Nicole Edwards - Chasing Dreams

“Three months later, I get a phone call from Tabitha. She got a hold of me through Marcus. Keep in mind, I hadn’t heard from her at all since that night.” Cooper dropped his head, staring down at the floor while he wrapped his hands behind his neck. God, he hated this story. “She told me she was pregnant. Told me she hadn’t been with anyone else before or after me and that the baby was definitely mine.”

Cooper remembered the phone call and aside from being utterly shocked, there was something else. He’d found himself somewhat excited by the idea of being a father. It hadn’t mattered that he didn’t know the woman, couldn’t even remember sleeping with her. But the part of him that had been searching for something more permanent, something that would allow him to settle down, had wrapped its hands around the idea and jumped up and down with joy.

“I went to Arkansas,” he explained. “I bought an old house close to where she was, and we spent the next two months getting to know one another. I knew when the baby was born, I was going to ask for a paternity test, but until then, I didn’t see how it could hurt for me to get to know her. If she was the mother of my child, I wanted to be there for her.”

Looking up, Cooper met Tessa’s eyes for the first time, and he saw tears there. His heart constricted. She was going to hate him after this, he could feel it.

“I never slept with her, Tessa. Not after she told me she was pregnant and as it turns out, I had never slept with her before then either. She was pregnant when she came to my tour bus, but her asshole boyfriend had left her, and she wanted to find someone to help her take care of the child. Don’t ask me why she picked me, I have no idea.

“One afternoon, the boyfriend approached me. At the time, I didn’t even know he existed. He gave me the full scoop right there in a busy restaurant close to her house. I felt like an idiot. She’d blindsided me and lied to me about the whole thing.”

“Does Marcus know the full story?” Tessa asked, the first words she’d said in quite some time.

Meeting her eyes, Cooper forced himself to his feet, pacing away from her. “Of course he knows the fucking story, Tessa.” The anger was bubbling down deep. “He made sure that I was reminded of the incident for the next six months or so. He used it to hurt me as often as he could.”

“Why did it hurt you?” she asked, sounding concerned.

Cooper stopped pacing and turned to face her. “I’m thirty-one fucking years old, Tessa. In all my life, I never imagined I’d be over thirty and single. For years I’d hoped to find the right girl, settle down, have babies,” he explained, the fury frothing like acid in his gut. “And no, maybe it’s not what most men my age are actively pursuing, but dammit, I want something of my own. I’m fucking tired of being alone.”

He turned away, running his hands through his hair before resting his palms on the porch railing. He knew how the story sounded, knew that it made him appear weak and needy, but he wasn’t going to lie to Tessa. In truth, he wanted what his parents had found nearly thirty-five years ago and to this day, he never expected it to happen to him. So when Tabitha had tricked him into believing he was going to be a father, he’d been happier than he had been in years.

Cooper’s body went rigid when he felt Tessa’s hands on his back. He hung his head low, expecting her to tell him that he needed to go, he needed to go find someone who could give him what he needed because she wasn’t that person.

But damn it, he wanted her to be. It wasn’t very often that he found a woman who treated him like a normal man. Like he wasn’t in the limelight. He liked the way she tried to keep her distance, yet relented when he pushed because no matter what, up until now, he knew she felt something for him too.

Cooper’s back hardened when her soft, cool hands were replaced by her lips. She wasn’t trying to seduce him, she was trying to comfort him, and when she wrapped her arms around him, her palms flattening on his stomach, he almost lost control of his own emotions. He couldn’t remember a time when a woman held him like that. Like they actually wanted to ease his pain.

If he hadn’t already been falling in love with her, he certainly was now.

Tessa felt the thump of Cooper’s heartbeat against her palms, the warmth of his skin against her cheek as she held on to him.

His story wasn’t what she expected to hear, and the sorrow in his voice as he told it hit her in a strange way. As much as she wanted to deny the truth, the pained look in Cooper’s eyes had told her he wasn’t lying. And it helped to explain the sadness she’d seen when she had brought up kids before. Some of what he said was probably difficult for him to admit. Based on the way he stood stone still in front of her confirmed it.

He wanted a family, and he’d been conned into believing he was going to be a father. Above all else, he’d done the right thing. Something many men wouldn’t do. She had to admire him for that, even if her heart was breaking for what he’d been through. She wanted to find the Tabitha girl and claw her eyes out for hurting him like that.

Tessa was just about to say something when her back screen door flew open, slamming into the wall, making her jump. She turned to see Jack barreling toward her and Cooper like the house was on fire.

“Sonuvabitch! What the fuck did you do to my sister?” Jack growled as he moved closer.

Cooper’s sudden movement caught Tessa off guard, and when she began to stumble, he righted her and then eased her behind him as he went toe to toe with her younger brother.

“Jack! Don’t!” she yelled, trying to move around Cooper. He wasn’t having any of it, and she was getting pissed off by the way that he was trying to protect her.

This was her brother.

Slapping his arm away, Tessa moved around Cooper, watching as Jack got right up in Cooper’s face. Granted, Jack was closer to six-foot-six compared to Cooper’s six-foot-two, so they didn’t meet eye to eye.

“You bastard! If you hurt her, I’ll fucking kill you!”

“You don’t want to do this, Jack,” Cooper warned, his voice calm but eerily low.

His body language didn’t at all resemble the tone of his voice though. He appeared rigidly defensive, but he wasn’t aggressive toward Jack physically.

“Nothing happened,” Tessa told him, trying to push her way between them. “Dammit, Jack! Nothing happened!”

“No?” Jack barked, never moving out of Cooper’s face. “Then why did I hear you went home last night after this shithead’s manager stopped in? How do you explain that?”

Tessa grabbed Jack’s arm and forced him back an inch. Not that she could’ve budged him if he didn’t want to move, but he placated her.

“I didn’t feel well,” she explained. That was the truth. After she spoke to Marcus, her stomach had been churning painfully from her grief. But, in Cooper’s defense, she hadn’t given him a chance to explain himself.

Jack pinned his stare back on Cooper who hadn’t moved from where he was standing, his fists clenched at his sides.

“You hurt her, and I’ll hurt you. Understand me?” Jack asked.

“You don’t want to do this, Jack,” Cooper repeated. “You’re gonna want to take a step back.”

Tessa could feel Cooper’s ire as it radiated off of him like a heat wave in summer.

“Jack, stop. Cooper didn’t hurt me,” she told her brother. She looked up at Cooper, waiting until he looked at her before she said, “He wouldn’t hurt me.” The sudden realization made her body tremble and tears rush to her eyes.

He wouldn’t hurt her. He was one of the good ones. Even if she was scared senseless about what that meant for them. She didn’t want to invite more heartache into her life, but she found that she trusted him. Something that she didn’t do easily. After Richie died, leaving her utterly alone and Chad had tried to sabotage her reputation because he didn’t get his way, rightfully so, she was jaded.

But just like Izzy suggested, Tessa had managed to give Cooper a chance. And here he was copping to his innermost insecurities, and she knew without a doubt that he wasn’t going to hurt her. At least not on purpose.

“Never,” Cooper whispered, his eyes locked with hers. “I promise you that.”

Grabbing Jack’s arm, she applied as much force as she could, pulling him backward. “Now, go on. Thank you for wanting to protect me, little brother, but it’s time for you to go.”

Jack stood motionless, staring at her like she had morphed into something alien right before his eyes. “Fine,” Jack said quietly. “Just remember that I won’t tolerate anyone hurting her. You get me.”

“Sounds like we’ve got something in common,” Cooper answered, his brown eyes calmer than they had been moments ago.

Without another word, Jack turned and stalked back in the direction he came. The screen door slammed once more, followed by the front door a few seconds later.

“I’m sorry about that,” Tessa said, pacing away from him.

Cooper’s warm hands stopped her movements as they rested on her shoulders. He turned her to face him and Tessa’s breath lodged in her chest. “Don’t be sorry. I’m glad to know that he’s got your back. I feel better knowing you’ve got someone in your corner.”

Tessa nodded, fighting the tears that had suddenly appeared to cloud her vision. There was so much emotion churning inside of her, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold them back much longer.

That’s when her feet were swept out from under her, and she found herself in Cooper’s arms, a squeal escaping her as she tried to kick her legs.