Chapter Twenty-five – War Paint
Chapter Twenty-five
Andie
WAR PAINT
Performed by Kelly Clarkson
I hated that Cooper’s stunning smile I’d begun to crave had disappeared. It had vanished right along with the sweet, heady words and looks he’d given me. Now his lips were a grim, flat line, and his mood was dark, and I didn’t have the time to try to fix it.
I wondered when he’d figure out that being with me was more trouble than it was worth.
I was almost at the door before I realized my winter coat was still sitting in the Wylees’ guest room. One glance at the layer of frozen dew on the bushes out the windows told me I’d be freezing by the time I made it to my SUV, but I didn’t have another option at the moment.
I’d already stepped out onto his porch when his voice stopped me. A low, unhappy growl. “You’re heading out with no damn coat again.”
I turned to him, a small smile lifting my lips thinking about just why I didn’t have my coat with me—the near desperate yearning that had filled us both as we’d scurried away from the party.
“You’re the one who wouldn’t let me go back for it last night.”
“Damnit. You’re right. Hold on.” He stepped back into the house and came out with a brown leather jacket with a thick, flannel lining. “It doesn’t exactly go with your dress, but it’ll keep you warm.”
I started to protest, but he simply slid it over my shoulders, shifting my purse to help me into it. He turned me toward him, zipping it up as if I was a little kid instead of an adult. The tenderness of it, the absolute care that went into every touch, had tears flooding my eyes again.
When he saw the look on my face, he dropped his hands immediately. “I’m sorry.”
But I hadn’t been afraid. The move hadn’t triggered me.
I needed him to know that, so I stepped into him, grabbed his shoulders, and kissed him.
The embrace was full of gratitude and affection and love…
because who couldn’t love a man who took care of people the way Cooper did?
Maybe it wasn’t the full-blown, love-you-to-the-end-of-time type of love yet, but just as I’d told Dawson last night, I knew it could be.
It made me nervous. It made me afraid for him almost as much as me, and yet I wasn’t willing to walk away from the tantalizing possibilities either.
He put a hand to the back of my head and deepened the kiss.
It took all of my strength to pull away. “I didn’t get emotional because you triggered me, Cooper. Thank you for showing me such kindness. For understanding. For…everything.”
His jaw pulsed as if he was fighting emotions too. When he didn’t reply, I turned and made my way down the steps. He followed me—all the way to my car. When I unlocked it, he held the door open for me.
“What time do you think you’ll be done tonight?” he asked.
“The reception is scheduled to go until eleven, so it’ll be late. Probably close to midnight.”
This didn’t exactly please him, but he leaned in and gave me another quick kiss before backing away. “Be safe. I’ll see you tonight.”
The entire way to the ranch, my emotions played bouncy ball on my nerves.
I couldn’t remember a time in my life where I’d felt so truly cared for.
Not even at the beginning with Eddie. But these emotions, these hopes, came with risk for me and Cooper as well as his family.
Was I really willing to let him take it?
It was exactly what I’d hoped after my talk with Dawson and before I’d shared my ugly story with Cooper.
Waking in his bed this morning had been something I could easily grow accustomed to. But would it be another mistake in a long line of them? Whoever had come for me had made Ben’s death look like an accident. Could they do that to Cooper? Would Luca get hurt in the process?
My conflict was still at the forefront when I strode into my office, surprised to find Misty already there.
She looked up from a clipboard she was examining. The messily colored stickers stuck to the back of the board were ones that Fallon’s little girl had given me.
She glanced at my borrowed jacket, and her lips quirked. Even though a piece of me wanted to stay wrapped in Cooper’s jacket all day, I reluctantly slid out of it, hanging it on the hook by the door.
“Morning. I didn’t expect you to be here for another hour or so,” I told her.
“Eden called me at five thirty,” Misty said. “I guess Anika changed her mind about the polenta and taleggio soufflé she’d turned down. I knew Francois would be pushed to get it to her on time, so I came to deliver the message to him personally.”
I grimaced. “How’d he take it?”
“Swore in French. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what he did.”
I reached out a hand for my clipboard that she was manically tapping with the stylus pen she never seemed to be without.
“Is there a problem with the schedule?” I asked.
“No. Not that I’m aware of.”
“Did you lose your clipboard?”
“Of course not.” She turned to the wingbacks in front of my desk and picked hers up from the seat. Her entire energy felt off today. Wound tight. Edgy. Nothing like the calmer Misty I’d experienced for several weeks now.
I hadn’t expected her to be this anxious about the celebrity wedding. Not with the list of events she’d run solo before she’d come here. With Maisey and Beckett’s wedding, she’d dove right in, never missing a step. But maybe the level of celebrities we were dealing with now had shaken her.
A sticky note with the caterer’s new phone number hid the checklist. I lifted it to review what needed to be done first.
“Thanks for checking that the animatronic animals’ batteries were charged,” I told her. The half-dozen jungle animals had come to us on loan from a Hollywood studio and ran off lithium ion batteries, which they’d instructed us to keep charged or they’d never make it through the reception.
“Oh. I didn’t. You must have done it before you left last night.”
I frowned. I hadn’t. Had I? Goosebumps ran up my arm. Had someone marked it off for me? The same person who snuck into my office and stole my house key? My throat seemed to close, blocking the oxygen to my lungs.
“How was the party, anyway?” Misty asked, smiling at me with curiosity similar to the one she’d had when she and Eden had found Cooper and I kissing in the marquee.
Maybe it was everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, my concerns over Cooper, or the edgy energy coming from her, but anxiety swarmed, buzzing through me like bees looking for a landing spot. I forced myself to breathe. Forced my shoulders to relax.
“The Wylees sure know how to throw a party. I think half the town was there.”
“Eden tried to find you after you left, and I accidentally slipped that you’d gone with Cooper to his parents’ party. She wasn’t very happy.”
Irritation flared. Not at Misty for spilling my business, but at Eden.
I didn’t know everything about their relationship, but I could clearly see the wounds she’d left on Cooper and Luca.
It made me wish I could kick her off the property and tell her to leave Rivers for good.
But regardless of whatever Cooper and I had started, regardless of him being hip deep in my mess, our relationship wasn’t in a place where I could tell his ex what to do.
It took me a minute to control my emotions, but I was eventually able to say, “Eden isn’t our client.
I’m not sure why she’s inserted herself so much into this wedding, but I have a feeling it’s to irritate Cooper more than it’s to help Anika.
Let’s make sure we take our cues from our actual client and not a disgruntled ex, okay? ”
Misty seemed to deflate at the scold. “Oh, of course. I just figured we should keep both actresses happy. We’re more likely to get return business that way. We don’t want Eden splashing a negative review across her social media.”
She wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t afford to have the limited things Cooper had shared about her affect the ranch. I couldn’t let my anger and jealousy over the life she’d had with Cooper and Luca, which she so carelessly tossed aside, show in my interaction with her today.
I turned my attention back to the to-do list, divvied up the tasks with Misty, and then sent her off to take Anika breakfast.
I was just about to head out to the marquee to double check the batteries on the animals when my phone buzzed. It was a text from Maisey in the group chat with Fallon.
MAISEY: Somebody got lucky last night.
ME: Are you bragging again? I’m not sure I can handle another dissertation on either Beckett’s or Parker’s prowess in bed.
FALLON: That doesn’t sound like a person who got thoroughly and expertly laid last night and should be doing her own bragging. This disappoints me. Cooper always seemed like a man who could handle himself in the bedroom.
I stared at the phone for far too long.
ME: What are you talking about?
MAISEY: I saw you and our handsome sheriff canoodling on his porch this morning.
My first reaction was a smile, but then I thought of who else might have been watching from the shadows.
Someone who hated me enough to kill anyone they thought I was sleeping with, and fear wiped the smile from my lips.
The worry I’d been fighting all morning came slamming back in.
Could I really risk Cooper’s and Luca’s lives just for a chance at love…
at family? Would that make me any better than my father?
Going after what he wanted no matter the cost to those closest to him?
ME: Please don’t spread the rumor.
MAISEY: I’ll try not to be hurt that you even thought you needed to say that. I’m just happy for you.
Of course she was, because Maisey was wildly in love and wanted everyone she knew to be equally happy.