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Coop: I don’t have time for this.
Matt: Give me ten minutes, I’d rather have this discussion there than in the middle of the airport.
Coop: Fine, see you then.
I fly through the streets of Malibu and arrive almost at the same time as he does. When he turns around, I see it. He’s tired, thin, almost brittle—so fucking broken.
“What’s so important we had to meet at midnight?”
“You,” I answer. “I don’t hate you. I hate myself for not protecting you, for not seeing what was happening to you. I should’ve tried harder.”
“You’re not responsible for me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Coop. We’re responsible for each other. If we want this to work, we have to look after one another. That’s the only way we’ll grow old—together. We focused on Thea, but I didn’t see what was happening with you. If I had paid more attention—”
He lifts his arm, showing me his open palm. “Stop right there, Matt. None of us are at fault for my crazy sister’s behavior or my vicious family. We couldn’t have prevented it. She would’ve found a way to fuck with me—or us. This might never stop. Fey will find a way to do something shitty to get money.”
“She’s about to go to jail.”
He grins. “Well, there’s that.”
Mason doctored the tapes so that it looks as if Fey broke into my house, not Tristan’s house. I don’t know exactly what else he and his father did, but they have friends in high places, and she’s being charged with several crimes. Also, there’s a civil suit against her from Thea and me.
“I don’t want to lose my best friend, Coop.”
“We’re friends?”
I shrug and maybe I’m wrong. “When we met, I thought you saw me as the stupid brother of your business partner. Since then, I’ve been working hard to change that image.”
He laughs. “I never saw you as that. You’re a lot of things, but not stupid. Impulsive, but never stupid.”
“You always looked at me with disgust.”
Tristan shakes his head. “No, I was trying to avoid you and pretend I didn’t like you, so you’d stay away.”
I grin. “You always liked me, huh?”
“Matt, why are we here?” He sounds slightly exasperated.
“We can’t just waste the opportunity of a lifetime. Us. We’re an epic story ready to be told. I—”
“Matt, I need you to remember what happened to Thea when the press learned about the three of us. We can’t go into the closet. What’s the plan?”
I tap my chest a couple of times. The beat is slow, and it helps me think. “Honestly, I’m not sure what we’ll do when there are pictures of the three of us. I’m certain that we’ll keep our children away from the press. We’ll have a bodyguard to ensure their safety. I hear homeschooling is a thing.”
Okay, we might need to think things through, but I’ll make sure that no one, not our kids, Thea, or Tristan, will go through what we went through a few months back. We will be ready. I’ll assemble a team. We know people won’t approve, but they’ll respect my family.
“We can’t do what your parents did to you. We can’t hide them.”
“We won’t. I’ll just make sure no one takes their picture,” I say, as if it’s the only thing that matters. I know there’s more, and we’ll have to plan, but that’s not the point of tonight’s conversation. “Our children will be free to go anywhere, and they’ll be loved and cared for.”
Tristan shakes his head. “I—”
“We’re not making decisions just yet. I want you to give me a chance to prove we can make it happen. As a matter of fact, I’ll go with you to Connecticut.”
He lets out a loud breath. “This isn’t a trip to visit my family. I’m working. Transferring the offices to Washington, selling assets, and making sure my parents have money left for the rest of their lives.”
“You don’t think I can do it? I can help, work hard and, as a matter of fact, while we’re at it, we can discuss Silver Moon. The place hasn’t changed.”
