Cooper (Wild Boys After Dark, #4)(23)

He looked deeply into her eyes, and she felt herself tipping over the edge toward that head-over-heels tumble that had consumed her so easily the last time. When he slid a hand up her back to the nape of her neck and whispered, “I love you so damn much it hurts,” down, down, down she fell.

They had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Cici loved listening to Jackson and Cooper tease each other, and Erica was smart and funny. She had a million stories about Jackson and Cooper as teenagers, and as the stories unfolded, one thread remained consistent. Cooper and his brothers were very close, doing almost everything together from the time they were kids, and at the end of every story, there was another story about their parents. While Cici loved hearing about how Cooper’s father taught him to do everything from fixing his car engine to scraping the side of their house and repainting it, she sensed how much both Cooper and Jackson missed him.

“Their mother actually caught us having sex when we were teenagers,” Erica confessed.

“In Logan’s bed,” Cooper added.

“What?” Jackson said with a laugh. “He and Heath had the only bedroom, and I wasn’t about to have this naked beauty in the loft where you could walk in anytime,” Jackson said as he pulled Erica closer.

“We lived in a two-bedroom house just outside of the city, in Rosedale. My mom still lives there. Jackson and I had bunk beds in the loft at the top of the stairs.” Cooper smiled. “Not a lot of privacy growing up.”

“I love that you guys are so close. But I’d have been mortified. What did your mom do?” Cici asked.

“She gave me a lecture about respecting and taking care of Laney,” Jackson said. “She wasn’t as mad about us having sex as she was worried about Laney, because of some other stuff she’d had going on in her life at the time.” He kissed Erica’s temple, and Erica pressed her hand to his cheek.

“You know she never told Dad,” Cooper added. “You’d have never heard the end of it if she had.”

Cici heard the longing in Cooper’s voice and tried to lighten the mood. “Did you ever get caught?”

Cooper laughed. “Not with my pants down. While Jackson was into Erica, I was busy winning photography contests.”

“He was a major suck-up,” Jackson teased.

“I was not. Dad and I were just really close. I liked traveling with him to the award shows and hanging out with him. Besides”—Cooper’s voice turned solemn—“I’m glad I had that private time with him.”

Cici squeezed his hand, drawing his slightly brooding gaze to her. “I’m sure he was glad you did, too.”

He nodded and pressed his lips to hers. “Yeah, I know he was. We had a lot of good times. I think he’d’ve loved you, too, Celeste Fine.”

“I wish I had gotten to meet him.”

Cooper pulled her in closer.

“Holy shit. Your real name is Celeste?” Jackson’s eyes widened. He ran his palm down the front of his shirt and set a serious stare on Cooper. “Coop. This is Celeste?”

Cici’s eyes ran between the two brothers, wondering what the hell was going on. She didn’t miss the knowing look that passed between Jackson and Erica, or the look of confusion on Cooper’s face.

“Yeah, why?” Cooper asked.

“Coop, the night Dad died, when Heath and I came to your apartment, you kept saying her name.”

Cooper met his brother’s stare, holding tightly to Cici’s hand. “What? You never told me that.”

“You were totally out of it. When we asked you who she was, you yelled at us. Man, I wish I’d have known, but you weren’t exactly in a sharing mood. For weeks you were wound more tightly than a top, and by the time you were rational enough that we probably could have figured it out, we were dealing with our own shit. It totally slipped my mind until just now.”

Cooper stroked his beard, his shoulders rising with tension. “What did I say?”

Erica’s eyes shifted to Cici, and Cici knew she was checking to make sure she was okay, but Cici wasn’t worried about herself. The man she loved was growing tenser by the second, and all she wanted to do was ease his pain.

“It doesn’t matter what you said, Cooper,” Cici assured him. “It wouldn’t have fixed the outcome.” Grief had slayed him once, and even if Jackson had known about her, what could he have done?

Cooper shook his head, as if clearing his mind, and turned a soft gaze to her. He searched her eyes, but she had no idea what he was looking for. She had only one answer, but he didn’t know the right question to ask.

“Ceese, if I could have calmed down enough to tell him who you were, he could have called you and explained. I couldn’t handle hearing your voice, but Jackson or Heath could have. You wouldn’t have been left in the dark.” He pressed his palm to her cheek and breathed deeply. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

“Even at a time like this, when you’re looking back at all the heartache you went through, you’re still thinking of me.” She sensed Jackson and Erica watching them, but she didn’t care. Her heart was so full of Cooper that she knew she could trust him, and she wanted him in her life. She was definitely going to tell him about Melody tonight when they were alone.

Cooper smiled. “I’ve been thinking of you for four years. I just didn’t always know it.”