Of course, the fact that she was talking eighty miles a minute probably wasn't helping.
But the ember she'd felt starting to glow got nervous and fizzled a bit. What was he thinking?
Finally, he took a deep breath. "Wow."
She waited a long, painful moment, but when he didn't say anything more, she pulled her hands back from his, crossing her arms.
"It might be a good time to come up with something other than wow. Maybe. I mean, I pretty much just laid my heart out here in this pretty damn public park, and I know that's not your fault or anything, but if you compare all I just said to wow … " She let her voice trail off.
He still didn't speak-just let his eyes scan her forehead, her jaw, her lips … finally landing on her eyes. She couldn't read his expression, and it was killing her. If he rejected her right here, right now, she had no idea how she was going to pick up her guitar and walk back to the hotel without breaking down in sobs. She had no idea how she'd get up onstage tonight and pretend to be a happy-go-lucky pop princess without a care in the world.
She had no idea how she'd get on that bus later tonight and roll out to the next five months of her life. Without him.
"You are completely nuts," he finally said, sticking his hands in his pockets.
Her eyes locked onto those hands, mostly because he was no longer reaching for her-no longer wanting to touch her. And God, it hurt.
"Yeah. I guess I am." Her voice was shaky, and she hated that, but what could she expect, really?
"I kind of love that about you."
He said it without emotion, like he might comment that he loved green shirts, and she felt her eyes narrow again as she looked at him.
He sighed and sat down on the bench. "I also kind of love that thing you do when you're nervous-with your fingernails. And I love how you laugh when something surprises you. And how you smile when you're really, truly happy. I even love how you cry, which is just weird. I'm so not good with the crying thing."
"Actually, you're pretty amazing at it." She shook her head slowly, trying to bite her cheek so she wouldn't smile.
He rolled his eyes in dismissal of her compliment. "Mostly, I love that you somehow snuck past your own security team, found this stupid park bench, and sat here playing until I found you."
She let out a long, relieved breath. Maybe-maybe it was going to be okay.
"Took you long enough. Just saying."
"There are a lot of frigging parks in greater Boston. Just saying."
She smiled for real. "I love that you knew to look."
"I knew." He reached out a hand, brushing her hair back from her cheek. "I knew."
She leaned into his fingers. "I missed you like crazy."
"Ditto." He sighed. "This past month's kind of been hell."
"Agreed."
"So I have some news." He took a deep breath. "About my case."
"Okay?" She braced herself for the worst, knowing she'd just poured out her heart to the one guy who could actually shatter it to pieces with whatever his news was.
"Looks like I won't need to sign up for those prison self-defense classes anytime soon."
"Wha-" She tried to make herself stop fussing with her fingernails. "What does that mean?"
"Means I'm not headed to prison, Shelby. Means the case has been dropped. Means … that I am the master of my own destiny, a free man, all those clichés."
"Really?" Her heart sped up. No prison? No case? Free man? "Seriously, Coop? You're-it's over?"
"It's over."
"Oh, my God!" She launched into his arms, and he laughed as he gathered her close. "Thank God! I have been dying for weeks to know how it was going, but I couldn't-I mean, I didn't know-I mean-"
"I know." He smiled, tenderly brushing her hair out of her eyes.
"So what happened? How did things finally get turned right side out?"
"It's a long, long story."
"But it has a happy ending? For real?" She took a shaky breath, hardly daring to believe it. "Can you maybe pinch me, just in case?"
He laughed. "Not going to pinch you. It's real. It's over."
"When did you find out?"
"Yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
"It's still a little fresh, yeah. Haven't quite processed what it's all gonna mean."
She pulled back, her stomach still trying to bash its way out from under her ribs. Could they maybe, possibly, actually have a chance here at some sort of future? Together?