Page 37 of Craving Cooper

He chuckles and turns to his friends. “Meet my receptionist.”

“Who has a name… which is Mallory,” I say, shaking my head at him, before I look at Mr. Holt. “If you wanna call on Monday morning, I’ll schedule you in for later in the week.”

“That’s perfect.” He smiles down at me. “We’re Walker and Imogen, by the way.”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“You, too.”

“I hate to cut and run,” Imogen says. “But we need to find Stella and Dylan. I promised her we’d meet them for lunch.”

Walker rolls his eyes, although he’s grinning. “One of the many joys of my wife and her best friend having had babies within a couple of weeks of each other is that they’re even more inseparable than they were before.”

“Are you complaining?” she says, turning to him and tipping her head back to look up into his face.

“About you? Never, baby.” He leans in and kisses her forehead, just as their baby lets out a soft cry, and Walker chuckles, looking down at her. “Okay. I won’t leave you out, Ava.” He dips his head, kissing his daughter’s cheek, and she smiles up at him, my heart overflowing at the cuteness of it all.

“I’ll see you next week,” Cooper says.

“Sure. I’ll call Mallory and set it up.” Walker looks at me with a smile, and I smile back as they turn and go.

“They’re a lovely family,” I whisper, once they’re out of earshot.

“Yeah. Imogen’s not from around here, but she’s fitting in okay.”

“Is that a problem?” I ask. “Not being from around here, I mean,” aware of the fact that I’m from the other side of the country.

“Not generally. Although it can be. It depends on your attitude. Hart’s Creek isn’t a place to make changes, so it pays to fit in, rather than try anything radical.”

“I see. Or I guess the other way of doing it is to marry someone who’s lived here all their life?” I look up at him, noting the confusion behind his eyes, and realize the need to backtrack before he gets the wrong idea. “Someone like Walker Holt,” I say, hoping he doesn’t think I was dropping hints about us. Even if I’ve been in love with him since the moment I first saw him, when he was an image on a screen, three thousand miles away, that’s no reason to scare him off with thoughts of marriage.

“Yeah. Someone like that.” He coughs, pushing his fingers back through his thick, dark hair. “Walker and Isabel got married this time last year.”

“They did?” He nods his head, looking surprised by my reaction, and I have to smile. “It looks like they didn’t wait too long to start a family, either.”

He grins and leans closer, whispering, “I’m pretty sure the pregnancy came before the wedding in their case, but you didn’t hear it from me.”

I nod my head, looking up into his molten brown eyes, and am about to ask if everyone in Hart’s Creek is so keen on having kids straight off the bat, when another couple approach. I know the man this time. It’s Nate Newton of the Hart’s Creek Courier. He’s the one I went to see when I placed the advertisement about Saffron. As for the woman beside him, though… she’s more of a mystery. I’m sure I’ve seen her around the town, but I don’t know her name, or what her connection is with Mr. Newton. She’s very pretty, though, and I have to say, I love her outfit. Her dress is thigh-length and copper-colored, and she’s covered it with a chunky cardigan, finishing the look with ankle boots and an amber necklace.

“You already know Nate, don’t you?” Cooper says, stepping forward to make proper introductions this time.

“Yes, we’ve met.”

“This is my wife, Taylor,” Nate says, looking down at her with a smile. “You know, it’s been five months, one week, and two days, and I still love calling you my wife just as much as I did on the day we got married.”

“Even though you’re together twenty-four hours a day?” Cooper says, shaking his head, and Nate tears his eyes away from his wife, although the smile doesn’t leave his lips as he focuses on Cooper instead.

“When you find the right woman, twenty-four hours a day isn’t long enough,” he says.

“And it works, does it?” Cooper asks, sounding interested. “Working and living together?”

“It works for us,” Nate says. “Although we won’t be doing it for very much longer.” Taylor looks up at him, her eyes sparkling, the two of them seeming to share a moment before they look back at us and Nate smiles, saying, “Taylor’s pregnant.”

There’s just a second’s pause before Cooper steps forward, offering his hand to Nate. “Congratulations,” he says, and I offer my own good wishes, but don’t bother with a handshake. Not only do I not know them very well, but it seems Nate likes to have a protective arm around his wife… and I admire that.

Taylor’s eye is caught by something, and she nudges into her husband. “We need to go deal with that.”

“What?” We all follow the line of her gaze toward a young man with a camera in his hand, and Nate shakes his head.

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