The One Real Thing (Hart's Boardwalk) (8 page)

Cooper had to admit to himself he’d been hoping the doc would come to his bar the night before. She’d made him impatient to see her again and he’d been counting on her feeling the same way.

Shit.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Old Archie said as Cooper sighed.

He glanced down his bar. The place was filled with locals. In a week or two it would be packed with locals and tourists once the high season hit. Sitting in the same stool he sat in every night, Old Archie smirked at him over the rim of his beer glass.

“They’re not that interesting.”

“Right.” Old Archie narrowed his eyes. “Hear your ex has been bothering you.”

Cooper hadn’t heard anything from Dana since he’d cut her down in front of Iris. Hopefully that meant she’d finally gotten the message.

Truth was he was too young when he married Dana. The sex had been fantastic. Looking back, the sad realization he came to was that there was more lust in their marriage than love. Cooper had thought it love at the time, but now he couldn’t remember a moment when they ever talked about anything real. He didn’t think much of it back then, but now he knew that wasn’t right.

Sure, he’d made Dana laugh, and he’d gotten a kick out of making her laugh, but that wasn’t enough.

She’d been so goddamn beautiful when they first met—the kind
of beautiful that would have opened up doors for her if she’d been smart enough to look for the doors in the first place. But Dana liked being a big fish in a small pond. Cooper knew she was vain. He’d always known it, but he’d been so caught up in her beauty he’d decided to call it confidence and find it sexy.

He’d been an asshole kid.

And they’d both paid the price for their stupidity. With not much between them but lust, the marriage had fallen apart. Dana had betrayed him, and that betrayal burned so much Cooper wasn’t sure he ever wanted to get involved in another serious relationship.

Yet . . . he wasn’t that dumb-ass kid anymore.

He knew something special when he saw it.

And he knew not to ignore that tingle on the back of his neck.

Cooper couldn’t put his finger on exactly what made Jessica Huntington different from any other woman he’d dated. She was sexy, true. She was incredibly smart—had to be if she was a doctor.

Maybe that was it, he thought.

Maybe it was the doctor thing. It said a lot about her. All good. Other than the obvious, it said she was probably an independent woman, and Cooper had never dated a woman like that before.

After his dad left, Cooper had become the man of the house. He was twelve years old. He’d looked after his mom and sister. Then when he met Dana she was looking for him to look after her, too. And Cooper hadn’t minded that. At least, he hadn’t thought he did. However, looking back on it, he saw Dana had been more like a kid than a wife. She didn’t want the responsibility of making important decisions to do with their finances, their home, their cars, their bills. Nothing.

Unlike all the other couples they knew, he and Dana didn’t have a partnership. He didn’t have a wife to lean on when shit got hard. She had expected him to deal with it alone and shield her from anything bad, like she was a child.

For instance, when his mom died.
His
mom. She wasn’t even close to his mother. But Dana couldn’t cope with the sad reality of
death. It made her question her own mortality and she didn’t like that one bit. So she wouldn’t talk about his mom’s death. She wouldn’t let him talk about it, and he’d needed to talk about it.

In the end it was Jack who had been there for him.

Huh. What a joke that was. He’d always considered himself a really good judge of character until Jack’s betrayal.

Cooper sighed again and shook off the ugly memories.

Jessica struck him as a different sort of woman than Dana. Not only did she probably take care of herself, she took care of other people. The idea of dating an independent woman appealed to him now. Then again, he’d always thought Dana was sweet, until she’d showed him how bitter she could taste.

But that shouldn’t be enough to put him off at least getting to know the doc. She was in Hartwell for three weeks. That was plenty of time to explore the chemistry between them if he was willing to give it a chance.

“Those look like some heavy thoughts,” Old Archie said.

Cooper looked at him. “What do you know about heavy thoughts?”

Old Archie grinned and opened his mouth to say something, when his old lady, Anita, slid onto the stool next to him. Old Archie immediately frowned at her. “Woman, what are you doing here?”

She grinned and shrugged. “Thought I’d join you tonight.” Anita turned that lopsided grin of hers on Cooper. “I’ll have what he’s having. He’s paying.”

Cooper grinned and started to pull her a draft while he watched Old Archie’s reaction to Anita showing up.

It was fair to say that Old Archie was an alcoholic. He liked his drink and he made no apologies for it. He’d been married and she left him, taking their kids with her when she drove out of Hartwell for good. Things had gotten bad for Archie for a while, but then he’d met Anita. Anita didn’t care that Archie liked his drink. All she cared about was that he was loyal to her and he loved her.

Cooper knew Old Archie loved Anita.

But there were days, like today, when Old Archie loved the drink more.

As Anita talked about some television show she’d been watching, Cooper saw Archie surreptitiously lean to his other side where Anita couldn’t see, clearly counting the money in his pocket. He frowned and snapped up straight, shooting his old lady a glower. “Woman,” he said, interrupting her, “what have you done to your hair?”

Anita frowned back at him, her hand hovering over her head. “I cut it. Last week,” she snapped.

“Well, I don’t like it.”

“What do you mean you don’t like it? You didn’t even notice it until now.”

“And I don’t like it.”

“What’s wrong with it?” she practically yelled, and a few of Cooper’s other regulars turned to watch the older couple.

Cooper crossed his arms over his chest, suspecting he knew exactly what Old Archie was up to.

“It’s too short. You look like a boy.”

“I do not look like a boy, Archibald Brown.” She hopped up off the stool. “If you’re in a bad mood, I’m going home. Sleep on the couch tonight.” She stormed away.

“I like your hair, Anita!” Hug, a painter and decorator who had gone to school with Coop’s mom, shouted out as she passed.

“Thank you, Hug.” Anita preened, touching her hair. She threw a smug glower back at Old Archie, but he was too busy grinning into his beer to notice.

As soon as the bar door slammed shut behind Anita, Cooper shook his head at him.

Old Archie’s grin got bigger. “What? If she’d stuck around I could only afford two more beers. Not I got four more to look forward to.”

“And a cold couch.” Cooper turned away, laughing at the way Old Archie’s face fell boyishly at the realization.

“That was mean,” Riley, his bar staff, said from the other end of the bar.

Lily, one of his waitstaff, dumped a tray with empties on the bar and glowered at Old Archie. “It was beyond mean. Anita looked real upset, Archie.”

“Ah, she’ll be fine.” He waved them off, but Coop saw the flicker of guilt in his eyes before he lowered his gaze to his beer.

“Quiet tonight,” Riley said, strolling up the bar to him and Lily. “Can’t wait for the season to kick in.”

Cooper had four bar staff working for him—Riley, Kit, Jace, and Ollie. Riley and Ollie worked nights, Kit and Jace worked days. There was Crosby, his cook, and four waitstaff—Lily, Isla, Bryn, and Ashley. During high season, everyone, including Cooper, worked more hours.

It was a lot of responsibility, but he didn’t mind. He was good at that shit.

But it could get tiring.

Which made the thought of dating a woman who didn’t need him to be responsible for anything more than making their time together enjoyable very appealing.

As if he’d conjured her, the door to Cooper’s opened and in stepped Jessica Huntington. He drank in the sight of her.

Her long blond hair was now dry. There really was a lot of it. It spilled down her back in thick waves. Those big gorgeous eyes of hers moved around the bar, drinking in the sight of the locals, who stared at her curiously. She smiled at them and then looked over at the bar, and that pretty smile widened when she caught sight of Cooper.

He nodded at her.

His heart beat a little faster, a little harder.

“Hi, Cooper,” she said.

Damn it, his name had never sounded so good. “Hey, Doc.” He gave her a small smile back. “Nice to see you again.”

She didn’t smile. In fact, she looked a little nervous. He tensed
as she leaned over his bar toward him. “Do you have a minute to talk?” Riley, Lily, and Old Archie all leaned in toward them in curiosity. Cooper ignored them, but Jess looked bemused by all the attention. “Perhaps in private?”

“Yeah, I’m thinking in private would be best.” He gave Riley a look. “Watch the bar. I won’t be long.”

“Sure thing, boss.” She grinned knowingly at him.

He ignored her, more concerned about what was up with the doc than about being subjected to his staff teasing him. He gestured to Jess to meet him at the end of the bar. She walked around, smiling at Old Archie, who grinned at her like a pubescent boy, and met Cooper at the end. He placed a hand on her lower back and guided her through the Staff Only door. “We can talk in my office.”

Once they were inside the small, cramped space, and the door had closed behind them, Jess moved away from his touch. She turned to him and he couldn’t help taking a moment to enjoy looking at her. She wore a fitted black leather jacket, a dark pink shirt underneath it, and black skinny jeans. She was also wearing those sexy-as-hell high-heeled boots again.

Her pretty features were taut with tension.

Cooper immediately stopped thinking about how good she looked as his earlier concern came back. “What’s going on, Doc?”

“Uh . . .” She glanced around. “Can we sit?”

“Sure.” He gestured to the chair behind her and he strode by her to sit on his desk. “Now, what’s going on?”

Jess stared up at him and he tensed at the compassion he saw in her eyes. “I mostly came here for my vacation, but there was another reason I chose to come to Hartwell.”

Curiosity definitely piqued, Cooper nodded at her to continue.

“As you know, I work at the Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility in Wilmington.” She paused to open her purse and pull out four little envelopes. “A few weeks ago I found these letters inside a book from the library. They were written by your mother’s cousin, Sarah Randall.”

Shock froze Cooper to the spot.

“I didn’t know she was your mother’s cousin until last night. Bailey told me of the connection.”

Sarah Randall. Jesus Christ. He hadn’t known her—she died before he was born—but his mom was only a few years younger than Sarah and they’d been close. She’d thought of her as a big sister. Coop knew from how choked up his mom got when talking about her cousin that the crime she’d committed, killing her husband, had had a huge impact on her. It changed his mom.

He didn’t have the most positive feelings toward the woman because of that.

At his silence, Jess leaned forward in her chair. “These letters are for George Beckwith. You will of course know the story there.”

Everyone in Hartwell did.

“I’m not sure it’s right for you to read them. It wasn’t right for me to see them, I guess, but I did. Now I feel it’s only right that George gets them. But Bailey also convinced me you had the right to know the truth at least.”

“And what truth is that?”

“That Sarah was blackmailed by Ron Peters into marrying him. He had evidence that George’s father, the senator, was involved in criminal activity. He said that if he was exposed George would lose everything. Sarah was just a kid and naive and she stupidly gave in to Ron. He was very abusive. The night she shot him, it was because she knew he was going to kill her. It was self-defense. These letters . . . She wanted forgiveness, Cooper. From George and probably everyone she loved. She
needed
forgiveness and she died before she could mail them out and get what she needed.”

Cooper narrowed his eyes on Jess. There was a lot of passion in her voice for someone she didn’t know—it was almost like she was defending his mother’s cousin. “No one knew why Sarah married Ron. Now we know. But my mother and Sarah’s family knew something wasn’t right in Sarah’s marriage. They suspected he was
abusing her and they tried to help her. My mom said Sarah was so changed by the marriage that she kept everyone at a distance. This . . .” He waved his hand at the letters. “Look, my mom was a good woman. She would have forgiven her because she’d already guessed that Ron was abusive. But she was hurt that Sarah cut them out, that she didn’t go to them for help. It changed her. I didn’t know Sarah, but I can’t forget the way my mother got when she talked about her. I believe, no matter how hard things were, she had other choices available to her. My mom and our family were one of those choices. Sarah made the wrong choice.”

More than that, Cooper knew what it was like to see a woman be beat down in every way by a man, and at no point in all his own mom went through would she have ever considered taking the road Sarah Randall did.

Jessica stared up at him with those big eyes and he saw something change in them. He didn’t know what it was because he didn’t know her well enough, but he got a feeling that it wasn’t good.

That was made clear when she abruptly stood up, shoving the letters into her purse. “Okay,” she said in that quiet voice of hers. “Bailey just . . .” She shrugged.

Sensing she might be feeling foolish for coming to him, Cooper cursed himself and reached out to touch her arm to halt her departure. “Thanks for telling me, though. I do appreciate it.”

When she lifted her gaze to his, he frowned. Something was missing from her expression. Something warm that had been there before was now gone. She gave him a tight smile. “I should go.”