Chapter 5 #2
She never would have believed, when she’d first returned to Rosewood Beach for her father’s funeral, that the handsome man who caught her in the rain when she tripped would one day be her husband.
She’d been short with him at the time, since the paint on his work shirt had gotten onto her favorite raincoat and her emotions were raw because of the death of her father, but their paths had soon crossed again and she’d realized quickly what a kind, giving man he was.
She’d decided to leave New York behind because she missed her family and wanted to help bring The Lighthouse Grill out of its financial struggles, but she’d also stayed because of her growing attraction to Cooper.
Back then, she’d been worried that she didn’t know how to handle taking care of a toddler, but Cooper’s daughter Macey had immediately captured her heart with her chubby smile and her innocent joy.
Now they were going to have a second child, and Macey was just as excited about the baby as they were.
Julia had felt overwhelmed and unsure of how she was going to handle it all when she’d first gotten pregnant, but her family had reminded her that they had her back and she just needed to take everything one step at a time.
Now, she was feeling ready for the baby both emotionally and task-wise, and she was becoming more excited by the day.
“I can’t believe we’re going to have another child together,” he said, stroking her cheek tenderly.
They shared a look of love and joy. Although they were already parents and they both loved Macey with all their hearts, there was something special about the fact that they’d made their next child together.
Julia was excited to watch her baby grow up and take note of how many of Cooper’s features got passed down, and how many of hers did.
“I love you, Cooper,” she said, taking his hand and squeezing it gently.
“I love you.” He pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her. “What do you say to an after-dinner snack of iced tea and chocolate-covered graham crackers?”
Julia gasped, delighted. “How did you know?”
It was a joke, and Cooper laughed. He knew that Julia wanted to eat chocolate-covered graham crackers because they were her latest pregnancy craving and she’d sent him out that morning to buy her some before he went off to work.
Hand in hand, they went down the stairs together. Julia checked on Macey as she watched her movie in the den while Cooper got them a couple of glasses of iced tea along with the box of chocolate covered graham crackers.
They sat down together on the couch in the living room, cuddling and munching the sweet crackers. For a while they were quiet, simply enjoying each other’s company.
“What do you think we should do for Faith’s party?” he asked her after a while.
Suddenly animated, she turned to him with a grin. “Oh, I have so many ideas! Let me run and get my notebook and I’ll show you.”
He laughed. “You stay put. I’ll get it. Where is it?”
“It’s in my purse.”
Cooper returned a moment later with Julia’s small notebook, which she’d filled with several pages worth of ideas for Faith’s surprise party.
“I’m not sold on all of these,” Julia said, opening her notebook eagerly. “So tell me what you think and be honest. What do you think about decorating with wildflowers instead of balloons?”
“Hmm, might be expensive since not a lot of wildflowers have bloomed yet. We’d have to get them all from a store.”
“Hmm, good point. I just wanted to do something elegant—maybe twinkle lights and some flowers?”
“Sounds nice.” He smiled. “Faith really likes flowers, doesn’t she?”
“She does, and pastels. So whatever dishes we use should be cute pastel colors. Maybe pink and purple?”
“Sure. Do you want to do any games?”
“Oh, maybe some board games. Or we could play Twister.” Her eyes widened suddenly as an amused look crossed her face. “Or we could get a bouncy castle!”
Cooper shook his head, chuckling. “I thought this party was for adults.”
“You know most of the adults in our lives would love a bouncy castle,” she retorted. “Unfortunately, though, I was kidding.”
“We could play a murder mystery game, those are fun. We could buy a party pack online and everything.”
“Oh, sure! Those are kind of involved though—it might take a lot of time. But I’ll write it down and we can decide later if we want to do that or not. We should run all of our ideas past everyone else before making decisions anyway.”
Cooper peered over her shoulder at the list. “It says here you want to serve fried chicken and sloppy joes and barbecue pulled pork sandwiches and grown-up grilled cheese?” He sounded almost alarmed. “Sweetheart, that’s a lot.”
She laughed. “Not all of it. Those are just my ideas. We should pick one of those to serve, or maybe two—putting some barbecue pulled pork inside a grilled cheese sandwich sounds absolutely divine.”
“Mm, yes it does. Write that down so you don’t forget. You just had a stroke of genius.”
“I know,” she said cheerfully, and circled grilled cheese and barbecue pulled pork on her list and then drew a line connecting them. “Okay, what else?”
“How about a pinata?”
“I love that!”
“I was kidding, actually.”
Julia wrinkled her nose at him. “Hey, it’s an idea and I’m going to write it down.”
Cooper shook his head, laughing, and picked up a chocolate-covered graham cracker. “Here.” He held it up to her mouth. “Eat this.”
“Are you trying to keep me from writing down pinata?”
“Yes. Because you’ll tell everyone it was my idea.”
Laughing, they continued to write down ideas and nibble the graham crackers while they sipped their tea. Julia kept glancing at her husband as he stared into space, trying to think of ideas, and she felt overwhelmed with gratitude for how sweet her life had become.