgotten. “I’m going to settle in with a good book and eventually go down and get my equipment from the trunk. Then I plan to do my job for the next two days and get the hell out of here and come home.”
“Schedule change,” Tegan said with an air of mischief. “You’re going to go downstairs to that dark, sex-infused bar you told me about and face your fears. Have a glass of wine, see that you can be perfectly confident this weekend without being weighed down by memories, and then you can settle in with a good book.”
“Teg—”
“Seriously, sis. Hell, I think you should get laid just to wash those memories away. Take some handsome guy by the ear, drag him to your room, fuck the hell out of him, and then toss him away and go on with life. It’ll make you feel better. More in control.”
Cici laughed. “That would give me heart palpitations. Besides, that’s how I got in trouble the first time.”
“Oh my God, that’s totally not true and you know it. You turned Cooper down twice before you went out with him, and you gave in because he was relentless and romantic and hotter than hell, and as I remember, masterful at everything sexual. At least that’s what you told me.”
Cici nibbled on her lower lip, mulling over her little white lie. She hadn’t known how her sister would react to her uncharacteristically wickedly naughty behavior with Cooper, so she’d fudged the truth a little.
“Cici?” Tegan’s voice cut through the silence. “Ohmygod. Did you lie to me?”
“No. Not really. He was the most amazing lover a girl could ever hope for.” She clenched her eyes closed as her sister gave her hell and pictured Tegan’s piercing blue eyes—the same vibrant blue as Cici’s, narrow and angry as she fumed over her sister’s fib.
“Seriously? So you didn’t turn him down twice? I’m the one person you can tell that shit to.”
She remembered the way she and Cooper hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other practically from the first second they’d met. “Watch your language. Where’s Mel?”
“She’s in the kitchen. Don’t worry. I’d never corrupt my niece by cursing in front of her. I’m outside on the back deck. Cici, you’ve kept that from me for this long? Why? Have you kept other stuff about him from me, too?”
Cici sighed, thinking of all the things she’d kept to herself. After Cooper had gone back to New York and she hadn’t heard from him again, the memories she’d coveted were too intimate to admit out loud. She didn’t want anyone to disparage the memories that, despite her broken heart, she still cherished. That was her right, wasn’t it? To tuck away the very best of him all for herself?
Of course, that wasn’t really true, either. She’d given birth to the very best of him.
***
COOPER WILD SAT in the dimly lit hotel bar watching the entrance. He sucked back his drink and ordered another, listening to his brother Jackson and Jackson’s fiancée, Erica Lane, talk about their wedding plans. He was happy for them, he really was, but each of his three older brothers had fallen in love recently, and Cooper was the last single one of the bunch. He didn’t want or need to hear one more word about love. He knew all about the emotion that could wipe a man’s brain clean and make him do things he hated himself for.
They had no idea that Cooper had been the first one to fall in love—and then life had torn him to pieces and his chance for love had gone up in flames. He’d become numb to everything around him. So fucking numb that he’d tried to fuck himself into feeling again, but even that hadn’t worked.