by Jan Hinds
Cooper went still. Anger burned in his chest. He spoke through gritted teeth. “You don’t need to lose any more weight. You look perfect the way you are. Your curves are gorgeous. I love your curves.”
Paige kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
Cooper held her in his arms. “Are we okay now?”
She leaned back far enough to look into his eyes. “I hope so.
He captured her lips in a tender kiss.
Chapter Nineteen
Cooper held her close. “This morning I had a feeling you were going to leave.”
She rubbed her palm over his heart. “I thought about it. I was going to get the contracts signed for you and move back in with Tina. You don’t need me to help you anymore. And then I thought about Ted still being out there. Even though I don’t think he’d hurt me, I know my dad will sleep better if I stay with you until he’s caught...unless you want me to leave.”
His hand, that had been rubbing her arm, stilled. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“Thank you.”
Cooper met her lips in a sweet and tender kiss that quickly deepened to convey all the passion and longing she felt for this man she’d grown to love more than she’d ever imagined possible. Oliver Twist’s words kept running through her mind: Please, sir, I want some more. As if answering her silent plea, he drew her into a devouring kiss, trailing his lips along her jaw to her ear and in a husky voice said, “Paige, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you since Christmas.”
Her mind reeled and his words ignited a fire that burned clear to her fingertips.
Her phone rang.
If she could time travel, she’d go back in time and kill Alexander Graham Bell in his sleep.
“Let it go to voicemail,” Cooper growled.
“You know I can’t. It’s probably my parents. If my dad can’t reach me, he goes berserk.”
She dug her phone from her pocket, surprised to see the call from Cooper’s mother. “Sylvia? What’s wrong?”
Cooper tensed and she put the phone on speaker.
“Paige, I’ve been trying to reach Cooper, but he doesn’t answer. Can you reach him? Is he there?”
“I’m here, Mom. What’s going on?”
Her voice trembled when she spoke. “Oh, Cooper, your father’s had a heart attack. We’re in the Cardiac Institute at the Parkview Regional Medical Center.”
Paige stood up. “We’re on our way, Sylvia.”
Cooper sat frozen in place as he stared at the phone. “Is he—?”
“He’s still alive, but you’d better hurry.”
After Sylvia disconnected the call, Cooper looked up at Paige. Her heart broke to see the despair in his eyes. He said, “He can’t die. He just can’t die.”
Paige held his face in her hands. “Whatever happens, we’ll get through this. Right now, we have to go. Your mother needs you.”
She stuffed her phone in her purse and pulled him to his feet. They headed downstairs and found his phone on the floor in front of the stairs.
Paige helped him into his jacket. She’d never seen him like this and it scared her. She reached up and took hold of his broad shoulders, giving him a gentle shake. When he focused on her, she said, “Whatever happens, your mother needs you to be strong right now. I promise you, if you need to fall apart, I’ll be there for you. We’re going to get each other through this. You’ll be strong for Sylvia and I’ll be strong for you. Got it?”
He gave her a nod and she exhaled the breath she’d been holding. When he reached for the keys on the kitchen island, she snatched them from him. “I’m driving.”
Matt Jennings was still alive when they reached the hospital. Sylvia collapsed into Cooper’s arms. “Thank goodness you’re here,” she said. “He needs emergency bypass surgery, but refuses to let them start until he speaks to you.”
Sylvia and Paige stepped out to give Cooper a few minutes alone with his father. Paige held her and tried to assure her that everything would be fine, though from the moment she heard Sylvia’s voice on the phone, her heart filled with dread.
♥♥♥
Cooper sat between Paige and Sylvia while Matt was in surgery. He held his mother’s hand or wrapped one arm around her shoulders while they waited. His other hand touched Paige constantly. He held her hand or touched her thigh, or her arm. Occasionally just pressing the side of his leg against hers seemed to suffuse him with strength.
Paige kept them both supplied with coffee, tea, sodas and at one point even managed to get Sylvia to eat a few crackers.
Cooper spoke to his sister Grace in California and she promised to get on the next flight to Fort Wayne. He then gave Paige his phone and had her call his relatives to let them know what had happened to Matt. Before she made the first call, Grace called back and said she couldn’t get a flight.
Paige took her personal information and stepped down the hall where she had some privacy. She spoke to a friend who worked at the airport and managed to get Grace booked on the next flight with a hardship ticket. She had just given Grace her flight information and closed the call when the paging device signaled for them to talk with the doctor. A volunteer ushered them into a small room.
When the surgeon, Dr. Stanhope, came in, his face was grave. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Jennings. Matt’s heart stopped during the procedure and we were unable to get it started again. I’m so sorry we weren’t able to save him.”
Instead of crumbling, Sylvia sat with poise and held one of Cooper’s hands in both of hers. “Thank you for all you did.”
The doctor’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. When he spoke, his voice was thick with emotion. “Before he was given the anesthesia, he asked me to give you a message if he didn’t make it. He said, ‘Tell her not to cry too long for me. I want her to be happy and remember the good times. I love her. She’s the joy of my life and tell her I said, see you later Sweet Cheeks.’”
Sylvia’s hand touched her cheek, as if she felt a kiss on it. She smiled as her tears brimmed over. “He was the best husband and friend a woman could hope for. Thank you, Dr. Stanhope. Thank you for delivering his message.”
Dr. Stanhope told them to take as much time as they wanted in the room.
While Cooper and Sylvia comforted each other, Paige secured additional tickets for Grace’s family, and then she returned to Cooper. She told him and Sylvia she’d call Grace back and asked which one of them wanted to tell her about Matt.
Sylvia squared her shoulders and dabbed at her eyes. “I’ll tell her.”
It turned out that Sylvia didn’t have to tell her. As soon as Grace answered the phone she said, “He didn’t make it, did he?”
“I’m so sorry, Grace. Here’s your mother,” Paige said before handing Sylvia the phone.
Paige put her arms around Cooper, hugging him as she whispered into his ear, “I’m sorry about your dad. Anything you need, anything, I’m here for you.”
The tears he’d been holding at bay for his mother spilled down his face. He held her tight and in a whisper thick with emotion, he said, “Thank you. I can’t imagine facing this without you.”
“I’m here. I won’t ever leave you unless you ask me to go,” she said as her own tears flowed from her eyes.
He buried his face in her hair as a sob shook through him.
They comforted each other until Sylvia walked up to them and held the phone out to Cooper. “Grace wants to talk to you and then Paige.”
Cooper wiped his eyes and spoke with his sister, tears dripping down his face, while Paige comforted Sylvia. When he finished talking, he handed Paige the phone and she passed his mother back into his arms.
Paige told Grace about the airline tickets for the rest of her family and the gratitude in Grace’s voice brought a lump to Paige’s throat. With her voice thick with emotion, she promised to arrange for someone to pick them up at the airport.
It was still hours before dawn as the three stood in the hospital, knowing there was no reason to stay a
nd yet reluctant to leave.
Paige drove them to Sylvia’s home. Since she’d come to the hospital in the ambulance with Matt, they didn’t need to worry about her car.
Paige fixed Sylvia a cup of tea and tucked a blanket around her. Cooper sat next to his mother with his arm around her shoulder. “I know I should get some rest,” Sylvia said. “I just can’t walk into my bedroom and see his things there yet.”
Sylvia looked from Cooper to Paige through watery eyes. “He was shoveling the snow from the drive. I tried to talk him into letting one of the boys from down the street clear it, but he said he needed the exercise. He refused to spend the money on a snow blower. I should have forced him. I should have bought one myself. Then he’d still be here...” Sylvia dissolved into tears and Cooper held her tight.
He gave Paige a pleading look and she stepped into the kitchen where she called Zach Lancaster. He promised to add Sylvia as a regular for his snow removal route. She thanked him and asked him to pick up Grace and her family at the airport. After getting the flight information, he agreed and offered to let Tina know what had happened. “If you or Cooper’s family need anything else, anything I can do…”
“Thank you, Zach. You’re a great friend,” Paige said. Her heart warmed to have such good friends in her life.
Tina called a few minutes later and promised to stop by the office and set the answering machine to reflect the office closed due to a death in the family.
Paige focused on her role as Cooper’s personal assistant to help her tamp down the grief and loss gripping her heart.
Sylvia managed to sleep for a few hours and after she showered, the three of them set about notifying their extended family and close friends. Using Sylvia and Cooper’s phones, Paige called aunts, uncles, cousins, and close friends. After explaining that she was Cooper’s personal assistant, she gently broke the terrible news to them and handed the phone off to either Sylvia or Cooper for the obligatory condolences. She could spare Cooper and his mom from having to repeatedly say the words that Matt was dead, but she couldn’t buffer them from the words of compassion, nor would she want to.
The ladies from Sylvia’s church arranged for meals to be brought in so Paige didn’t have to focus on what to feed the family. Not that anyone had much of an appetite.
After Grace and Evan arrived in the afternoon, they held a family meeting that Cooper insisted Paige attend. Sylvia splayed her hands in a helpless gesture. “I’m afraid Matt and I never made any funeral arrangements. You always think there will be plenty of time later, until there isn’t.”
Cooper sat next to his mother with his arm around her shoulders while Paige stood leaning against the wall near the entryway. “How about we have Paige call around and find out about costs and services that are offered,” Cooper suggested.
Sylvia shook her head. ‘Oh, no. That’s too much to ask of her.”
Cooper patted his mother’s shoulder. “Nonsense. She’s a great personal assistant. She’ll be able to get the information we need to make a decision. You don’t mind, do you Paige?”
Paige smiled at Sylvia. “I’d be happy to help. I’ll use the office to make the calls.”
As she walked down the hall to Matt’s office, she tried to ignore the sting of being considered an employee instead of a member of the family. What did she expect? Cooper had never actually said he loved her, other than when he was trying to discourage Whitley. Their connection had been more physical than anything. It wasn’t like they’d ever really been engaged. She was being petty and had to let it go. They had all lost a husband, father, and grandfather. If making a few calls lessened their grief, that’s what she’d do.
Matt Jennings’ office was much as the man himself had been. The solid oak desk typified his strength of character, while a dartboard opposite his desk, and a picture of dogs playing poker, were reminiscent of his playful nature.
She was reluctant to move anything on his desk as she settled in with her phone to call the funeral homes. Borrowing a brand new legal pad from a desk drawer, she took notes about services and prices.
When she finished, she noticed an inexpensive desk blotter with a calendar sitting on his desk filled with his to do items. She smiled remembering Cooper’s frustration that his father never used the smart phone he gave him for calendaring. As she flipped through the calendar to see if there were any urgent meetings that needed to be cancelled, her heart nearly stopped when she saw May 12 circled in red. Inside the circle he wrote: Paige’s birthday dinner, reservations at Phoebe’s.
To say she was touched would be like saying the Pacific Ocean was a puddle of water. Her heart broke with the realization that she mattered to Matt and Sylvia. She buried her face in her hands and cried as quietly as she could. She wept with guilt that the engagement was a sham, and with sadness because she longed more than anything for it to be real. She had to be strong for Cooper and his family, but alone in Matt’s office was her time to grieve for Matt Jennings, the man who so readily accepted her into his family, and with shame for her part in deceiving him.
She remembered the way he’d often smiled and teased her about Cooper and her living in the same house. With a twinkle in his eye, he’d say, “When are you going to make an honest man out of my son and start giving us some grandchildren? Gracie’s kids are too far away to spoil the way we want to.”
She cried because Matt had always made her feel like a member of the family and she was going to miss his boisterous personality terribly.
She was so focused on quietly blubbering at his father’s desk, she didn’t notice Cooper had entered the room until he handed her a fist full of tissues.
Chapter Twenty
Cooper heard Paige crying softly and his heart ached that he hadn’t taken her feelings into consideration more. He slipped into his father’s office and quietly shut the door. Handing her several tissues, he said, “Hey, I thought you were supposed to be the one being strong for me.”
Paige took the tissues he offered her and looked up at him through red rimmed eyes. “I’m sorry. I saw this and the sadness overwhelmed me. I really loved your dad. I’m going to miss him.”
He looked at the entry on the calendar and realized that until that moment he hadn’t known when her birthday was. He held her in his arms. “He loved you too.”
After they stood for what seemed like an hour, but according to the clock on the wall was only five minutes, he cleared his throat. “What did you find out about the funeral homes?”
Paige dried her eyes and nose. Once she regained her composure, she sat down and Cooper pulled up a chair next to her. She went over her list and explained the prices and services offered.
“Which one do you like?” he asked.
Paige shook her head. “I can’t make that decision. You need to decide as a family.”
Cooper took her hand and led her into the living room where the family all sat talking together while Libby and Chloe napped on pillows on the floor. “Paige has the information about the funeral homes.”
Sylvia gave her a sad smile. “Which one do you like, dear?”
Paige blinked and looked at Grace, who said, “We trust your judgement. Which one?”
“I’d go with Harrison and Sons,” Paige said. “They’re not the cheapest, but they have the best services and reviews.”
Sylvia nodded her head. “My friend Alice used them when her husband died. They did a wonderful job. I know we’re dumping a lot on you, Paige, but could you call and make the arrangements for us?”
“Of course. There will be decisions that you’ll have to make as a family. I can wait until tomorrow to take care of the details.”
A haunted panic hijacked Sylvia’s usual smiling disposition. Cooper sat down on the arm of her chair and put his arm around his mother’s shoulder. “How about we have Paige get a list of the decisions that need to be made. We can discuss them here and she can relay our decisions.”
“I’d be happy to do that,” Paige said with a f
orced smile. His heart ached to see the effort it took for her to school her emotions.
Sylvia’s features relaxed. “Oh you are such a blessing to all of us. I hope you know we all love you.”
Grace and Evan echoed their love and appreciation for Paige’s help. They all turned to the silent Cooper.
Cooper gave her a tentative smile. “Yes, Paige, we’re all very grateful for your help.”
Sylvia elbowed Cooper in the ribs. Hard.
“Ow,” he said, rubbing his side. His mother and sister glared at him. “What?” he said.
When he looked at the doorway, Paige had left the room.
“Honestly, Cooper, you can be such an idiot sometimes,” Grace said. “We all know you were never engaged. Brent told Joni and she told us. If you aren’t careful, you’re going to lose that woman, and it will be the biggest mistake of your life.”
Cooper scrounged in his pocket and pulled out the diamond. “For your information, I’ve been carrying this ring in my pocket since Christmas. I can’t seem to get a moment alone to ask her.”
♥♥♥
Cooper waited for Paige to return from her calls, but she went straight from the office to the kitchen without talking to anyone. Soon she called the family to the dining room for dinner.
Cooper counted the settings. She hadn’t set a place for herself. She brought a casserole to the table and returned to the kitchen. Cooper watched her make one more delivery to the table and followed her back to the kitchen where she gathered the salad bowl and salad dressings.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
Paige raised her eyebrows at his angry tone. “I’m serving you and your family dinner. Did I do something wrong?”
“Yes. You didn’t set a place for yourself at the table.”
“I—I was going to take off before the roads get any worse and come back tomorrow. Did you need something before I leave?”