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No. No, that can’t be what’s happening. He made promises to me.
But so did my father. He promised to love and protect me—and he didn’t.
“He…” I sound dazed. “He agreed to the date?”
“Of course, he did.” Wanda shrugs. “He’s already got what he wanted from you.”
The hurt elicited by that statement is jarring.
Logic is screaming at me to enter the restaurant and confirm what my heart is denying, but I can’t. If it’s true—that Walt agreed to a date with Mrs. Linden—then I don’t want to see it in the flesh. It would break me like a concrete slab dropped from a fifth-story window.
Tears rush to my eyes and glob down my cheeks. I can’t wipe them away fast enough. In seconds, I’m a mess. Drenched in tears. Holding my stomach to keep from throwing up. Wanda watched the transformation and turns pale, her smirk slowly vanishing. “Holy shit…you love him.” She opens her mouth, closes it again. “I didn’t realize, Coco. I didn’t realize it was so serious.”
“Of course, it is. It…was?” I use the edge of my dress to wipe my face, flashing my underwear to everyone in the lobby and not caring whatsoever. My world is crumbling. “I wouldn’t go behind your back unless there was something there. I just had no experience with men and then I was swept up. It all happened so f-fast.” I stumble backward, desperate to put some distance between me and the love of my life on a date with someone else. “I’ll, um…I h-have to go—”
“Coco, wait. Wait.” Wanda grasps my arm to stop me from leaving, but I pull away and start to run, knowing Wanda won’t follow me. I’ve only seen her run once and it was after the ice cream truck. “Wait, please!” she shouts after me.
But I’m hearing nothing except the rush of wind in my ears, the sound of my heart cracking down the center. Pain. That’s all I’m feeling.
And I feel it even worse when I reach the beach, jogging over a dune, tumbling end over end down the other side, a searing pain reverberating in my skull…
* * *
Walt
My mission isto find my son.
Before I make things official with Coco, I need him to understand that I was blindsided by my love for her. I don’t want to miss out on my chance to be back in his life. A better father than before. But I simply can’t breathe without her, either. Trying to go on with my life alone now that I’ve found her would be a farce. I’d be fucking miserable and I have to hope he doesn’t hate me enough to wish me that dark of a fate.
Even now, as I walk through the lobby, I’m growing more anxious to get back to her. Every breath I take echoes in my ears. The back of my neck gathers tight. It has been too long since the last time I held Coco, saw her smile, licked her skin. It’s like being under a spell and having no desire to be cured. On a scale from one to ten, my obsession has become a twenty. My heart is racing for the first time in years. For the first time because of a woman. Ever.
Tonight, I am going to ask her to be my wife.
Is that crazy and impulsive? It might seem that way to the outside world. But when the two of us are together, the outside world ceases to exist. It’s only me and her. Damn anyone who doesn’t understand. The hell with them. All I can do is hope my family understands.
Even if they don’t, though? I’m taking Coco. I’m taking this unexpected love of my life and being grateful.
I enter the restaurant and some woman steps into my path, but like any soldier on a mission, I keep my focus on the goal and sidestep around her, spotting my son at the lobby bar with his head hung low over a glass of whiskey. I don’t stop until I’m sitting in the stool to his right. He is a tad bleary eyed when he looks over at me, but his gaze sharpens quickly.
“You.” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe you.” An exhale leaves him shakily. “Well, I can believe you’d give into temptation like that. Any man would. She’s a dream—”
“Stop,” I bite out. “I know I’ve pissed you off and I’m sorry about that. Sorry if I’ve disappointed you. But you need to be very careful what you say about Coco around me.”
Stunned, his mouth snaps shut. “Noted. I just meant she’s—”
“Very. Careful,” I stress, feeling my temperature rise. “She’s incredibly beautiful on the outside, yes, but she’s much more than that. She’s carrying around a lot of pain. Pain that doesn’t stand a chance against her bright spirit. She’s caring and smart and…” I’m getting dizzy with the need to look into her eyes. To be anchored by her. “You’ll think I’ve lost my mind, but I think I’ve been missing something my whole life. Her. More so in the last few years. It’s like I knew she was out there and I was slowly losing the will to live without her. Don’t ask me to stay away from her. She’s mine. By some miracle, she feels it as much as I do.”
My son lets out a slow breath, visibly surprised. “Jesus, Dad. I didn’t know it was this serious. I thought it was just physical.” He blinks down at his drink. Then back at me. “But I’ve never heard you speak about anything or anyone like this. You love her. You really do—”
“Excuse me,” says a woman to my left, interrupting whatever my son is going to say. Is she the same woman who I passed on my way into the restaurant? I can’t tell. Her features blur and all I can see is Coco. All I can do is crave her. “I’m sorry, but are you Walt?”
My brow knits. “Yes.”
She grows visibly flustered, shifting side to side. “I’m Mrs. Linden. Amy.” I’m pretty sure my face is betraying my utter confusion. All I feel is frustrated that she’s interrupting my conversation with Chris when it seemed as though he was beginning to understand that my love for Coco is real and serious and urgent. “Your granddaughter, Wanda, is one of my students. She…well, she set us up on a date—”
Wanda halts the woman’s explanation when she skids to a stop beside us. “Oh God. Oh God.” There are tears in her eyes and my stomach plummets. Somehow, I know this is about Coco. Somehow, I know something is wrong. “I should have known she wouldn’t hook up with my grandfather if her heart wasn’t in it. She would never hurt me on purpose. That’s not who she is. She…she loves you. She really does and now I’ve fucked it up. Excuse my language.”
“Coco…my student?” asks the woman whose name I can’t recall.
