Page 20 of Broken Heart
But by some miracle, I’d succeeded.
And the moment I pulled into the lot and parked, I didn’t have to wonder about how I’d find Cooper.
Evidently, he’d arrived before I did, spotted me when I pulled into the parking lot, and was already making his way in my direction, looking impossibly handsome.
Before I could even come to grips with the way he looked, he was at my door and opening it for me.
I swallowed hard as he reached his hand out to me. I placed my hand in his, stepped out, and stared up at him.
“Hello, Skye,” he said with a smile on his face.
I returned the smile, feeling my insides trembling uncontrollably. “Hi, Cooper.”
“Not that I didn’t think the same when I saw you before, but you look incredible tonight,” he shared.
I licked my lips, swallowed hard again, and rasped, “Thank you.”
The last thing I wanted to do was accept that compliment from him, but I wasn’t a mean person. There wasn’t a chance I’d be able to bring myself to tell him I didn’t want him to say something nice to me.
“Are you ready to eat?” he asked.
I gave him a nod. “Starved.”
Cooper chuckled, a sound that only made him more attractive, and jerked his head toward the restaurant. Then he placed his hand at the small of my back and urged, “Let’s go inside, then.”
A shiver ran down my spine at the intimate touch from Cooper, but I quickly fell into step beside him. And throughout the entire walk to the restaurant and ultimately our table, I wondered how I was going to manage to keep my guard up if he continued to treat me like he was.
6
SKYE
In the heat of the moment, I reacted.
It was impulsive and out of character, but there hadn’t been a time in my life I could recall when I’d been so nervous. I couldn’t explain why I was having such a strong reaction to being here at dinner with Cooper.
As it was, I knew that whatever happened this evening with him was likely to keep me awake when I was back in my bed later tonight. I had this sneaking suspicion that if he’d been comfortable enough to say the things he’d said to me over the last several days and that he didn’t think twice about telling me how nice I looked tonight, he wouldn’t hesitate to say more things that would throw me off balance. Being so terrified that would be the case, the moment our server walked away from our table with our orders in hand, I dove in.
“So, I’ve been curious all week about your job,” I told him. “What exactly are you doing at Westwood’s that keeps your days feeling so hectic?”
He lifted a curious brow. “You’ve been thinking about me all week?”
Crap.
In my haste to steer the conversation in one direction, I hadn’t really considered how my words might be misconstrued. Of course, Cooper hadn’t made anything up—I had thought about him all week long. But it had never been my intention to share that detail with him.
“Well, I mean, I was just shocked to hear you say that work was hectic,” I said, attempting to defend myself and downplay the truth. “It’s mind-blowing to me that working with chocolate every day could be anything but wonderful.”
Cooper’s lips twitched. “You might be right, if I was actually working with chocolate every day.”
Tipping my head to the side, curiosity moved through me. “You don’t?”
He shook his head. “No. Not at all. My specific job title is operations and maintenance manager, which means I’m spending my days making sure that everything throughout the entire Westwood’s campus is running properly.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “But… but there are so many different buildings there. And there’s the amusement park. Are you telling me that you’re responsible for all of that?”
Cooper’s eyes narrowed slightly as he considered how to answer that question. “Technically, with the exception of the amusement park, it is my responsibility to make sure everything is in order. But I have an entire team I manage, and they are the only reason I don’t lose my mind completely.”
That made sense. It seemed impossible for one person to be able to handle everything that would come with such a huge operation.