Chapter 43 #2
“Texts from the girls woke me up. Apparently, there’s a whole plan for my last week of maternity leave before I start at Pierre next Monday.”
I feel a little rush of excitement at the thought of starting my new job.
I thought maybe I would be conflicted about leaving Emmy, but I’m not.
Not really. Cooper officially resigned from the firm and is taking another two months at home with Emmy before he joins me at Pierre, and Cece and Pam volunteered for babysitting duty when we’re both back at work.
Emmy is lucky to have so many people who love her, and I know going back to work is going to make me a better mom to her.
That’s one of the many things I’ve learned over the last four months.
I contain multitudes, and it’s okay to carve out time and space for all the different parts of me. It turns out I really like who I am when I’m surrounded by the people who make me feel most like myself.
“Oh, I know all about it,” Cooper says, smile in his voice. “They’ve been planning this for weeks.”
I frown at the conspiratorial tone in his voice. “What, exactly, are they planning?”
Cooper shakes his head. “Nope, my lips are sealed. Hannah made me swear, and she’s scary when she gets mad.”
I tip my head up, narrowing my eyes at him. “Wimp.”
Cooper grins and sets the empty bottle on the coffee table, lifting Emmy up to burp her.
“Bet your ass, Rhodes.” Stretching his leg out, he hooks his foot around Emmy’s bouncy seat and drags it closer, leaning over to set her down in it, buckling her in before lifting me up and sitting me on his lap, pulling me into his chest and wrapping my blanket tightly around me.
Tipping my chin up with his thumb and forefinger, he brings his lips to mine.
I should be used to the fireworks that explode behind my eyes when Cooper kisses me.
The way my stomach swoops and swirls as his tongue tangles with mine, letting out that sexy little whimper that makes me feel like the most desirable woman in the world, his free arm wrapping around my back to tug me even closer.
Breaking the kiss, he drifts his lips over my jaw and down my neck, nipping and sucking and making my blood heat in a way that is probably inappropriate with an infant sitting two feet away, eyes wide open.
“Fuck,” Cooper mutters, flicking his tongue over my pulse and groaning when I gasp. “When’s nap time again?”
I chuckle, leaning my head back to look at him, drifting my fingers over his stubbled jaw, down his neck, my eyes locked on his.
Cooper shirtless in glasses doing parenting things is the sexiest fucking thing in the world, and I really thought I was immune to the partner is hotter when parenting thing.
I was wrong. It’s like the most epic competence kink come to life.
“Probably like an hour.”
Cooper leans down and kisses my neck, his eyes dark with lust when he looks back up at me. “You better not have any naptime plans, Rhodes, because I’m spreading you out over our bed and fucking you until you can’t remember your own name.”
I smirk at him. “Bet I’ll remember yours though.”
His eyes flash. “Oh, you’ll remember it, because you’re going to scream it. Actually, you’ll say it at a respectable volume that won’t wake the baby. But you’ll definitely be screaming it in your head.”
I laugh. “When has anything between us ever been respectable?”
Cooper smirks at me. “I don’t know. That thing I did yesterday where I had my tongue in your ass and my fingers in your cunt was pretty respectable.”
“I love you.” I blurt out the words before I realize I’m speaking.
Shifting to straddle him, my knees on either side of his legs and my eyes on his, I barrel ahead.
“I love you so fucking much. I think maybe I haven’t told you that enough over the past four months.
Everything sometimes still feels crazy, and I still have no idea what I’m doing half the time, but I feel okay about that because I get to do it with you.
I never thought much about falling in love.
I think maybe I thought it wasn’t in the cards for me.
But then we decided not to hate each other, and now I have this whole huge family I love, and the most perfect baby, and I get to go to sleep and wake up with you, and sometimes I still can’t believe that all of this is real.
It’s like the life of my dreams, but I didn’t realize I had dreamed it until I met you.
Or, you know, until I got pregnant and you supplied me with bagels and all the cherry things and held onto me when I was scared and made me laugh and made me think and made me realize that it really was you all along. ”
“Oh, baby,” Cooper murmurs, stroking a hand down my face, resting it on the side of my neck, his eyes burning into mine. “You are the best part of my life and the very best thing ever to happen to me.”
Emmy chooses that moment to let out a gurgling screech and we both laugh, looking over at her, blonde hair sticking up everywhere and blue eyes sparkling with what I swear is humor as she studies us.
“You too, Emmy Girl,” Cooper says with a grin, and she gives him a wide smile that makes my chest feel so light that I would probably float away if not for Cooper’s hand on my neck, anchoring me to this moment. I love watching the two of them together.
Cooper Wyles was born to be a dad.
Turning back to me, his gaze locks with mine, his eyes serious. “Every day with you is my best day. I love you, and I love this life we’re making together. You are the happiest ending I ever could have hoped for.”
I tilt my head, studying him. “Will you still think that when I’m bugging you at work for being too wordy in your memos and complaining about your ridiculous lack of anything resembling organization skills?”
Cooper smiles, smacking a kiss to my cheek. “You know how it gets me going when you’re mean to me. You’re going to be the hottest boss lady around.”
I roll my eyes. “Boss lady is a terrible nickname. Come up with a better one. Better yet, just use my real name.”
“Now what’s the fun in that?” Cooper reaches around me and opens a drawer in the coffee table, grabbing something out of it, flashing me a grin and a wink. “Maybe I’ll call you fiancée instead.”
My brain is still trying to compute what he just said when he lifts his hand, flipping open the small velvet box grasped between his thumb and forefinger.
“Oh, holy fucking shit,” I say, staring at the round solitaire set in a sparkling diamond band.
My brain shorts out entirely, my heart thudding in my chest as I look from Cooper to the ring.
“Are you proposing to me right now? When you’re shirtless and I have messy bedhead and Emmy will probably need a diaper change in like thirty seconds? ”
Please be proposing to me.
Cooper chuckles, taking one of my hands in his free one, lacing our fingers together, his eyes steady on mine.
“Bet your gorgeous ass I am. I’ve had this ring since the week after Emmy was born, and I’ve just been waiting for my perfect moment.
But the thing is, every moment with you is the most perfect moment of all, especially the ones where I’m shirtless and you have bedhead and Emmy is right here.
Because this is us, Rhodes. Surprising, unexpected, perfectly imperfect, and everything I ever wanted.
” His eyes go serious as he lifts his hand and lays it on my cheek.
“You are everything I ever wanted. My absolute dream come true. I fell in love with you sitting on the porch on Christmas, and I am going to love you for the rest of my life, and into whatever comes next because a love this huge is bigger than forever. We already share a home and a baby and the most beautiful life I ever could have imagined. You’re mine and I’m yours, marriage or not, but I really, really want to be married to you.
So, what do you say, Rhodes? Want to be my wife? ”
My eyes burn and my heart takes flight at his words as I let out a watery laugh. I love him so damn much. “I don’t know, Cooper. What’s in it for me?”
He grins, bringing his mouth to mine for a long, slow kiss. “Everything,” he murmurs against my lips. “Absolutely everything.”
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I deepen the kiss, sliding my tongue against his, butterflies in my stomach, happiness bubbling in my veins, my heart skipping a beat at the utter rightness of it all. “Yes,” I whisper against his lips. “Absolutely, definitely yes.”
“Fuck yes!” Cooper laughs, leaning back and taking my hand, sliding the ring onto my finger. A warm little buzz shoots up my arm from where the ring sits, and for a second, we both stare down at it, the diamond winking between us a promise, our entire future stretching ahead of us.
“I love you,” I say, lifting my head to find Cooper already looking at me. “Thank you for this life.”
Cooper’s eyes swirl with emotion. “I love you, Rhodes. Today, tomorrow, and all the days to come. The only life I want is the one that’s with you.”
Cooper leans in and kisses me again, and suddenly he stands, striding to the front door with his lips still attached to mine.
I laugh when he breaks the kiss and throws the door open, sticking his head out into the hall.
“She said yes!” He yells it up the stairs and then walks back to the couch, dropping down with me still in his lap.
“Fuck yes!” Noah’s voice drifts down the stairs, and in seconds, the brownstone is filled with the sound of excited voices and thundering feet as everyone makes their way downstairs.
In seconds, the apartment is filled with people.
Jo, Hannah, and Amelia squeal and hug me and grab my hand to look at the ring.
Elliot picks up Emmy and spins her around.
Jordan goes to the kitchen to make coffee for everyone, and Noah plops down on the couch, talking a mile a minute about wedding plans.
And in the center of it all is Cooper, his arms tight around me, cheek resting against my head, love pouring off him until I think my heart might just beat out of my chest with the joy of it. “Ours was always going to be a family affair,” he murmurs to me, pressing a kiss to the side of my head.
Curling deeper into his hold, I tip my head up and press a kiss to his jaw. “Just the way I like it.”
“Love you,” he whispers. “Always.”
“Always,” I whisper back.
Soaked in love and family, everything I need in the world is right here in this room with me.
And it’s perfect.