Chapter Thirty-Three #2
“Exactly,” Knox rumbled, his face straight but the gleam of humor in his eye. “But seriously, Evers and I can fill in for you if we have to. Alice? No way. The interns and new hires do their best, but they fuck up half the stuff we throw at them.”
“A few suggestions,” Axel interrupted. All eyes turned to him.
“Alice needs an assistant. You have room in the budget, and it would mean that if she has to take off work the office has coverage and Alice isn’t coming back to a mess.
Knox and Evers can cover for Cooper, but you don’t have anyone to cover for Alice.
My office manager has an assistant and it’s worked out for everyone. ”
Cooper turned serious eyes on me. “That’s a good idea. Do you want an assistant?”
My knee jerk response was to insist I could handle it all on my own.
Then I thought about the days I’d worked through being sick, and how I couldn’t do that when it was Petra who was sick.
Or had a doctor’s appointment. Or Lily had something going on and couldn’t watch her.
Cooper would handle some of those, but if he had commitments he couldn’t reschedule…
“I want to sit in on interviews and have veto power on whoever you hire,” I said.
“Obviously,” Evers said with a grin. “Can you imagine if we hired someone you didn’t like? You’d eat him for breakfast.”
“Another thing,” Axel interrupted, “You might want to touch base with Vance and Maggie Winters. Their Rosie is almost three, and they’re still on the search for a new nanny. The girls might like playing together, and bringing in a nanny would give Lily some relief when she needs it.”
Cooper let go of my hand and wound his arm around my shoulder. I scooted my chair closer and leaned into him, content despite the challenges we had yet to face.
Not one person sitting at this table was perfect, but they didn’t have to be. This was family, pitching in together to make things work. This is what Maxwell and Lacey didn’t get. Family was everything, and we were going to give this to Petra.
We couldn’t erase her past or give her back everything she’d lost, but we could give her something good. Something real. And we would. I thought again of Petra’s mother, dead far too young, and silently promised, We’re going to do right by your daughter. I swear we will.
Petra didn’t want to go to bed after everyone had left. She asked for Maxwell, crying, “Daddy, where Daddy?” until Cooper’s jaw was tight and I wanted to march downstairs and bitch-slap Maxwell for abandoning his daughter.
If he was going to continue the life he’d been living, then leaving Petra with us was the right choice, but for now, he was just an elevator ride away. How could he bear to ignore her, knowing she had to be scared in a new place?
Cooper and I finally got her down by lying on either side of her, me rubbing her back and Cooper telling her story after story until the rumble of his voice lulled her to sleep. We crept out, hoping she’d stay asleep, and made our way to Cooper’s room.
Torn by conflicting needs, I turned apologetic eyes on Cooper. “Just so you know, I totally want to have sex with you.”
“But…”
“But I feel weird about locking the door when she had such a hard time falling asleep.”
Cooper closed his fingers around my wrist, pulling me into the circle of his arms. His mouth dropped to mine in a long, sweet kiss that left me lightheaded by the time he straightened. “I don’t know, you wore me out between the cabin and last night. I think I need a day off to recover.”
“Like I believe that.” I smacked the back of my hand against his rock-hard abs and had second thoughts about locking the door. It would be okay for a little while, right?
“Will you move your things in tomorrow?” Cooper asked, changing the subject. He’d asked me that earlier, but I’d been thinking about Petra and her freak-out at the store and hadn’t really paid attention.
“It’s important to you, isn’t it?”
“It is. I want you here, Alice. I want to know you’re staying, that you’re in this with me.”
Winding my arms around his waist, I leaned back to look up at him, hoping he could see my heart in my eyes. “I’m in this with you, Cooper. All the way. I didn’t think moving my things was that important, but if it means something to you, I’ll start bringing stuff up.”
“I’ll make room in the closet,” Cooper said, brushing my hair back from my face.
I’d figure it out the next day, I decided, as I got ready for bed and climbed in beside Cooper. The meeting with Agent Holley was set for late morning, but Cooper could stay with Petra while I went down to my place before heading into the office for a few hours. Maybe I’d get up early.
Getting up early didn’t happen. Sometime after midnight, I woke to the alien sensation of the bed moving under a small weight. I came awake in a panic to see Petra climbing up from the foot of the bed. Sitting up, I reached for her. “Are you okay, honey? Did you have a bad dream?”
She didn’t answer, instead burrowing into the sliver of space my sitting up had created between Cooper and me. Squished between us, Petra closed her eyes and appeared to go to sleep.
“I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t have sex,” Cooper whispered over her sleeping head.
I stifled a laugh. I don’t think I’d ever bothered to put on nightclothes after having sex. Just one of the many habits that would have to change now that we had a toddler in the house. Fortunately, Cooper was wearing boxers, and I had on one of his t-shirts.
I lay down beside Petra, a warm glow settling inside me as her little body relaxed into mine. Such pure trust, to sleep with us when she was scared. I’d do anything to be worthy of that trust.
My thoughts weren’t so generous after three hours of being kicked awake by a restless toddler. Petra slept on, but she was an active sleeper. She turned, stretched, and resettled herself at least every fifteen minutes, shoving Cooper and me out of her way as she did.
I never would have guessed elbows could be a deadly weapon. When six o’clock rolled around, I was cranky, bleary-eyed, bruised, and definitely not going to fall back to sleep.
Propping myself up on one elbow, I saw Petra sleeping peacefully, no hint of the whirling dervish in sight. How could she look so placid when I knew for a fact she was going to pop up at any moment and roll over, leading with her sharp little elbows?
Cooper opened his eyes, his smile so content, so right, I forgot about my bruises and wished I could start every day exactly like this.
A glance at the clock and I said, “Hey, since I’m up, I’m going to leave you with elbows here and go downstairs to grab some things from my closet.”
The light in his eyes nearly brought me to my knees. If I’d realized filling the other half of his closet would make him this happy, I would have done it already.
“Works for me,” he said. “Leave anything you don’t need right away by your front door and I’ll carry it up for you later.”
I kissed Petra’s temple, then Cooper’s lips, lingering there for a long moment, seriously considering falling back into the bed. Sleep. I needed more sleep.
I could sleep later. For now, I was going to grab as much of my closet as I could cram into my few suitcases and start moving in with Cooper.