The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) (20 page)

‘She’s not my …’ Cooper stopped.
His woman
. He was well aware of
what he’d done to Maggie. How the hell was he going to explain that?

Alfie held out a hand and Cooper shook it. ‘It’s been a hell of a ride, Coop. You know that?’

‘Wait a minute. What we’ve built? It’s not over. Ever thought about moving to Sydney … or San Clemente?’

‘What, and leave sunny old England?’ Alfie smiled.

‘I want you on board for what comes next, Alfie.’

‘Let’s announce your retirement,
first. I’ll start the ball rolling.’ Alfie threw him a wave before getting in his rental car and driving off with another wave out the window.

Cooper turned at the sound of footsteps behind him. Maggie had her keys and her purse. Her big sunglasses hid her eyes so he couldn’t read what was in them.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

‘I’m getting out of here,’ she said and when he heard the wobble
in her voice, he wanted to hold her. He wanted to apologise and just make it all go away. And most importantly, he wanted to tell her how he felt.

‘Please stay, Maggie. There are things I need to explain to you.’

She lifted her chin. ‘There most definitely are but I can’t do this right now.’ She brushed past him and tried to leave through the open gate but Cooper reached for her. Maggie’s soft,
warm hand, which he’d held as both a friend and a lover, was tense and stiff in his grasp.

‘C’mon, Maggie. Where are you going?’

She pulled her fingers from his. ‘That’s none of your business.’

And as Cooper stood on the sidewalk, Maggie slammed her car door and then drove away with a screech.

His two best friends had just driven off and left him alone.

What had he done to their trust by
hiding this news from them?

‡

‘O
h, Maggie,’ Serena
murmured as she held her daughter close, patting her reassuringly on the back.

‘I know, Mom,’ Maggie pulled herself back from her mother’s warm embrace. ‘Half of me wants to sob for him. The other half wants to kill him. How could he
have kept this a secret from me?’

‘Would you like another piece of chocolate cake while you think about it?’

Maggie nodded and pushed her crumb-filled plate across her mother’s kitchen table. Serena loaded it with another generous piece. Maggie ate it wordlessly. She loved this room. This was the house she’d grown up in and the kitchen in particular held so many memories of cooking with her
mom. She couldn’t begin to count how many times they’d made this chocolate cake together. In the years when she was away at college Maggie had missed the smell of baking it, the butter-and-melted-chocolate scent that used to seep into her clothes. She’d always thought that someone could make a fortune if they could manage to bottle that scent and sell it as a perfume. It would be a man magnet for
sure.

Which made her think of men in general and one in particular.

‘Is that helping, honey?’ Serena sat opposite Maggie, her chin in her hands, a wry smile on her face.

Maggie stared down at her plate, empty for the second time. ‘I think I feel sick,’ she murmured as she pressed a hand to her forehead and squeezed her eyes closed.

‘That’s probably not about the cake.’

‘I still can’t believe
it, Mom. Cooper’s going through this life-changing thing, and he can’t even talk to me? The thing that kills me most is that I thought we were friends.’

Serena patted Maggie’s hand. ‘Are you sure that’s all you are to each other, darling?’

Maggie’s eyes filled with fresh tears. ‘I don’t know anymore, Mom. We’ve been … well, we’ve been sleeping together.’

‘I see.’

‘Please don’t judge. I couldn’t
bear it if you thought less of me or of Cooper. We’re adults. I’m a grown woman and he’s … well, you know who he is. We thought we knew what we were doing, or at least I thought we did. And then it got all confused. Evan asked Cooper if he was his father and Cooper had to tell him that he wasn’t and …’ Maggie dropped her head on to her crossed arms and sobbed. It had been a long time since she’d
cried like this. There was a lot she’d been holding in during the past six years.

Her mom let her cry, kept up a supply of fresh tissues and waited. Finally, she spoke. ‘Maggie, there’s something I need to say to you.’

Maggie sniffed and blew her nose. ‘I know, I know. Here comes the big
I told you so
, right? Well, I deserve it. I’ve screwed up everything. I’ve been irresponsible. I haven’t
been a good mother.’

Serena held up a hand to silence her daughter. ‘Hear me out, darling.’

‘Okay.’

Serena straightened her back and looked directly at her daughter. ‘Honey, I know it’s been tough on your own. And you’ve done a beautiful job raising your son, you really have. Evan is the light of my life. And,’ Serena rested a hand on her daughter’s, ‘so are you.’

‘Thanks, Mom.’

‘If things
had been different between your father and me, well, let’s just say I always wished we’d managed to give you a brother or sister.’

‘I didn’t mind being an only child, really. Once Dad walked out, I never had to share you with anyone.’

Maggie was surprised to see tears in her mother’s eyes and a wobble in her lips. ‘What is it, Mom?’

‘I lost a baby. When you were two, I lost a baby, a little
boy. I was six months pregnant and one day I couldn’t feel him kicking anymore. He’d died in utero. Back then, the doctors couldn’t tell me why. He just … stopped living one day.’

‘Oh no.’ Maggie couldn’t breathe. She’d never been told this story and had clearly been too young to remember. ‘Your baby died?’

‘We never recovered after that, your father and me. Grief does such terrible things to
people.’

‘Oh, Mom …’ Maggie felt a shiver.

‘Your father was a good man, but we were just too sad. We couldn’t find a way to get over that pain. When you had Evan, well … it was as if I got a second chance, too. He was such a beautiful little boy. I can still see him in your arms when he was born. And I was so worried for you that you would be all on your own. That broke my heart.’

‘I’ve been
okay, Mom. I’ve done my best for him.’

Serena nodded. ‘Of course you have. And you know who else has? Cooper. Sweetheart, I understand you think he’s been keeping secrets from you, but I think he has his reasons. He wants to be strong for you and Evan, can’t you see that? He probably doesn’t know who he’ll be if he’s not the man on the cover of the magazines or the one standing up on a podium
holding a trophy.’

‘I didn’t think …’ Maggie trailed off.

Serena waited for Maggie to think over what she’d just said. ‘Tell me something, darling. Do you love him?’

How could she explain to her mom that Cooper—her stubborn, infuriating, gorgeous, tender-hearted, wonderful, sexy friend—was the love of her life? Maggie wiped fresh tears from her eyes. ‘I love him, Mom. The big dope.’ And saying
it out loud suddenly made her laugh instead of sob, and her heart ached with joy not pain.

Serena chuckled at her daughter. ‘I didn’t think it would take this long, but I hoped you and Cooper would come to your senses sooner or later.’

‘You think he loves me, too?’

‘Of course he does, darling. And he’s worth fighting for. Take that step. Reach out for him, Maggie.’

Maggie sniffed. ‘I thought
you were going to tell me that loving Cooper was a bad idea.’

‘It’s never a bad idea to fall in love. I want you to be happy. Happiness is so fragile and precious. Knowing him, it’s yours if you want it.’

Serena pushed back her chair, fetched some plastic wrap from a drawer and wrapped it around two huge slices of chocolate cake. She handed them to Maggie.

‘For Cooper and Evan.’

Maggie threw
her arms around her mother. ‘Thanks, Mom. I haven’t forgotten how you were there for me when Evan was born. You got me through when I couldn’t see the light.’

‘Let me know what happens,’ Serena said wiping her eyes.

‘I love you,’ Maggie called as she raced to the door.

*

‘Hey.’

‘Hey,’ Cooper’s brother Callum answered from Sydney.
It was good to hear his voice. He needed to talk to someone who would be on his side because, as far as he could judge, he was in one team and Maggie and Alfie were firmly in the other. ‘What’s up?’

‘I thought I’d call and let you know that I’ll be back for the wedding.’ Cooper shifted on the sofa in Maggie’s living room. His knee was aching like a bastard this morning, a constant reminder of
what he needed to explain to Maggie, as if he could forget. She’d been gone an hour and he’d paced the hallway for half of that time, until the ache had set in and he needed to rest it. And that was as good a time as any to ring Cal and tell him what was going on.

‘That’s great, Coop. It’ll be great to have us all together. You and Chris as my best men. The Malone brothers all together for the
second wedding in a year. Who would have thought, huh?’

‘I’m happy for you, mate. I really am.’

‘Whoa, whoa. I know that tone. Tell me.’

And Cooper talked until his cell phone was hot against his ear. It was true what people said about twins, especially for him and Callum.

‘So what now? What’s your plan?’

‘Spoken like a true CEO.’

‘You are about to start phase two of your life, mate. And
there will be a successful life for you after all the groundwork you’ve done with your brand and your investments. This is not the end of everything. You got that?’

Cooper struggled to say the words out loud. ‘But I’ll never surf again.’

‘Yeah, I know.’ Callum didn’t have to say anything else to be a comfort to his brother. ‘And that’ll hurt for the rest of your life. I know it. But your job
now is to fill the rest of your life with stuff you love. Stuff that gets you up in the morning.’

What was that, Cooper asked himself? What else did he love as much as the waves?

He looked around Maggie’s small living room. Alongside the TV were the pile of cartoon DVDs he’d been watching with Evan. The pillows on the sofa were those he’d given to Maggie as a birthday gift last year, woven with
Australian Aboriginal designs, as part of his continuing joke poking fun at her obsession with throw pillows. On the mantle, framed photos of the people in Maggie’s life. Her mom. Evan. And him. Right there, by his photo, was where they were standing when he’d suggested they have sex.

Which turned out to the best stupid mistake of his whole life.

Five years of friendship and they’d finally dived
into sex. For a while there, he was thinking it was about the best thing he’d ever done. He thought he knew Maggie, until they’d started making love. Now he knew what she liked in bed. That her breath hitched in short little bursts when she came. That she liked to keep her eyes open when he was inside her. That she liked his cock. And, oh, how he loved her body. It’s warmth, it’s softness. She
felt like home to him.

This room was filled with Maggie and Evan and cartoons and take-out pizza and her damn throw pillows and wine and love.

That’s why it felt like home. Because the people he loved lived here. He loved the kid like he was his own, and he loved Maggie like he’d wanted to all along. Fierce, out of control, real. Forever.

Callum’s question echoed down the phone line. ‘Cooper?
You there?’

Cooper shook his head, tried to get his head back into the conversation. ‘Yeah, I’m here. I’ve just been thinking about what you said, about what comes next.’

‘Are Maggie and her kid part of that plan?’

Cooper paused. ‘The invitation to your wedding. I need a plus two.’

*