The Barefoot Groom: Bachelor Billionaire Romance (A Last Play Companion) (8 page)

She trailed off because he was still giving her that stupid grin. The one that told her he was very happy to see her. “This isn’t a private part of your property, is it?” Honestly, she hadn’t thought about that.

“No.” Their eyes stayed locked. He cleared his throat. “I like to walk through the gardens before everyone comes out for the night’s festivities.”

It felt like she couldn’t look away. “I can see why. They’re beautiful.”

Cocking an eyebrow, he smiled. “I didn’t see you this afternoon.”

He’d noticed her absence?

She started moving to the path to go back. “Oh, yeah, I had to do some work so I stayed in my room.”

Moving in her direction, he stood in front of her path. “Wait.”

Her heart picked up speed. “I should get back.”

He didn’t move. “London?”

She hesitated. “Yes?”

His grin got even bigger. “Want to go for a helicopter ride with me?”

D
id
it surprise Cooper that he’d asked this evasive woman with a boyfriend to come with him on his chopper?

Yes.

Did it surprise Cooper he’d thought about her the whole day, even though he knew she’d made it perfectly clear she didn’t want to pursue a relationship?

Yes, a glutton for punishment, that’s what he must be.

Was he sad she was now with him, spiraling across Jackson Hole with the sunset burning in the background?

No.

She laughed, her blonde hair flying in the wind. “This is awesome!”

They were buckled in, but he hadn’t brought out the helmets. He was just taking them for a little spin.

Gesturing to his hands on the controls, she shook her head. “I didn’t know you could fly a helicopter.”

“Oh, there’s a lot you don’t know about the mild-mannered Cooper Harrison.”

For a second, she looked stunned. Then she broke out into giggles. “Guru by day and flying vigilante by night?”

He laughed with her, loving how easy and natural it felt between them. Call him insane, but this was what attracted him to her the most. It never felt like he was “Cooper Harrison.” It just felt normal. Had since the hot tub. He could talk to her. He could be himself with her.

She pushed her hands up and waved them out the helicopter and let out a whoop. “This is awesome!”

He let out a whoop too, loving it. Carefully, he directed the chopper to the helipad above Jackson Ski resort. He had a deal with them to use their helipad when he wanted, and if they had serious accidents in the winter and needed another chopper, his was available to them.

Taking care, he gently set the chopper down and turned it off.

Her blue eyes turned back to him, and joy filled her face. “Don’t tell me. Since you’re a bazillionaire, you get to park this thing wherever you want.”

Nodding to the mountains, he said, “One of the perks, I guess. Let’s get out.”

Cooper jumped down and then quickly went to her side, reaching up and helping her out. Once again, he admired her grace and beauty. He held her hand for a second until she was situated. “Are you ready for the best view in Jackson Hole?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “I thought you said where we were the other day was the best view in Jackson Hole?”

Spreading his hands, he grinned. “You caught me. I guess I better play closer attention to the things I tell you.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Seems like you’re good at finding out the truth.”

“Guess so.”

He led her to the side of the helipad. The tram that came up the mountain was next to them, and he could see a group of people getting on the tram to go down. Not wanting to make her uncomfortable, he let go of her hand. “Look, they’re leaving now. This is great timing.” Gesturing to a big rock, the one he often sat on when he came here, he asked, “Want to sit?”

Their eyes met again, and he thought he saw her hesitating.

“It’s fine if you don’t.” He put his hands up. “I know you met a boy last week and fell in a crazy love romance. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t try to steal you away or anything.” His heart raced, and he watched her expression shift from hesitant to amused.

It unnerved him that he felt like a stupid frat boy at the moment. He was all tongue-tied like he’d just started college and it was his first time out with a beautiful sorority girl he wanted to impress. Not that he’d done more than a semester of college before dropping out.

A smug look passed over her face. “I do have to admit I don’t know if I would have revealed so much to you the other night in the hot tub if I would have known who you were.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“What?”

“You reveal all sorts of stuff to me, and you know who I am now.”

“No, I don’t.”

He grinned. “I’m not going to lie. I liked having the jump on you that first night, but it’s the same with us. You’re the same.”

Hesitating for a second, she shook her head. “I do feel comfortable with you. It’s weird.”

Man, he couldn’t even explain how much he enjoyed that confession. “I liked thinking you were single too.”

It appeared what he said made her nervous. She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“What?”

“Cooper Harrison cares if I’m single or not?”

“Maybe.” He lifted his eyebrows. “But you’re not, so it doesn’t matter, right?”

“Right.”

“Tell me about the boyfriend.”

Squirming a bit, which he had to admit he liked too, she sighed. “I told you. I met him last week. He’s in the military and has to go back soon. I guess that’s my luck.”

He didn’t say anything for a second. Then he decided to tell her what he was thinking. “No.”

“What?”

“Your story doesn’t make sense. You met him last week and fell in love. He’s leaving soon, and you decided to leave him and come here, to a singles—what did you call it?—‘meat market’ instead of staying with him until he leaves?” Cooper pointed at her. “Doesn’t make sense.”

“I told you. It was already paid for, and you should know, Mr. business owner, you guys don’t give refunds.”

He studied her. “Doesn’t matter. If you were in love with him like you say, you’d give up the money. Plus, he’s leaving soon. How can you put a price on what might be your last days on earth together?” He said the last part in a high falsetto.

She cocked her eyebrow. “Ha. Ha.”

Putting up two fingers, he smiled. “That’s the second time you’ve used the ha, ha come back.”

She rolled her eyes, letting out a puff of breath.

He grinned.

She pointed at him. “Hey, you don’t understand how precious money is to the little people, okay? I … there wasn’t a lot of money for me growing up, and I am devoted to personal development.”

That just made her more attractive. Personal development was his passion. But coming on a singles retreat when you just fell crazy in love didn’t make sense. He looked away. It also didn’t make sense that all he wanted to do was kiss her again.

“What?”

“What made you fall in love with him?”

At first, she didn’t answer. Then she looked away. “What can I say? Love at first sight.”

He stepped into her personal space and leveled her with a stare. “Spark, right?” Every part of him wanted to kiss her, again.

She didn’t move. “Right.”

The tension was palpable between them and he swore he could see the same feelings in her eyes as the ones in his heart.

Turning away, he tried to recover. “Right.”

She stuck her chin out and turned to sit. “Like you could steal me away.” She scoffed. “I mean, a billionaire. A best-selling author. I read you like to invest in startups and that you’re friends with Ashton Kutcher, who is on fire with startups, by the way.” She turned to him. “I read in
Forbes
he’s now investing other people’s money for them in startups. He’s turned like twenty million into two-hundred fifty million?”

Cooper sat next to her, ignoring the lemon scent of her. For a second, his thoughts scrambled. “You care about who’s in
Forbes
?”

She laughed. “I mean it. I am fascinated with how companies start and then break out and grow. Ashton Kutcher seems like the expert at the moment.”

“Oh, just ask him.” Cooper laughed.

She laughed too.

“Tell me more about startups.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “If I ever have a lot of money, I totally want to invest in a startup.”

He paused. “Why? So you can fund your nonprofit?”

She didn’t answer for a second, looking down at her hands and picking at her nail bed. “Don’t tease me about my nonprofit.”

A pang of vulnerability shot across her face, and he recognized it instantly. It’d been what he’d felt the past three years. “I’m not teasing you,” he said softly.

“Well, I’m not going to lie. I’d like to pay off my student loans too.”

“Reasonable.” How was it possible he could like this girl more and more every second?

They didn’t speak for a few minutes. It felt like she’d gotten weird, and he didn’t know why. So he asked what he’d been wondering the most about. “What got you interested in human trafficking?”

“Stop.” She shook her head.

He couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m serious.”

“It’s not like I just got interested in it all of a sudden.”

He paused. “Okay, tell me why you want to help people.”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yes.”

Clasping her hands together, she twirled a ring on her pinky finger. “When I was growing up on the farm in Nebraska, I just wanted to do something that mattered.”

This was not making him like her any less. “Okay.”

“Then I got to high school and started debating and learning about all the broken things in the world. In college, I started to realize the modern day slavery issue was women and children being taken every day. Not just in other countries, even in America it happens. People are taken and not heard from for years. They turn up in some forced labor camp on the other side of the world. Or the women are made into sex slaves.” She pinched her lips. “It’s horrifying, and only a small handful of people are trying to stop it. Did you know the porn industry drives this market? Young girls and women are captured and then drugged and forced to perform in these movies. The public doesn’t realize when they support the porn industry, they really are supporting human trafficking. It’s morally reprehensible.”

His heart thumped harder in his chest. It was like her passion and her desire had ignited something inside of him. It showed him how pointless his life had been. The first night he’d had a glimpse of it, but now it was growing, and she was part of it. It made him feel alive. It made him feel like he could have a chance to impact the world even more.

“So now I want to free people around the world from being bought and sold. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to.” She gave him a sad smile.

At this moment, right now, he knew he was in love. Without wanting to, but unable to stop himself, he reached out and put his hand over hers. “I think it’s a good cause.”

She looked down but didn’t move her hand. She stared up into his eyes, and her own shimmered with obvious emotion. “You do?”

He nodded. “I do.”

“I have a tentative plan.” She exhaled and pulled her hand back. “My roommate and I …” She hesitated and rolled her eyes. “The cheating roommate,” she said, clearing her throat. Then she waved a hand through the air in dismissal. “We put together goals: first, raise awareness; second, raise funds for groups like that new movie
Abolitionist
; and make sure the private organizations that are going after bad guys have funds. It’s a tricky situation for the governments because it’s all political when you’re busting other governments that allow these practices.”

It made Cooper sick. “Some governments allow it?” He didn’t know this.

She nodded. “Some tend to look the other way. One of my goals for my nonprofit is to make the public’s abhorrence of it so great that it won’t be able to be ignored. One of the focused efforts is getting the UN involved and presenting about it at the next world convention.” She sighed. “They’re holding it in London this year, and I would love to go.”

“Why don’t you?”

Glaring at him, she scoffed. “Says the billionaire.”

Cooper grinned, still feeling surprised he fell more and more in love with her every second.

“What?” she asked. This time she had an exasperated smile on her face.

He shook his head, confused at how attached he already felt to her. He swallowed. “That’s really cool.” That was a complete understatement.

Giving a couple of little nods, she let out a breath. “Thanks.”

Not knowing what to say, he looked out over the valley. “Do you know the first white man to ever see Jackson was John Colter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition?” It was the only thing he could bring to his memory that wouldn’t rat him out about how he was really thinking how he wanted to spend a lot more time with this woman.

She let out a laugh and then shook her head.

“Why are you laughing?”

“’Cause you’re random.”

He felt another smile spread across his lips. “I guess it was a bit random.”

She nudged him with her shoulder, smiling. “I like it. I’m pretty random too. Too many thoughts getting jumbled up in my brain.”

He knew exactly how she felt, but he didn’t say it. This woman kept putting him more and more onto uneven ground

It had been this way with her since the first time he’d met her in the hot tub.

“What’s wrong?”

He blinked. “Nothing.” It wouldn’t be appropriate to try to move in on someone else’s girl. It wouldn’t.

He wasn’t Hunter.

He definitely wasn’t Sterling.

“Please, tell me what you were thinking?”

The way she asked made him want to tell her everything.

“You first.”

“I was thinking you’re not what I expected.”

He tilted his head to the side. “You aren’t what I expected either.”

She laughed. “You don’t have access to tons of Google pages on me and books I’ve written.”

“Then tell me more about you.”

“Uh, no.”

“C’mon, I don’t know anything about you.”

“You already know I was left at the altar.” She countered.

“Doesn’t count.”

Narrowing her eyes, she shook her head. “Yeah, because you acquired the information under false pretenses.”

He laughed. “They weren’t false.”

She pushed him in the chest. “Were too.”

It surprised him she’d touched him so casually. Like a friend. He didn’t have a lot of female friends. Most of the women who approached him wanted something from him. “I never lied about who I was.”

“You told me you came through the crack in the gate.”

Putting his hands up, he laughed. “Fine. Tell me something else.”

London raised her eyebrows and said, “Oh, the most personal detail about me doesn’t count?”

Leaning back, he nudged her. “C’mon, that’s not your story.”

Raising her chin, she smiled. “You mean, I create my own story and all that?”

He smiled, liking how she made fun of him. “Yes, that’s one story about you. Now, tell me something else. Something real.”