Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Cooper Harris rubbed his eyes, trying to stifle a yawn as he sat at his desk. It was another quiet workday at his job at Greener Pastures Landscaping Company, and he was trying to stay focused despite how sleepy he was.
He glanced out the window, looking at the way the early morning sunlight was adding a golden hue to the charming streets of Rosewood Beach. He smiled quietly to himself and leaned back to stretch.
I’ve got to figure out some way to get Macey to sleep better at night , he thought. I can’t keep staying up half the night with her like this. I’m still groggy even after I’ve had my coffee.
Macey, his adorable two-year-old daughter, had been having trouble sleeping lately, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. Whenever she woke up and called for him, he would go into her room and read to her for a while or get her some water or milk to drink. Sometimes those things worked, but more often than not, they didn’t. He guessed that his little girl was missing her mother, and that was making her restless and fitful.
He swallowed, feeling a wave of missing his late wife wash over him. He never thought he’d have to be doing life without her—raising their baby without her—but there he was, and it was harder than he ever would have imagined.
He shook himself, refusing to get down in the dumps about his situation. It was hard, certainly, but he was making the best of it and would continue to do so. He was going to build an amazing life there in Rosewood Beach for Macey and himself.
He’d first heard about the town when he was doing research on places to move to. After his wife had passed away, he’d decided to sell his ranch in Colorado and use the money to give himself and his daughter a fresh start somewhere quieter. He’d felt that it would be easier to raise his daughter as a single dad in a town like Rosewood Beach than it would be to raise her out in the mountain country, far away from the surrounding towns, while still doing the taxing work of running a busy ranch. When he’d seen the pictures of Rosewood Beach in a magazine, he’d been struck by how picturesque it looked. He’d never lived right next to the water before, but he’d always liked the idea of being close to the ocean. Once he’d secured a job in the town, he and Macey had made the move from Colorado to Connecticut, and they were now settled in a cozy new home.
He didn’t regret his decision—Rosewood Beach was a great town, and he was enjoying living there—but he’d expected the move to make his life at least somewhat easy, and that hadn’t been the case at all.
He sighed, looking out the window again. There was nothing easy about being without his wife.
He closed his eyes, fighting back another wave of grief. It still came and went, and it was feeling acutely painful less often, but sometimes it still felt like his chest was filled with ice. His wife had died unexpectedly in a car accident, and he’d found himself having to be both father and mother to his little girl. Although he tried to be everything for Macey, he often felt stretched thin, and as though no matter what he did, he couldn’t make up for the fact that she didn’t have a mother in her life anymore.
He sighed again and picked up his coffee mug, bringing it to his lips. He discovered that it was empty and put it down in disappointment.
At that moment, his boss, Austin, stepped into the room. “Morning, Harris.” Austin smiled at him good-naturedly, looking slightly amused. “You look like you could use a jumpstart.”
Cooper chuckled. “I am feeling pretty groggy this morning. My little one kept me up half the night.”
“Ooh, they’ll do that.” Austin’s smile was sympathetic. He knew that Cooper was a single father. “You should take a break and head over to Ocean Breeze Café. Get some coffee and maybe something to eat. You look like you need it.”
“That’s a good idea. You sure you’re okay with me stepping away for a while?”
“Sure. I mean, don’t take all day—but in case you haven’t noticed, business is slow right now.” He shrugged genially.
Smiling, Cooper stood up. “Well, thanks, Austin. I’ll be back soon.”
Ocean Breeze Café was only a short walk from the Greener Pastures offices. Cooper stuffed his hands into the pockets of his light jacket and began to whistle as he strolled down the sidewalk. It was a beautiful day outside, with wispy white clouds sailing across a backdrop of bright blue. He wondered how Macey was doing at her daycare—he hadn’t gotten any calls or messages about her crying a lot, so that was a good sign. She wasn’t prone to crying, really, just that kind of restless energy that had been keeping both of them up at night.
He soon reached Ocean Breeze Café and stepped inside. He’d been to the cozy, popular coffee shop a few times before, since the place had been recommended to him the very first day he’d arrived in Rosewood Beach. He breathed in the woodsy aroma of the coffee, feeling eager to order a cup.
“Hey there, cowboy.” Sally Lipton, the middle-aged owner of Ocean Breeze Café, grinned at him warmly from behind the counter. “How’s your day going?”
“Hi, Sally.”
He smiled at her. She was one of the nicest people in town, and always remembered her customers. She might have been a “spinster,” but she put the best spin on her situation that he’d ever seen in anyone. She wore bright colors, crazy hair pieces, and always sported a cheerful bubble gum pink lipstick. She looked fun and she was fun, and she was always eager to make everyone’s day better. He liked her a lot—not only because of her kind, cheerful attitude, but also because she was the first person who had been able to coax a smile out of Macey when they’d first moved to town.
“How’s business?” he asked.
“Great as usual.” Her eyes were bright, and she straightened the glittery purple butterfly clip that she had tucked into her hair. “What can I get for you?”
“Just a regular coffee with a little cream. I’m a plain fellow.” He grinned, and she laughed.
“Lots of people like their coffee that same way. I like to make the fancy drinks, but my coffee is good enough to stand on its own two feet.”
She hummed cheerfully as she made him his coffee. He looked around the pleasant shop while he waited, telling himself he’d have to bring Macey there again sometime soon. She’d liked it there a lot, and she’d liked Sally.
“You look tired, if you don’t mind me saying so, Cooper.” Sally’s eyes looked sympathetic as she handed him his coffee cup.
He nodded. “I am. I was up half the night with Macey. She’s been restless a lot lately.”
“You poor thing. Tell you what: if you’re willing to stick around for another few minutes, I’ll throw in a corned beef sandwich on the house.”
“Thanks, Sally. That’s really sweet of you.” He smiled at her, and his stomach grumbled as if in agreement.
“No problem at all. You need a little extra fuel today, that’s clear.”
He paid for the coffee, and then sipped it slowly while waiting for Sally to make the sandwich. He felt himself perk up a little, and he rolled his shoulders back a few times, trying to wake himself up even more.
“There you are,” Sally said a few minutes later, handing him a white paper bag. “I make the best corned beef sandwich in town.”
“I believe it.” He grinned at her. “Thank you again.”
“Come back soon!”
“Oh, I will, don’t worry.”
He waved goodbye and made his way back outside. The moment he did, he frowned and took a few steps back, discovering that it was raining hard.
Well, that snuck up on me, he thought, glancing up at the sky in surprise. It’s really rare for it to rain like this during this time of year.
He pulled up the collar of his work shirt—which was already dirty with half-dried paint from a job he’d been on earlier that morning—and started back toward the office. He didn’t mind rain so much, since he loved the way it smelled, although he had to reconcile himself to the fact that he would be soaked by the time he got back to his desk. At least his work shirt was thick, and he could take it off once he got back inside.
He saw that the ground along the sidewalk was already getting muddy. In some places, puddles were collecting along the gaps between the grass and the sidewalk.
Just in front of him along the road, a taxi pulled up to the curb, catching his attention. He didn’t often see taxis in this small town, except for when travelers hired a cab to drive them to Rosewood Beach from the nearest airport.
He kept walking, assuming that whoever was inside the taxi was going to take a minute or two to get out, since it was raining particularly hard at the moment.
Instead of waiting, however, the person inside the taxi opened the door abruptly, almost hitting him as he walked past. He jumped to the side, surprised, as a woman whom he’d never seen before stepped out of the taxi.
“Ugh!” The woman hunched her shoulders up against the rain, looking irritated. Instead of getting back inside the taxi, she stepped forward, stumbling a little on her fancy looking heels. She missed the edge of the sidewalk—probably because it was difficult to see because of how hard it was raining—and placed one heel squarely in a patch of squelching mud. She let out a squeak and started to wobble, veering toward the muddy ground to her left.
Cooper realized she was about to fall, and he threw his coffee and sandwich bag down onto the sidewalk. He darted forward, catching the woman just before she completely lost her balance.
For a moment, she froze, looking stunned, and he thought to himself that she was extremely beautiful. She had long dark hair and sharply attractive features, which she’d accented with expertly-done makeup.
He helped her back up to her feet, and she started to frown, looking at his work shirt. As he removed his arms from her, she lifted up the sleeve of her black raincoat and winced clear in dismay.
“You got paint on me.” She held up the sleeve of her coat, revealing a smear of white paint.
“Sorry.” He grinned at her. “My work shirt is still drying. Better some paint than a face full of mud, though, right?”
She scowled down at her muddy shoes. A few moments passed, and he could feel water dripping down the back of his head. “Well, thank you,” she said stiffly.
She turned away from him, back to the taxi, where she started to get a suitcase out of the trunk.
Realizing the interaction was over, he stooped down and picked up his now-empty coffee cup and the soggy sandwich bag. At least the sandwich itself was inside a waterproof Styrofoam to-go box.
He shook his head as he went on his way. He was soaked to the bone, and he let out a sigh, glancing back at the woman for a moment. It seemed coffee and a favorable interaction with a beautiful woman weren’t in the cards for him today. At least he still had his corned beef sandwich.