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Ellen had given me the address, a look of approval in her eyes as she’d done so. But she’d also warned, “It won’t be easy.”
“I know. But the good things in life never are.”
More approval had beamed my way, then, while Lauren was still in the bathroom, she’d added, “Jane’s a dear but she’s a little loopy, Cooper. It might not be the ideal place to explain to Lauren.”
I’d shrugged. “I just want to see her. Be with her for a while, and if I can help out... great.”
I smiled as I remembered Ellen’s happy grin. Even Joseph had been surprised by my request for Jane’s address, but by the end of our breakfast, I knew I’d won them both over.
Maybe they hadn’t forgiven me the pain I’d caused Lauren, but they were willing to give me a second chance.
Now, it was down to Lauren.
Would she be so generous with her heart?
Despite my clothes and the fancy car, as I stared around the neighbourhood I didn’t feel out of place.
I’d grown up in three neighborhoods similar to this one. The first two, we’d had to leave thanks to my mom’s inability to pay the rent. The last one, we’d managed to stay put as I’d gotten an after-school job to help pay the bills.
I was actually comfortable here, and the only reason I looked out of place was my appearance. I looked rich now, but it was all a façade.
I hadn’t been born poor, but I’d learned to live that way, and I’d always be poor in my head. That was why I was frugal as hell to this day. My mom had taught me well.
I had more retirement plans in place than most fifty-year olds, and I was always playing the markets, trying to pad out my salary with safe investments that would give me long term returns rather than investing in dangerous stocks that could blow up in my face.
I’d never be this poor again, I’d determined when I’d made it out of college. But being back here was a reminder I hadn’t needed.
A reminder as to why I’d done what I’d done with Lauren.
I hadn’t wanted her to miss out on her dreams, but the desperate need to make something of my life had torn at me too.
I’d needed to go and make something of myself. I’d needed to prove to her as well as to my doubters that I could be everything she needed.
It was an old-fashioned concept but my mom had raised me in a pretty traditionalist way. After my father had died, she’d had to start working but she hadn’t been ready for that role. Nor had she been ready to raise a kid by herself.
She’d done her best, and I loved her for that, but she was a homemaker thrust into a new world where she’d had to work to keep the food on our table and the roof over our heads, and she hadn’t been all that great at it.
As bad as she’d been, that was nothing to my sperm donor of a father.
He had been a schmuck with money. He hadn’t planned for every eventuality, hadn’t even had life insurance to soften the blow of our sudden poverty.
Instead, through death, he’d abandoned us to a harsh fate, and I’d decided a long time ago that I would never, ever, do that to my wife.
The heavy thoughts were as grim as the sky above me I realized as I peered up. Then, I heard the car rumbling behind me, and knew Lauren was here.
God, I needed her.
Sometimes, my thoughts were so dark and she was like the sun, guiding me away from the memories of my childhood.
I’d been loved, and for that, I’d been lucky. But to go from a private school kid to a public school one hadn’t been fun.
I’d been bullied, terribly. Beaten and tormented… Then, there had been nights when we’d been frozen in our beds, and others still where there had been no food.
It could have been worse, but it could have been a hell of a lot better—
“Cooper?”
Lauren’s voice stirred me into action. I stood as she rounded her fender to glare at me.
