Page 109 of Can We Just Be Happy Now?

“It’s the middle of the night, Cooper. Is everything okay? Where’s Sophie? I thought she was upstairs.” Panic rushes through his voice as he looks behind me. He thinks there’s been an emergency.

There has.

“No, she’s not alright. She’s not with me. How dare you manipulate me into this.” I shove past him until I’m inside, slamming the door behind me, the walls of the entryway shaking with the force. I’m mad I let him do it in the first place, but I won’t let anyone stand between us–not even her father.

“Look, Cooper, I know you care about her–”

I cut him off. “CARE ABOUT HER?” I laugh humorlessly. “You think I just care about her? I’m so fucking in love with her that I can’t sleep. Or eat. Or do anything else for that matter without knowing she’s mine. I don’t care what you say anymore. You can tell me over and over we shouldn’t be together, but I refuse to live without her.” I can feel moisture forming in my eyes and dig my fingers into them in a frustrated attempt to keep from getting more emotional than I already am.

His hands land on either shoulder, and I glance up to see both shock and empathy on his face. “You need to understand I’m just looking out for my daughter.”

“No, you need to understand this isn’t whatever happened in your first marriage.” I regret the words as soon as they come out and try to backtrack. “I’m sorry. What I mean is you’re afraid what happened to you would happen to Sophie. I get it, but you need to let it go. Someday I’m going to marry her, and I hope you’ll support that, but I won’t abandon her now, or ever. I won’t hurt her or take anything from her. I won’t put her in a shitty spot where she ever doubts how much I love her or think anything else is more important than she is. I want to give her everything. Some people do know this young. She’s it for me. Maybe it’s crazy I know that so young. Hell, maybe it’s some Montgomery magic that lets us find our soulmates so young. But I love your daughter. I hope that’s enough for you because this entire family is important to me, and I don’t want to lose any of you because of this.”

Chapter sixty-six

SOPHIE

THEN

Yelling in my dream blurs into yelling in real life. I rub my eyes, swollen from crying myself to sleep, and flip my phone over. It’s after midnight. Pulling back my comforter, I step onto my fuzzy white carpet. Sliding on my slippers, my hand reaches for the cold metal knob on my bedroom door, ready to investigate. Another scream from downstairs stops me in my tracks. It sounds like . . . Cooper? Why is he here in the middle of the night? And why is he yelling at my parents? I try to piece together the muffled conversation.

I slowly open the door to avoid the creak and step into the hallway at the top of the stairs.

“. . . I love your daughter. I hope that’s enough for you because this entire family is important to me, and I don’t want to lose any of you because of this.”

Did Cooper just tell my parents he loves me? He’s never even directly told me that. My heart beats so loudly in my chest, I can’t hear a response. The urge to understand what’s happening wins over my need to stay hidden. I work my way down the staircase, my mom’s voice freezing me in my tracks again halfway down.

“Cooper is not Mary, Jack.”

“I never said he was,” Dad barks.

“I know you’re projecting. But based on that scene, I feel like you’re going to push our daughter away. She’s old enough and smart enough to make her own decisions.”

My brain tries to puzzle together what happened, but I don’t have enough pieces.

I jump down the last few steps, and both my parents shift their glances from each other to me.

“Sophie, honey,” my mom rushes to me, wrapping me in a hug. I return the embrace but quickly pull away.

“What's going on? Where’s Cooper?”

“He left out the back door, so I’m guessing he went next door.”

I doubt it.

I rush past my mom, not taking the time to look at my dad because I have a feeling I should be mad at him. The sliding door is still unlocked from Cooper’s exit, and I don’t bother closing it once I’ve passed through.

I take off through the grass until I reach the trees lining the edge of our property.

The moonlight is strong enough to reveal Cooper sitting in his chair leaned up against a tree. He startles when I appear in front of him, like he was too distracted to hear me hurtling toward him.

“Sophie,” he mumbles in surprise, springing to his feet and reaching for me.

I take a step backward, and his hands fall between us.

“I’m sorry about everything. I’m sorry for breaking up with you. It’s never what I wanted.”

My head is spinning in an attempt to make sense of everything. “What’s going on?” I ask cautiously.

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