Authors: Kristina Mathews
Annabelle stood on his porch with a measuring cup in her hand. “Can I borrow a cup of forgiveness?”
“I don’t know.” He stepped back to let her in. “Are you sure you need it?”
“I pushed you away.” Remorse flickered in her eyes.
“I told you I wasn’t going anywhere.” His heart thumped in his chest. She’d come to him. He’d been afraid he’d lost her, but she’d come back. “I’ve been here the whole time.”
A smile lit her face. God, she was beautiful. So beautiful it hurt.
“Did your friends leave?” When he’d returned with Hunter, Marco had the car already packed and ready to go.
“Yes. They’ve got, what, a month before Marco goes back to work?”
“About that.” Position players reported a few days after pitchers and catchers.
“So, am I forgiven?”
He answered by pressing her against the door and covering her mouth with his. Kissing her, tasting her, needing her.
The measuring cup slipped from her hand and hit the wood floor with a thud.
He pushed her hair back away from her face. He looked into her eyes, shining with the same desire he felt.
“Annabelle.” She was right, he did sing her name. “You’re so beautiful. You probably get tired of hearing that, but it’s true.”
“I like hearing it from you,” she said. “It means something coming from you.”
He reached up to stroke her face. Her beauty was breathtaking. But there was more to her than just her looks.
“You’re amazing, Annabelle.” He didn’t know how to really explain the way she made him feel. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to be taken care of. He wanted…
Pulling her closer, he kissed her again.
“The school bus will be here in about fifteen minutes.” Annabelle pushed him away. “But you can come to dinner.”
“So does that mean we’re friends?”
“Yes.”
“Just friends?”
She shook her head, her cheeks still flushed from all the kissing.
“With benefits?”
A sly smile accompanied her nod.
“We can work out the details after we pick up the girls.” She reached for the door handle and tilted her head indicating she wanted him to follow.
They walked side by side to the bus stop. He wasn’t going to push his luck by taking her hand. For now, he was satisfied with being invited back into her life.
“Cooper!” Both girls came rushing toward him.
“Where have you been?” Sophie demanded, with her little hands on her jean-clad hips.
Olivia crashed into him with a hug around his knees. “We missed you.”
“I missed you girls, too.” He tried to keep the emotion from choking off his voice. “But you had company. I didn’t want to get in the way.”
“You won’t get in the way,” Sophie insisted. “You’re practically family.”
Something bloomed in his chest. Hope. Longing for something more than what he and Annabelle shared in the bedroom.
“Yeah, and that means you can come to our Hundredth Day play.” Olivia looked up at him, hope shining in his eyes.
“I wouldn’t miss it.” He stuck out his hand, and Olivia eagerly took it.
“Yeah, we get to go on stage and everything.” Sophie grabbed his other hand and practically dragged him up the street. “We have a special song, and there’s even dancing.”
“Dancing?”
They chattered on about the plot of the play, basically finding all the different ways and various items they could count to one hundred. The girls were as excited as if they were performing
Cats
.
They reached Annabelle’s house. The girls rushed inside, eager for their afternoon snack.
“I’m not sure how we’ll work this out.” Annabelle hesitated at the door. “But I’m sure we’ll think of something.”
“I’m sure we will.”
He wanted to pull her into his arms. Wanted to devour her, but it was three-thirty in the afternoon and her daughters were just inside.
“So dinner? Around six?”
“Sounds good. Can I bring anything?”
“Just your appetite.” She started to turn the doorknob. “Oh, and your guitar.”
“My guitar? What, you think I’ll just perform for you on command?” He gave her a teasing grin. “I thought I was your friend. Or am I your boyfriend?”
“Friend, neighbor, and…” She took a deep breath. “Yeah, I guess you’re my boyfriend. If you want to be.”
He stepped closer. He could feel the heat coming off her. Could smell her shampoo. And he’d swear he could hear her heart beating as rapidly as his own.
“I want to be with you, Annabelle.” Closing the last few inches between them, he reached for her. Her eyes fluttered shut when he stroked her cheek. She no longer recoiled when he touched the left side of her face.
He placed a soft, almost tentative kiss on her lips.
She threw her arms around him and pulled him in for a hotter, bolder kiss. She moaned as he slid his tongue between her lips. Hungrily, she opened for him. And she gave as good as she got.
* * * *
Annabelle closed the door behind her. She’d invited Cooper back into her life. Into their lives. Both girls looked up at her expectantly.
“So is he coming to our play tonight?” Sophie asked.
“Yeah, is he?” Olivia chimed in.
“The play is tonight?” She’d been distracted by her feelings for Cooper and she hadn’t been listening to their conversation. She remembered reading about it in the class newsletter, but hadn’t quite fixed the date in her mind.
“Yeah. Tonight. At six o’clock.” Sophie gave her a look that was almost, but not quite an eye roll.
“Yeah, but we have to be there at five-thirty to get our costumes on and go to the bathroom
before
we go on stage,” Olivia demanded.
“Okay. I’ll let him know we’ll have to leave early and see if he wants to join us.” She pulled out her phone to send him a quick text. “Maybe we can all go out for pizza afterward.”
“Yeah. Cool.” Sophie’s eyes lit up at the idea. They hadn’t been out since before the accident.
Both girls finished their snacks and raced upstairs to start getting ready.
Annabelle cleaned up the kitchen, and put the teakettle on. She sent Cooper a text and he texted back, letting her know he’d be happy to join them for the girls’ school play. He even offered to drive, and even though she’d been waiting for clearance to drive herself, she was relieved she wouldn’t have to. Her nerves were a jangled mess. She’d made the decision to let Cooper into their lives, and she was scared of how neatly he fit.
She was even more afraid of the hole he’d leave behind when he signed with a new team.
“Wow, you two are ready already?” Annabelle had just sat down with a cup of tea when the girls bounded down the stairs. “We won’t leave for another hour.”
“We’re just super excited.” As if Sophie’s bouncing didn’t make that obvious.
“And Cooper’s coming.” Olivia was only slightly more restrained than her sister. “He’ll get to meet Miss Ramirez and everything.”
“Well now, let’s not get too excited.” She needed to explain a few things to her daughters. “Have a seat girls.”
They took up their regular places around the kitchen table.
“Cooper is our neighbor. He’s my friend.” She felt a little guilty about not telling the whole truth about her relationship with Cooper. “He’s not going to be your stepfather. Are we clear on that?”
They both nodded, but they shared a look with each other that had her worried they had other plans. They wanted a fairy tale ending. Nathan Cooper was Prince Charming, and their mother was the queen. They would be little princesses and they’d all live happily ever after.
“Your father will always be a part of your lives.” She worried how frequently or consistently they’d see him, but that wasn’t the main point of this conversation. “He loves you both very much. And even though he and I aren’t married anymore, we still care about each other. We’re still your parents.”
“We know.” Sophie looked at her as if she couldn’t figure out why she was telling them this all again. “But Daddy would want you to get married again so he wouldn’t have to pay abalone.”
“Where on earth would you get an idea like that?”
“Um, Uncle Leonard.” Olivia looked almost scared to out him. “He and Daddy were talking at Christmas. He said if you married someone else he wouldn’t have to worry about you making him bleed.”
“Did he say ‘bleed him dry’ or something like that?”
“Yeah. That. Why would getting married to someone else keep Daddy from getting cut?” Olivia took everything she heard literally.
“Oh honey, it’s an expression. I think he meant that if I were to remarry, and I’m not saying I will, then he wouldn’t have to pay me money for being his ex-wife.” She wasn’t going to explain that he’d already given her a payout instead of alimony. The only money he’d have to pay would be child support, and that wouldn’t change if she remarried.
“He doesn’t have to pay you because you’re a model. Isn’t that a job?” Sophie was trying to figure out the complicated lives of adults.
“I did have a job, but I’m not going to be a model anymore.”
“Why not?”
“People don’t want to look at pictures of great big scars.” She brushed her hair off her face, to remind herself as well as her daughters that she was flawed. “I’ll just have to find another job.”
“You could work at our school,” Olivia suggested.
“I don’t think so.” Annabelle knew that she wasn’t qualified. “I didn’t go to college, and they only let really smart people work with kids.”
“Why didn’t you go to college?” Sophie asked. “Is it because you got married?”
“No. I just never really thought about going.” She’d never been encouraged, either. “When I graduated from high school all I wanted to do was get out and see the world. I did that as a model. I got to go to New Zealand, Costa Rica, and even South Africa.”
“But then you married Daddy, so you didn’t need to go to college?” Olivia was trying to piece the story together.
“I married your father, and I stopped modeling so I could stay home with my beautiful babies.”
Both girls smiled.
“But now we’re big, right? And you can get a job if you want?” Olivia questioned.
“Or you could even go to college,” suggested Sophie.
“I could go to college. Sure.” She’d never thought about it, but why not?
“We’re going to go to college,” Sophie announced with pride.
“Yes, you are.” She just hoped she wasn’t putting too much pressure on her girls. They’d barely begun to read, and here they were discussing college. She wanted to encourage them, sure, but maybe they needed to be little girls a little longer.
“I’m going to be a teacher.” Olivia had decided that on her first day of school.
“I’m going to be a singer.” Sophie’s aspirations changed quite frequently. But Annabelle had little doubt where this latest career choice had come from. “Do singers make more money than baseball players?”
A knock on the door prevented Annabelle from even trying to answer that question.
“Cooper!” Both girls rushed to the door and dragged him inside.
“Do you make money as a singer?” Sophie barely let him get a foot in the door before she blurted out her question.
“Um, I sing mostly for fun.” He gave Annabelle an amused grin. “I have played a couple of times for charity events, so whatever they paid me, I just donated back to the cause.”
“Oh. So are you rich from being a baseball player?” Sophie didn’t know that these kinds of questions were rude.
“I made pretty good money as a baseball player.” He rubbed his chin. “And I managed to save a lot of that money for when I’m done playing.”
“Are you done playing?”
“Sophie. Please, enough with the third degree.” Annabelle was a little embarrassed by her daughter’s relentless questioning.
“What’s the third degree? We’ve been learning about weather. I know there’s an F on one side of the thermometer and a C on the other.” Sophie was too much sometimes.
“So, are my little actresses ready for their performance?” Cooper knelt down to give the girls his full attention.
They nearly knocked him over when they rushed to give him hugs. He took one girl in each arm and lifted them up.
Annabelle couldn’t breathe. It was getting harder to think she could just keep this casual, enjoy his companionship until he left for whatever team he ended up with. Not with the way her girls had fallen head over heels for him. And she wasn’t very far behind.
They piled into his SUV and drove to the school. As soon as the girls saw their teacher, they almost forgot about her and Cooper. Almost.
The girls checked in with Miss Ramirez and then dragged Cooper over to meet her.
“This is Miss Ramirez.” Olivia’s voice was filled with awe.
“And this is our neighbor, Cooper.” Sophie finished the introduction.
“It’s very nice to meet you.” Miss Ramirez passed a look between Cooper and Annabelle, but she didn’t question their relationship. “Okay girls, let’s get into your costumes.”
They scampered off, and Cooper turned to Annabelle.
“I’ll be right back. I have a little surprise for the girls.”
* * * *
As soon as Annabelle texted to tell him the play was tonight, Cooper had dashed off to the florist. He’d picked up a dozen roses, split into two mini bouquets. He planned to present them to Sophie and Olivia after the performance.
“Oh, Cooper, that’s so…” Annabelle held her hand over her mouth, hiding a smile.
“Too much?” He wondered now if it would draw too much attention from the rest of the parents. Maybe the other kids would feel bad if they didn’t get roses.
“No. It’s sweet.” She reached for him, but dropped her hand at the last second. “Besides, they’re already completely smitten with you.”
He wanted to know how their mother felt about him, but that would have to wait. For now, he was just happy to be there with them.
“They’re great kids. And I thought it would be nice to celebrate their stage debut.” But then he didn’t really know if it was their first time in a play.
“Thank you.” She offered him a grateful smile.
The audience settled and the teacher stepped up to the microphone. She welcomed the families and introduced “One Hundred Days, The Musical.”