Page 28 of Broken Heart

With that, I turned around and walked out of Wyatt’s office.

And only after I’d made it back onto the elevator did I look at my phone to see Skye’s response.

SKYE

Do you really want to do that?

I grinned.

I’d love nothing more. I’ll call you later tonight to set something up.

Almost instantly, she replied.

SKYE

Okay.

With a smile still plastered on my face, I tucked my phone back into my pocket. And I wore it there for the next few minutes until I got back to work.

8

SKYE

“So, how did you pull this off? Slow day at work?”

Ever since Cooper had suggested he believed in fate, I had been considering that word, that idea.

Fate—the notion that there were events in our lives destined to happen that we had no control over.

I’d read dozens of books, particularly in the fantasy genre, where fate was one of the driving forces for the entire plot. I’d never questioned the phenomenon in all that time.

But now that Cooper had brought it up, I couldn’t avoid thinking about it.

Did fate play into my life?

If it had, I hated it. Because there was so much that I’d experienced in my life that felt impossibly cruel. Was all of it—losing my parents, losing my grandparents, and being betrayed by my boyfriend and best friend—something I was meant to experience? Did fate lead to such heartache? One after another after another.

And if it all was part of something bigger than me, what was the ultimate destiny? What was it leading me to? Should I have started to prepare myself for more heartache?

Cooper seemed to have positive feelings surrounding the idea of fate, which was likely the result of the life he’d lived to this point. While I didn’t think he never had a bad day, it didn’t take a genius to see that he and I had lived vastly different lives. But even if I was unsure how I felt about this predetermined future, I didn’t have the heart to crush Cooper’s spirit about it.

Maybe that was the reason I was here now. Maybe I was playing into this idea for him, because he believed this was all happening for a reason.

There was no other explanation I could come up with as to why I agreed to join him this afternoon.

It was late Tuesday morning, and now that I had another person working at the bookstore, I was able to enjoy longer periods of time off during the day. Joan and Val were taking the earlier shifts today—Joan was opening the store, and Val was set to come in right around lunchtime—so I scheduled myself for the evening shift. I didn’t need to be there until four o’clock today.

When I’d shared this information with Cooper after he’d called me the day after our dinner date, he’d surprised me by suggesting we get together for a midday date. Of course, I hated referring to anything we were doing as a date, though. In my mind, it implied there was something more happening between us than what was actually the case.

One of the only things I could think of doing to continue to make it clear that this was all just a means to deceive Simon and Maria was to drive separately and meet Cooper here. Here was one of the state parks just outside of Landing that had a small beach, a lake, hiking trails, walking and bike paths, and picnic areas. Cooper had decided to rent a canoe, so we could go out on the lake for a bit.

And now that he’d rowed us out away from the shore and into the middle of the lake, I’d asked my questions about what prompted him to plan this.

Not missing a beat, Cooper smiled at me and said, “It’s never a slow day at work.”

“I didn’t think so, since you said things were so hectic for you,” I returned. “That’s why I was curious about how you managed to take the day off today.”

“Well, believe it or not, I do have the option for paid time off,” he began. “But I’ll be honest and admit I rarely use it. That said, I don’t plan to not work at all today. I’m just going to go in later, because I believe it’s very important to have this time to get together once more before the charity event.”