CHAPTER FIFTEEN
COOPER WATCHED DAWN walk out of the door and knew in that instant she’d taken his heart with her.
Well, it wasn’t as if he’d be using it, anyway. He’d probably hardly notice it was gone, once he got back to work.
‘Is she right?’ Justin asked, sounding oddly anxious.
Turning to face his brother, Cooper raised his eyebrows. ‘Right about what?’
Justin shifted from one foot to the other, looking from the ring on the side table to his brother. ‘Do you really think no one could love you for anything but your money?’
‘Don’t you?’ Cooper asked bluntly.
Because that was how it worked. People used love, sex and even friendship to get what they wanted out of the world. And what people wanted most, in Cooper’s experience, was exactly what he had: money and power.
Why would anyone want anything else from him?
‘I think I might have just made a huge mistake,’ Justin said.
Blood pounded in Cooper’s ears. ‘You want Dawn back.’ Hadn’t he known it would come to this?
But Justin laughed. ‘No, you idiot. And, even if I did, she wouldn’t have me.’
‘You’ve got as much money as I have. Why wouldn’t she?’
‘Because she’s in love with you.’
Cooper shook his head and threw himself onto the pale-blue couch his mother thought was calming, but had the most uncomfortable cushions in the world. ‘So now you believe her motives are pure.’
‘I think I might have misunderstood them.’ Justin dropped to perch on the coffee table in front of Cooper, his expression sincere. ‘I met Cynthia at work, two weeks before the wedding. I told myself that I was imagining the connection between us, that it was just lust or something. Dawn was everything I’d ever wanted in a wife, so what reason did I have to look elsewhere, right? But I couldn’t deny the way I felt when I was with Cynthia, and I couldn’t avoid her, because we had to work together. And, with every moment that passed, I became more and more certain that she was perfect for me.’
‘Why didn’t you say something? Call things off earlier?’ Cooper asked.
‘Because I’m a coward. And I didn’t want it to be my fault.’
Cooper huffed a small laugh. That made sense. Justin never had liked taking the blame for anything.
‘When I found that credit card statement, I thought about everything you went through with Rachel and I thought...what if this is the same? And maybe I convinced myself it could be, so I had an excuse to not show up at the altar that day.’ Justin looked up, his gaze locking with his brother’s. ‘I don’t regret not marrying Dawn. It wasn’t meant to be, not the way I’m meant to be with Cynthia.’
They all find their true love and get married within two years.
Dawn’s voice echoed in Cooper’s head. She was right; it had happened again.
But it wouldn’t for him. He was sure of that.
‘So, you don’t think she’s a gold-digger?’ Cooper asked.
Justin shook his head. ‘And neither do you. Do you?’
‘No.’ Cooper sighed. ‘I’ve known she couldn’t be since almost the day we set out on this road trip, although I tried to convince myself otherwise. I wanted to believe you, brother. And I needed a reason to—’ He broke off.
‘To keep your hands off her?’ Justin guessed.
‘Something like that.’
‘But the point is, Coop, if she’s not after your money, you must have something else she wants.’
‘Like?’ Because, for the life of him, Cooper couldn’t imagine what else he had that was worth a damn.
‘Like your heart,’ Justin said gently.
But Cooper didn’t have that to give. Dawn had already taken it.
And suddenly he wasn’t at all so sure he could live without it. Not without holding hers in return.
He jumped to his feet. ‘I have to go.’
Laughing, Justin tossed him a set of car keys. ‘Her passport’s in the glove box. Save me a courier fee.’
‘You can spend the savings on our wedding present,’ Cooper called back over his shoulder.
* * *
Dawn drove and drove. Focussing on the road ahead of her meant that she didn’t have to think about everything she’d just walked out on. And, when the thoughts crowded in anyway, she turned Elvis up louder on the radio and let him block out her own pain with songs of his heartache.
Eventually, though, she needed to stop. Even Claudia, the best ride in the country, got a little uncomfortable after a while—and besides, she needed coffee if she was going to do this drive alone.
A familiar sign flashed on the roadside up ahead, and without thinking Dawn turned towards it, parking Claudia alongside Caroline’s Diner and trying to forget the man with whom she’d stopped here last.
Inside, everything was just as it had been the day before, as if her whole world hadn’t shifted and quaked since then.
The same waitress who’d served them yesterday brought Dawn a coffee without even being asked, and Dawn sat and sipped it while staring at the menu without reading the words.
Justin had been cheating on her. He’d honestly believed she’d only wanted his money.
And now he’d convinced Cooper of the same.
And Cooper, idiot, believed him. Not because he didn’t know Dawn, but because he didn’t know himself.
Oh, he probably thought he did, but he had no idea. She could sympathise, though. She’d spent long enough being someone she wasn’t for other people. She just wished she could have taught Cooper how to break away from that too.
She’d wondered, all through their trip, how to reconcile the Cooper she was getting to know with the one she’d heard stories about. The serious, boring workaholic who was too busy for family, or friends, or love. The business shark who always got the best deal, who protected the family finances and business interests. The protective older brother who didn’t approve of Dawn.
None of those people were the Cooper she knew. The one he’d been on their road trip.
She wished she could show him the man she’d fallen in love with.
She wished he could see him too.
The bell over the door to the diner rang, but Dawn didn’t turn around. There was no one coming for her.
But then the jukebox kicked in and Elvis started playing.
She frowned. Coincidence. It was just that sort of diner.
Then Cooper slid into the seat opposite her, and hope flared in her heart again.
‘You were right,’ he said.
Dawn sipped her cold coffee. ‘About what?’
‘Let’s say everything, just to be on the safe side.’
‘Probably a good idea.’
Cooper sighed. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Dawn. You know I—’
‘I know.’ At least, she thought she did. ‘You know I’m not after your money.’
‘I do. I just... I struggle to see what else you could want.’
‘Why?’ When it was so blindingly obvious to her, how much more he had to offer.
Running a hand through his hair, Cooper stared across the table at her. ‘I told you about Rachel.’
‘Just because one woman only wanted you for nefarious reasons, doesn’t mean they all will, you know.’
‘It wasn’t just one.’ Cooper looked away out of the window and Dawn felt her heart sink.
‘Tell me.’ Reaching across, she took his hand in hers and listened.
‘When I was twenty-one, and just starting out at the company, my mother brought in this student-placement candidate called Melanie and asked me to show her around. She was gorgeous, and funny, and I played the big guy on campus, showing off for her.’
‘So far, so normal. Who wouldn’t?’
‘Yeah, well. What
I didn’t know was that she was taking all the company secrets I let slip in an attempt to impress her and passing them on to her boyfriend, who just so happened to work for our competitor.’
Dawn winced. ‘Ouch.’
‘That’s why I should have known better, when Rachel came along. Why I should have listened to Justin when he tried to tell me what she was really like.’
‘And why you listened to him this time,’ Dawn guessed.
‘Exactly.’