Book 24 Temptation After Dark #3
He checks the fender of the car and is surprised not to see any marks. They head back to the house with a stop at Mario’s to pick up a take-out order. “Sorry to mess up our night.”
“It would’ve been an even bigger mess if you and/or the car had gone off that cliff, so thanks for not letting that happen.”
“Ha,” Cooper says with a grunt of laughter that he instantly regrets. “That’s the truth.”
“Can I have a rain check on the Beachcomber?”
“Of course, you can,” Cooper says, immediately feeling a thousand times better to know they’ll have a do-over.
“And how about we take my car next time?”
“Sounds good,” he says, smiling.
“It’s an automatic, so no clutch to worry about.”
“I’m an idiot for wanting to impress you with my brother’s car,” Cooper says, sighing.
“You impressed me with the wildflowers and the way you risked your own safety to save something that means a lot to your brother.”
Cooper wishes he felt well enough to celebrate those victories.
“I know it seems silly that I risked myself for something Jared could buy a thousand of and never feel the hit. But the car was the first thing he bought for himself when he struck it rich. He set us all up for life, paid off my parents’ house, my grandparents’ reverse mortgage, the mortgages of all our aunts and uncles and set up college funds for all our cousins.
And only after all that was done did he do something for himself.
” Cooper looks over at her. “I couldn’t let that car go off the cliff. ”
“That’s amazing, how he did those things for your family.”
“He’s super generous, sometimes to a fault. A few people in our family and his group of friends have tried to take advantage by treating him like a bank.”
“That’s so lame.”
“It is, but he tries not to let it get to him. He says his conscience is clear after what he did for everyone.”
“So, you’re set for life, huh?”
“Yes and no. Jared put most of what he gave me in a trust until I’m thirty, so I wouldn’t end up useless, as he put it.”
Gigi laughs. “I love that.”
Gigi mentions that she noticed Jared and Lizzie seem a little off lately.
Cooper tells her about them trying to have a baby and the last round of IVF failing.
He also mentions how worried Jared was about Lizzie getting too attached to the newborn baby she brought home to care for along with the baby’s mother, Jessie.
When they arrive at Mario’s, she jumps out of the car before he can give her his credit card. She returns with a pizza box and brown bag that she hands to him to hold for the ride home.
“That was supposed to be my treat.”
“Don’t sweat it.”
“I’m sweating it. This has to be the worst date you’ve ever been on.”
“Haha, nowhere close to the worst. This one will be memorable. That’s for sure.”
Cooper wishes it had been memorable for better reasons than a near catastrophe that involved EMS and a trip to the clinic, not to mention she’s driving and paid for dinner.
“So, what’s the worst date you’ve ever had?”
She glances at him as if deciding whether she should be truthful. “I dated this guy for a month before I realized he was a celebrity stalker who I’d let into my house and my life. I had to get a restraining order to get him away from me, and I have to testify against him when I get home.”
“Damn, Gigi. That’s horrible.”
“People suck. That’s kind of why I’m dreading going home. He’s out on bail awaiting the trial.”
“Do you have security?”
“Yeah, I have to have it when I’m there. He’s got an ankle monitor that keeps him from leaving the area, so I’m safe here.” She lets out a nervous-sounding laugh. “The downside of pseudo-celebrity.”
“You’re hardly a pseudo-celebrity. You’re the real deal.”
At home, Jared has heard there was an incident that involved EMS, but after they assure him they’re fine, they go up to Gigi’s apartment.
They enjoy their meal, and before Cooper almost falls asleep on the couch, he says he should go.
She helps him up and places a hand on his chest. “Despite the injuries, it was pretty cool how you managed to stop the car from rolling off the cliff. There was a certain Superman-ish element to it.”
“Is that right?”
“Uh-huh.” She shocks him when she goes up on tiptoes to kiss him.
The soft peck on the lips is over before it begins, but Gigi Gibson kissed him. He can die happy now.
But it’d be much more interesting to stick around and see if she’ll do it again.
Jared wakes to a screaming baby and an empty bed. He finds Lizzie walking the baby from one side of the family room to the other. “Where’s Jessie?” he asks, looking for the child’s mother.
“She’s so exhausted after being up with her all night that I told her I’d take a turn.”
They have to speak loudly to be heard over the baby’s cries.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know. I’ve tried everything. I fed her, changed her, burped her, but nothing I do calms her.”
Jared didn’t intend to reach for the baby, but he wants her to stop crying. He snuggles her into his arms, and she immediately goes quiet, looking up at him with big gray eyes.
“How’d you do that?” Lizzie asks, sounding amazed.
“I have no idea.” As he gazes down at the adorable little face, he’s filled with an overwhelming feeling that this is not something he ought to be doing.
He shouldn’t be holding this baby who doesn’t belong to them.
And Lizzie shouldn’t be holding her either.
Every instinct he has is telling him this won’t end well for them.
“We can’t do this, Lizzie. We just can’t continue to help this way. ”
“I don’t know what else to do. I can’t let her go to the Beachcomber employee housing with a newborn, and she won’t take our money. I mentioned the Chesterfield apartment to her, but she said she can’t live that far from work.”
“Tomorrow, she has to go somewhere else. I don’t care where they go. Anywhere but here.”
“I’ll try to figure something out for them.”
Cooper doesn’t see Gigi the day after their date, or the day after that.
He’s heard from Jared that she sometimes disappears for days at a time when they’re filming the show.
The first two days with broken ribs totally sucks, but after that, Cooper starts to feel better.
His mother used to marvel at how quickly he bounced back from illness and injuries, and he’s thankful for that trait now.
While he’s hoping for another chance to see Gigi, his brother Quinn marries his love, Mallory, in a gorgeous ceremony at the Chesterfield, a home that Jared and Lizzie have turned into an elegant wedding venue.
The festivities are interrupted when Maddie McCarthy goes into labor.
She gives birth to her twin baby girls in the helicopter on the way to a Providence hospital.
But that isn’t the most dramatic development at the wedding.
That happens when Jessie brings the baby to Lizzie at the Chesterfield in the middle of the wedding and then leaves.
Cooper tries to help find Jessie. At the Beachcomber, he learns she’s cleared out her room at the employee housing.
Libby, the manager, hadn’t known she was pregnant and hasn’t seen her since before she had the baby.
Deacon Taylor confirms that Jessie bought a ticket for the ferry.
Deacon tells Cooper they’ll do everything they can to help find her.
After Deacon walks away, Cooper thanks Libby for her help and sends another update to Jared with the info Deacon has shared. Dejected and worried about how this situation would resolve itself, Cooper takes a call from a number he doesn’t recognize.
“Hey, it’s Gigi.”
The sound of her voice is all it takes to vastly improve his mood. “Hey.”
“I’m so sorry I haven’t checked on you before now. We’ve been filming twelve hours a day.”
“I heard that’s where you were. How’s it going?”
“Fine, but I didn’t call to talk about me. How are you?”
“I’m better. The ribs hurt less than they did at first, and my face is a gigantic scab.”
“Such a crime to have that pretty face messed up.”
She thinks his face is pretty? “Hopefully, it won’t leave a scar.”
“Why do you sound weird? Are you still feeling crappy?”
“No, I was at my brother Quinn’s wedding—”
“Oh, my God, that’s right! I totally forgot that was today. I heard Maddie McCarthy went into labor at a wedding.”
“That was the first crazy thing that happened. The second is that Jessie Morgan, the new mom Lizzie was helping, brought the baby to her at the Chesterfield and then took off.”
“What? Where’d she go?”
“We think she took the high-speed ferry back to the mainland.”
“Holy shit. Lizzie and Jared must be losing it.”
“They’re pretty upset. The police are trying to find Jessie, and Lizzie is concerned about the baby ending up in the system. It’s a mess.”
“What can I do for you guys?”
“I can’t think of anything, but thanks for asking.”
“I’ll be around later if you want to hang out.”
“That’d be good. I’m not sure what time we’ll be back at the house.”
“No worries. I’m going to sit by the pool and chill. It’s been a crazy few days.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later, then.”
After the wedding ends, they say their goodbyes to the happy couple, who are leaving the island in the morning for a honeymoon in Ireland.
Because Jared hit the bottle when they couldn’t find Jessie, Cooper drives his brother, Lizzie and the baby home.
They borrowed an infant car seat from Mallory’s sister, Janey Cantrell, who’d sent her husband home to get it when word got out about Jessie leaving the baby with Lizzie.
Jared and Lizzie don’t say a word to each other on the way home, and the silence between them puts Cooper on edge. Jared doesn’t agree with keeping the baby for even one more night, but Lizzie isn’t backing down.
Thus, the silence.
He parks Lizzie’s car in the driveway and gets out to help her with the baby seat. “Is there anything I can do?” he asks her.
“No, thank you for helping earlier.”
“If you need me, I’m right here.”
“Thanks, Coop.” She sounds exhausted as she walks inside, carrying the car seat with the baby in it.