She nodded, easing her grip on her keys as they bit into her hand. Would he scoff at the home she’d made with all its eclectic touches?
He cleared his throat. “I made a habit of searching academic journals for your name. Thought for sure you’d wind up at MIT or Stanford. Why here?”
“Because I like it here,” she snapped, the fear of what he might find out turning into a sharp, prickly anger clawing at her gut. “My life is here. It’s a quiet, stable community.” With zero chance of sexy professors showing up out of the blue. Or so she’d thought. “I’m glad you’re doing well.”
She backed up, intent on escaping what now felt like an interrogation.
“I moved for my dream job.”
A chill slid over the back of her neck. “I remember.”
“When I left, I thought…” He tipped his head back as if the dark sky overhead could help him. “I thought you might come see me. I missed you.”
Something inside her softened. A rare occurrence, but she couldn’t reel it in. “Our summer was marvelous.” What an understatement. She’d been head over heels for him. She’d been carrying his baby. “But the timing just wasn’t right.” Without her permission, her hand brushed his arm. The heat and familiar sizzle nearly toppled her. “It was good to see you, Cooper. I need to get home.”
“Right.” He tucked his hands in his pockets. “Could we have coffee? To catch up? Y’know, to balance the equation from then to now,” he teased. He pulled out that half smile that used to melt her defenses.
“No, thank you.” Scarlett opened the car door. The math was simple, but the results could be catastrophic if she let him in. Every second he stood there, every minute he was in town, he was closer to seeing the truth in her eyes, or worse, discovering the little girl who looked exactly like him. “There’s no need to catch up, Cooper. We’ve both moved on. And that’s a good thing,” she added through a sudden wave of doubt.
She ducked into her car and drove away without a backward glance. But all the way home and even into bed, she could still see him standing in the shadows of the Pelican Pub, the man who was both her greatest memory and her most dangerous secret.
CHAPTER 4
Cooper returned to the pub just long enough to pay his tab, managing to duck out without encountering Scarlett’s friends. Walking home, he wondered. About Scarlett and her daughter. About the timing of it all. About her refusal to have coffee. Although she’d clearly forgotten him quickly enough after he took the job in California, it didn’t seem as if she was in a relationship now.
Her not being married didn’t mean she was alone.
The questions plagued him. He didn’t sleep. Instead, he spent the night on the screened-in porch of his rental, watching the moon track across the marsh. The hum of the cicadas was a low-frequency vibration that seemed to sync with the frantic thrumming in his chest. He had come to Brookwell Island for a break, maybe some personal insight. He’d come back to South Carolina so the salt air could scrub away the residue of a failed institution and his stalled career.
In the wee hours of the morning, he could admit to himself that he hoped to run into Scarlett again. But never in a million years had he expected to see her playing the blues in a neighborhood pub. The incongruity of it brought the reliablelogic he prided himself on down like a house of cards. Seeing her on that stage took him back to those idyllic summer days.
He’d been confident—almost cocky—and so damn hopeful. Not just about her, but about his future in general. Yes, he’d wanted her with him. No, he hadn’t been pushy about it. She was at the very start of her career and her opportunities had been vast.
And she’d chosen Brookwell over any of those options.
He spent hours staring out into the dark, his mind running through the variables. He remembered Scarlett as the brilliant, watchful senior student who’d parked herself front and center during his Advanced Statistics lecture, her eyes wide with a hunger for knowledge and an intensity that pushed him to do his best for her, himself, and collective intellectual growth.
A smile tugged at his lips as he recalled their many discussions in his office. In the nearby coffee shop. Her curiosity about the guitar he kept in his office led to the discovery of her passion for music, which led back to math.
Everything led back to math. Until it led to something far more personal.
Cooper scrubbed at his face. He’d never forget his first taste of her lips.
They’d been walking back to campus after an evening with friends at a jazz lounge. He’d been careful not to cross any lines with her, denying the mutual attraction growing stronger every day. Despite a maturity beyond her years, shewasyounger and still officially a student. He didn’t want either of them to get hurt.
But when the clouds overhead had opened up and they’d ducked into a doorway to wait out the rain, he’d lost track of the logic keeping them apart. Her laughter combined with the sweet fragrance of her rain-soaked skin had been irresistible.
He’d kissed her. Or she’d kissed him.
If pressed, he would’ve taken responsibility. But no one had seen them. Those tantalizing, incomparable minutes when he’d cupped her face and delighted in every soft moan of desire might as well have existed in another dimension.
A perfect place where they could be together.
He could separate the chapters of his life by that precise moment.
The rest of his summer as an interim professor had flown by. Classes by day and Scarlett by night. Jamming in as many tours and beach trips as time allowed, though he only wanted more time with her. Their connection was so profound, he’d been ready to shift his plans and career schedule just to stay closer. To give them a chance beyond the summer.
And then the call, his dream job offer, right there for the taking. Scarlett had been the first person he wanted to tell. Her joy for him had been sincere and they’d celebrated with friends and later privately.
