Page 58 of The Fiancé Hoax
“He was wrong about your business. You’re going to prove it to him.”
Her eyes brightened. “I hope you’re right, Cooper.” She smiled. “And maybe he’s starting to come around. His visit to the store felt really big. Like he was finally starting to accept me and my life choices.”
I smiled at her, glad to see the sadness in her face gone.
“Either that or he’s trying to snoop,” she said. “Maybe he’s suspicious something’s up between you and me.”
“It could be a little of both,” I said quietly. “Now that we’re going out in public like this, he’s bound to find out about the engagement sooner or later.”
“Yeah.” She shuddered. “That won’t be fun.”
“As long as he understands it’s just temporary, and it’s just a contract, he’ll learn to accept it.”
I withdrew my hand and cleared my throat.
That meant we couldn’t sleep together again. If Marsh found out about that, all bets were off.
She nodded. “So, how was your day?”
“Nothing eventful. Everything’s going well at my company. I’m reviewing investment opportunities.”
“Any good leads?” she asked.
I nodded. “There are a couple I’m considering.”
I left it at that. I loved my work, but it didn’t make for the most stimulating conversation for people who didn’t deal in my world. Investing in Felicity’s business was the best move I’d made lately, and I hadn’t regretted it.
“You know, now that we’re engaged,” she said, her eyes twinkling, “I should really know more about your background.”
I set my wine glass down. “Well, you know I grew up in Philadelphia.” Eva had told Felicity about our annual visits to the East Coast to see my brother, Rhys, and my parents.
“Right. And you moved to LA for college. Why so far away?”
“My school had a good business program. And it was about as far away from my family as I could get.”
She studied me. “You didn’t get along with your family?”
“I got along with them well enough, I suppose. But there wasn’t always the best dynamic in my house growing up.”
She tilted her head. “How so?”
“Well, my dad was a drunk.”
She sucked in air through her teeth. “Oh. I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” I said. “He never got violent with my mother or my brother or me. And he’s been sober for ten years now.”
“I’m glad. Are your parents still together?”
“Yes. But there was a lot of crazy shit in my house growing up. My dad had a stressful job running a small business. He couldn’t cope with it, and he just checked out by getting wasted. My mom made excuses and tried to cover up the messes he made. As the older kid, I had to pick up the slack.” I swirled the wine in my glass. “I guess I had a lot of anger back then.”
She gave me a sympathetic look. “That sounds hard, Cooper.”
I lifted a shoulder. “I guess most people have some sob story. That’s mine—my dad was an alcoholic, and my mom enabled him.” I took a sip of wine. “That’s why I wanted to get away from them, back when he was passing out on the couch and my mom was pretending everything was perfect.”
“I can understand that.”
“I never wanted to be like him,” I said, thinking back. “I never wanted to be unavailable to my kids. The type of guy to run and hide in a bottle instead of facing shit.”