My One and Only (Ardent Springs Book 3) (4 page)

Of all the . . .

“I’m not your baby anymore, Marcus. Remember? Staying with me would have meant wasting your skill and talent in a backwoods town. Or did you forget that, too?”

Not that Haleigh was bitter or anything.

“I was mad,” he defended. “You sprung that move on me without any warning.” Music blared in the background and then faded. “You weren’t even willing to talk about it.” The music blared again, this time accompanied by a car horn. The man was standing outside a nightclub on the streets of LA claiming to miss her. Jerk.

“You always knew I intended to move back home once my residency was over. And I reminded you of the fact the night you proposed.”

In a muted tone, he replied, “I thought you’d change your mind. I mean, this is Los Angeles we’re talking about.”

“What’s the matter, Marcus? Are the women out there not as susceptible as the ones in Memphis? I suppose plastic surgeons
are
a dime a dozen in celebrity-land.”

“You’re deflecting because you know you were in the wrong,” he said, using the psychobabble that drove her nuts. “We should have decided where to move together.”

The man never listened.

“This is my home, Marcus. If you’d have loved me, you would have made it work.”

“I’m a thirty-five-year-old plastic surgeon on the rise. Moving to Archer Springs would have meant taking a step back in my career.”

“It’s Ardent, Marcus.
Ardent
Springs.” What had she ever seen in this self-centered man-child? “But there’s no point in arguing. You’re in LA. I’m here. We both got what we wanted.”

“I wanted you
and
LA,” he whined. “I can’t believe you can be so callous about this.”

No matter what Haleigh said, the petulant child on the other end of the line was never going to see things any differently than he wanted to. Which meant getting angry would get her nowhere.

“I’m not being callous. I’m being realistic. We ended as friends who want two very different things.” Pressing the button she knew would get his attention, she added, “Better now than after the wedding. California
is
a community property state, after all.” No one came between Marcus and his money. “You need to move on with your life.”

Marcus’s voice dropped. “Is that what you’re doing? Have you already found someone else?”

Cooper’s green eyes flashed to mind. “No,” she said more emphatically than necessary. “I’m not interested in finding someone else right now.”

“So you
do
miss me.”

Saints alive, the man’s ego knew no bounds.

“Goodnight, Marcus,” she said. “It’s late and I have to work tomorrow. I suggest you go back into whatever club you were in and buy a pretty girl a drink.”

“Drinks out here are expensive,” she heard him say before she ended the call. Haleigh rolled her eyes as she tossed the phone back on the nightstand. Flopping onto her back, she stared at the ceiling, pondering her long-standing pattern of dating self-centered, shallow men. The habit went all the way back to high school. You’d think after David had dumped her, leaving her to deal with the pregnancy by herself, she’d have learned a lesson.

She’d been so scared that summer, but just as he’d done for Jessi, Cooper had stepped up to take another man’s place. David should have been the one shelling out money and holding her hand in the clinic waiting room. Gah! She really could pick them. Well, no more. Men were off-limits until Haleigh’s judgment improved. With her luck, that would be never, but better to be alone than married to a man like Marcus Appleton.

Haleigh shivered at the thought.

Chapter 4

Cooper spent his Tuesday lunch break filling the back of his truck with cargo he never thought he’d be hauling. After Haleigh made her exit, he’d returned to Abby and Jessi to find them building a sizable list of baby items. To his dismay, they’d expected him to fill the order as if he knew anything about drool cloths or suction bulbs.

He didn’t even want to know what they planned to do with a suction bulb.

“I couldn’t find the name-brand powder, so I grabbed the generic,” Lorelei said, tossing several white plastic bags into the bed of the truck.

Lorelei Pratchett, another former schoolmate, spent twelve years chasing a Hollywood dream before returning to her senses and coming back to Ardent Springs. To hear Cooper’s best friend, Spencer, tell it, she came back for him, but then Spencer liked to make his fiancée laugh. She’d guffawed at this version of the story on more than one occasion.

To Cooper’s great relief, when Lorelei learned of his mission, she’d volunteered to come along.

The plastic bags joined a bassinet, rocker, changing table, and car seat—all used but for the car seat, as no one was willing to compromise on safety in that area—in the back of the truck. Blankets and clothes had been donated by Carrie Farmer, his best friend Spencer’s ex-wife, who had a four-month-old girl of her own.

Carrie’s husband had been killed in a bar fight while she was still pregnant, so the entire gang had stepped up to make sure the munchkin wanted for nothing, especially not attention. Baby Molly had stolen Cooper’s heart the first second he saw her, and she loved nothing more than to bend him to her will. Which most of the time meant holding court atop his shoulders while drooling into his hair.

“I think that’s everything,” Cooper said, checking the last items off the list. “Now we have to set it all up.”

Glancing to the back of the truck, Lorelei said, “Didn’t you say this is a temporary situation? We’ve collected a lot of stuff for this girl to stay with your sister only a week or two.”

“That’s why it’s all used or borrowed,” he answered, ignoring the niggling concern in the back of his mind. He’d called his mother first thing that morning about the J.T. person, but she’d never heard of him. His mother then called several friends, who’d reported the same.

This mystery was not going to be solved as quickly as he’d hoped.

“Okay, then. I’m ready if you are.” Lorelei drummed the seat like a two-year-old on a sugar high. “Let’s go.”

Cooper had noted Lorelei’s higher-than-usual level of enthusiasm as she’d flitted around Snow’s Curiosity Shop, the secondhand store that had served as his baby furniture supplier and happened to be where Lorelei sold her homemade desserts.

As he climbed behind the wheel, Cooper said, “You’re in a good mood today.”

Lorelei gave a noncommittal shrug. “It’s a good day.”

Cooper narrowed his eyes. “Spill,” he said.

Biting her lip, she looked torn. “If I tell you, Spencer might get mad.”

“Now I’m really curious. What’s so important that Spencer wouldn’t want me to know?”

“Oh, he wouldn’t be mad that you
know
,” she said. “He’d be mad that I told you instead of letting him tell you.”

The woman was talking in circles.

“Well then you’d better not—”

“We set a date!” she gushed, bouncing up and down in her seat. “We’re getting married in October. I’ve got a million things to plan, and it’s going to be insane trying to do it all in only six months, but I don’t care. We’re getting married and it’s going to be the most fabulous wedding ever!”

Of that, Cooper had no doubt. Lorelei did everything with flair and drama, and Spencer would doubtless smile and endure any off-the-wall idea she came up with. The two had been high school sweethearts before Lorelei’s West Coast detour, and the road back to their current status of sickeningly-in-love had been paved with numerous speed bumps and potholes.

If two people had ever deserved a happy ending it was Spencer and Lorelei.

“I’m happy for you,” Cooper said as the engine turned over. “And I’ll do my best to act surprised when he gets around to telling me.”

“I hope your acting skills are better than mine,” she laughed. “In my defense, we didn’t know I’d see you before he did.”

“And I didn’t know I’d be setting up a nursery for a girl I found in my storage building less than twenty-four hours ago. Life is full of surprises.” Pulling onto Main Street, Cooper said, “I appreciate you helping me out. Abby is working and there’s no way I could have done this on my own.”

Lorelei spun in her seat, giving Cooper a poke in the arm. “Has anyone told you lately how good a guy you are?”

“That seems to be coming up a lot lately,” he said, checking the side streets before pulling out of the four-way. “A lot of good it does me.”

“That doesn’t sound like the chipper Cooper that I know. Who put a dent in your fender, my friend? I’ll set her straight for you.”

Cooper had never made a habit of discussing his unrequited love for Haleigh Rae Mitchner, and he wasn’t about to start now.

“I appreciate a little hair-pulling cat fight as much as the next guy,” he said with a wink, “but you can put the claws away. These particular dents are nothing new.”

“She’s an idiot, if you ask me,” Lorelei said.

He glanced over to catch his passenger’s indignant expression as he asked, “Who’s an idiot?”

“Haleigh Rae. She delivered the baby last night, didn’t she?”

This conversation was quickly heading in a direction Cooper didn’t like. “Haleigh was the doc on call, sure. But how—”

“She’d be lucky to have you,” Lorelei interrupted. “Any girl would.”

“What makes you think I want Haleigh Rae?”

Lorelei lifted one brow. “That night at Brubaker’s last year when Spencer pretended that he’d seen Haleigh. You reacted as if he’d announced Henry Ford himself was standing behind you.”

“You read more into that than there was.”

“Oh, come on, Cooper. I’d have figured it out even if Spencer hadn’t told me.”

Fighting the urge to hunt Spencer down and sew his lips shut, he said, “How do you figure?”

“I caught you watching her at the hospital back when Carrie had Molly. The way you looked at Haleigh is how every girl wishes a guy would look at her. Like she’s the most beautiful, amazing woman on the planet.”

“You got all that out of one glimpse down a hallway?”

The corner of her mouth tilted up. “The fact that you know the exact moment I’m talking about says a lot, don’t you think?”

Dammit, he’d just nailed his own tail to a tree.

“How I feel about Haleigh doesn’t matter,” he said. “That’s a dead-end road.”

“Does she have any idea?”

What would be the point of telling her? Haleigh would take it as a joke just like she had his flirting last night. And his marriage proposal thirteen years ago.

“Like I said, dead-end road.”

“But if—”

“Lorelei,” Cooper barked louder than intended and felt instant regret when she jerked in her seat. He hated the rare times his anger got the best of him. Mostly because he sounded like his father in those moments, which was not a good thing. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Just drop it, okay?”

“I shouldn’t have stuck my nose in,” she mumbled, keeping her gaze on the passing buildings.

“Hey.” He tapped her with his elbow. “I know you mean well. Really. Someday I’ll find the right girl, and maybe I’ll be half as lucky as Spencer.”

Blue eyes met his as glossy lips curled into a smile. “I hope you’re luckier, Coop. You deserve a girl way better than me.”

“Nah,” he said. “They don’t come any better than you, Lor. Though I won’t mind if she’s a little less high-maintenance.”

“Oh!” Lorelei squawked. “That’s so mean!” But she laughed through the protest. “Just for that, I’m insisting that every guy in the wedding wear a tux. With a tight bow tie!”

Haleigh arrived home shortly after five, dog-tired and bone-weary. She’d been scheduled from eight to four, but babies didn’t abide by schedules and she’d been called in by six for a difficult delivery. Never a pleasant way to start the day, but baby and mother had pulled through and were doing well.

Speaking of mother and child, before leaving the hospital, Haleigh had signed off on Jessi’s release papers, which meant Cooper would arrive any minute with her new roommates in tow. The lonely child desperate for a father had been nowhere in sight when Haleigh had checked on her patient earlier in the day, though Jessi looked even younger without the heavy eye makeup. The change in appearance had taken Haleigh by surprise, but the teenager had been too distracted by her newborn to notice.

Desperate for a shower and a nap, Haleigh trekked down the hall, drawing up short at the doorway to the room before hers. Someone had set up a nursery. The furnishings were sparse, but appeared well cared for. A white bassinet trimmed with three layers of ruffles graced the left wall, while a changing table rested beneath the window. Bunnies and baby chicks frolicked across the curtains, anxiously awaiting the new child they were about to meet. The shelves of the changing table were filled with diapers, wipes, blankets, and even a pink bin of booties and bibs.

Abby had been at work all day, which meant only one person could have done this.

Cooper.

“How did he find all this stuff?” Haleigh asked aloud as she drifted toward the most appealing piece in the room—a cherrywood rocking chair. Heavy and finely carved, the rocker had clearly undergone a recent update with its polished gleam and bright, butter-yellow cushion. Thankfully, the restorer had resisted the urge to even out the faded areas along the arms, evidence of loving use over many years. Solid and welcoming, the chair all but oozed motherly love.

The man was a force to be reckoned with. A virtual paragon of his gender. And then a stray thought crept in.

Would he have done the same for my baby thirteen years ago?

The question cut like a scalpel to the throat, and Haleigh backed out of the room as if the curtains had burst into flames. Sure, Cooper had offered to marry her, but they both knew that had been no more than misplaced chivalry. Neither of them had been prepared to be a parent. And the baby hadn’t even been his to begin with, which had made the suggestion all the more ridiculous.

Darting from the room, Haleigh sought an escape. A long drive would settle her mind. So would a good stiff drink. Smacking the wall, she took a deep breath and corrected that thought. She did not need a drink, regardless of the urge gnawing at her gut. An uncomfortable memory wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. She’d sure as heck handled worse in the past.

Purse and keys still in hand, Haleigh rushed through the house and out the front door only to run headlong into Cooper’s chest.

Cooper struggled to keep both Haleigh and the infant-filled car seat in his left hand from hitting the ground.

“Whoa,” he said. “Slow down.”

Haleigh jerked out of his grasp. The woman was spooked about something.

“Hal, what’s going on? Is someone in the house?”

“No.” She twisted the strap of her purse as she shoved a loose lock behind her ear. “Of course not. Don’t be silly. I just have an errand to run.”

“Dr. Mitchner?” Jessi said from behind Cooper. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” Haleigh replied, her eyes landing everywhere but on Cooper’s face. “I was on my way out.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cooper could see the panic clawing at her. “Come inside and sit down.”

“No,” she said again. “I told you, I have somewhere to be.”

“I’m confused,” Jessi said. “I thought this was Abby’s house.”

Haleigh stepped around them both, saying, “I rent a room from Abby. We’re friends.”

“Why is a doctor renting a room from anyone? Shouldn’t you have the biggest house in town?”

Ignoring the question, Haleigh increased her pace. “I really have to go,” she said over her shoulder.

Cooper took a step after her before realizing he was still carrying the baby. “Well, hell,” he said, rushing into the house and setting the seat gently inside the foyer. To Jessi he said, “Close the door to keep her out of the wind and I’ll be back in a second.” He reached the gray Ford Fusion as Haleigh dropped into the driver’s seat. “Wait,” he said, blocking the door with his body. “Come inside and calm down. The errand can wait.”