Page 20 of Cooper's Salvation
Turning back to face Kara, he saw her frown. “I – yeah. You came over for a barbeque. I remember.”
“Yeah. I had no way of knowing my life would change that day. I would never be the same again. That was the day I finally understood what my mother had once told me.”
“What was that?”
“I met a girl the summer I graduated. I had just signed up for the army and was enjoying my last family vacation for the foreseeable future when I met her at our summer house. We were inseparable, but I knew I’d be leaving soon. One morning, Mom and I were sitting outside with coffee on the deck, and I asked how she’d known Dad was the one for her.”
Still looking a little confused with where the conversation was going, Kara asked, “What did she say?”
“The heart recognizes its mate. As simple and complicated as that. I had no idea what that meant, and it certainly didn’t help me decide whether to keep dating this girl or not. But I never got a chance to question her more about it when my dad came out to join us.”
“Did youeverget a chance to ask her? What happened with you and your girl?”
Cooper shook his head. “No, but turns out, I didn’t need to in the end. We ended up splitting. We were young and long-distance relationships are hard. But now I realize it didn’t matter because it was never going to work out for us. My heart didn’t recognize her as my mate.”
“What do you mean? How do you know?”
He braced. It was now or never. “I met someone else. And with one look, my heart knew.” Copper waited a beat. “That day, when I walked into your home on the base and you stood in the kitchen in that ridiculous pink apron, my heart saw you.Recognizedyou.”
Silence.
The room was so quiet he could hear Kara breathing. She simply stared at him, speechless. His heart pounded; his nerves were stretched to breaking point. Still she sat, frozen.
“K? Say something. You’re killing me here, woman.”
“I – you … What?”
Cooper came over to where she sat, sinking to his knees in front of the sofa. He cupped her chin in his palm and gazed into her eyes intently. “Simply put, sweetheart. I love you. I have since the day I first saw you. I thought it was doomed – I mean, you were married to Tom and had no intention of ever leaving him. So I found a way to hide what I felt and simply appreciate the friendship that we shared. But now things are different, and I can’t keep quiet anymore.”
12
Thoughts ran through Kara’s mind a million miles a minute. She’d had no clue what Cooper was going to say, but a declaration of love had seriously been the last thing she would have expected.
Holy shit.He’d said he loved her.
“You love me?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much the long and short of it.” He gave her a crooked smile.
She stared at him, speechless. Her heart was about ready to explode. It seemed it had been love at first sight for them both. What were the chances of that? She’d barely dared to dream that Cooper could love her back, let alone that he’d felt like that from the very beginning.
While she’d loved Tom, Kara hadn’t beeninlove with her husband. Guilt had eaten at her that she could never feel for him the way she did over Cooper. And just like Cooper, she would never have acted on her feelings if Tom had survived.
There was no changing what had happened. Her husband was gone, but they were still here. And they deserved to be happy. Tom would want that for them. He wouldn’t want them to waste this chance at a life together because of guilt.
Cooper getting to his feet pulled Kara out of her thoughts.
“It seems I’ve spoken out of turn. I don’t want to make this any more awkward for either of us, so I’m going to grab Daisy and head out.”
He turned toward the kitchen.
“Cooper, wait.” Jumping to her feet, Kara grabbed his hand. “Wait. Don’t go.”
He kept walking. “K, give a guy a break. I just put my heart on the line here, and you left me hanging.”
“I know, and I’m sorry for it. I didn’t mean to. It was so unexpected, and I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the fact that you feel that way too. It kinda left me speechless, and you know that doesn’t happen often.”
Cooper stopped so suddenly Kara plowed into his back. “Oomph.”
