Page 30 of Broken Heart

“Bread.”

His eyes narrowed, a crease forming between his brows. “Your favorite food is bread?”

Before I could stop it, laughter spilled out of me. “I know that probably sounds crazy, but I’m not referring to the basic sandwich bread you get when you go to the grocery store. I’m talking about freshly baked bread. So, I love something like a hearty, rustic bread with a bowl of soup, and I’ll never turn down homemade pizza dough or freshly baked garlic bread. And if there’s one thing I absolutely adore, it’s dessert-style breads, like banana bread or zucchini bread.”

“Oh, man, you’d love my sister,” Cooper declared. “Jules is all about the baking. I don’t know if you recall me mentioning that she’s enrolled in an accelerated pastry program.”

“I do.”

“Well, you can’t tell anyone just yet, but she asked me last Friday if I’d build her a bakery at Westwood’s,” he revealed.

My eyes rounded in surprise. Part of my shock was because I couldn’t imagine being able to just ask someone to build me something like a bakery, but there was the other part of Cooper telling me something it seemed I wasn’t supposed to know. Of course, it wasn’t like there was anyone I’d be able to tell, so he had nothing to worry about. But it still caught me off guard that he felt comfortable enough to share something like that with me.

Instead of focusing on that, I asked, “Are you going to build it for her?”

Shooting me a look of disbelief that indicated he thought that was a silly question, he returned, “Of course. She’s my sister. I’d do just about anything to help her.”

And then there was that.

Cooper had made it clear that we both got a good understanding of one another when we went out to dinner last week, and even if I knew he was a good guy that came from a nice family, I wasn’t sure I understood there was this level of dedication to one another. It was one thing I wished I’d had in my life.

I offered a small smile and said, “I hope she knows how lucky she is to have you in her life. Not only is it a blessing that you have the capability to do that for her, it’s also incredibly generous for you to be willing to take on that kind of project. I have to believe it’ll be no small undertaking.”

He gave me a curt nod in response and insisted, “She knows. But don’t misunderstand me. I’ll get something out of making sure Jules has a bakery on the Westwood campus.”

“Oh?”

Cooper grinned. “Freshly baked goods whenever I want them.”

Another unexpected laugh escaped. “Ugh, you might be luckier than she is.”

A mischievous look washed over him, an unmistakable glint in his eyes. “You could be lucky too, you know?”

My brows shot up, questioning him. “Pardon?”

Cooper stopped rowing the boat, fixed an intense stare on me, and said, “I know I mentioned it briefly at dinner, but I’d really like you to come and celebrate my birthday with me the day after the charity event. There’s going to be good food, and Jules can never let a celebration go by without baking something.”

“You drive a hard bargain,” I teased.

Something I couldn’t quite read changed in his expression, and his voice dipped an octave when he returned, “I’m not sure you understand how badly I want you there.”

God, his voice held so much promise.

What the hell had gotten into me? I shouldn’t have even been considering this, and here I was joking with Cooper about attending.

Joining Cooper for his birthday celebration where it was obvious his large family was going to be in attendance was the very opposite of what I was comfortable with. Somehow, I was allowing him to tempt me with the promise of delicious food and desserts.

Or, well, I was telling myself that food was the reason I was contemplating going. Deep down, I knew that had nothing to do with it.

This was about longing.

It was about wanting to believe that perhaps he was right about me being lucky. Maybe fate was playing a role in this. Perhaps I couldn’t look at everything that had happened before now as a reason to never open myself up to someone else again.

The truth was, even if I declined his invitation and Cooper walked away after the charity event—something I didn’t believe he’d ever do—I knew I’d never forget him. And wouldn’t that be worse?

Why would I purposely put myself in that position? Then again, if whatever this was that was happening between Cooper and me went sideways, I had no doubt I’d be wrecked.

I hated this feeling of being stuck, like no matter what I did, I could have been making a huge mistake.