Chapter 9
Scarlett’s Monday morning in the Brookwell Primary School admin office smelled of floor wax, sharpened pencils, and the lingering, sweet memory of the Battery in Charleston.
Her date with Cooper had left her floating on cloud nine and when she’d gone to pick up Cora, Willow refused to let Scarlett leave without sharing all the details.
Instead of feeling annoyed or pressured, Scarlett had been delighted to confide in her friend.
Hope had bloomed and didn’t seem inclined to stop.
After hearing the whole story, Willow had grinned from ear to ear and though she promised to stay quiet about it until Scarlett was ready to share the news, her happiness was obvious.
Contrary to the normal skepticism she carried when it came to all things romance and love, Scarlett was thoroughly charmed—by Cooper, by the date, and by the possibilities.
For the first time since that pregnancy test had shown positive in her drafty college apartment, Scarlett felt like she was breathing with both lungs. She’d let the wall down. Just a little. Just enough to see a future where she didn’t have to be the only guardian of Cora’s world.
Sitting at her desk, Scarlett stared at a spreadsheet of state-mandated testing schedules, but the numbers weren’t clicking.
Instead, she kept replaying the sensation of Cooper’s hand against her cheek and the way his mouth felt on hers, erasing seven years of what-ifs with tantalizing fantasies of the future.
He said he would stay. She believed him.
He’d offered partnership and she was quickly warming up to the idea.
Spinning her chair toward the window, she let a version of the future play out in a lovely daydream.
The first time Cora called him “Dad”. Days at the beach or in the garden as a family.
Cooper teaching her to play guitar or how to drive.
Standing together through the nerves of Cora’s first date, her high school prom, her move to college.
It was heady stuff not being alone in those moments. Having someone to count on and help. Someone to love.
Not just someone. Cooper.
“Scarlett? Do you have a minute?”
With a start, she swiveled around to find Cooper standing in the doorway. He looked energized today, a light in his gaze that drew her in. How had she survived so long without this sizzling magnetic attraction?
“I always have time for my favorite handyman,” she teased, her heart doing a light, hopeful skip. “What’s going on? You look like you just solved the riddle of life.”
Cooper stepped into the office and closed the door behind him. “I have news.”
“Good news?” He looked elated, but wariness was muting those sweet scenarios of a moment ago.
“Yes. I just got off the phone with the search committee at a university in Ohio. It’s the exact specialty I spent a decade researching. It’s... it’s a great new opportunity. One I thought was beyond me when the California campus closed.”
His announcement popped that happy bubble of possibility and sucked all the air out of the room. Scarlett’s warm enthusiasm drained away, replaced by a cold, prickling numbness that started in her fingertips and moved unerringly toward her heart. He told her he would stay.
“Ohio?” she repeated. The word sounded like a foreign language. “That’s... that’s a long way from the Lowcountry.” She pressed her lips together. This was not the place to lose her temper. “So much for you sticking around.” She couldn’t hold back the bitterness.
“True.” He took a step closer. “It’s an incredible opportunity,” he continued. “And there’s only one reason I’m considering it.”
“Do tell.” She clutched her pen with both hands.
“They’re desperate for a high-level administrator for their new STEM initiative.
I sent them what I knew of your CV, Scarlett.
I told them about the work you’ve done here and your background in mathematics.
They’re holding the position for you. We could both have what we need.
It would be our fresh start together. It would be a big career leap for you. There’s a gifted program for Cora—”
“No. Hold up.” Scarlett stood, her chair rolling back hard enough to bump the wall. “You don’t get to decide my career track. You don’t get to choose the program for my daughter.”
“Our daughter.”
She ignored the low warning in his voice, her own temper leaving no room to worry over his.
“This is my life. I’m not looking for a career change.
You had no right to send anything on my behalf.
” Her life was Brookwell. This job, this school system, this support network of friends and chosen family.
What made him think she needed a fresh start?
This was where she fit in. Where she belonged. He’d shown up and distracted her for a couple of weeks. And no, she wouldn’t deny him a chance to bond with his daughter, but she refused to uproot her life so he could chase his career goals.
“Some partnership,” she grumbled. “We’ll have to discuss this later.
” She was not about to blow a gasket here, at her workplace.
“This is my home. Cora’s home. This place and these people matter to me and to our daughter.
” Good grief, she knew each child’s name and every parent’s backstory.
“Go. Have a lovely career. I’ll have a family lawyer reach out with a custody agreement. ”
“Scarlett, wait, I’m here to discuss it.”
“You’re here to make declarations.” Pain lanced her heart and her voice was dangerously low, a sharp edge cutting through the shock. “A career leap without even asking me what I wanted? You didn’t mention this on our date.”
“I didn’t know anything for sure,” Cooper said. He frowned, tucking his hands in his pockets. “I’ve been looking for remote options.”
“But you want this.”
He hesitated. “I want you and Cora. I want us to be a family.”
His explanation felt like too little too late, but she let him prattle on.
“I’m bringing it up now so you know there are options. You’re way too smart for this small-town administrative role, Scarlett. You deserve a post that lets you shine and thrive.”
“Now you’re an expert in what I need to thrive?” She tossed her pen onto the desk as her anger erupted. “You know what’s best because you’re using your degree in the manner it was intended?”
Feeling betrayed made all of this a thousand times worse than the last time he’d moved on to a better opportunity without her.
“I want what’s best for all of us,” he challenged. “Don’t stand here and tell me we’re nothing.”
No, she wouldn’t lie. “I loved you then. I will probably always love you.” The admission was like chewing glass. “But you’re made for all those big opportunities.” The heat of her anger melted away. “You’re a talented and passionate professor. You should be reaching as many minds as you can.
All I can do is follow my heart and my gut.
Seven years ago, I decided to give Cora stability and I’m not budging on that.
This island may seem small to you, but it’s full of people who love her.
She has friends and mentors. And she’ll have a dad too, if you want to invest in that long-distance effort. If not? Goodbye and good luck.”
He swore. “Don’t do this,” Cooper countered, his own voice rising.
“Don’t shut me out again. This is a chance for all three of us.
Cora would have access to the best university-affiliated schools.
We would have stability. I wouldn’t be her mom’s friend, I’d be her dad and your partner for life.
Give us a chance to be a real family,” he pleaded.
“If you need an answer now, I say no, thank you,” Scarlett said. “Willow gave me the number for a family lawyer.” She reached for her phone.
“Stop this and listen to yourself.” His big hands held her shoulders in a tender, firm grip. “This isn’t set in stone, it’s one option.”
“The option you should take.” It hurt too much to look at him. “I never want to hold you back.”
“Why doesn’t the same hold true for you?” he demanded. “You could have a career in mathematics or music and you’re just here. Why are you settling?”
“Just here,” she echoed, her breath ragged. Why had she ever thought he could understand? “It’s not settling.” She’d never felt that way at all. “This is my life and I love it. Brookwell gives me the best of everything as Cora’s mom. We are happy here.”
“Happiness can grow. It should grow.” Cooper’s gaze searched hers. “Are you really happy here, Scarlett? Or are you just safe?”
The question hit a nerve so raw it felt like a physical blow.
She shook off his touch and retreated to her chair.
She loved Brookwell. She loved her eclectic cottage and the oyster-shell paths and the way the marsh changed color at sunset.
But more than that, she loved the person she had become here—a confident woman who didn’t need anyone’s approval or permission.
Parts of her past might be messy, obviously parts of her future as well, but it was home.
“I am happy,” she said, her voice trembling with the effort to stay steady. “More importantly, Cora is happy. She’s surrounded by folks who love her. I won’t uproot her entire life because her father found a better opportunity.”
“Scarlett, look at it from my side,” Cooper said. “I’m trying to take care of you!”
“What part of my life gave you the impression that I needed you to take over? I’ve handled it all so far and I’ll keep going. You think you can just walk in, fix a shelf, kiss me senseless on the Battery, and then tell me we’re moving halfway across the country?”
“I thought you loved me.” Cooper stared at her.
“I do,” Scarlett whispered, unable to lie.
“That’s what makes this so much worse. I let myself believe that you loved me too.
That you saw me as your partner, not some love-struck student you could mentor into a better life.
But our paths don’t line up. Staying here with us means giving up your dream.
I don’t want that for you. And I sure don’t want you to stay and grow to resent us because you missed out on a better opportunity.
” She loved him enough to let him go. Again.
“It’s okay. Cora will love having time with you, her father, wherever your career takes you. ”
“I wouldn’t resent you,” he argued, reaching for her hand.
She pulled back, her eyes hard. “Yes, you would. All too soon, you’d look at the walls of the cottage and see the bars of a cage. It’s not fair to let Cora grow up in a house where her father is mourning a life he didn’t get to lead. That’s baggage she doesn’t deserve.”
“Scarlett, please think this through. It was one option, but not the only solution.”
But she couldn’t reconcile his career and life goals with her own. “Take the job, Cooper,” she said, the finality in her voice cold and absolute. “Go to Ohio. Be the professor you are meant to be.”
“And what about you and me?”
“We’ll co-parent Cora to the best of our combined ability.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
She closed her eyes against the tears. “There is no us if your first instinct is to find the bigger, shinier option,” Scarlett said, her heart breaking.
Her singular focus was to protect their daughter.
If Cooper left now, it would hurt. But if he stayed and grew bitter, or if they all relocated only to discover he didn’t want the responsibility of a ready-made family, it would be so much worse. For all of them.
“You’re breaking up with me because I told you about a job offer?” Cooper asked, disbelief turning his face red. “It doesn’t add up.”
“Is it really breaking up after a singular date?” She refused to factor in the stellar kiss.
“We share a child, so we’ll always be connected,” she said.
“You need to go.” She walked to the door and opened it, her hand shaking on the knob.
“Please leave. I’ll give your number to the family law group. ”
“What can I do? Let me fix this.” Cooper waited for a long, agonizing moment. Finally, he walked out without another word.
Scarlett closed the door and leaned her forehead against the wood. She listened to his footsteps fade away, each one a hammer blow against the life she’d almost let herself imagine. She’d never felt so alone in her office, the only sound her pulse thundering in her ears.
Feeling shattered, she returned to her desk and opened the spreadsheet. The numbers were still there. The constants remained. She was Scarlett Evans, single mother, school administrator, fiercely independent. That was her reality. That was her safety net.
But as she stared at the screen, a single tear fell, blurring the data until her whole world and all her hopes dissolved into a series of missed chances and broken promises. She had protected Cora from confusion and heartbreak, but she had never felt more like a failure.