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Stirring to attention, Cooper glanced over and squinted at the flat-bellied gal beaming at him. He knew that grin, and yet it still took a tick for recognition to jab him hard between the ribs.
“Emma Leigh?”
“Well, I’ll be,” she hollered. “It is you.” Leaping into action, she abandoned her ritzy companions and raced to him, looking so much like the teenage girl he remembered. He blinked with startled nostalgia. Pain and tenderness clashed in his gut as he swung his boots off the barstool rung and stood to meet her. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed her until he spotted her guileless smile aimed at him. But goddamn, it felt good to see his old pal, even though he cast a quick glance toward her pregnant friend just to make certain it wasn’t her sister.
It wasn’t, thank God.
Em tackled him with a big hug and quick, smacking kiss on the mouth, her vigor making him fall back onto his barstool. Then the crazy woman damn near climbed onto his lap to finish greeting him.
He laughed and hugged her back hard. She was definitely still the same Emma Leigh he remembered despite the fact she now hung out with some highfalutin-looking individuals.
“Whoa, there.” The man she’d been all wrapped up with swept forward, his gaze narrowing on Cooper with distinct distrust even though his voice sounded more nervous than upset. “Watch where you’re putting your mouth around my wife, mister.”
Cooper frowned down at Emma Leigh still perched on his knee as she settled her back against his chest and grinned up at him. “You married now?”
She grinned and nodded, looking entirely too proud of herself.
He had to smile back. His Em had definitely become the cat who’d gotten the cream. “Well, then. What the hell are you doing on my lap, woman?” He nudged her off his thigh and watched her husband immediately fold her protectively back under his arm.
Leaning her head on her husband’s shoulder, Em glanced at Coop with that same proud, excited smile. “Coop, meet Branson Thornbrockmore, my wonderful, handsome, successful, and intelligent husband. Bran, this is Coop, my bud from back when.”
“Congratulations, man,” Cooper greeted as he extended his palm to Branson Thorn-whatever-the-hell-his-last-name-was. Branson politely shook with Cooper. He had a nice sturdy grip Coop respected.
“Over here is Bran’s sister, Lexi, with her baby.” Emma Leigh paused to rub Lexi’s belly, as if it was a good-luck Buddha doll, before motioning to the second man. “And you might remember Lexi’s husband, Dex. He’s my cousin from Reno. He came down to stay with us a couple of summers when we were young.”
After sending Lexi a gracious dip of the hat, Coop took the cousin’s hand as well. “Yeah, I think I remember you.”
“I might remember you too,” Dex answered, frowning thoughtfully as he studied Coop. “You look familiar anyway.”
The quartet seemed friendly enough. They didn’t leer at him as if he was some kind of lowlife, though he hadn’t exactly spiffed himself up before heading out this evening. There were enough holes in his jeans to warrant them sacred. But Emma Leigh’s crew gathered around him with ease as they spoke to each other in teasing affection.
Em turned back to him with an expectant gri
n. “So, what’s been going on with you, Gerhardt? I don’t think I’ve seen you for…”
“Ten years,” he supplied.
Rolling her eyes, she grumbled, “Well, yeah. That’s why I’m back.”
He frowned. “Come again?”
“Our ten-year class reunion is this Saturday,” she prompted. “I wanted to show Bran and these two where I grew up, so I thought this was as good an excuse as any to return.”
“That’s right,” Coop said, a strange, apprehensive sensation swirling through his chest as he remembered opening the invitation he’d received a few weeks back. “I’d forgotten about that.” He had no idea why dread welled inside him, but with Em here and announcing she was going to attend the reunion then maybe…maybe her twin might show up too.
He could only hope—
God, what was wrong with him? He hadn’t even thought of Jo Ellen in, well, two weeks. Not since he’d received the stupid invitation and wondered if maybe she’d come back for it.
Not that he cared. He hadn’t seen her since the night he’d tried to claim her baby as his.
And what a disaster that had been. But after she’d cried all over him, confessing how Untermeyer had reacted to his upcoming fatherhood, then how her parents’ had reacted, she gazed up at Cooper with something akin to hope.
“Daddy wants to send me to my aunt’s until it’s born so no one around here will know. But they’re talking about putting the baby up for adoption. With me being so young and Travis not helping in any way, I could lose my child, Cooper. I can’t move out and support it by myself.”
He knew exactly what she was asking. Her eyes begged him with a desperation he couldn’t deny.
“No.” He took her hands, promising, “You won’t lose anything,” Her cold fingers wrapped tight around his as he added, “Because it’s not Untermeyer’s baby. It’s mine.”
