The Bad Boy Hockey Collection: A Collection Of Single Daddy Romances

by Cass Kincaid

  Chapter Eight

  Cooper

  Everything had changed, and it was all thanks to Samantha and Levi moving in next door. I had to admit, when I met her that first day in the stairwell, when she’d snapped at me for trying to help her pick up the items she’d dropped, I never would have believed that introduction would lead us to here.

  To now.

  Because the now between us was good. Really good.

  And maybe that’s why I should’ve known Zoey would show up here and try to destroy the little life I’d managed to find.

  The knock on the door had been a surprise in itself. I knew it wasn’t Samantha because she always texted or called first—her own personal habit, I guess. And if it’d been a delivery guy or something, they wouldn’t have made it into the building without buzzing my apartment doorbell first and waiting for me to let them in. And, in all the years I’d lived in this building, not once had any of my other neighbors come to my door asking for favors. Hell, I barely knew them.

  Which was why I should’ve known Zoey was on the other side of that door, and yet my chest had constricted, immediately convincing myself it had to be Samantha because, well, everything I said, did, and thought about had to do with her these days.

  “Hello, Coop.”

  I would’ve slammed the door in her face if I hadn’t been so completely shocked by her unplanned presence without Tommy in tow. “Zoey?”

  “Hey,” she said with a coy grin. “I know it’s been a while since I stopped by on my own, but—”

  “Is Tommy okay?” I asked, my eyes flitting down the hallway as though I’d see his carrier or something. “What’s going on?”

  The edge in my voice must have caught her off guard, because I saw her smile falter slightly. Just as quickly, it was back in place. “Tommy’s fine, don’t worry. Can I come in? Just for a bit.”

  Her hand reached out to rest on mine, which I’d placed on the trim of the doorway, blocking her entry to the apartment.

  My apartment now, not hers.

  I flinched, immediately pulling it away from her grasp. “There’s no reason for you to be here, Zoey. Not without my son. We’ve been through this, and I’ve said everything I wanted to say.”

  “Well, I haven’t.” She pushed out her bottom lip. “I’ve missed you, Coop.”

  Funny, until that moment, I hadn’t realized that Samantha didn’t call me Coop. Not once. It was always Cooper on her tongue, not the short form. And until then, I hadn’t realized that was okay, because I wasn’t Coop anymore, anyway. Coop was gone, and he’d left the same time Zoey had decided to walk away from me.

  That left only Cooper Henley, the man I was now.

  And that man was content and happy with the pretty lady down the hall, the woman who’d shown me there was more to life than regretting the past.

  Samantha was my life now, and Levi and Tommy. Not Zoey. And Samantha had opened her heart up to me—to Cooper. The woman standing in front of me didn’t have a hope in hell of undoing that.

  “I can’t say the same,” I said, my voice low. “And I’d apologize for that, but I can’t really say I’m sorry, either.”

  It may have been a trick of the lighting, but I swore I saw her eyes roll slightly. “Oh, you always were so dramatic.” She pushed against my arm, intent on pushing past me to come inside the apartment, but I locked my elbow despite the fact it was my weaker arm, letting the muscles in my forearms bunch. I winced, just she didn’t seem to care that I refused to let her through.

  Zoey pushed herself up against my arm, her breasts pressed against me. She didn’t try to force herself completely through again, but she stayed in place, turning her face to mine, a war of wills battling silently.

  “No, Zoey,” I repeated, knowing damn well she could count on one hand how many times she’d heard me refuse her anything in the time we’d been together. “I mean it. There’s no place for you here anymore.”

  “You don’t know that,” she said a little too seductively for my liking.

  “I know it for a fact. You should go.”

  Finally, her eyes narrowed, the unspoken truth sinking in. “You’ve got someone else?” Her eyes flitted past me, as though I had someone hidden within the depths of the apartment.

  I nodded. “I’ve moved on. You should, too.”

  She brought her gaze back to mine. “You can’t be serious.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, her face so close to mine I could see the confusion shadowing her eyes.

  “I’m very serious.” I shifted my weight, standing my ground. “You should go.”

  “But we were so good together.”

  I’d have been well within my rights to laugh at the audacity of her statement, but I struggled to keep my tone just as soft as hers. “Were. It’s just a shame you figured that out too late, Zoey.” I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “I’ve forgiven you, I really have. But I mean it when I say, there’s no place for you here anymore. Not in this apartment, and not in my heart. Someone else holds that place now, and I hope you can find the same someday.”

  I watched as she bit down on her lower lip, and I waited with bated breath to hear what kind of retort she’d come up with. Part of me wondered if her next words would be a threat to keep my son from me.

  I never expected her to lean forward and kiss me.

  Zoey’s lips pressed against mine just as quickly as her hands snaked around my waist, knocking me off balance. My weight had been on the wrong foot, and as I let go of the doorframe to push her away, it caused me to fall forward, closer to her instead of away.

  It lasted only the briefest moment, and my hands were on her upper arms within seconds. I held her away from me, pissed off that her little stunt had allowed her to make it past the threshold. “What the hell, Zoey?” I hissed, my eyes wide in shock. “Did you not hear a damn word I just said?”

  “Every one of them,” she confirmed, breathing hard. “But I think you’re making a big mistake.”

  This time, I didn’t hold back the hollow laughter, and I let her go, taking a large step back. “That’s where you’re wrong. You made the mistake. Months ago.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, not wanting any remnant of her left on my skin. “I’m not going to ask you again, Zoey. I want you to leave. We’re done here.”

  She crossed her arms, making every attempt to look defiant. But reality had finally sunk in, and doubt veiled her eyes. “You’re going to regret not—”

  “I won’t,” I snapped. “But it’s nice to know you finally figured out what regret is. At least, I’m assuming you have, or else you probably wouldn’t be here now.”

  “That’s not fair.” All the fight had gone out of her tone.

  “No, it’s not, but neither was the way you left me. You were so convinced there had to be something better out there than me and Tommy, it never occurred to you that the way I loved you and him could actually be enough.”

  Zoey’s throat moved as she swallowed, her jaw set in a tight line. “Does she?”

  “She?”

  “The woman you’re in love with now?” she said flatly. “Does she think your love is enough?”

  I stared at her, silent. Then, “Yeah.” I nodded. “Yeah, I think she does. And I’ll do everything I can to make sure it is enough. I won’t make that mistake again.”

  I wasn’t sure I meant to say any of those words out loud, but there they were, and I raised my gaze to meet hers. I felt just as deflated as she looked, just as defeated by the entire conversation as she sounded, but no animosity or anger fueled my last words to Zoey—the words I hadn’t had the chance to say when she walked away from me so many months before. “Goodbye, Zoey.”

  She stood still as a statue, her intense eyes set on me, her hands clenched tightly at her sides. Her lips parted, and I was certain she was about to resume her feeble argument.

  Instead, her features softened, and she gave me a knowing nod.

  “Goodbye, Coop.” She retreated without another
word, her dark hair fanning out like a train behind her.

  ***

  After that, all I wanted to do was sneak over to Samantha’s apartment and get lost in the little world between those four walls. That was the environment I craved, the one that included her, the smartest and sexiest woman ever to grace me with her presence, and the feisty little boy with a heart of gold and adorable smile.

  That’s where I wanted to be. That’s where I wanted Tommy to be. That’s where we both belonged.

  But Levi was with Ethan, Tommy was with his mother, and Samantha hadn’t called or texted yet, even though she should’ve been back home by now.

  Why we weren’t tangled up in bed together by now was beyond me. The thought of it was enough motivation for me to text her first.

  Rumor has it, there’s a pretty lady who lives down the hall, and she should be home by now. Things went okay with Ethan?

  The response didn’t come immediately, which had me thinking she wasn’t actually there yet. When it finally buzzed, the response was short and sweet.

  I’m home, just busy.

  The curt text was like an alarm bell going off in my head. Not once in the past few months had Samantha ever waited two hours to tell me she was busy, especially not on a night when Levi was with his father. Besides, we’d made plans just last night, and she’d seemed to anticipate the impending alone time just as much as I did.

  I didn’t text her back, choosing instead to ask her what was wrong face-to-face. I knocked on her door, waiting.

  She answered, but she only pulled the door open partway. “Hey.” She sounded distant, and I hadn’t even said anything yet. “I said I was—”

  “Busy, I know. What’s wrong?”

  Her stiff posture, unimpressed tone of voice, and neutral expression told me all I needed to know, but the doorway held between us...well, that was a barrier between me and her, and I didn’t much care for it.

  “Nothing, I just—”

  “Something happened. I can see it in your eyes.” She might have been able to lie to me, but only if she was hidden behind the safety net of a text message.

  Her eyes gave her away every time.

  “I said everything’s fine.”

  “You did, and I don’t buy it.”

  “I don’t care if you believe me, Cooper.” Her eyes narrowed into slits. “Now, if you’ll excuse—”

  I put a hand on the door, intent on pushing it open to widen the space between us, but she pushed back, keeping it firmly in place. “What’s going on, Samantha?”

  “You tell me,” she snapped. Then, as though thinking better of it, she shook her head. “Better yet, don’t. I don’t want to do this tonight.”

  “Do what?” I exclaimed, my hand still on the door. “I’m pretty sure you don’t want to have a snippy conversation tomorrow morning when I come over to watch Levi, so you’d better fill me in now.”

  “Yeah, about Levi...” Her gaze suddenly fell toward the floor. “I’ve found him a spot at a daycare over on Carrington Avenue. He’ll go there during the week now, so you’re off the hook, Cooper. You’re free.”

  She may as well have slapped me in the face. Frankly, stabbing me in the fucking chest with a red-hot poker would have hurt less than hearing her explain she was putting an end to my days with Little Man Levi.

  “I didn’t ask to be off the hook, Samantha.” I swallowed down the anger, hating that she made it sound like some sort of business transaction between us, and not the beginnings of what could be a family for all of us.

  Then, something else occurred to me. “Free of what?” The idea of not having Levi around during the day sounded like the furthest thing from freedom to me.

  “Free of us.” Samantha’s jaw clenched. “Free to do whatever you want,” she added. “Or, whoever you want.”

  My head snapped up, and I glared at her. Like a tsunami, it hit me. “Is this about Zoey?” I blurted out. “I don’t know what you think you—”

  “I know exactly what I saw!” She threw the door open the rest of the way. If she was going to tear into me, she was obviously going to do it with an unobstructed view. “I saw you kissing someone else who looked an awful fucking lot like me, Cooper.”

  “Looked like you—what? Shit, Samantha, no.” I ran my hands through my hair, mentally cursing Zoey for ever showing her face here this morning. “That’s not what it was like at all.”

  “So, you didn’t kiss her?”

  “She kissed me—”

  Samantha slapped me across the face, hard. “I fucking trusted you!” she hissed. “You made me trust you.”

  “And you should! Samantha, it wasn’t what you think.”

  She pushed me, and I took a large step back into the hallway. “Don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot, Cooper. I should’ve known you were too good to be true. You might be some big hotshot hockey player, but you’re just fucking like him.”

  Oh, hell no. “Jesus Christ, Samantha. Forgive me.”

  “You want me to forgive—”

  I covered her mouth with my hand. “Not for that,” I told her. “For this.” I felt like I was manhandling her, and I was, but I tried to be as gentle as I could as I clamped my hand harder over her mouth and half-guided, half-pushed her back into the apartment, kicking the door closed behind me. The last thing we needed was the nosy damn neighbors with their ears to their doors, listening to us hash this out in the hallway.

  In what was meant to be a smooth gesture, I pushed her up against the wall just inside the doorway. She struggled against my every movement, however, and I ungracefully fell against her, my weight pinning her to the wall and my teeth gritting against each other with the exertion I was forcing my injured arm to endure.

  Samantha’s wide eyes glared back at me over my hand, still pressed against her mouth, but she’d stopped wriggling, and she wasn’t trying to bite my hand off, so I was making progress.

  “I’m sorry,” I said in a low voice. “The hallway was no place for this conversation, and I knew you wouldn’t invite me in.”

  Muffled sounds came from behind my hand, and even though I didn’t know for sure what she was trying to say, I guessed it was likely a colorful string of curse words coming from her mouth.

  I didn’t care. “Listen to me, Samantha. I know what you think you saw, but I need you to let me explain. Are you going to at least hear me out?”

  Her angry eyes blazed, but she nodded slowly. I removed my hand.

  “Get off me,” she blurted out immediately.

  “Not a chance. And, if my memory serves me correctly, you kind of like it when I’m on you.” I leaned forward, whispering, “I kind of like it, too.”

  “You’re an asshole.” But her cheeks were just as fiery as her eyes.

  “Sometimes, yeah, I can be. I’ll give you that one.” I paused. “But I can tell you three things right now, Samantha. Listen closely, because you’ll never hear the first thing from me again. Ready? I don’t like to talk ill of other people, but from what you’ve told me, your ex-fiancé is a complete asshole. Me? I’m just an asshole sometimes. There’s a difference. So, believe me when I tell you, I don’t ever want to hear you tell me that I’m just like him again. You and I both know there’s nothing further from the truth.”

  Samantha stayed silent, but a sheepishness crept into her eyes. The comment had hurt me, and she regretted it.

  “Second, I can guarantee that while you might see me as an asshole sometimes, right now my own ex is out there cursing my name, telling everyone who’ll listen that I’m a complete asshole, and quite possibly planning to use my son as a pawn to exact revenge against me. And why? Because she came here, thought she could bat her eyelashes and I’d take her back in a heartbeat. When that didn’t work, she threw herself at me. I promptly pushed her away, Samantha. Then, I told her about you.” My throat was thick with emotion, consumed by the need for her to know I was telling the truth. “So, yeah, Zoey didn’t get what she wanted, and I’m the bad guy because
of it. And you know what? I don’t care what Zoey thinks. It’s you I care about, Samantha. You, Levi, and my little boy are the only ones I give a damn about what you might think of me. You’re the ones I love.”

  Samantha stayed quiet long enough that I didn’t think she was going to respond. I could feel the rigidity of her body had lessened, though, so she was calming down a bit. Finally, when she spoke, her voice was quiet, a question meant only for me. “And what’s the third thing, Cooper?”

  “The third thing is the most important thing,” I promised her, matching the softness in my voice with hers. “The third thing is that I intend to stay by your side as long as you’ll let me—not in front of you, and not behind you—and I’ll spend every waking moment proving to you that the fact that I’ve fallen in love with you is enough for us to take on this crazy world together. I just need you to trust me.”

  Silence stretched between us, and neither of us blinked. I couldn’t read her expression.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered finally.

  “It’s okay, I know why—”

  “Not for that,” she said, her voice stronger now. “For this.” She craned her neck forward and kissed me, hard enough that I didn’t remember releasing her from against the wall. When I finally pulled away, though, she was in my arms, and I held her to me as though she was a lifeline.

  “We really need to talk about what kind of things require apologies,” I chuckled in her ear. “Kissing me is definitely not one of them.”

  I saw the hint of a smile on her lips before she tucked her head under my chin, leaning against my chest. “I shouldn’t have accused you of those things and then turned around and kissed you like that. It’s not fair.”

  “Define fair,” I smirked. “Because I kind of like how it ended.”

  “I’m still sorry.” Samantha raised her head, her arms locked securely around me. “And who says that’s the end?”

  I arched a brow. “Hmm, the kiss isn’t the end? If kissing equates to requiring an apology, then I might have to take up going to confession if you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”