Chapter 46
When I get home from my little errand, I find Cooper waiting for me in the living room.
He’s in his undershirt and boxers, and only the small light is on next to him, giving his face an eerie glow. I should have guessed he would be up. He hasn’t been sleeping well, and the absence of my body next to his in bed might have been enough to jolt him awake.
He stares at me, his frame rigid. He must’ve heard my car enter the garage, so he knows I’ve been driving.
I can’t pretend I was taking a stroll around the neighborhood.
Plus, I failed to turn off the Findly app, which was a terrible oversight.
Although maybe on some level, I wanted him to know where I had gone.
“Debbie,” he says.
When he speaks, I smell it. He must’ve discovered the rest of the beers that I left in the back of the refrigerator. Cooper isn’t much of a drinker, but I guess I can’t blame him right now.
“Hi,” I say weakly.
“Where were you?”
I try to smile, although it feels like plastic on my face. “I was just driving around.”
He frowns. “Were you at the shipyard?”
Just as I suspected—the tracker on my phone gave me away. I will definitely have to shut it off next time. The same way he does when he disappears somewhere he doesn’t want me to know. He’s much better at keeping secrets than I am.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I say. “I was just driving around. I thought it would make me tired.”
He struggles to his feet. His brown hair is tousled from sleep, and he has a day’s growth of a beard on his face.
When I first met him, I had not been on a date in a very long time, but he seemed so sweet and earnest when he asked me.
I was afraid of men for a long time because of Hutch, but for some reason, I wasn’t afraid of Cooper.
He was, in fact, the first man who didn’t give me that sick feeling of fear in the pit of my stomach.
He didn’t seem like he would ever hurt me.
When did that change?
“Debbie,” he croaks, his voice pleading.
I know what he wants. He wants me to tell him the truth about everything. But there’s no way I can do that. It’s far too late.
“Where did you go last night?” I counter. “When you told me you were getting dinner and you were gone for two hours?”
His eyes widen in alarm. “I…I told you. I just went for a drive.”
“A drive?”
“Yes, of course.” His voice takes on a defensive edge. “What do you think I’ve been doing?”
Why should I tell the truth when he’s been lying to my face?
When it’s all over, he’ll know everything. And maybe there will be a way he can understand.
“I’m tired,” I say. “I’m going to bed.”
I push past him, through the living room into the stairwell. I expect him to follow me up to the bedroom, but he doesn’t. He stays in the living room, and that’s where he spends the rest of the night.