Happily Ever Afton (20 page)

He’d paused before continuing on with the trace of concern tingeing his words that had been there ever since Cooper had confessed with a strained face and voice three months ago that he and Afton were no longer together.

‘I’m getting worried about you, son – you’ve been looking a little peaked lately. This is just the sort of thing a man needs to do to get over a woman. Go finish your Seven Summits – get Everest out of your system – get
her
out of your system and come back in a month raring to go again!’

Cooper had nodded his head and taken Baxter’s advice, booking the expedition, packing up his gear and closing up his penthouse – making this last quick trip downtown before he left to put a hold on his mail. With head bent low against the whistling wind, he headed for his car parked at a meter, but looked up when he heard the toot of a horn watching a sleekly expensive silver sports car glide to a stop at the curb in front of him. The tinted window slid noiselessly down and a flawlessly groomed Katherine peered out at him.

‘Cooper! You are
just
the man I’ve been looking for!’ she said in delight as he stiffened.

Oh not again
!

Cooper wondered if it was too late to turn tail and run, but the conversation took an unexpected,
intriguing
twist as soon as he heard her next words.

‘I just had my last fitting on my gown and was shopping for my trousseau when I spotted you as I was leaving the boutique – I wanted to find out if you were going to be able to come to our wedding. Reed says he’s been trying to reach you to see if you could be one of his groomsmen, but hasn’t been able to catch up with you.’

Cooper felt a rush of amused relief come over him. He leaned down propping a hand against her car window glancing over at the seat next to her filled to overflowing with pink-and-green striped shopping bags full of lacy, frilly items perfect for a trousseau.

‘You mean you and Reed are getting married,’ he asked with a wide grin, ‘now how’d
that
happen?’

‘Well, Cooper, a girl can’t wait around for you forever,’ Katherine smiled coyly up at him batting long fake eyelashes. ‘Reed and I actually got er…
close
… after dinner and drinks on his yacht after the Regatta as a matter of fact,’ she over shared, ‘and well, one thing led to another…’

She trailed off as her hand bearing a baseball diamond of a ring on her finger, went reflexively to cover her burgeoning stomach. Cooper calculated she should
just
be able to bring in the baby a few months before she hit thirty.

‘Congratulations, I’m glad you found what you were looking for, Katherine. You two
really
deserve each other,’ he said dryly, thinking it was a match that would cheer many a high-powered divorce attorney lurking throughout the city.

‘Thank you,’ she twittered, her hand rising now to pat carefully coiffed hair, preening at the perceived compliment. ‘I have some free time before I have to meet Reed’s mother to pick out our china pattern – why don’t you treat me to a celebratory drink somewhere – with a mineral water for me of course!’

‘Sorry, it will have to be some other time,’ Cooper was dearly glad he had a legitimate excuse to offer. ‘I have to go pick up plane tickets for my trip to Katmandu – I’m off to climb Mount Everest in a few days!’

‘Oh, Cooper, you and your mountains,’ she tutted, ‘will you
ever
settle down I wonder?’

Cooper grew quiet as the wind suddenly picked up around them scattering leaves the color of fall across the sidewalk. There was just one woman who had ever made him think of giving up adventure and living a quiet, white picket-fence lifestyle he thought. And she was gone.

For now.

But when he got back from the mountaintop he planned to do
everything
possible to get her back in his life again!

Katherine shrewdly it seemed read the wistful look on his face. ‘I certainly hope you aren’t thinking about that horrid Ashton person,’ she shuddered with distaste, ‘really, Cooper, she is simply
not
our type. She would
never
fit in at the club or anywhere else in our crowd for that matter!’

Cooper straightened from the car with a cold look, ‘and thank God for that. Good bye and good luck, Katherine, I won’t be able to make it to your wedding I’m afraid.’

‘But you don’t even know when it is!’ she sputtered outraged.

‘Whenever it is, I can’t make it.’ Cooper turned and walked off without a backwards glance.

Katherine glared at Cooper’s broad back before shrugging a pair of bony shoulders draped in a non-pc, designer mink – one of the many luxurious treats she’d bought with Reed’s purloined black
no-limit
credit card – though she certainly planned to test
that
particular claim out.

Humph
!
Let him go off to his mountain then – one millionaire was as good as the next, after all
.

Katherine stabbed with a manicured finger at the button to slide up her window, blissfully unaware her own country club membership would be revoked in just a few years time after the bottom dropped on the price of a barrel of oil and the remainder of Reed’s father’s fortune was lost to an unscrupulous investment firm. Reed would also vanish about that time – along with their pregnant Swedish nanny – leaving her alone to raise a pampered brat on limited funds, and fifty pounds heavier with the baby weight that had never come off. Her car disappeared in a silver dot over the horizon, zooming her off to meet her bleak future.

Good riddance.
Cooper heard the car’s engine fade away in the distance, hands thrust deep in his pockets, the swirling breeze ruffling his dark hair. He removed one hand to place it on the handle of his car door about to pull it open when he glanced across the street spotting a sign advertising free Wi-Fi and
‘Live Jazz on Wednesdays’
swaying gently to-and-fro.

On impulse, he looked both ways then darted across the busy street, pulling open the door and entering the crowded coffee shop. He scanned the packed tables and overstuffed velvet couches hopefully for a chestnut head and cat-like hazel eyes. Seeing none, his shoulders slumped a little and he made his way to join the long line at the counter patiently waiting his turn to place his order.

‘Skinny cinnamon dolce latte right, sir?’ The friendly green-smocked barista inquired with a smile recognizing Cooper from the many trips he’d made to pick up Afton’s favorite beverage of choice as a special treat for her.

‘Nope, not today – just one large black coffee please.’

The no-frills coffee was quickly placed before him and Cooper paid leaving a generous tip, sliding his wallet into his back jeans pocket before grabbing the wrapped paper cup, turning to look for a place to sit amongst the crowd.

‘Cooper!
  Is that really you?’

His head swung over his shoulder hearing his name rise above the cacophony of intertwined conversations and his gaze landed on an attractive blonde in a form-fitting red sweater and tight jeans with long black boots stretching up her shapely legs, who waved madly, eagerly leaping from her seat at one of the tall tables. She seemed very familiar and just as the name came to him she reached his side.

‘It’s me, Mollie!’ Her face lit up with delight, ‘imagine running in to you here
today
of all days!’

Cooper gave her a polite smile thinking he was running into everyone but the one woman he really wanted to see, ‘good to see you again, Mollie. I was at the post office across the street and thought I’d pop in and grab a cup of coffee to warm me up. Looks like we might have an early winter after our hot summer. Why
today
of all days?’ he asked idly curious taking a cautious sip of the steaming hot coffee.

‘Why, because Jason and Afton are getting
married
today of course!’

Cooper swallowed then coughed violently, but the pain from the burning coffee going the wrong way down his throat was
nothing
compared to the searing pain he felt stab though his heart at her words.

‘Cooper, are you okay –’ Mollie patted his back with a concerned hand.

‘What the
hell
are you talking about?’ he barked out the question with such fierce intensity that Mollie took an uncertain step backwards.

‘I…I thought you knew –’ she gave a nervous laugh, ‘after all, you’re partially responsible in a way…’

‘
I’m
responsible?’ Cooper repeated dazed, feeling every drop of blood drain from his body.

‘Well, yes…after all, Jason and I might still be together if we hadn’t argued about you at the publisher’s ball that is.’

‘Argued about
me
?’ he parroted again, his hand beginning to shake causing Mollie to take the coffee cup from him concerned he was about to spill the hot liquid all over himself, she scolded.

‘Here, come sit down,’ she led him back to an empty chair at her table, a look of concern on her face as she stared into his ashen face.

‘I thought Afton had probably told you already that Jason and I broke up after I commented on how gorgeous and successful I thought you were at the ball that night.’ She scooted her chair closer to his, ‘I still
do
think that, Cooper.’

He looked at her blankly, his brain scrambled.

Her husky voice lowered to an even more suggestive tone, ‘look, I don’t live far away – why don’t we take our coffees and go over to my place to commiserate together? Say – is that your Lamborghini parked across the street –’

‘
Where
is it?’ Cooper cut her off with his terse question.

‘Where is what?’ Mollie wore a look of consternation at her ignored advance, his unknowingly tight grip on her arm turning that look into a wince instead.

‘The
wedding!
Where
is it going to be held?’

‘One of the…one of the bridesmaids…’ she stumbled out an answer to his urgently hissed question, ‘told me they rented out the Chillicutt mansion and they’re going to have it in the ballroom there this afternoon.’ Mollie paused with a wry smile. ‘I, of course, was dropped from both the bridesmaid and guest list, but I heard it’s a much smaller affair than previously planned – just a few friends and family invited so I’m not sure how they expect to get any good gifts for the new house they just bought –’

‘What
time
is it supposed to happen?’

‘I…I’m not sure…I think she said one o’clock…’ she hesitated then apparently noticed the determination in his eyes as they flew over to the hands on the clock on the wall which were just meeting up at the twelve o’clock mark.

‘Cooper – if you’re thinking you can stop it, it’s probably too late,’ she warned. ‘Your best bet is to move on, like me…maybe even
with
me…’

Mollie’s hand reached out looking to renew body contact, landing on thin air because Cooper was already out of his seat and racing for the door.

‘Cooper!’ she called out to him, rising abruptly from her chair knocking it over to the floor, ‘where are you going? I told you –
it’s too late!
’

It was too late for her to get an answer as well as the door to the coffee shop slammed shut behind him.

Chapter Thirteen

COOPER BROKE NUMEROUS
traffic laws putting his Lamborghini through its paces, but he would have gladly paid any ticket – even spent the night in
jail
if it got him to Afton in time!

The chiseled curve of an Italian sports car was finally given free license to do
exactly
what it was created for. Not rolling down residential streets at polite staid speeds, but rounding corners on screaming tires, reaching speed limits last set on NASCAR sponsored racetracks, flying through changing lights and screeching to a stop in front of the stately Chillicutt mansion across town in record time.

Cooper jumped out, rushing pass a florist’s van parked in the driveway with doors swung wide open in back revealing that it was stuffed to capacity with flowers. The delivery driver with arms jam-packed with dewy pink roses was just entering through the front door of the mansion that closed firmly behind him. Cooper stopped in his tracks and circled back to the van, twisting his head both ways to look around him before he reached in and lifted a huge floral bouquet in a glass vase into his arms.

He leapt up the front steps of the mansion to the front door, ringing the bell with his elbow. It was opened again a moment later by a woman that could only be Afton’s mother, an attractive, petite brunette woman in her early fifties, dressed in a salmon pink mother-of-the-bride outfit, who greeted him with a warm happy smile.

‘More flowers!’ she exclaimed, ‘and those are just beautiful! Such a
lovely
pink. Here let me take them so you can get the rest –’

‘I have instructions to deliver these directly to the bride, ma’am,’ Cooper bluffed gruffly, ‘I have a…er…
gift
to give her too.’

‘Oh, it must be from the groom!’ Afton’s mother sang out merrily. ‘She’s upstairs getting ready for the ceremony. Go right on up – it’s the last bedroom door upstairs at the very end of the hallway.’

‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Cooper made his way with haste to the grand winding staircase and practically flew up the many steps, hurrying down the creaky hardwood floor of the long hallway feeling great relief that he’d made it in time, panting slightly from his mad rush.

He knocked on the closed door at the end of the hall and when it swung open, his breath stilled completely. Afton appeared between the screen of pink flowers he held before his face in the splendid couture wedding gown she’d worn when they’d first met – the dazzling swirl of taffeta, satin and lace he remembered well from the first moment she’d run into him with her red motor-scooter.

The pristine white gown had been tailored to fit her to perfection, he noted, all stains from her fall to the sidewalk removed, the low-cut neckline leaving her arms and shoulders bare, an expanse of alluring cleavage revealed. The pearl-beaded bodice topped the column of silk taffeta cascading in a waterfall of delicate ruffles to the floor and trailing after her in the chapel length train with a pair of white satin pumps peeking out now, instead of dusty pink running shoes.