No. No. No. You’re on the rebound from Lydia.
And if Cooper ever found out…
I made a show of securing my tray table, then offered a wide smile. “All set.”
He nodded. “I hope your sister has a fantastic wedding.” Then he was gone.
Truthfully, so did I. As her only sibling—and the person she swore she was closest in the world to these days except her fiancée—she’d asked me to stand up for her. And since I’d never refuse Taryn anything, I happily agreed.
Only then did I discover that Stephanie, her beloved, had asked Cooper to stand up for her.
Cooper who died spaghetti green and tried to pass it off as healthy…
Ever heard of spinach pasta?
Cooper who’d gotten rip-roaring drunk and hit on the server at the gay bar we’d visited.
Admit it…the guy’d been hot. Also very open to Cooper’s attentions.
You’re just mad you didn’t get there first.
Oh, except, you’re in the closet.
A few fumblings when I’d first been a student at the University of Toronto didn’t count. At least not in my books. Then I’d entered Osgood Hall. Nothing like a conservative law school program to set me straight.
More or less.
Cooper who smiles all the time. Who makes fun of you.
Yeah. Except…never in a mean way.
No, Stephanie’s brother only meant to be friendly. Or at least, that was what Taryn insisted. Some of his criticisms, or witticisms, hit a little too close to home. Yes, I’d stayed in Toronto to work for a prestigious entertainment law firm, putting my business-law degree to good use. Yes, I’d eschewed Taryn’s suggestion to focus on labor or environmental law. I was thirty-eight years old and not likely to change my trajectory now. Yes, I didn’t visit my sister nearly enough. Business was booming these days thanks to the lower Canadian dollar. Although Vancouver saw a huge number of American productions, most of Canada was seeing upticks as well. Toronto was no exception.
In other words, I owned my townhouse in Yorkville, my Mercedes SUV, and my timeshare in Florida outright.
The timeshare you’re trying to unload.
Okay, one minor glitch in my life. I was too busy to make it down there, and with all the hurricanes, my investment advisor advised now was the time to bail—before climate change made it completely uninhabitable or a storm took it out.
The plane descended.
Cooper’s face flashed in my mind.
I scrolled to the picture a stranger had taken for us. Of Cooper, Stephanie, Taryn, and me. I enlarged it to zoom in on Cooper. His blond hair matched his sister’s, and they had the same crystal-blue eyes.
Both were stunning.
And yet I only felt an attraction toward Cooper.
Mydatefor the wedding.
He was solo also these days and, when our sisters heard Lydia was no longer in the picture, they’d happily decided Cooper and I would be perfect together.
Oh God, you have no idea what you’ve suggested.
The wheels hit the ground, and the plane shook as the flaps—or whatever they were called—slowed us so that, eventually, we shuddered to a near stop.
“You a nervous flyer?”
