Page 16 of Slow Burn

He himself had been around for the whole saga — Penn’s back injury, Nadia’s hovering, Penn’s griping, and his entire recovery ordeal. He’d watched the two fall hard in spite of the circumstances. Couldn’t be happier for his roomie, who’d had to fight through so much difficult shit to get his happiness.

It made his own current troubles seem like nothing.

As he approached the bar, part of Penn’s speech — the part about change and doing hard things — kept ringing through his head, nagging at him like an old woman. In an attempt to shut it down, he ordered three shots instead of two and downed the first right away.

The liquor didn’t do a damn thing except maybe make it even clearer that he wanted exactly what Penn had found. And it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Cooper had a chance to get it. The question was, did he have the balls to go for it?

11

Four weeks later

Eating dinner alone sucked, but it looked like Zoe would be doing it yet again tonight.

She shook the hot skillet to stir the chicken and veggies and prevent them from burning. Checking the clock on the stove, she wondered where the heck her mother was. She’d started cooking the second she’d gotten home from work so the food would be ready when her mom arrived and they could sit down to eat together for once. But so far, there was no sign of Nell.

She heard a vehicle out on the street, but it sounded like a big truck. Definitely not her mom’s Lexus. At the slow squeal of powerful brakes right in front of their property, Zoe’s curiosity was piqued. The kitchen was on the back of the house, so she went to the side window that overlooked the driveway to see if she could tell what was going on. The tail end of a local fire truck was barely visible. Her pulse kicked into overdrive. Was there a fire at one of their neighbors’ houses?

A quick glance at the Barvinskys’ house next door revealed nothing amiss, so she hurried into the living room for a better look at the rest of the neighborhood. And the truck.

Her alarm increased times one hundred when she realized two firefighters in full gear, helmets and all, were heading up the walk to her front door. Her stir-fry hadn’t even set off the smoke detector — she didn’t need the fire department’s help. She went to the door to tell them exactly that.

When she opened it, one of the men was already on the front steps, reaching toward the doorbell. The other stood several feet behind him. Perplexed, Zoe opened the screen door.

“Can I— Oh, my God.” Her hand shot to her mouth as her mind tried to make sense of what her eyes took in.

Cooper had removed his helmet and gazed down at her with an expression in those blue eyes that she couldn’t decipher. Zoe’s gaze darted to his turnout coat with its Boulder Fire Department emblem on the chest.

“Hi, Zoe,” he said with a measure of uncertainty.

“I don’t… There’s no… How did you get that coat?” she sputtered. She glanced behind him at the truck, which also proclaimed to be local. “What’s going on, Cooper?”

“Please don’t slam the door in my face,” he said with a tone of conspiracy. “The guys are already giving me ten shades of hell.”

“What are you doing here?” She looked from him to the man behind him, who she didn’t recognize, to a group of four more fully outfitted firefighters lined up along this side of the truck, watching them.

“I moved to Colorado, Zo. These are my new co-workers.” He gestured over his shoulder, then leaned forward to say, “They think I’m nuts.”

Zoe nearly missed the last because her brain was still tripped up on the first. “You … what?” Was he kidding around?

That truck was real, though.

“You moved here?” she asked, not believing it but unable to come up with another explanation for the coat and the truck and the firefighters behind him.

“I got an apartment over on Crag View Road for now, short-term lease while I get my bearings. I’ve been with the department here for a week and a half.”

She was sure her mouth gaped to her chest. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m here because of you, Zoe. Not because you asked me to or I felt obligated to. I chose to make this change on my own. Because I want that future you mentioned. I want to wake up beside you every single day.”

He half turned and tossed his helmet the few feet to his closest ally. When he faced Zoe again, he rummaged around in the pocket of the large, thick coat, and then he went down on a knee, and Zoe’s heart exploded in her chest.

“Cooper?” She pressed both her hands to her mouth, and her eyes teared up.

He held out a little black velvet box in one hand and took her hand in the other, drawing her completely out of the house and letting the screen door slam shut. “Zoe, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

It was like time stopped for a second, like she was in some kind of a bubble of non-reality as she took in everything Cooper was saying, had said since she’d opened the door. His eyes, so full of love and tenderness. His calloused hands that held … oh, holy hell, the most beautiful princess-cut diamond engagement ring in a platinum setting. What finally yanked her out of her stupor was the realization that his hand shook.

She met his eyes again and recognized the fear. Insecurity. Question.

---