Page 118 of The Rebel

Me

I almost slept at the office last night. This merger is creating more work than I anticipated. Are things as stressful over there as they are here?

Cooper

It’s been rough—I can’t lie.

Me

I’d kill for rough. It’s been brutal.

Cooper

Let me take you out tonight and get your mind off it. I promise to keep you so occupied that you won’t remember you even have a job.

Me

I want that. So much. But I’m going to be here until at least ten. And then I need to go home and pack because I won’t have time to do it tomorrow night. It’s my niece’s birthday, and it’s a whole thing.

Cooper

Ridge’s daughter?

Me

Our little Daisy, yes.

Cooper

That means I won’t see you until our flight to Banff.

Me

Miss me?

Cooper

Fuck yes.

Me

Good.

TWENTY-FIVE

Cooper

Ihelped Rowan into the backseat of the SUV and slid in beside her, immediately putting my arm around her shoulders, my lips against the side of her head. That apple and cedarwood scent—fuck, I couldn’t get enough of it.

“Now that dinner’s done, there are a few things we can do,” I said to her, the vehicle still parked, the driver waiting for his next instruction. “I know you’ve been stressed, and I’m sure you’re exhausted, so I didn’t want to make our night as busy as I made our day, but there are two ideas I came up with.”

“Getting pampered was extra tough,” she joked, referring to the masseuse I’d hired to fly with us to Banff so she could give Rowan a ninety-minute massage during the flight.

Once we had checked into the hotel, a bubble bath followed before we ate lunch in front of the fireplace in my suite. The afternoon was spent driving to downtown Banff so we could check out the property she’d found that would hold our second location, should we need one. And after coming back and getting ready, dinner had been at the town’s highest-rated steak house.

“Today honestly couldn’t have been more perfect, Cooper.” She rubbed her stomach over her jacket. “And now, I’m so stuffed.”

“Good.” I gave her a quick kiss. “As for the options, one is to go ice-skating. There’s a rink about fifteen minutes from here, and we can go check it out. Or we can go back to the hotel and get a nightcap at the bar and call it an early-ish evening?—”

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