Chapter 20
20
Haley
“Daddy!” Rome shouts the second he hears the front door open. Laughing, I help him down from his booster and watch as he goes tearing out of the room as fast as he can, his green cast swinging back and forth from the weight of it.
Finishing the last pancake, I toss it on the serving plate with the others and reach for the carafe of coffee. I’m just turning around to carry it to the dining room when my boys come into the room, Rome up on Cooper’s shoulders, his favorite place to be.
“Hi, my girl,” he greets. Setting Rome down, he slides his arms around my waist from behind and pulls me back into his embrace. “Mmm. You smell good.”
“Hi, Coop. How was your shift?”
“Good. Missed you two, though.”
“We missed you, too. Go take him to the table, I’ve got this,” I say. Setting the coffee pot onto the tray with the pancakes and bacon, I go to carry it in when he clears his throat.
Turning, I see him standing there with his eyebrow raised, hands outstretched to me for the platter. Huffing a sigh, I jokingly roll my eyes and hand it over, walking into the dining room ahead of him. I get Rome settled in his seat again before we both take our own seats on either side of him and start filling our plates. He’s pouring himself some coffee when he looks at me with a smile. “You talk to your brother today?”
“Yeah,” I say, cutting Rome’s pancake into tiny pieces before moving onto my own. “He’s gonna use leave to come out at the end of the month. He needs to see us with his own eyes to know we’re really okay. He didn’t go through what we did, but he’s still shaken up. I finally showed him pictures of the car from impound and he lost his mind.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.” His words are soft, and I know it’s because a week later, he’s still struggling with what happened. Truthfully, so am I. While the crash itself wasn’t that bad in terms of what happened to us, it was still terrifying, especially knowing someone died. When I looked up and saw the truck barreling across the median, I was so scared it was going to hit us and I tried to navigate us away, but the SUV that spun out and hit us directly on our side was awful.
Rome must have stuck his arm out of the car seat and the impact broke his arm, and the glass cut my head when my window shattered. The screams that Rome was letting out broke my heart, and after they got me out, I forced them to let me help get him out, because he was so unresponsive to any of the first responders.
But it was the shout for his daddy when he saw a firefighter after that broke me. He assumed it was Cooper because of the gear, and he then continued crying until they were able to give him something in the ambo to help calm him down. It made him sleepy, and the sweet paramedic held my hand as a I cried silently in the rig.
She told me about her own little girl, only a handful of years older than Rome, and it helped keep me calm while we rode to the hospital. It was only an hour later when I hear the loud and angry screaming from his room, recognizing Cooper’s voice, that I knew nothing would ever be the same after that moment.
Breaking from my thoughts, I see Rome happily eating his breakfast and Coop staring right at me, his coffee in both hands. “Where’d you go?” he asks, reaching across the table for my hand. I place my hand in the one he’s offering and give him a small smile.
“I think you know.”
“Yeah.”
“Was the shift really okay? Nothing too much on you?” I ask, and he squeezes my hand before releasing me to start eating.
“No. Couple routine calls, one car accident with no fatality. Rose came over for a little while and brought her famous banana nut muffin tops. I sat up with Rhett again watching that horrible reality dating show he loves so much. It was okay, but it was hard not being here.”
“It’ll just take time,” I say gently. “For all of us, Coop.”
“I came home to my family today. It makes all the difference, trust me. And a delicious breakfast from Momma, right, Romey?”
“Mama, is good.”
“So, there is something I wanted to talk to you about though,” I begin, and Cooper wipes his mouth before giving me his full attention.
“I talked to Beth last night.”
“You’re going back to work,” he says, and I bite my bottom lip.
“Should I not be?” I ask, and he shrugs.
“I guess I just like knowing when you’re home, you’re safe. I know, it’s not realistic but it was hard to leave yesterday. I just want to wrap you both in a bubble and keep you there forever.”
“That’s not creepy or anything,” I joke, and we both start laughing.
“I don’t mean it literally. It’s just, I see how happy you are when you’re here, and how much you hate to leave when I’m home with Rome on my off shifts. We just miss you when you go.”
“Same for us when you’re at the station.”
“Touché.”
“Anyway. So, Beth got me the contact info for the head of admissions at Tennessee State University.”
“You’re going back to school?” he asks, and a huge smile spreads across his face.
“Yeah. I want to finish my degree and become a teacher, Coop. It’s all I ever really wanted, besides having a family. I got one of my dreams, now I want the other.”
Cooper is out of his seat in seconds, coming around the table to pull me out of my own seat and hug me tight. His hand smooths over the back of my head and he laughs, shaking both of us.
“I’m so proud of you, sweetness.”
“I’m excited. I may even go for my masters, depending on where I end up wanting to teach grade wise.”
Cooper pulls back and cups my face so he can kiss me. When we pull away, he rests his forehead down on mine and closes his eyes. “Can I make one suggestion and if you don’t like it, we can forget I ever said it.”
“You can say anything to me.”
“Is it possible for you to cut your work hours, so that you can focus on your classes? I’m not sure if you’re looking to do in person or online, but either way, I know how tired you are at the end of the day, and as much as I wish I could be, I can’t be here every day to help.”
“Coop…”
“And I’m not asking you to give up anything, I swear. It’s just that I have plenty of savings, and I make good money between the station and the bar. And I want you to have everything you wish for, baby, and this is huge. I don’t?—”
Grabbing his head, I kiss him again, simply to shut up his rambling, and when I break away, I run my fingers over the line of his jaw, and shake my head at his smile.
“I love you, Cooper March. I can’t even tell you how good it feels to know that I have someone who loves me the way you do, the way you love our son. There isn’t a single thing you could ever ask of me, or give our opinion on, that I would ever be upset with you for. I know you, I know your heart, and everything you do is to make me happy and safe.”
“I just want the world for you, Haley girl,” he says quietly, and I kiss him again.
“You’ve already gave me the world.”
“I love you so much,” he murmurs, pulling me closer, not an inch of space between us.
“I want to quit the daycare entirely,” I admit, closing my eyes. “I’ve never really been able to give myself one hundred percent to Rome, because the first year of his life I spent most of it in a fog. Trying to adjust to being a young single mom, while also having nobody in this world except Jensen. And while my dream growing up has always been to be a teacher, I also really want to be a wife and mom.”
“Let's do it,” he confirms, and I just wrap my arms around his waist and hold onto him as hard as I can. This man, I swear. “I just want you to be happy, Hales. If that means you finish your degree, or you stay home full time, or hell, you become an astronaut. Whatever makes you happy is what I want.”
“I’ll put in my notice then.”
Cooper nods, running his hands up and down my back. “And now you can spend the whole visit with Jensen, too.”
“Yeah.” I blow out a deep breath before releasing Cooper. He helps me sit back down and I reach for my coffee. “Gosh, I don’t know why I was so nervous to tell you.”
Cooper kneels next to me, and he uses his thumb and index finger to grab my chin, before using his thumb to stroke my cheekbone.
“It’s instinct for you to be unsure of asking for what you want. Outside the bedroom that is,” he teases, and my face and neck flush. “Which I love in there, by the way. But it’ll take time for you to let go of the trauma your parents inflicted on you your entire life. We’ll get you there, though. One day, that will all be a thing of the past.”
“You promise?”
Softly smiling, he leans forward to kiss my forehead and then the corner of my mouth. “On my life, sweetheart. Now, let’s finish breakfast and then I’m taking my two favorite people to the park. And if you’re good, I’ll even get you an ice cream before we leave.”
“Ice cweeeeem!” Roman cheers, and when he waves his fork around, he flings a piece of soggy and syrup covered pancake right into Cooper’s face. I fall into a fit of laughter, and my poor guy tries so hard to look angry, but when Rome giggles and offers him a “Sowy, Daddy,” Cooper loses the battle and laughs himself.
We spent half the day at the park, and Cooper was true to his word and treated us all to ice cream before we walked down the street to where they had a bunch of food trucks set up, and got us all hot dogs and fries for lunch. We came home for Rome’s naptime, and then we spent the rest of the day out on the back deck, my Kindle in front of me while they colored and built blocks at the patio table.
Rome is now asleep in bed, and I’m curled up on the couch with a cup of tea, a bunch of university brochures and papers in front of me. I called Beth after my conversation with Cooper, and while she’ll be sad to see my go, she was also happy to hear that I was moving forward with this venture, and we stopped by her apartment on the way home from the park at her request.
Turns out, she’d already requested an info packet for me, and I’m now looking through everything. I plan to call the admission office Monday to get fully set up for the next available semester. It could be six months to a year before I get in, but knowing I’m moving forward with my degree is enough for now.
When I texted Jensen about it, he immediately FaceTimed me to cheer loudly and tell me how happy he was that I was going back to school. He tried so hard to get me to when I moved there after I found out I was pregnant, but I wasn’t in the right head space for it.
Now I’m ready.
The couch dips as Cooper makes himself comfortable next to me. Resting his head on my shoulder, he goes through all the forms with me, a huge grin on his face. With his excitement, you’d think that he was the one going back to school, but this is just who he is. He is the sweetest, most supportive person I have ever met.
“Are you excited?” he asks.
“I really am. Nervous as hell, though. It’s been so long since I was in school. What if it’s not really the right fit for me?” I worry, chewing on my bottom lip.
“Then we’ll find you something different,” he states. “But no more of this,” he says, releasing my lip from my teeth, using his thumb to stroke the sore skin. “I don’t want to hear my girl doubting herself anymore. You’re going to kick this degree’s ass, and then every night I’ll be able to do dirty thinks to my little school teacher wife.”
Groaning, I throw my head back and chuckle at his ridiculousness, but then my belly fills with butterflies, and my pussy clenches. This man and his filthy words.
“You should probably get some practice in, huh?” I say, and his eyes darken.
“Yes, Ms. Jacobs. I will report to detention right now.”
Jumping up from the couch, he yanks me up and tosses me over his shoulder, swatting my ass before he carries me to our bedroom, kicking the door shut and locking it behind us.
“What’s my punishment for being a bad boy?” he asks, tossing me down on the bed.
“Well, Mr. March, I’m thinking I’m owed several orgasms. Starting with that filthy mouth.”
Reaching down to pull my shirt over my head, Cooper strips down in record time before he climbs on the bed and grabs a hold of my ankle, yanking me down the bed until he’s hovering over me.
“Better hang on, Teach. This bad boy is about to corrupt the fuck outta you.”
And corrupt me he does. Until I can barely catch my breath, and I fall into a deep, peaceful sleep, with the man I love more than anything holding me tight.