Page 92 of Broken Heart

THREE MONTHS LATER

“You look stunning.”

I dropped my gaze to look down at my outfit. I wasn’t all dolled up in a fancy dress, but I wasn’t casual like I’d be when going to work, either.

I’d landed somewhere between those two looks, leaning slightly toward the fancier side.

Returning my attention to him, I smiled and asked, “Do you like it?”

Cooper stepped forward, slid an arm around my waist, and touched his mouth to mine. “I love it. Not as much as I love you, of course.”

Warmth hit the center of my chest and spread out through the rest of my body from there. “I love you, too.”

With his arm still firmly wrapped around me, Cooper asked, “Are you ready for some fun today?”

I nodded. “I’m eager to see what you have planned, but I’ve got to be honest. It really doesn’t matter to me what we do. I’m just excited to spend my day with you. We could have stayed here all day and celebrated with a piece of cake, and I would have been over the moon.”

“Cake? You mean, you wouldn’t have preferred some kind of dessert-style bread?”

Laughter escaped. “See what you’ve done to me? I can’t even remember all the things I would have normally requested for a day like today, because the only thing that matters to me is being with you.”

Cooper kissed me again. This one wasn’t just a simple peck. He’d taken it a bit deeper, unwilling to ignore how much it meant to him to hear how much I enjoyed spending my time with him.

Kissing Cooper was one of my favorite things in the world, so I didn’t mind at all. And considering today was my birthday, I thought it was only fair I got extras of those anyway.

When I thought back to the beginning of the year, there was a specific day I could remember with such explicit detail.

It was the beginning of March—the 5th, to be exact—and it had been about a month since I’d received that email from Simon that contained the confession of his infidelity. It was also Maria’s birthday. She’d been my best friend for so long, and we’d always spent our birthdays together.

That day, I spent more time than I cared to admit feeling sad. Because not only was I forced to think about how she was likely spending her birthday with my ex-boyfriend, but I realized just how alone I would be when November rolled around.

It would have been one thing for Simon to cheat on me. As betrayed and broken-hearted as I would have felt, at least I would have still had my best friend. We could have continued to be in each other’s lives and celebrated the times that were meant to be happy.

Unfortunately, since they had both been willing to hurt me like that, I spent Maria’s birthday coming to grips with just how lonely I was and would likely always be.

Now, I had Cooper.

He was the best thing that had ever happened to me. And ever since he’d had that last encounter with Simon months ago outside my place, I’d be fortunate not to see or hear from Simon or Maria again.

It was the biggest relief. It wasn’t that I still had any feelings for Simon, but I didn’t want the constant reminder of my foolishness to trust Simon or Maria, nor did I want their betrayal thrown in my face all the time.

I couldn’t have been more grateful to Cooper for finally putting an end to that nightmare of a situation for me.

But that wasn’t all Cooper had done for me. Today, he was giving me something else. He was making it so I never had to experience a lonely birthday. If anything, I had a feeling I was in for something extra special today—something beyond the gifts he’d given me this morning—but I didn’t have a clue what.

Earlier today, while we’d had breakfast, Cooper had given me two gifts. They had been so unexpected, but the gesture made me feel so loved.

I tore the first package open and found Cooper had placed some paperwork inside a box. Initially, I was rather confused by it, because the paperwork was covered in drawings. I had not a clue what I was looking at.

“What is this?” I asked.

One half of Cooper’s mouth quirked up. “I wish I could have done this ahead of time to surprise you, but I didn’t want to make assumptions about how you’d want it done. These are drawings of the loft I’d like to build in your store for you to host your book club meetings. You could have the space set up for the meetings all the time and not need to rearrange your store each month.”

My jaw fell open. “Are you serious?”

His chin jerked down slightly. “Yes. If you don’t like it and want to change something about the design, I can definitely do that for you.”

It was a miracle I hadn’t burst into tears on the spot. I quickly offered him a kiss and said, “Thank you.”