Stolen Breaths (8 page)

I stood up, placed my purse strap over my shoulder, and followed her down the hall to a pair of double doors at the very end. Behind those double doors was a giant sized office with a mahogany desk in the center, with book shelves lining the walls along the back. There were floor to ceiling windows along one wall and a large flat screen TV was hung on the adjacent wall.

Cooper was seated behind his desk and he looked up when we walked through. A broad smile appeared across his face. “Lily,” he said, focusing on me. He turned his gaze toward Cora. “Thank you, Cora.” She quietly closed the door behind her.

Cooper stood up and placed his hands inside the front pockets of his black dress pants. He wore a light blue button down dress shirt and a striped blue and white tie. Taking in the beautiful creature in front of me, I decided that blue looked good on him.

“Wow,” he said, “you look beautiful!” He moved from behind his desk and walked toward me. Stopping in front of me, he reached for my hands and lifted them up and out to the sides to gain a better view. His eyes scanned me from head to toe and then rested on my gaze.

“Thank you,” I said shyly. It was always hard for me to accept compliments. I don’t know why.

“That dress is ….wow,” he said, looking as though he could devour me with his eyes. It was a simple red cotton sundress with spaghetti straps that hit just above the knee and cinched at the waist, although I did dress it up with a nude high heel. “Stunning.”

I looked down at my dress, trying to figure out what was so spectacular about it, and then gave up. “Thank you. You look rather nice yourself. This is the first time I’ve seen you in a tie, I think.”

“I only wear ties at work. I feel like I’m being choked.” And with that he tugged at his tie, trying to loosen its grip. Then he placed his hand on the small of my back and led me toward the double doors. “Ready? Are you hungry?”

“Starved,” I said. I really was. I had skipped breakfast and was running on empty.

“Then let’s get you fed.”

I ordered a cheeseburger and fries, as did Cooper. By the time the waiter brought us our food I was famished. I was halfway through my burger when I looked up and caught Cooper staring at me. He had a mischievous grin plastered across his face.

“What?” I asked, feeling suddenly self-conscious.

“I’m just watching you eat. You weren’t kidding when you said you were hungry.”

Embarrassed now and wondering how ridiculous I must look to him diving into my food like this was my last meal I said, “Sorry. The burgers are really good here.”

“Why are you apologizing? I love that you eat like a real person and not like a bird. I’ve had dates that would pick at their food or just move it around their plate. Drove me nuts. I like that you’re not like that.”

Realizing he was talking about taking other girls out on dates I instantly felt a pain in my chest. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew he’d dated other women. But it wasn’t something I wanted to think about. And it wasn’t a subject we’d discussed yet. I pushed that thought out of my head for the time being and tried to come up with something to say. “Cora…she seems nice.”

“She is,” he said.

Picking up a French fry I asked, “Has she worked for you long?”

“She was there before I took over. She was my grandfather’s assistant.”

I nodded my head and dipped my fry in ketchup, looking back up at him when I could feel his eyes on me. It didn’t embarrass him that I kept catching him staring. Instead he said, “Lily, go out with me tonight.”

“Where?”

“Does it matter?”

“No.”

“I’ll pick you up at seven. Glad we got that out of the way. Now, do you want to keep talking about Cora or shall we branch out and talk about something else?”

Shrugging my shoulders I said, “What do you want to talk about?”

Giving me a thoughtful, yet playful look, he said, “What do
you
want to talk about?”

Our waiter stopped at our table before I could respond. “Is there anything else I can get either of you? Some dessert perhaps?

“No thank you,” I said.

“Just the check if you don’t mind,” Cooper replied without ever taking his eyes off of me.

“Certainly,” the waiter said before placing the check on the table.

Cooper reached around to his back pocket, removed his card and handed it to the waiter.

“Thank you, sir. I’ll be right back.”

In my head I had a list of questions I wanted to ask him but didn’t know which ones to ask first. If this was an open invitation to ask anything I decided to listen to my conscience (Maggie’s voice) and grab life by the balls. Using that figure of speech struck me as funny, seeing as I was applying it to ‘how to get to know Cooper better’ and I started to laugh at myself.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said trying to hold in my laughter. “I was just thinking about something Maggie said this morning. I do want to know something if you don’t mind me asking though.”

“Ask away.”

“Are you dating anyone?”

“You mean besides you? No.”

I brought my napkin up to wipe my mouth and smiled behind it. “That’s good to know.”

“Anything else you want to ask me?” he said, leaning across the table.

“Yes.

“Shoot.”

“Do you like brownies?”

He raised one eyebrow. “Do I like brownies?”

“It’s an important question,” I said looking very serious.

“I love brownies.”

Shaking my head in approval, I beamed. “Good answer.”

“Why do I get the feeling if I had said no I would have been in trouble?”

“No worries,” I said, taking a mental picture of his face in this moment and tucking it away for later.

“Here you are, sir. It’s been a pleasure serving you both. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

I gave our waiter a smile. “Thank you.”

Cooper also offered a friendly thank you while he placed his card back into his wallet.

“You, Lily Grayson, are an enigma.”

“But you like me anyway,” I said with an impish grin.

“You have no idea how much,” he whispered.

Cooper stood up and took me by the hand. He placed his other hand around my waist and leaned his face close to mine. Feeling the warmth of his breath in my ear sent a wave of chill bumps all over me. Cooper noticed. “Are you cold?”

“No,” I thought I said, but my voice betrayed me and nothing had actually came out…just the word formed over my lips.

“Does this give you chills?” he whispered in my ear.

I nodded yes instead of trying to speak again.

“That’s good to know,” he whispered one final time before placing his hand on the small of my back to guide me through the restaurant and outside into the fresh air. I immediately inhaled a deep breath. He threaded his fingers through mine as we walked hand in hand back to his office.

He was quiet on our walk back and I could tell he was thinking about something. As for me, I was thinking how much I enjoyed being with Cooper and how much I was going to miss him until I saw him again tonight. In my head I was thinking how silly that was. I was going to see him in a few hours and I was actually missing him even while standing right next to him holding his hand.

“Lily?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For making me feel again.”

Stunned, I looked at him and stopped walking, and he turned to face me. “It’s true you know…you make me
feel
, and for the longest I didn’t think I ever would. I know you don’t understand and this is sounding cryptic, but you have to know that you’re not the only one feeling overwhelmed. I do too. There are so many things I want to tell you, and I will, just not right now. Right now, I just want to do this…..hold your hand, whisper things in your ear because I know it drives you crazy, and look forward to our next date. But I needed to thank you for breathing life back into me. Thank you, Lily.” He brought both of my hands up and kissed the backs of my fingers, and then turned them over and kissed each palm.

I stood there with my hands in his while people passed us by on the busy streets. All the sounds of people talking, buses, cars, horns honking and all the usual sounds of a bustling city – it all faded to black and he was the only thing that I saw or heard.

I opened my mouth and managed two words. “You’re welcome.”

Cooper opened the door and led me inside, still holding my hand. A rush of bottles clinking, people laughing, and the thumping of music playing invaded my senses.

“Is this where you play every Friday night?” I asked, looking around the bar.

“It is,” he said. “I wanted you to meet my friends. By the way, have I told you how beautiful you look today?”

“You have,” I said blushing. “I think it’s the red. You did say red was your favorite color, right?”

Looking thoughtfully for a minute he said, “No, it’s not the red. It’s you.” He brought my hand up to his mouth for a kiss. And I got tingles instantly.

It was a decent crowd for a Wednesday night, and looking around the bar, I decided quickly that I liked the place. It was not a roughneck bar, but one that had the ability to suck you in with its charm. The bar itself had dark walls and pictures of famous musicians all around. The muted lighting gave off a jazzy kind of mood to the place. As I continued to scan the room I saw there were large mirrors behind the bar with stools wrapping along the front and around each side, and the stage was directly across the room with tables and chairs set up all around it, booths outlining the perimeter. My eyes scanned back toward the bar area, and I made eye contact with the bartender. His eyes shifted from me to Cooper as we made our way toward his smiling face.

“Coop!” the bartender shouted as we approached, holding out his hand to greet Cooper.

The two men exchanged handshakes like old friends and immediately both sets of eyes landed on me. “Joe, this is Lily,” Cooper said, looking at me with pride written on his face. “Lily, meet Joe Carlisle.”

“Hi, Joe. Nice to meet you,” I said, reaching across the bar to shake his hand. He was good looking with hair black as coal and just the right amount of stubble for a five o’clock shadow.

“Lily, so nice to meet you. Coop, you dog, you said she was beautiful, but you didn’t say she was a goddess.”

I laughed at that.
Goddess?
Please.

“Would you have believed me if I told you?” Cooper said.

“Wow, you guys could charm a rattle off a snake,” I said, trying not to look embarrassed. “I’m sure you meet a couple of goddesses every night in this place.”

“Not at all,” Joe said. “But that would be nice.”

“Let me guess, this must be Lily,” a voice said from behind me. I turned around and saw a man with sandy hair and crisp blue eyes. He held his hand out and instinctively I reciprocated. He didn’t wait for Cooper’s introduction, instead introducing himself. “Hi. I’m Hayden McCoy.”

“Hayden?” I said looking for Cooper to complete the introduction.

“Hayden is another friend of mine that I wanted you to meet,” Cooper said as the two exchanged the familiar one shake handshake.

“It’s nice to meet you, Hayden.”

“It’s a pleasure, Lily,” Hayden said, slapping Cooper on the back.

“I’ve got someone covering the bar,” Joe said. “Let’s go sit down somewhere.” He said something to one of the other bartenders and then led us to a large booth in the corner.

I slid into the booth first and then Cooper, and Joe and Hayden slid in on the other side. Cooper had me sitting close to him and draped his arm around me. Before we got completely settled a waitress came and brought us drinks. Bottled Coronas for all of us plus tequila shots, salt, and lime wedges.

“Have you ever done a tequila shot, Lily?” Cooper asked, looking at the glasses in front of us when he saw my expression.

“Nope, but something tells me I’m about to,” I laughed.

“I’ll show you how,” he said. He removed his arm from around me, licked the skin between his forefinger and thumb, sprinkled salt on it, licked it, then downed his tequila shot and bit the lime.

I looked around the table at the three sets of eyes watching me, waiting to see how I was going to handle this part. “Okay,” I said, looking confident, “I can do this.” I did everything Cooper did – licked the salt, downed the tequila, bit the lime, and slammed my glass down on the table, then proceeded to twist my face into something that probably resembled a cork screw. “That,” I said, trying to keep composed but failing miserably, “was disgusting.”

Laughter broke out across the table. Cooper wrapped his arm around me and pulled me toward him. “Yeah, but you looked hot doing it,” he whispered in my ear and then gently laid his other hand across my knee. The gentleness of his touch sent a rush of warmth right through me.

Joe and Hayden downed their shots, and we all laughed and had a good time as the night went on. I liked his friends. They were funny and easy to be around.

“Hey, Lily, I got a joke for ya,” Joe said.

Instantly Cooper and Hayden rolled their eyes and shook their heads. “He has the worst jokes on the planet,” Hayden said. “Please, don’t do it, Joe.”

“Hey this one is funny,” Joe said. “Lily, how do you make a tissue dance?”

“Uh, I have no idea,” I said

“You put a little boogie in it.”

Silence.

Each of us looked at the other one…and then……laughter – all of us. Not because the joke was funny but because it was just so ridiculous.

Hayden turned to Joe. “You are banned from telling any more jokes, man.”

I leaned back into Cooper and laughed at his friends until my sides were hurting. When I needed the ladies room he promptly rose to his feet and helped me out. By the time I came back they had simmered down slightly.

“I told them you could sing,” Cooper said.

“What?”

“They want to hear you.”

“No no no no no,” I said. “Not gonna happen.”

“What if I sang with you?” Cooper said and then whispered in my ear, “Please? For me?”

I sighed. “I don’t know.”

Joe and Hayden were both staring, and finally Joe said, “I’ll clear this place out, and there won’t be anybody else around. We close in ten minutes anyway. If you’re as good as Cooper says you are we want to hear you.”