Page 108 of Playmaker

No clue what he saw there, because my brain? Had mostly shut down.

“My manager, my accountant and my lawyer all told me I’m crazy and won’t touch this. You tell me the best way to do this for tax purposes and I can make them do it.”

I shook my head because no way was I going to take over his portfolio, or his home or his cars. He stood, papers lying on the table. I looked up at him, still confused.

“Callie, this is how much I’m in. You’re worth more to me than any of this stuff. I’ll risk it all. I just want you to risk giving us a chance.”

He ran a finger over my chin, closing my mouth that had fallen open again, and walked out.

Chapter31

A fucking ugly green dress

Callie

I gotnothing done for the rest of the day. It was Cooper’s fault.

Everyone who could think of a question for me stopped by to ask it and then mention Cooper. I seized the excuse he had given that it was a tax issue. Mr. Anderson even came by, curious as to whether this meant Cooper might become a client. He almost promised a partnership if that happened.

Cooper would do it if I asked him to. The documents he’d left with me proved it. But I didn’t want to earn my place by using him, so I told Mr. Anderson no and ignored his look of disappointment. Years of hard work, and it was someone I could be dating that had tipped the scales in my favor.

Leonie gleefully told me that Benson’s department was getting a new female lawyer they’d poached from another firm, and rumors were that she’d been promised partnership consideration. Would that be more competition for me as well as him? I should care, but I smiled and thanked her and stared uselessly at my computer screen for the rest of the day.

For once, I left right on time. I’d texted Darcy, told him we needed to talk, immediately.

I ordered pizza as soon as I got to the condo and changed into sweats. Then I paced until Darcy arrived with the pizza in hand—he’d met the delivery guy in the lobby.

He frowned when I made another lap around the living room. “Okay, what’s the 911?”

“Cooper.”

He set the pizza down. “Give me a minute. I have to get out of this shirt. It’s covered in popcorn butter. Don’t ask.”

While I waited for him, I opened the pizza boxes, got plates, and found a bottle of wine.

Darcy returned with wet hair and his own sweats on. He grabbed a plate. “Okay, spill.”

I passed him a glass of wine, settling on the couch with my own piece. “Cooper came to the office. He may not be mentally competent.” That would explain what he’d done today.

Darcy did a spit take with his wine, spraying over his T-shirt. “Damn, I just cleaned up. What did Cooper do? Serenade you with a boom box? Buy you an expensive painting?” Darcy did love a rom-com.

I explained the less exciting reality of Cooper’s visit.

This time, Darcy choked on his pizza. “OMG! He’s in love with you!”

I frowned. “He didn’t say that.”

“Callie, he’s giving you everything he owns to show he trusts you.”

“But he didn’tsayit. He didn’t say the word.”

“He’s saying it in a different way. And damn it, Callie, it’s the way you understand. If he said ‘I love you,’ would you believe him?”

I chewed on my bottom lip. I’d had people say it before. My mom, each time she’d rescued me from foster care, only to drop me off later. Boyfriends, or guys I’d thought were boyfriends but were only using me.

Darcy said it, but it was his being there, all the time, that told me he lived it. And Cooper…

“I have to think.”

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