16. Cooper
16
COOPER
I hated Renée’s parents, and she hadn’t even told me that much about them. I hated them for putting that tight look on her face. For the way her mouth pulled down at the corners and the bleak expression that came and went in her eyes before she hid it.
Fuckers.
“Yeah, well no one can screw up a kid faster and more profoundly than a ‘well-meaning’ parent.” Even though the statement was flippant, I meant every word of it. Not to mention it was true.
“Why is it that most people spend the majority of their adult lives undoing the damage their parents inflict?” Renée shook her head. Her hair was shiny and gorgeous, like she’d spent most of the morning while I slept brushing it to a high gloss. Yeah, she was one of those women who put a lot of care and time into maintenance. Not that I minded. It meant she cared about herself.
At the moment she sat across from me without an ounce of makeup and looked good enough to eat.
“You got me swinging.” I stood. “If we’re going into the village to look at the market, I should probably get dressed.”
The conversation had cut too close to the bone, in more ways than one. Not that I was the first guy to have a less than stellar home life, but she’d asked about my career. I didn’t want to tempt her into asking anymore questions that might seem a bit personal. Not even in a general knowledge kind of way.
Thing was I wanted to tell her everything about myself. The good and the bad. I didn’t want to hide anything from her. And wasn’t that the most lopsided shit to ever come down the pike. Here I knew just about everything about her—well, what she let the world see, and I wasn’t willing to break a contract to tell her more about myself. Not to even the score in any sense of the world.
No, why would I? It wasn’t as if she was going to try to look me up when we went our separate ways. She was an empire builder who had forged her own way and made it. I was a two-bit, former minor league baseball player without a team but plenty of grudges. I’d burned so many bridges that a fire truck followed me around.
I’d become a self-fulling prophecy. My parents had been right, but I had done that to myself by letting their words wound when I should have risen above it.
I realized that now.
She—Renée Palmer—made me realize that. Not because of her seminar, or what she fed the public, but despite it. Because of the vulnerability and sweetness she showed me in private.
And yeah, that was addictive. She didn’t judge me. Not here. Not in this place. Here it felt more as if we came together as equals. Though I know, deep down, that was all illusion.
After changing my clothes, I met Renée on the deck where she had stepped back out to after putting on a pair of baggy linen shorts and a black T-shirt. Even casually dressed she looked like a million bucks. No, scratch that, a billion bucks.
“The resort has a shuttle that runs to the town.” She put a woven bag over her shoulder. “Or we can walk. It’s probably closer than the bar we went to yesterday.”
“Let’s walk. If we’re tired on the way back, we can catch the shuttle.”
Agreed, she plopped a hat on her head, and we started down the steps to go back toward to the resort lobby.
I took her hand in mine.
From the outside, we might look like any other couple on vacation. On the inside we were both so damaged that the walls were thick and impenetrable. Did anyone on Renée’s staff know any of the stories of her parents? None of it was on her bio page on her website. Not even her Wiki page.
Then again, with a good PR team, anything was possible. Even rewriting the past.
We passed the main lobby and strolled out the resort’s main gate.
I squeezed her hand in mine. “You have no contact with your parents?”
She nodded, looking straight ahead. “Pretty much. More low contact. I send things for their birthdays and holidays. Tokens to let them know I’m thinking of them. Which I am.” She glanced up at me as if I might not believe her. “We’re estranged, but not totally cut off. They know if they need anything they only have to call. I might not like the rigidity in which I was raised, but I don’t wish them ill either.”
That made sense. What a horrible secret that would have been to keep in her position. If I was more of a bastard, if I hadn’t seen the truth in her eyes, that might have proven intoxicating information to have about her. Now, it just made me sad for her.
Also, a little proud.
“What about you?” She glanced over at me, understanding in her eyes.
“No. Nothing official. I keep it to a minimum and then pretend like I’ve been busy.”
We were quiet for a bit before she stopped and held onto her hat as she tilted her head back to look up at me with an earnest expression. “I’ve been curious this entire weekend why you put your name in the app. What was your motivation?”
I hadn’t expected such a direct question. I took in a deep breath and blew it out, expelling any hesitation as I did. She’d asked directly and I wasn’t about to lie to her. I wouldn’t violate the terms of the agreement by telling her why I’d signed up. That was pretty evident.
“An introduction mainly. I wanted to rub elbows with the rich and famous in order to maybe get an introduction to change my direction. That’s all.” I lifted my arms and indicated the paradise where we’d ended up. “This is window dressing. Yes, it’s been amazing—Bali is awesome—you’re awesome. But when I signed up, I had no idea which way it was going to go. I might have been selected by some rich old lady who wanted some arm candy. I was good either way.” I stepped closer so we were chest to chest. “I’m so freaking stoked it was you.”
I lowered my mouth and took hers in a long, claiming kiss and savored the moment.
The shuttle chose that moment to go by us complete with honking horn and cheering vacationers.
We both started laughing and broke apart, only to hug.
And that moment…yeah, that was the peak of romance for me.