The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) (16 page)

This was just about as perfect as you could get. The blue as far as he could see. No-one around. The warm breeze at his back. Maggie next to him.

‘Do you miss it? The surfing?’ Maggie
asked, turning to face him.

There wasn’t an answer big enough, so he went with a simple, ‘Yeah.’

‘How long until you can get back out there?’

‘The doc will be able to tell me more on Wednesday. Not long, I hope.’ He didn’t want to say what his doctor had predicted: that it might be all over.

If your rehab isn’t successful and, frankly, even if it is, you’ll be in no fit state to ride a skateboard
much less a wave. And you’re not a kid anymore, you’re thirty-four. With the knees of someone twice your age.

‘Me, too.’

They sat in companionable silence and savoured the sunshine and the breeze. He reached for her hand. It was warm from the sun, and soft. Her fingers looked small in his. ‘Hey, Maggie Mac?’

‘Yeah, Cooper Cooper Cooper?’ She smiled across at him and
whoa
. Something slam-dunked
in his chest.

‘I wanted to say … you’ve done a great job with Evan, you know that? Being with you guys like I have been, seeing him, man … he’s a great kid.’

‘Thanks, Cooper.’ Maggie tucked her sunglasses on top of her head. ‘He idolises you, you know that.’

Cooper felt a hard tug at his heart. ‘It’s hard for a kid to grow up without a father in his life. You want someone to be like, want someone
to notice all the stuff you do.’

‘You didn’t have that?’

Cooper shook his head. ‘We had lots of money when I was growing up, all the trappings of that kind of life, but my father checked out on us. He was too busy making money to care about his sons. He never came to see me surf, never even took us to the beach. But our mother was … man, she was incredible. She made up for him in a million different
ways every day. You remind me of her. The way you are with Evan.’

He was surprised to see Maggie’s eyes shining with unshed tears. When her bottom lip wobbled he wanted to kiss it.

‘I’ve seen you up close, this past week or so. You’re a great mom, Maggie. And I feel so …’ Cooper searched for the right word. ‘I feel like the luckiest man in the world that you let me be a part of Evan’s life.
I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to settle down and have kids of my own, that whole thing. Not with my career. But it feels like I’ve got the next best thing.’

Maggie didn’t say a word. Cooper couldn’t bring himself to say what he wanted to say next: if I can’t have you, Maggie Mac, being friends is the next best thing.

She squeezed his hand and they sat together in silence, the breeze
in their faces and the sun on their skin.

‘You know,’ he said finally. ‘I’ve been in and out of the States for what, ten years? And you know what I’ve never done?’

‘What’s that?’

‘I’ve never had a milkshake.’

Maggie laughed. ‘A milkshake?’

‘C’mon, isn’t that what you Yanks do on a date?’

‘This is a date? I thought this was a jailbreak.’

Cooper chuckled. ‘If you find a malt shop, I’ll buy
you a chocolate shake. Will that make it a date?’

Maggie laughed so hard she doubled over. ‘Oh, my Aussie friend. You’ve been watching too many
Happy Days
reruns.’

Cooper laughed along with her. ‘Or The Peach Pit? Wasn’t that a place?’

Maggie slid off the hood, shaking her head at him. ‘Get in the car.’

‡

‘S
o tell me
—what did the Doc say?’

Cooper’s manager crossed one leg over the other and regarded his client over the top of his designer sunglasses. They were sitting at an outside table at one of San Clemente’s downtown restaurants on a sunny Wednesday afternoon.
Alfie was drinking a beer. Cooper was sipping on water. Not that he didn’t feel like a drink. After the news he’d had that morning, a straight whiskey would barely have touched the sides. The umbrella over the table kept the warm sun off Cooper’s face, but he was still sweating. How could he even begin to process what his doctor had told him that morning? She’d stared at him over the rims
of her glasses and her words were direct and clear:
It’s worse than I thought. Don’t you dare go anywhere near a surfboard for twelve months, Cooper. Or your career will be over.

She’d warned him before, but he hadn’t really listened. He was unbreakable, right? He was a world champion, Australian surfer with a hard head and a strong body that had survived all kinds of injuries over the years.
He’d always imagined he would go out on his own terms, at a time of his choosing, maybe after he’d hit number one on the pro tour again. Going out on a high, yeah, that was a way better alternative than being forced out of the water by an injury. People would pity him if he ended his career that way, and that was the last goddamn thing in the world he wanted.

But he might not have a choice. He’d
suspected the news about his knee would be bad, but he’d filed that thought away in his head in the same place the pain was living. And suspecting the worst and acknowledging it were two entirely different things. His body was his career. If it broke down, what the hell would he do next?

‘C’mon, mate,’ Alfie urged in his Cockney twang. ‘You gonna tell me what the medicos said? Are we gonna get
you back out there in the water soon, or what?’

Cooper hunched over, staring into the plate of half-eaten burritos on the table between them. He crossed his arms and leaned his elbows on the table. ‘Doc says I need a little more time.’

Alfie waited for his friend to elaborate. ‘Like, how much more time is she talking, Cooper?’

‘She wants to see me in another week,’ he replied, which also had
the benefit of being true. Cooper suspected his doctor wanted to see him again to sit him down in that uncomfortable chair in her exam room and ram home once again how serious this was.

He doubted there’d be any miracle cure between now and next Wednesday.

Or between this moment and the rest of his career.

‘You gotta do what the Doc says, Coop,’ Alfie said.

‘Yeah, of course.’ Cooper slipped
off his sunglasses, folded them and put them on the table. ‘Trouble is, Alfie, you know that I’ve blown out this fucking knee too many times. The first time I was young and reckless and didn’t want to hear what the doctors told me and look what happened? I’ve been paying for it ever since. I’m thirty-four with a knee that should be living in a condo in Florida.’

Alfie chuckled. ‘Just do what
they tell you, okay? For once, take some advice, you stubborn idiot.’ Alfie leaned across the table and patted Cooper on the shoulder in an attempt at reassurance. ‘We’ve always known your career could turn on a dime, Coop. And you’ve been smart about it. We’ve invested and diversified to make sure there’s something for you just in case you can’t—’

Cooper held up a hand. ‘I know.’

Alfie leaned
in close, pulled at the label of his designer beer. ‘I’ll cancel Hawaii then.’

It killed Cooper to agree but he reluctantly did. ‘Okay.’

‘And maybe Bell’s.’

‘Yeah, probably a good idea.’

Alfie caught the waitress’s attention and asked for the check. ‘So, how’s Maggie?’

Cooper was relieved to change the subject. And he was surprised at how he felt when he thought about her. ‘She’s great.’

‘Good woman, that Maggie.’ Alfie’s eyebrows shot up into the wrinkles on his forehead. ‘Glad she’s looking after you.’

Cooper straightened his shoulders. ‘What makes you think she’s looking after me?’

‘You think I came down in the last shower?’ Alfie laughed. ‘How old’s her kid now?’

‘Evan’s five,’ Cooper said and he smiled at the thought of hanging out with him when school was done. ‘He’s a
great little dude.’ He checked his watch. ‘Speaking of which, Evan will be home from school soon. I promised him an introduction to Daffy Duck.’

When the waitress sidled up to Alfie with the account, he gave her a wink of thanks and handed it directly to Cooper.

‘You’re paying for this one, right son?’

‘Only if you drive me home.’

It wasn’t until he waved Alfie off at Maggie’s place that he
realised what he’d said. And how much he was starting to think of Maggie and Evan as
home
.

*

Maggie closed Evan’s
bedroom door, grateful he’d slipped off to sleep so easily. Having Cooper around had been more of a bonus than she’d realised when it came to Evan. As soon as they got home from school, Evan raced to see Cooper and the two
men in her life had entertained each other all through dinner and until bedtime. Now, Maggie was back in her study to work some more and Cooper had settled on the sofa with a crime novel. When he’d got home from his meeting with Alfie, he’d settled into hanging out with Evan. She sensed he was keen to put some distance between her and him. There was a shadow in his eyes that only she could see.
A heaviness in his steps that she thought the rehab had ironed out. Whatever had happened, they would have to wait until Evan was in bed to discuss it.

But now it was ten p.m. She switched off her computer and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Her instinct was to go by the living room and see what Cooper was up to, but she fought it. She didn’t want to push. She knew how stubborn he
could be. Her plan was to simply pop her head in and say a casual goodnight. Tomorrow was another school day for Evan and another work day for her, so hitting the sack sounded like the best plan. Anything more and it would look like she wanted to have sex with him.

And of course she wanted to have sex with him.

That one night may have broken her drought, but now she was so hungry and desperate
for more. That one night would never be enough for a woman who’d gone without a man’s touch for so long. That one night would never be enough for a woman who was craving Cooper’s touch, his body, his fingers and his mouth. For a woman who had tried desperately not to be in love with Cooper Malone but had failed miserably.

She couldn’t be rational about him anymore.

The sound of her footsteps
in the hall must have roused Cooper because within a moment, he was at the doorway to the bathroom, filling it with his tall frame and his wide shoulders. She shivered with arousal and her sex tingled and sparked. After such great sex, how on earth did she imagine she could ever look at him the same way or not want him again and again and again?

‘Hey,’ he said, looking at her reflection in the
mirror in the way she now knew drove her wild. Was he doing that on purpose? Had he just discovered the power of that look, or had her immunity to it been dissolved by sleeping with him?

‘Hey.’ She looked back at him, so much taller than her, so much bigger in every way.

‘Get some work done?’

‘Uh huh.’ She rolled her lips in, willing herself not to speak for fear of saying something she shouldn’t.

‘I’ve just been reading a book,’ he mentioned offhandedly, his eyes fixed on hers.

‘Any good?’

‘It’s all right,’ he shrugged and his eyes darkened. ‘Someone killed someone. Someone else is looking for the killer.’

Maggie braced herself against the basin, her fingers tight on the cool of the ceramic. He was so close behind her, an arms-length away. ‘I didn’t want to ask before in front of Evan,
but how did it go with the doctor today?’

He took a step closer. His thighs were pressed against her butt. Her house was small and there was only one bathroom with barely enough room in it for her, much less the man-mountain that was Cooper. There was no point trying to make any space, even if she’d wanted to.

‘Good,’ he replied.

‘And how’s Alfie?’

‘Good.’

‘You don’t want to talk about it,
right?’

He lifted a hand to her hair and smoothed it away from the right side of her neck, and whispered in her ear. ‘Nope.’

Maggie tried not to react. She reached across to the small shelf on the wall to the left of the mirror and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste. She squeezed out a blob and, when he reached for his brush, sitting in the same cup as hers, she squeezed some out for him
too. He watched her every move.