Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
COOPER HAD TOLD WILLOW he wanted to surprise Zoey with the visit. However, since he was getting in very late and didn’t want to disturb her until the following morning, he’d asked if he could get a room in the lodge near hers.
Of course, Cooper hadn’t known that Zoey wasn’t staying at Reflections Inn or that available rooms in Lake in the Clouds were next to impossible to find at the height of the summer season. Willow had no intention of ruining the surprise, however, so she had told Cooper she’d get back to him once she had his reservation handled. Then she called her mother for advice.
The first thing Genevieve did was spoil the surprise. To her mind, Zoey was over her limit for surprises that month. They all agreed that Zoey and Cooper needed privacy once he arrived. With no room in the inn, they debated different scenarios until Willow called back with a serendipitous solution. “Our weekend guests at the Hideaway canceled. Zoey and Cooper can stay there.”
The Hideaway was the house where Noah had lived prior to the construction of the new home he shared with Willow and her children. The land upon which the Hideaway sat had been in his family for generations, so rather than sell it after moving into a larger place, they operated it as a vacation rental. Located a short distance outside of town, the Hideaway sat on a beautiful and isolated piece of property, the perfect place for… what? A breakup? A kiss-and-make-up?
Zoey honestly didn’t know which. A trip like this wasn’t like Cooper at all.
She had difficulty concentrating during the next few hours when, at Genevieve’s suggestion, Zoey and her dad joined the Bennett sisters at Genevieve’s house to review family photo albums. Her inattention accelerated after Cooper called Willow back with the news that he’d caught an earlier flight and anticipated an early evening check-in. Finally exasperated at Zoey’s inattention, her father had told her to leave. “Go spruce yourself up for your man,” he suggested.
Zoey bristled. “Please, Dad. This is a surprise visit. He gets me as I am.”
“Of course he does, dear,” Helen said, patting her arm. “Nevertheless, the better you look, the better you’ll feel. It’s just a fact of life.”
She’d had a point. Zoey glanced at her dad. “Walk me to the car?”
“Of course.”
Outside, she smiled up at him with a question in her eyes. “Are we okay, Dad? Did I make a mistake when—”
“No,” he interrupted. “No mistake. We are good. I’m good.” His expression held a hint of bemusement as he added, “I like her, Zoey. Today has been nice. I’m glad you made this meeting happen this way.”
“Good. I’m so relieved. I’ve been worried about it ever since I got the e-mail about the match.”
“No worries. No worries at all.” Adam kissed Zoey on her forehead. “It’s all good. I’m happy with this new development in my life. So you quit fretting about me and concentrate on yourself and Cooper. Just give me a call or send me a text tomorrow and let me know how you’re doing. Okay?”
“I will. Thanks, Dad.”
She returned to the guest apartment, showered, and “spruced herself up.” After exchanging a series of e-mails with Willow about the status of supplies at the Hideaway, she stopped at the grocery store and loaded up with items that should meet her needs whichever way Cooper’s wind blew. Steaks, potatoes, salad fixings for two, along with a couple of bottles of Cooper’s favorite cabernet, and cookies-and-cream ice cream and brownies if she was eating for one.
She spent a bit checking airline schedules and attempting to deduce when he might arrive. The task was complicated by the fact that he could have flown into a handful of different airports. Eventually, she accepted the futility of the effort and decided to go on out to the Hideaway. She could just as easily twiddle her thumbs there as she did here. Cooper would arrive when he arrived.
She plugged the address into her phone and headed out. As she turned off onto the private road leading up to the house, she was glad she’d come. It was a beautiful spot with rockers on a wraparound porch and a breathtaking view of snow-capped mountains. She brought in her suitcase and unpacked her groceries. Then she took Freeway on an exploratory journey that proved to be half hike, half walk. Upon returning to the house, Zoey decided to open a bottle of wine and sit and sip and rock on the porch for a while.
Her phone rang. Cooper. She filled her lungs with air and then blew out a heavy breath. “Hello?”
“Hi, Zoey. How are you?”
“Um… I’m okay.”
“Look, I called your dad to talk to him about something and, well, he doesn’t lie worth a damn. You know I’m on my way to Lake in the Clouds.”
Her mouth went dry, and her heartbeat pounded. “Yes.”
“Well, I’ve had the travel day from hell. I had hoped to arrive in time for us to talk, but I’ll be honest, I’m toast. I still have a four-hour drive ahead of me, longer if I stop for dinner. Could I make a breakfast date with you?”
“I’d love that.” She checked her watch. He wouldn’t arrive until close to nine. “I don’t know if Dad told you anything about the accommodations Willow arranged, but it’s a beautiful house out away from town. It has a great kitchen, and I was planning on cooking tonight. If I promise not to talk, do you want to have dinner with me? Unwind a bit before you crash?”
“That sounds great, Zoey. More than great. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Drive carefully, Cooper.”
“I will. See you in a few hours.”
Zoey stared at her phone for a long minute after they hung up. Four hours. She needed something to keep herself occupied, or she’d go crazy. She could track down Dad and Helen and let them occupy her time. No, that didn’t feel right.
Cooper said he was having a horrible travel day. Did she really believe that he was making this trip to break up with her in person?
No. No, she didn’t. She believed that he was being the grown-up in the room. They were a month out from their wedding day, and they desperately needed to have a heart-to-heart conversation. Circumstances had conspired against them in recent weeks. Cooper was making a gesture. Maybe she should make one in return.
An idea occurred to her. She checked the kitchen cabinets for cookware and bakeware and grinned. “Perfect.” Grabbing her keys, she put Freeway into his crate and then headed back to town and the grocery store. The errand took her forty-five minutes. If she worked quickly, her timing should be just about right.
She hadn’t made homemade lasagna for Cooper in over a year. Bad on her. It was his favorite comfort food.
Zoey had the lasagna keeping warm in the oven, the salad made, and the table set when she took a glass of wine out to the porch to watch the sunset. It was full-on dark when she spied the headlights headed her way.
For a reason she couldn’t define, Zoey’s eyes filled with tears. “Dang it,” she muttered, rising to hurry inside in search of a tissue. The last thing she wanted were mascara tracks running down her cheeks when he arrived.
By the time she blotted away the mess, her tears had dried, and Cooper had pulled the car to a stop in the circular drive next to hers. Zoey wiped her suddenly sweaty palms on her jeans and stepped out onto the porch to meet Cooper.
The interior lights illuminated his face as he opened the driver’s side door of his rental. He looked exhausted, and Zoey immediately felt her concern grow. Could it be that this trip was not about the two of them after all? Was he bringing bad news about his father?
He exited the car and pulled an overnighter from the backseat as she descended the porch steps. They met halfway between the car and the house. Following a moment of hesitation on both sides, they exchanged a quick kiss. “Hi,” Zoey said.
“Hey.” Zoey could sense the tension inside him as he gazed up at the house, where a warm, welcoming light glowed in the windows. “This looks nice. Is it just the two of us?”
“Yes. This is where Noah lived before he and Willow married. They use it as a vacation rental and had a last-minute cancellation.”
“Nice to have a family connection, I guess?” he observed as they started up the steps. “I only met them once before and thought they were nice people, but what do you think of your newfound family? It’s a lot for you, but a good thing, I hope?”
“Yes, I think so. They are very nice people. However, the whole thing sort of blows my mind, to be honest.”
She led him inside. He took two steps in, then abruptly stopped. “What do I smell? Zoey, is that my mother’s lasagna?”
The hope on his face made her smile. “It is.”
He dropped his bag, pulled her against him, and repeated his kiss, this time with enthusiasm. When he released her, Zoey took her first calm breath in what felt like weeks. Maybe months. “Everything is ready. Are you starved, or would you like to have a glass of wine first?”
“Dinner, please. I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and that was at the hospital with Dad this morning.”
“How is Pat doing?”
“Ornery as hell. He’s doing fine. We busted him out right after breakfast, and he’s settled in at home. He refused to go to a rehab hospital, so I hired a private physical therapist for him. She paid her first visit this afternoon. I talked to my mother on the drive over here, and she said he did great. I’m a little worried about her, though. She’s exhausted.”
“I’m sure she is.” Zoey made a mental note to send some food to the Hillcrest home.
Cooper rubbed the back of his neck and said, “All in all, things are going well.”
“That’s great news. I’m so glad.”
“Me, too.” His gaze trailed toward the kitchen and the oven, his hunger apparent.
Zoey chuckled and pointed down the hallway. “The powder room is that way if you want to wash up. I’ll get supper on the table.”
“Great. Thanks.”
When he returned a few minutes later, Zoey nodded toward the open bottle of wine. “I started without you. The glasses are in the cabinet beside the fridge.”
While he poured wine for himself, she dished up the lasagna and set plates on the table. Moments later, he took his first bite, closed his eyes, and groaned. “Oh, Zoey. This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Don’t tell my mom, but this is even better than hers.”
“That’s just because you’re hungry. I followed her recipe to the letter.”
“Well, it’s true.” He shrugged and took another bite.
Zoey had to admit that the lasagna was pretty darned good. She asked him more about how his mother was doing in the wake of his father’s fall and the repercussions from it. He gave her a summary of his actions since leaving their Houston condo to catch a flight to Michigan.
They both made a point to stay away from personal topics. When she broke out the brownies, he gave a halfhearted protest—right before he polished off three of them.
Finally, he pushed away from the table. “I’m done. That was delicious, Zoey. This was really nice of you to do.”
“I was happy to do it.” She hesitated a moment and said, “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me, too.”
Despite their seemingly easy conversation, the evening had an awkwardness to it. They never were like this before. Was this chasm permanent? she wondered. Was it all too much?
Family drama. Career drama. Wedding stress. It’s no wonder they were a little crazy. But this was the guy she wanted to spend her life with. She hoped he still felt the same way. That was the bottom line, wasn’t it?
He helped her clean up after dinner. Once that was done, they topped off their glasses and went out to the porch. It was dark and chilly and moonless, but the sky was full of stars. Just as they took a seat next to each other in a double rocker, his phone rang. Cooper groaned. “That’s Mom. I’d better take it.”
“Of course.”
He didn’t return for almost ten minutes. He looked even more tired than he had before supper. Zoey dreaded asking, “What’s happened?”
“Stubborn man won’t take his pain meds. I think I made a mistake about setting up private rehab. My mom is going to have her hands full.” He paused before saying expressively, “What a day. What a week!”
“Go to bed, Cooper. You’re exhausted.”
“Yeah. Food gave me a second wind, but I think the carbs are hitting me now. I’m dead on my feet.” He raked his fingers through his hair, then met her gaze. “Where do I sleep?”
“The master is downstairs.”
“Where are you sleeping?”
“Where should I sleep?”
“With me,” he said without hesitation.
Again, relief rolled through her. “Go to sleep, Cooper. I’ll be in after a bit.”
She sat on the porch and watched the moon rise, enjoying the peace of the night and that in her heart. She didn’t yet know why he’d made the trip to Colorado, but she knew enough. A little before ten, she crawled into bed beside a sound-asleep Cooper. Naked.
She awoke to a hazy dawn and his finger painting circles on her stomach. They made slow, sweet, healing love and held each other afterward. Cooper lay on his back with her tucked against him. He twirled a lock of her hair around his finger and said, “I intended to ask you to come with me to Boston.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“When I was invited to apply to be part of the project, I didn’t say anything because you were caught up with your mother, and I honestly didn’t expect I’d be selected. By the time it became a sure thing, well, life was tense. It got weird. No matter what I said, it wasn’t the right thing. I kept upsetting you, so I thought I’d better just keep my mouth shut. You were going through a lot. You were prickly, and I was walking on eggshells around the house. I didn’t know the prescription, Zoey, and I hated that. I decided that having some space before the wedding might be a good thing, so I thought I’d make it easy on you and not ask you.”
“Well, that was stupid.” He’s such a man.
“Yes, I figured that out pretty quick when our argument went sideways. But then Dad fell, and we didn’t have the chance to talk before I had to leave. You dodged my phone calls, and, well… this whole flower shop thing has me off-kilter. Will you tell me about that?”
Suddenly feeling naked, Zoey sat up. Her suitcase lay open on the cedar chest at the foot of the bed, and she reached for her sleepshirt and pulled it on. Cooper sat up and rested his back against the padded headboard, watching her, the bright white sheet pooled in his lap. He looked tanned and tousled and a little bit worried.
Zoey sat at the end of the bed, finger-combed her hair, and searched for the right words. “I thought it was burnout at first and that I’d get over it. I thought it was my mother dying and finally finishing my education and being resistant to change. Honestly, now, I don’t think that’s it. Something has changed, Cooper. I’ve changed. I don’t want to work in the ER anymore. Saving babies is supposed to balance the ones that we lose, but it doesn’t. We’re losing too many. For stupid reasons. And since I can’t stop it, I don’t want to watch it happen. Maybe that makes me selfish, but there’s too much grief. I don’t know if selling flowers is the answer, but I’m not strong enough to handle the ER anymore.”
He held her gaze for a long moment, then nodded. “It’s your call. I will support whatever decision you make. Truly, I will. However, I do have a few thoughts on the subject. May I share them?”
Zoey nodded, and Cooper held out his hand toward her. When she took it, he pulled her in against him. “I hear what you are saying. I’ve always had so much respect for you and for the work you do. It’s something I knew I never could handle. So if you’re done with it, like I said, that’s your call. I just have to say that in the past eight years, I’ve heard you talk a lot about diagnosing RSV and meningitis and leukemia. Until you brought it up last week, I never once heard you mention a desire to arrange flowers. Shoot, when I bring you roses, I’m usually the one who cuts the stems and arranges them in a
vase.”
“You’re better than me at it.”
“Were we discussing someone other than you, I’d say that proves my point. However, we both know that the only reason why I might be better than you at flower arranging is because you have not yet attempted to learn it. Once you do, you’ll be great. Nevertheless, this makes me wonder if the decision to give up medicine and run a flower shop is a bit premature.”
“I haven’t decided that’s what I want for sure,” she mumbled.
He laced their fingers and lifted her knuckles to his mouth for a kiss. “Have you considered going into private practice?”
She gave a long sigh. “I have, but that feels like quitting.”
He opened his mouth, thought better of it, and shut it again. Zoey couldn’t help but laugh. “I know. I know. Flowers. I’m just a mess, Cooper. I don’t know who I am.”
She felt the sudden tension in him and turned her head to give him a questioning look. “What?”
“I need a shower. Let me get a shower, and then I’d like to go fishing. I flipped through the guest book that was sitting on the bar last night. They have gear for guests. We can catch some trout for breakfast and talk while we fish.”
Cooper rolled from the bed and disappeared into the bathroom before Zoey quite knew what had happened. Talk while they fish? You don’t talk while you fish if you expect to catch anything. And Cooper knew that!
Cooper had grown up fly-fishing, and he’d taught Zoey the basics of the sport when they first started dating. She loved the outdoors, and she’d enjoyed the hours they’d spent on various creeks and streams around the country on the long weekends and holidays they’d managed to steal during med school. By now, she knew her way around a tackle box. If he planned to talk while he was rocking his waders, their chances of having fresh rainbow trout for breakfast hovered between slim and none.
She’d bring the bagels with her.
Zoey decided she wanted a shower, too, but she wasn’t about to join Cooper, so she grabbed a change of clothes from her suitcase and went upstairs to use one of the bathrooms there. She didn’t rush, choosing to shampoo and blow-dry her hair. When she returned downstairs twenty minutes later, Cooper was nowhere in sight, but a steaming travel-sized tumbler filled with coffee waited for her on the bar along with a note that read. “I’m outside in the barn.”
He smiled sheepishly when she joined him. “Sorry, I ran out on you there.”
“It’s getting to be a habit of yours.”
“My bad.” He handed her a fishing pole. “I wanted to ask about your dad, and I felt weird doing it bare-assed naked.”
Zoey wasn’t certain she bought that, but she felt better after having taken a shower. The coffee was excellent, and the morning was spectacular. Dew sparkled on the petals of wildflowers blooming in colorful swaths in the meadow behind the house. Zoey drew in a breath of mountain-scented air and drank in the beauty of the vista before her. Peace washed through her like a song. Fortified, she asked, “What do you want to know about Dad?”
Cooper pulled on his own backpack over a fishing vest he must have found with the gear. On his head, he wore his own floppy fishing hat that he never traveled without. “You introduced him to Helen yesterday. How did that go?”
“Good. Better than I had hoped, honestly.”
He handed her a copy of a small, hand-drawn map before he bent and picked up a tackle box. “I’m glad for you both. Tell me about it as we walk.”
As they followed a well-traveled footpath across the meadow toward forest-covered hills, Zoey summarized yesterday’s events. She told him about playing basketball with her dad as she stopped to pick a purple wildflower. While describing Helen’s expression at her first glimpse of her son, Zoey lifted her gaze to watch what she thought might be a hawk sail across the sky.
“That’s a special moment you’ll remember the rest of your life,” Cooper observed.
“It was.” Zoey knew then that she’d remember this moment, too. She was suddenly fiercely glad to be here in Colorado with Cooper.
When they entered the forest, and the sound of rushing water grew louder, he asked a more probing question about recent events. “So, how does it feel to have all this new family, Zoey? A little strange?”
“Yes.” Zoey pulled the fishing pole she carried lower and closer to her body after it clipped the branch of a pine tree. “Definitely good. Definitely strange.”
“Do you feel a connection to them? A bond?”
“I sense something. Not a bond. More, the possibility of a bond.”
Cooper held back a bough of a tree that blocked the path, allowing Zoey to pass. “Like I mentioned yesterday, I really liked them when we met them in January.” He paused, then added, “We’re going to need a name for this new family of yours. The women I met all have different last names. Do you know what Helen and Genevieve’s maiden name was?”
Zoey nodded. “Bennett. Helen mentioned it while going over the photos with Dad.”
“How about we call them that? The Bennett family as opposed to the Hillcrests?”
“Works for me,” Zoey responded, then offered him a smile when he reached out a hand to steady her after she twisted an ankle on a rock.
“How many Bennetts are there, do you know?”
Okay, whatever he is working up the nerve to say has something to do with my family. This beating around the bush was so unlike Cooper.
And wasn’t it weird to think that her family consisted of more than her dad?
“No, I don’t know,” she responded. “Quite a few, I believe.”
“The more the merrier, I guess. It does make me wonder about something. While no one will replace your grandmother—and I’m talking about the woman who raised your dad—I’m wondering if having this family full of Bennetts might help to soothe that ache inside of you that missing your mother has created. What do you think?”
Impatience finally sparked inside her. “I don’t know, Cooper. It’s too soon for me to know that. Besides, it’s not accurate to say I’m missing my mother. She’s been gone since I was a girl.”
“Nevertheless, her illness and death triggered a need to know inside you. That’s why you did the ancestry test.”
“What? Have you earned a psychiatry specialty when I wasn’t looking? Cooper, what is this all about? What are we doing?”
“Getting ready to catch breakfast, I hope,” he replied in a blatant effort to change the subject. “I hear the creek. We must be getting close. When was the last time we went fishing, honey? Not since you moved to Houston for your fellowship.”
Zoey was happy to change the subject because talking about her mother left her feeling… achy. “No, we went fishing for red snapper on that colleague of Dad’s boat the summer before last.”
“True, but saltwater fishing in the gulf and hooking a trout in the mountains are two different experiences.” He shot her a grin over his shoulder and teased, “I’m glad you decided to run away to Colorado rather than Port Aransas.”
Technically, she had not run away. She’d run to her newly discovered family. However, with the sound of gurgling water in the near distance and the memories of those days of escape during medical school hovering in her mind, she didn’t call him on it. Living in California, most of their peers had headed for the beaches on days off. She and Cooper almost always chose the mountains.
She’d fallen in love with him in the mountains. That’s one of the reasons why she’d wanted to marry him in the mountains.
They arrived at the creek, and Zoey knew they’d located the correct spot when she spied the wooden bench placed near the bank along a stretch of the creek marked on the Hideaway’s fishing map. “This is nice.”
“Yeah, it is.” Cooper propped his pole up against the bench, set down the tackle box, and then slipped out of his backpack. “The guestbook said there’s a storage shed somewhere close that has waders in addition to more supplies. Want to see if you can find it while I tie the flies on our lines?”
“Sure.”
Zoey discovered the shed a little farther down the path and up the hill. She found wading boots in Cooper’s size, then hesitated over searching for a pair of her own. That bench had sure looked inviting. The morning was pure bliss. Maybe she’d sit and observe today rather than participate.
She carried the waders back to Cooper and shared her plan. “Whatever trips your trigger,” he said with a shrug.
A few minutes later, Zoey sat with her legs outstretched on the bench, sipping her coffee and absorbing the scene. Towering fir trees surrounded them and cast dappled shadows upon the surface of the crystalline creek. The fragrance of evergreens and earth combined with a floral hint of summer wildflowers to perfume the crisp mountain air. Where water crashed and frothed against rocks in the stream, mist rose in the air. Sunlight reflected off the mist in a rainbow of color. It’s paradise , Zoey thought as her gaze strayed toward Cooper.
Dressed in waders, a fishing vest, and a hat, he took to the stream like a boss.
He was beautiful, his movements a symphony of precision and grace as he wielded the supple fly rod with confidence. The flick of his wrist sent the tiny fly on the end of the translucent line sailing. It drifted down like a feather to land softly on the water.
He caught two fish within the first five minutes, one brown trout and a rainbow. “There’s breakfast,” she called.
Looking up from the stringer, he shot her a grin, and her heart went pit-a-pat .
After securing the stringer in the water, Cooper rinsed his hands and shook them dry. He climbed out of the water and walked over to where Zoey sat on the bench. “Care if I sit down?”
She swung her feet to the ground and gestured for him to sit. “Be my guest.”
“I have a confession to make.”
Oh. Don’t say you cheated. Please, don’t be a cheater. It was one thing she’d never worried about with Cooper. Had she been wrong?
“I stuck my nose in your family business.”
Okay. Whew. Wait, what? “What did you do?”
“I tried to take care of you. After your mother came to Houston, you were a mess, Zoey. For good reason. I wanted to help.”
“I repeat. What did you do?”
He exhaled a heavy breath. “Okay. Well, do you remember asking me to deal with all the estate sale matters?”
“Yes.”
“I did that. I asked both the estate sale company and the attorney we hired to go through everything with a fine-tooth comb for clues about Jennifer’s true identity.”
“I remember.” Zoey went still. “You said they didn’t find anything.”
“They didn’t. They didn’t find any clues about her past. So…” Cooper propped his elbows on his knees, clasped his hands, and leaned forward. He didn’t look at Zoey as he said, “That’s when I decided to hire an investigator. He went into her apartment before we had it cleaned to put on the market. He lifted her fingerprints from her apartment, and he got a hit.”
Zoey covered her mouth with her hands, but she didn’t so much as squeak. Her heart was pounding like a piston.
Cooper continued. “It’s taken some time to compile a report, but I have it. If you want the information, it’s yours. Maybe you don’t need to know now that you have the Bennetts in your life. If you want me to deep-six it, it’s gone. If you want me to put it on ice until you’re ready to learn it, we can do that, too. If you want to read the report right now, well, it’s in my backpack. The ball is in your court, honey.”
Zoey sat for a long minute, her mind spinning like a twister. Finally, she asked, “You’re sure the fingerprints were hers?”
“We’re sure.”
“Was she horrible?”
Cooper sat up straight, turned his head, and met her gaze. “No. She wasn’t horrible at all. Her story was a sad one. Really sad. Some might call her a hero, in fact. Her sister, in particular.”
“There really was a Becca?”
“There is a Becca.”
Laughter that held an edge of hysteria bubbled up inside of Zoey. “A grandmother and an aunt? In the same week?”
“I know. Threw me for a loop, I’m telling you.”
Zoey’s gaze shifted to his backpack. “So, you’ve read the report.”
“I have. More than once. It’s thorough. Forty pages. I can give you the bullet points if you’d like, but knowing you, I figured you’d want to read it yourself. You’ll want to absorb it all.”
“That’s why you came to Lake in the Clouds? To give me this report?”
“That’s part of the reason. I was hoping to get laid, too.”
“You took care of business first.”
“I’m no fool.” He risked a grin and added, “Maybe I am a fool. Jury is still out at the moment.”
All her life. All her life, she’d wanted family. She’d wanted to know her mother. “Does Dad know?”
“No. This information is for you. What you do with it is up to you.”
Cooper had found her mother for her. Zoey blinked back sudden tears and exhaled a heavy sigh. “Well, okay, then. Go catch some more fish, Dr. Mac. Reading makes me hungry.”