Page 14 of Midnight Valentine
Suzanne had told me Theo was very hands-on with all his projects, overseeing everything from start to finish, but that’s the opposite of what Coop just said…
“Wait. He doesn’t want to meet with me, does he?”
Coop looks startled, then guilty.
Bingo.
He holds up a hand, shaking his big blond head. “Hold on, I didn’t say that at all—”
“Why would he not want to meet a potential client?” I ignore his denial, jerking my thumb toward the house. “This is a huge job. What’s the problem?”
Coop inhales a long breath, searching for words, but my patience expires before he can find them.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter. You text Theo right now—or however it is you communicate with him—and tell him I’m coming over. Or he can come here, whatever’s more convenient. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to do business with someone who won’t even give me the courtesy of a meeting.”
I fold my arms over my chest and stare at Coop, my gaze unblinking.
His cheeks puff out as he slowly exhales. Then he digs his cell phone from the front pocket of his jeans, muttering, “Well, hell.”
It takes a geological epoch for Coop to send a text message, because he uses one finger, squinting and pecking at the keyboard on his iPhone until I want to tear my hair out. When he finally presses Send, he glances up at me with a hesitant smile.
Apparently, Theo is much quicker on the draw, because the chime from an answering text comes through within seconds. Coop reads the message, but is silent.
“What did he say?”
He chews the inside of his cheek. “Um.”
“Give me the phone.”
Coop’s blue eyes grow wide.
“Coop,” I insist, holding out my hand. “Give me. The phone.”
He hands it over with an expression like a puppy who’s been scolded. I look at the screen.
DO NOT BRING THAT WOMAN HERE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
The message is all in caps and bolded, like Theo’s shouting from the other side of the screen.
I waver for a moment between feeling insulted or wanting to laugh. This is so odd and unexpected, I can’t decide how to feel about it. Logic tells me there’s nothing I could have possibly done to earn this stranger’s dislike, but he clearly has a strong aversion to my presence. He’s like a bear with a thorn in its paw—only the thorn is me.
“That woman,” he wrote. Like I’m a carrier of the plague.
I look up at Coop with my brows drawn together. “Have you known Theo a long time?”
“Sure. We both grew up in Seaside. We were on the football team t
ogether in high school. He was one of the groomsmen at my wedding.”
Gathering my thoughts, I hand him his phone. “Okay. I won’t put you in an awkward position by trying to force you to tell me why your friend doesn’t like me, but I’d appreciate it if you could tell Theo that I said…ouch.”
Coop lifts his brows. “Ouch?”
“Yeah. Ouch. Just tell him that. And that if I see him again, I’ll cross the street first so he doesn’t have to. Thanks for coming out.”
I hand him the manila envelope with the quote in it and close the door.
5
