Married by June (8 page)

“It’s going to be okay, Mom,” Jorie whispered into the silent bedroom. “Keep an eye on us, okay?”

She waited, but she didn’t get a response. Opening the book, she started to read.

J
ORIE STOPPED AT
L
UCKY’S
on her way to her meeting with Nolan. Alice was behind the counter. There was a line of five customers, and a Help Wanted sign in the window.

Alice looked harried, but when she saw Jorie, she raised her eyebrows. Jorie lifted her hand, flashing the engagement ring with a smile. Alice gave her a quick thumbs-up before she went back to helping a mom who was juggling two toddlers.

Jorie waited while Alice packaged a dozen cupcakes, sorted out the next three people who wanted muffins and coffee to go, and then described the ingredients of practically every pastry in the case to a middle-aged woman who sounded as if she were almost asleep from boredom. When the woman finally bought an apple pie, Jorie almost shouted,
If you were in the mood for apple pie, why not just buy it?

Alice waited until the door of the bakery closed behind the woman before she muttered a curse word. “I need to get some help in here before I go crazy.”

“You didn’t fire Eliot, did you?”

“Eliot’s job is safe because he’s currently the only thing standing between me and a total meltdown.
My full-time counter help, Nicole, quit. Her daughter’s pregnant with her fifth kid and she had to go on bed rest. Nicole’s watching the other kids for her. Which means it’s me and Eliot. He’s still not brilliant and he’s in school full-time, but he’s all I’ve got. Eliot is now the Lucky’s Bakery Employee of the Month.” Alice flipped over the Open sign on the front door so it read Closed for Lunch and then she turned the lock. “Come in the back and tell me everything!”

“I can’t stay,” Jorie said. “But the very short version is we’re back together.”

“I never believed he wanted to break up with you in the first place!”

Jorie didn’t correct her. She’d decided to start the day off with a positive attitude. She’d wanted Cooper back and now she had him. The why couldn’t matter. It was up to her to convince him that they weren’t making a mistake before time ran out.

“What do you have that’s a foolproof hit with guys?” she asked.

“For Cooper?”

“His dad.”

Alice stood in front of the counter and examined the options. “Not cupcakes. Not croissants. Not muffins. Pie’s too messy and you can’t tell about fruit desserts, anyway.”

Jorie waited. If everything worked out, she’d be
spending so much time with the Murphys that she’d know their dessert preferences inside and out, but today she was going to have to trust Alice.

“Chocolate chip cookies,” Alice said. She went behind the counter and grabbed a box. “Men like things uncomplicated.”

“They do?”

“They think they do, anyway.” Alice loaded the box and then wrapped it with string. “Call me later, would you? I’d love to hear the long story.”

“Okay.” Jorie took out her wallet but Alice waved her hand.

“It’s an engagement present.”

Jorie dropped a dollar in the tip jar. “You can give that to Eliot. Butter him up so he doesn’t quit on you.”

“Flip the sign back when you leave, okay?”

Jorie nodded and picked up the box. Nolan Murphy was waiting and she didn’t want to be late.

C
OOPER’S APARTMENT,
a quiet two-bedroom on a shady street with a tiny kitchen but working windows, had gone from just right for one single guy to seriously stuffed with Murphys. When Cooper got home from Jorie’s the night before, Bailey was sleeping in the extra bedroom and Theo had installed himself on the couch. His cousin swore he wouldn’t be there long and not even every night. He and Nolan had decided it made sense for him to be briefed right along with Cooper, but he was only taking a partial leave from his firm. He’d work remotely, going back to Pittsburgh a few times a week when he had to be on-site. When he was in Washington, he and Cooper would be joined at the hip and Bailey, despite his disgrace, would be right along with them, offering his insights and attempting to look both contrite and not that guilty, while the governor and the public made up their minds about the Murphy Issue.

At least those were the details his brother and cousin had given him once they were out of bed
and shuffling around the small table in the galley kitchen. When Theo and Bailey started arguing over who got to do the crossword puzzle in the
Times,
he left. He was supposed to meet his dad and Jorie at ten. He had about two hours and he didn’t want to be early—he didn’t want to listen to any of his dad’s plans just yet. Even if he went somewhere for coffee, he’d still have to figure out how to fill more than an hour. Maybe he should stop by Jorie’s and see if she wanted to go together.

The sidewalk outside his building was shaded by a line of cherry trees and the wooden benches set at intervals down the block were mostly empty. He registered the woman in the over-sized sunglasses and head scarf wrapped like a fifties starlet. She was sitting on the bench closest to his steps and reading a magazine, but he didn’t really see her. Some part of his brain must have been paying attention though, because after he’d gone a few steps past her, he realized two things. One, the woman was dressed like some kind of femme fatale in a James Bond film from her trench coat to her glasses, but she was reading the
Wall Street Journal
.

“Mom?”

“Cooper,” she said with a grim smile he was pretty sure she meant to be significantly brighter. Maybe if she didn’t grit her teeth so tightly she’d have been able to pull off delighted. As it was, she
looked just as furious as she had the day before. She slid the sunglasses partway down her nose. “What a surprise.”

“You’re surprised to see me outside my building?”

“No. I mean, yes.” His mom closed the newspaper and tucked it into the front pocket of her big leather satchel. “I’m surprised to see you. I thought you might have spent the night at Jorie’s.”

“You could have rung the doorbell if you wanted to talk,” he said.

She didn’t answer him and he finally caught on.

“You’re stalking Bailey, aren’t you?”

“No.”

“Those are stalker sunglasses,” he said. “The scarf is definitely a stalker scarf. It looks good on you, though.”

“Thank you. And don’t contradict your mother.” She lifted the glasses back up to cover her eyes again.

He took the spot next to her. Sitting side by side on the bench, he wouldn’t have to see the brittle hurt and anger in her face as she tried to pretend she didn’t care about her first born son’s existence.

He wasn’t sure what to say so they sat in silence for a few minutes. The traffic was starting to pick
up and a few groups of kids walked past, heading for the middle school around the corner.

“I followed the bus when he went to kindergarten the first day, you know.” Rachel undid the knot on her scarf and took it off, folding the silk over and around her hand. “You, too. You tell yourself you’re ready, that your child is ready, that it’s only school and millions of kids have been completely happy there before.” She shrugged, a small movement of her shoulders that was apologetic and embarrassed in a way his mom rarely was. “But then the bus pulls away and it feels like you’ve lost some important part of you. Like you might float away because there’s nothing keeping you on the ground. Bailey wasn’t gone more than thirty seconds when I knew I had to follow the bus, just to see. To be sure he was okay. I parked across the street and watched him go in. I just had to see.”

“Bailey’s okay, Mom,” Cooper said.

“You’ve met Deb?”

It was a question, but not really. She was prepared to be hurt all over again when she confirmed that he’d been lying to her right along with Bailey. “No.”

She turned her head and took the glasses off again. There were tears in her eyes.

“I still remember the time you attempted to cover up for your brother when he told Theo we had a
dungeon in the basement and the poor child fell down the stairs carrying that jug of water for the prisoners.”

“I had to lie. Bay didn’t deserve to get into trouble because Theo was the world’s most gullible six-year old. But I’m not lying to you now, Mom. I haven’t met her.”

“He’s been very thorough about keeping us out, hasn’t he?”

Cooper rested his hand on his mom’s forearm and squeezed. “He probably thought he was protecting us, right? If we didn’t know, we wouldn’t have to lie about it.”

She unwound the scarf from her fist and then tucked it into her bag.

“Your dad says you and Jorie broke up and got back together yesterday. Apparently you’d already broken up with her when you told me you liked the red velvet cake.”

And there it was. He wasn’t lying about Deb, but was guilty of this one.

“I didn’t mean to lie to you, Mom. I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

“And then?”

“And then we got back together.”

“Coincidentally just after you found out we need you to run for the Senate.”

“Dad was clear that I’m not running. I’m being appointed.”

“Semantics.”

Except it wasn’t. Theo was the candidate and Cooper was just the fill-in. All of this, getting back together with Jorie when he didn’t see much hope for their relationship, was only to buy Theo the few months he needed to hit the right age to be the candidate. Theo was the chosen one. Cooper wondered if he’d go back to being a speechwriter when this was all done. Would he be able to work for Theo? Would his cousin even want him?

“I told Jorie the truth. She knows we have to stay together for the campaign and she’s okay with it.”

Rachel crossed her legs as another group of kids went past. One of them was on a scooter and he swished by so close Cooper pulled his feet back against the bench.

“I hope you were honest with her, Cooper. She’s been through so much this past year, losing her mom. We all know what needs to be done, but Jorie isn’t a Murphy.”

She almost was, Cooper thought. What would that have felt like, he wondered, to have a branch of the Murphys that was his alone. Would it have been a refuge? A home base? A retreat? Or a burden? He wouldn’t know now, at least not with Jorie. There was no way a relationship could go through as much
as theirs had and ever wind up healthy, but he still wondered. He’d told her he would try again, start from scratch, but there was an awful lot of complicated history between them.

“When are you meeting your dad?” Rachel asked.

“Ten.”

“I have an errand to run, but I should be home before eleven.”

She stood and he got up, too. Rising on her tiptoes, she kissed his cheek. “Take care of yourself, Coop.”

“You, too.”

She faced away from his front door as she got her glasses back out and put them on.

“Bailey’s still home, if you want to stop by,” he said, doing his best to keep his tone neutral so she wouldn’t feel judged. His mom didn’t deal well with ultimatums, especially from her sons.

“Not today,” she said.

When she walked away, her back was straight and her stride as firm and energetic as ever, and he knew it wasn’t possible that she actually looked a little smaller, as if she’d lost something.

He was doing the right thing. He had to get this appointment and keep the seat ready for Theo. It was the only hope he had for his family to get back to normal.

J
ORIE HAD DRESSED
for this meeting with a specific goal in mind. Cooper’s mom tended toward romantic, very feminine clothes, but with her own distinctive style.

Although Jorie hadn’t tried to replicate Rachel’s style exactly, she’d chosen a cute cotton skirt printed with black-and-white flowers and paired it with a shimmery charcoal summer sweater with a trio of white flowers on the shoulder. She hoped her clothes delivered the subtle message to Nolan that she was prepared to support Cooper in the same way that Rachel supported her husband.

The weight she’d gained after her mom died had made some of her clothes uncomfortably tight, but the shape of this skirt and the silky weave of the sweater actually looked better with more curves underneath. She felt good and that was important because she was nervous. When she told Cooper she wasn’t intimidated by his dad, it was the truth—at least, she wasn’t any more intimidated by Nolan Murphy than anyone else was. What scared her was how much this meeting meant to Cooper. With everything he was doing to keep his family together, she was petrified that she would mess something up.

She crossed the street and approached the Murphys’ house. The lace curtains in the front windows
were lined with opaque fabric which meant she couldn’t see inside. Somehow, she didn’t imagine Nolan would be watching for her from the front window. In fact, she was kind of surprised he wanted to meet her at the house. He was so busy prepping for the transition, she’d been under the impression he’d be living at Bailey’s office all day.

The stone steps and banister leading to the highly polished front door were old, solid and smooth with age. She wondered if Cooper ever thought about the people who’d lived here before him. He’d grown up splitting his time between this house and the equally old and impressive one his parents kept outside Philadelphia.

Both homes had been in his family before he was born. This had been his grandparents’ place when his grandfather was in the Senate. Cooper and Bailey had grown up with the kind of stability and tradition she’d longed for when she was a child, shuffling from city to city. She’d changed schools so often it had almost become a routine. Cooper told her once that at Christmastime his family didn’t have to think about where to hang the stockings on their living room fireplace because the holes were there, in exactly the same spots they’d always been. She wondered if he knew how lucky he was.

At the bottom of the steps she paused and thought about her mom. Chelsea had always known what to
wear and had never brought a hostess gift that was less than perfect. Jorie hoped her mom could see her right now. She hoped even more that Chelsea would approve. Her nerves weren’t going to settle themselves, so she rang the bell and hoped for the best. At least she had Alice’s cookies with her. They should smooth the way.

When Bailey answered the door, she was so relieved it was him and not his dad that she smiled before she remembered the turmoil in his life that was the reason she was there.

“Bailey, I’m so sorry for everything that’s going on.”

“Actually, I think I’m the one who should be apologizing to you,” he said. He held the door open and stepped back. Once she was inside, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. He put his hands on her shoulders. “You know you don’t have to do this.”

Over his shoulder, she saw Nolan and Cooper come to the doorway of the library down the hall. Nolan’s face was set and he didn’t smile, just nodded and folded his arms. Cooper, standing behind him, his brown eyes serious, looked very much like his dad at that moment. Jorie was struck by how close the three of them had always seemed—working together, joking together, sharing their family and their history. Now there was a rift and Cooper had asked her, trusted her to do what she could to mend
it. The Murphys might be messed up at the moment, but she believed in them. She pulled Bailey in close for a hug, sliding one arm around his waist while she held the cookie box in her other hand.

“Yes, I do,” she whispered. “I want to.”

She heard footsteps and saw Cooper coming down the hall, his long legs covering the distance so quickly she barely had time for a deep breath to steady herself.

“You brought us cake,” he said, taking the box she held out to him. “You’re a goddess.”

“It’s cookies,” she said. “And Alice is the goddess, but I’m glad they’re welcome.”

Cooper put his arm across her shoulders to steer her down the hall toward his father, but she pulled away and went back to Bailey. She took his hand in hers and leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Congratulations on the baby,” she said softly. “I’m looking forward to meeting your girlfriend.”

He finally gave her a grin that wasn’t quite up to his normal magazine-ready smile but seemed sincere. “We’ll set that up. Definitely.”

“Cooper, Jorie—let’s get started,” Nolan called. “Bailey, I’ll need you in about thirty minutes, but you can take a break for now.”

Jorie grabbed the cookie box back from Cooper. She wasn’t going to miss her chance to bribe his dad herself. As she walked down the hallway, she
felt Cooper behind her and was glad he was there. She had said she wasn’t intimidated and she really shouldn’t be, but facing this grim, serious Nolan felt different. Every other time they’d been together, it had been social, but now she was part of the family business and she didn’t know quite what to expect.

N
OLAN THANKED HER
for the cookies, put them next to him on the table, unopened, and handed her a list.

“Dad, maybe we should talk first, sort of ease into things,” Cooper said.

Nolan handed him a list.

Cooper opened his mouth as if he were about to protest again, but Jorie said, “This is just fine. We have lots to cover.” She set her bag down on the table and took her pen out of the inside pocket. “Let’s get started.”

Cooper pulled out a chair at the library table, and after she sat down, he settled into the one next to her, but she noticed that he left one hand on the back of her chair. This was just a conversation about politics, but it was kind of him to make the protective gesture and she relaxed slightly.