My One and Only (Ardent Springs Book 3) Read online

  And now Cooper wanted to make things worse.

  “Do you have a family of your own?” Jessi asked, making Haleigh want to slap everyone in the room, especially Cooper.

  A shadow fell over Abby’s face. “No, I don’t.”

  “Back in the hall!” Haleigh barked, stomping toward the door.

  “What?” Abby asked.

  “This is their thing,” Jessi said. “Every time the doc needs a Cooper fix, she drags him into the hall.”

  Abby snorted. “A Cooper fix? What have I been missing?”

  Haleigh didn’t stop to correct the teenager or explain to Abby. Instead, she grabbed Cooper by the arm and said, “We’ll be back.”

  Haleigh spun on him the moment the door clicked shut. “How could you do this to your sister?”

  “Do what?” Cooper asked. “Jessi needs a place to go. Abby has plenty of room, a doctor in the house, being you, obviously, and it’s only temporary anyway. This is the perfect solution.”

  “For you, maybe,” she hissed. “You know what Abby has been through.”

  “It’s been seven months, Hal, and she’s been stuck ever since. Having Jessi and the baby around is exactly what she needs to get unstuck.”

  “Wrong,” Haleigh snapped. “Having a baby around will be a constant reminder of what she lost.”

  Abby didn’t lose a baby, she lost a husband. “What are you talking about?”

  “Their plan was to get pregnant during Kyle’s next leave. That would have been mere weeks after he was killed. Which means that right now your sister should be preparing for her own baby, not some stranger’s.” Haleigh motioned to the narrow window in the exam room door. “Look at her, Cooper. She’s practically crying just looking at Emma.”

  He’d had no idea. It wasn’t as if his sister talked to him about this stuff. Abby had been a mess after Kyle died, but any woman would be. If he’d known about the baby plans . . .

  “She never told me,” he said. Cooper would rather take a tire iron to the knee than hurt his sister. “I didn’t know.”

  Haleigh continued the guilt trip. “What’s going to happen when she gets attached to Emma, and then Jessi takes her away?”

  “What do you want me to say?” Cooper asked, throwing his hands in the air. “I said I didn’t know, but there isn’t much I can do about it now. I mean, what other choice do we have? There’s nowhere to put them at my place, and you live with Abby.”

  With a frustrated sigh, Haleigh pinched the bridge of her nose. “I know, I know.” She glanced through the small window. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. She’s been so obsessed with Kyle’s death that a new life in the house might not be such a bad thing. But we need to find this girl’s father or prove he isn’t around before Abby gets too attached.”

  The collective we caught his attention. “I’ll start asking around tomorrow. Might as well start with our moms. One of them might remember the guy, if he really did live here.”

  “It’s a place to start.” Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, Haleigh gave him a weak smile. “I need to finish up some paperwork. Tell Abby I’ll see her later, okay?”

  “Will do.”

  Before turning to leave, she said, “You really came through for that girl tonight, Cooper. Not many guys would have done that. Especially for a stranger.”

  “I didn’t do anything special,” he replied. “You and Jessi handled the hard part.”

  “You always did sell yourself short. Face it, Cooper, you’re a good guy.”

  Without awaiting a response, Haleigh left him staring after her. “And good guys never get the girl,” he mumbled.

  Insomnia was a bitch.

  Haleigh couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this tired, yet her brain wouldn’t shut down. And every time she closed her eyes, she saw Cooper’s flirtatious grin and those inviting green eyes. She’d never considered anything about Cooper to be inviting before. He’d always been sweet and funny, and good for forgotten lunch money or an oil change, but there had never been any attraction between them.

  That had certainly changed tonight.

  Since returning to town six months ago, Haleigh had practically lived at the hospital, while using a room at Abby’s house to store her meager belongings and catch the occasional nap. She had her own reasons for avoiding social interactions, especially in places that served alcohol. The only interactions she couldn’t avoid were the mandatory dinners with her mother. Not that Meredith Mitchner ever used the word mandatory, but she’d presented the weekly meal idea as more of an edict than an invite.

  In truth, Haleigh’s mother was an intimidating figure who rarely took no for an answer. Especially not from her daughter.

  Preferring images of Cooper to those of her disapproving parent, Haleigh let her mind wander back a few hours. Though she would never admit as much aloud, that sleepover suggestion had merit. A casual romp would do her body good, and she could replace the image of fourteen-year-old Cooper in tighty-whities with the new and improved version.

  But, alas, that was a no-trespassing zone. Haleigh had a less-than-stellar history with men and would not add Cooper Ridgeway to her long list of failures. He deserved better, for one, and for two, Abby would never forgive her for breaking her brother’s heart.

  The subtle chirp of the cell phone on her nightstand snapped Haleigh from her thoughts. The clock read 12:30 a.m. Who would call so late? Checking the screen, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

  Marcus Appleton—plastic surgeon with delusions of grandeur and Haleigh’s ex-fiancé.

  Speaking of her long list of failures.

  She considered ignoring the call, but since she hadn’t heard from him in months, curiosity won out. “Hello?”

  “Hey there, beautiful.”

  Why had she ever thought that greeting romantic? Sadly, he’d picked her up in a bar with that line. A bar she never should have been in considering her proclivities. But sadly, she couldn’t even use being drunk as an excuse for talking to the arrogant doctor, since she’d been nursing nothing more than a glass of water that night.

  “What do you want, Marcus?”

  “Try not to sound so happy to hear my voice.”

  “It’s after midnight,” she pointed out. As if she’d been sleeping like a normal person would be.

  “Oh, that’s right. I forgot about the time difference. It’s barely after ten out here on the coast.”

  He didn’t forget. He was too stuck in his own world to consider that the rest of the planet didn’t operate on his schedule.

  “Why are you calling?” she asked.

  “Because I miss you, baby.”

  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.”