The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) (18 page)

He hadn’t gone back to sleep. He’d lain there in bed, thinking about what Maggie had said.

She’d accused him of not thinking about what they were doing. She was damn wrong about that. He hadn’t been able to think of anything else since they’d made love that first night. Because … Maggie. His dream woman—Maggie—seemed finally free of Vance, free enough to open her heart to someone
else. And he wanted it to be him. He’d pushed away the thought for a long time,
years
, and made do with being her friend, but they’d moved beyond that now. Like a million miles away from being friends and he didn’t want to go back. He thought back to something Maggie had said the first night they’d made love. She’d said that she used to be the kind of person who took risks, who did crazy things
without thinking of the consequences.

They were more alike than she knew. To be a competitive surfer, he had to take risks. Being safe meant sitting on the sand. It wasn’t in his nature to second-guess himself. And now, with Maggie, he didn’t want to. Being with her wasn’t a risk. He was beginning to think it was the best chance he’d ever taken in his life because he was beginning to hope for
a future with Maggie—and Evan. All he needed to do now was convince her.

Because he sure as hell didn’t have a future as a surfer anymore. Being in Maggie’s bed had distracted him from the cold, hard truth of his situation. His career was over. Alfie knew it in his heart, but had been too hesitant to say it out loud. But Cooper knew it. And that meant he could settle somewhere. Finally put down
roots. He’d always thought that would be back in Sydney, near his brothers. He had enough money to have a pretty damn good life back home in Sydney and enough business interests to keep him occupied. He wouldn’t miss accumulating frequent flyer miles as he flew from one surf comp to another.

Problem was, that wasn’t where Maggie and Evan were.

He looked around her little kitchen. From somewhere
in the house, he could hear Evan’s voice and the chug of the washing machine. He didn’t know where Maggie was but he had to find her. There were things to say. Six years of things to say.

But first, he had to find Evan. The kid had already had a father—even if it was a father in name only—let him down and even though it was only a simple no-show for breakfast, Cooper didn’t want the kid to think
he’d bailed on him too.

*

Evan was under
his bed with his scruffy koala, Fizzy.

With a great deal of difficulty, Cooper managed to manoeuvre himself flat on his stomach, and found himself peering through a disaster area of dinosaurs, building blocks, dog-eared books, a stray sock or two, the crust of a sandwich and a damp towel. The
sight took Cooper back to his own childhood. His bedroom was his whole world when he was Evan’s age, even if the historic house he’d grown up in had three wings and eight bathrooms. Later, the beach became his world, and the waves had saved a lost teenage boy from getting into a world of trouble. Cooper knew that for all intents and purposes, he had saved himself, but he still thought it had been
so unfair for a young man to have no-one watching his back.

This little dude? The one hiding under his bed with his koala tucked under his arm? He would never feel like that, Cooper swore it.

‘Evan? You gonna come out?’

‘No,’ the boy replied.

Cooper lowered his head to peer underneath. ‘Man, you’ve got a lot of shit under this bed. Oh crap. I shouldn’t have said shit. Oh hell, I shouldn’t
have said crap.’

He heard a giggle and he knew he was in.

‘Let me start that again. Golly gosh, you’ve got a lot of stuff under here.’

‘When Mommy asks me to clean my room I just put it all under here.’

‘Ahh,’ Cooper nodded. ‘I used to do the same. But you know what? My mom found out one day, and then I had to do this massive clean-up. And I had to wash the dishes for a whole week.’

‘Weren’t
dishwashers invented then, Cooper?’

He rolled his eyes. His knee made him feel old enough without the kid thinking he was ancient, too.

‘Listen, Evan. Sorry I didn’t make pancakes this morning, mate.’

There was a long pause. ‘That’s okay. Mommy made them. They were good.’

Yeah, they no doubt were. And there was no doubt there were a whole lot of things Maggie did better when it came to Evan.
Like every damn thing. ‘Listen Evan, can we make a deal? Can you promise never to tell your mom I said shit or crap? I’ll get into a whole world of trouble.’

Evan giggled. ‘Mommy doesn’t like swears.’

‘She’s a very smart mommy. So, is that a deal?’ Cooper swiped away a couple of trucks and reached out a hand.

Evan didn’t respond. Cooper waited. He didn’t want to be on shaky ground with Evan
but he didn’t want to push, either.

‘I get it. You want to think about it for a while.’

‘Cooper?’ Evan’s voice was small and vulnerable.

‘Yeah, mate?’

‘Are you my Daddy?’

Shit. Crap. Holy fuck.

*

Later that afternoon,
Maggie was hit by a headache that floored her. Cooper had demanded she go and lie down, convincing her he could
hold the fort while she slept, and she took him up on the offer, glad to be away from his suspicious eyes and his care.

Stress headache, much?

How could she have been so stupid? She’d spent the past five years making sure Evan had stability and normality in his life and what had she done? She’d been crazy enough to let herself think that she could get away with sleeping with Cooper, that there
would be no consequences to letting go like that.

She should have known better.

Her whole life was consequences.

And now Evan would feel them, too. As soon as he could, Cooper would be back on a plane and gone. She’d spent her whole life protecting Evan and now her own actions might be the ones to break his heart. Her mother’s words had been going round in her head all afternoon as she tried
to sleep.
It confuses Evan when Cooper is here
.

Serena had been only half right. It was confusing for Maggie too. She’d sworn to never let on to him how she felt and she’d gone and ruined everything with him, too. She’d done it again. She’d cast all responsibility aside and made a big mistake.

‘What have I done?’ Maggie murmured and the words rolled around in her aching head as she finally drifted
off to sleep.

*

Maggie was woken
by a knock on her door. She blinked her eyes open and realised it was dark. Cooper came in, closed the door behind him and hobbled over to the bed. He sat down and studied her face.

‘God, what’s the time? It’s dark. I overslept,’ she muttered.

‘You did and that’s good.’ Cooper reached out and pressed
his palm gently to her forehead.

It was so comforting that Maggie wanted to cry. Sitting right in front of her was a man who could take her to heaven and back three times in one night and console her when she was feeling ill. During the past five years, there had been no-one there to feel if she had a temperature. No-one there to care for her if she was sick. How could she cope with losing this?
With losing him?

‘Has Evan been asking after me?’ she asked. ‘Where is he?’

‘He’s okay.’ Cooper looked strange. Not angry, but strangely sad. He pressed his palms onto the mattress on either side of his hips and stared off into the dim light of the room. ‘That little dude …’

Maggie felt a rush of something. She sat up, tried to get out of bed, but Cooper stopped her.

‘Whoa. Stay right where
you are.’

She tried to shake him off. ‘If he’s upset, he’ll want me.’

‘He won’t be calling for you. He’s out to it, with Fizzy safely tucked under his arm.’

All the tension left her shoulders. ‘You got him to sleep?’

Cooper ran a hand through his hair and chuckled. ‘Yeah. I told him some Daffy Duck stories until he drifted off.’

He turned to Maggie, his eyes soft and dark. ‘Something happened
earlier today, after breakfast. I didn’t want to talk to you about it until he was asleep.’ Cooper took a deep breath. ‘Evan asked me if I was his dad.’

Maggie’s hand flew to her mouth as she gasped. ‘Oh, no. What did you say?’

‘I told him that no, I wasn’t his dad.’

‘Oh, poor Evan.’ And right then, Maggie wanted to cry for her confused little man. And she wanted to cry for what she’d put him
through, what she’d wrapped him up in. ‘What have we done?’ Maggie pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes. She really wanted to grab her pillow and smother herself with it. All this sex—this blow-your-mind sex—with Cooper was no help at all when it came to creating a clear space to think.

Cooper found her shoulder and rested a hand there.

Maggie moved her hands from her face and looked at
him. ‘We’ve screwed this up, haven’t we? We’ve confused that little boy because we didn’t think.’

‘I get that, Maggie.’

‘You know what my problem is? I didn’t think it through before I stormed into your room and took you up on your offer. By the way, why did you offer?’

‘Jeez, Maggie. Don’t you know?’

Maggie shook her head.

Cooper looked at her like she was crazy. ‘I don’t want to stop having
sex with you. We were great as friends but I think we’re rock stars as lovers.’

Lovers. They definitely were lovers.

‘Coop … You know why I’ve been single so long? It’s not because I didn’t have offers. I did. But I couldn’t bear the thought of bringing someone into Evan’s life who wouldn’t stay. I just couldn’t put him through it. He’s never had a father, and I didn’t want him to get attached
to anyone who would leave.’

Cooper slipped his arm around her and moved in close. She could feel the pounding of his heart against hers and she was sure hers echoed right back into his chest.

‘Listen, Maggie. That’s not all I told him when he asked if I was his old man. I was honest with him and I said that no, I didn’t help to make him.’

Her eyes pricked with sad tears. She wanted to go to
her son, to hold him, to reassure herself she hadn’t ruined his life by sleeping with Cooper, by letting him fall in love with the man, like she had, who was about to go back on the road.

‘I also told him that while I might not be his real dad, I told him I was there the first time he walked and the first time he face planted into the rug in the living room. That he’d peed on me once and that
I taught him how to swim and ride his bike.’

‘You remember all that?’ Now Maggie’s tears flowed for real at what she was hearing. There was genuine love for her son in his words.

‘Of course I do, Maggie. I love that kid, don’t you know that? Like he was my own. I wish he was my own.’

Oh, how Maggie wished Cooper was Evan’s father. She realised she’d been holding back from other men because
she could never love a man who didn’t love Evan. Her son was half her heart after all, and a man who only loved half of her wouldn’t get any of her. But here was Cooper, who loved her son, who wished he was his own son.

‘You’re a good man, Cooper Malone,’ she sniffed into his T-shirt. ‘Evan’s so lucky to have you in his life. And he’ll tell you that one day. When he understands what you mean
to him.’