Page 21 of Broken Heart
“So, are you just going around all day fixing things that break, or how does that work?” I asked him, surprised by how interested I was in learning more about what he did.
“It’s really a little bit of everything,” he returned. “Sometimes, there will be a piece of equipment that’s used in our chocolate factory that might need a repair. Other times, I’ve got a plumbing issue to handle in the museum. Or, as was the case on the day that piece of wood went through your front door, I had to deal with a drywall repair in the hotel.”
“Wow,” I marveled. “You don’t have any consistency in your job duties from one day to the next, do you?”
A look of amusement washed over his face. “Other than knowing I’m going to have a laundry list of things to deal with, every day is different for me.”
It was safe to say I was impressed.
My days were nearly always the same. Sure, the hours I worked fluctuated based on scheduling, but the tasks I carried out while I was at work remained unchanged from one day to the next.
I wasn’t sure I could have worked a job like Cooper did. Granted, I didn’t have any handy skills whatsoever, but even if I did, I wasn’t the kind of person who could thrive with so much uncertainty and surprises in my life.
“I don’t know how you do any of that,” I declared. “At least you don’t have to manage the amusement park, too. I can’t imagine that is a walk in the park.”
Cooper shook his head again and confirmed, “It isn’t. I actually used to have that in my lineup as well, but my brother is now handling it.”
My brows shot up. “Brother? I thought you had sisters.”
“I have those, too. I’m one of six kids,” he revealed.
It was a good thing our server returned at that moment with our dinner salads, because I needed a moment to wrap my head around the information Cooper had just given me.
Six kids.
His parents had six children.
Once our server walked away, I couldn’t even bring myself to pick up my fork. I continued to stare at Cooper, feeling nothing but disbelief.
“Is everything okay?” he asked, clearly noting the change in me.
I parted my lips and snapped them together several times before I finally managed to find my voice. “There are six children in your family?”
He nodded. “Yes. Four boys and two girls.”
Cooper had five siblings. I thought he was unbelievably lucky. Having lost my parents and my grandmother, I had no other family to turn to. Technically, I had an uncle—my dad’s half brother—but he lived on the other side of the country, and I hadn’t seen him since just after my parents had died when he came back for the funeral.
In my situation, it was easy to look at someone like Cooper and feel envious of what he had. Family. Gosh, he had a huge family. He probably never experienced a day of loneliness in his life.
I had always tried to look on the bright side after my grandmother’s passing, believing I was still fortunate to have Maria in my life, and eventually, Simon. Now, I had nobody. It was the worst feeling in the world.
And considering I believed Cooper was a genuinely decent man, I was glad he didn’t know what it was like to be me and feel that level of solitude.
“Do they all work at Westwood’s?” I asked, finally picking up my fork to start my salad.
“Yes. Well, sort of. Wyatt, the oldest of the bunch, is sitting just one notch below our dad, who is the CEO of the company. Wyatt will be the one to take over that position down the road. I’m the next oldest. Tate came after me. He and I are as different as can be when it comes to the work we do, even if we’re both workaholics. Tate is a numbers and people kind of guy, so he’s all about order and schedules, and is the head of marketing and product development. My sister, Ivy, came after Tate, and she runs the hotel. She was working at the hotel for a while, but has recently stepped fully into it, since she just graduated from college a little over a month ago. My brother, Liam, is younger than Ivy, but he decided not to go to college. Like me, he enjoys working with his hands, so he’s the one who has taken over the responsibility of the amusement park with his own team. And finally, there’s Jules. She’s not working at Westwood’s in the official capacity just yet. She graduated from high school at the beginning of this month and enrolled in an accelerated pastry and baking arts program. Jules has a very clear picture of what she wants for her future, so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she comes up with some idea for how to incorporate her passion into Westwood’s.”
I was out of breath, having just listened to all of that. But something about it was just amazing to me. Despite all the differences among his siblings, with the way Cooper spoke about them, it was clear just how much he loved them. And I couldn’t miss the overwhelming sense of pride that exuded from him when he talked about all of them. I couldn’t comprehend the size of his family, but I could understand what it was like to love the family I did have. “That’s incredible, Cooper. I can only assume you all must be really close then, too, right?”
He’d just pulled his fork from his mouth and was chewing, so he merely offered a nod of acknowledgement in return.
While there wasn’t any reason for me to be making the comparison, I couldn’t avoid noting just how vastly different my life was from Cooper’s life. We came from opposite walks of life, and when it came to our personalities, I didn’t think it was possible to be more different than we were. I mean, even if we both loved our families, he was still surrounded by his, and I had nobody left.
Complete opposites.
Until this very moment, I hadn’t ever considered it, but after listening to Cooper talk about his brothers and sisters, I felt an overwhelming sense of longing move through me. If I could have had just one wish outside of wanting my parents and grandmother to be alive and in my life again, it would have been to know what it was like to have siblings, to have a family that I could trust and depend on. I would have given just about anything to live a day in his life, not for the work he did, but for the people he had in it.
COOPER