“You’re deflecting because you know you were in the wrong,” he said, using the psychobabble that drove her nuts. “We should have decided where to move together.”
The man never listened.
“This is my home, Marcus. If you’d have loved me, you would have made it work.”
“I’m a thirty-five-year-old plastic surgeon on the rise. Moving to Archer Springs would have meant taking a step back in my career.”
“It’s Ardent, Marcus. Ardent Springs.” What had she ever seen in this self-centered man-child? “But there’s no point in arguing. You’re in LA. I’m here. We both got what we wanted.”
“I wanted you and LA,” he whined. “I can’t believe you can be so callous about this.”
No matter what Haleigh said, the petulant child on the other end of the line was never going to see things any differently than he wanted to. Which meant getting angry would get her nowhere.
“I’m not being callous. I’m being realistic. We ended as friends who want two very different things.” Pressing the button she knew would get his attention, she added, “Better now than after the wedding. California is a community property state, after all.” No one came between Marcus and his money. “You need to move on with your life.”
Marcus’s voice dropped. “Is that what you’re doing? Have you already found someone else?”
Cooper’s green eyes flashed to mind. “No,” she said more emphatically than necessary. “I’m not interested in finding someone else right now.”
“So you do miss me.”
Saints alive, the man’s ego knew no bounds.
“Goodnight, Marcus,” she said. “It’s late and I have to work tomorrow. I suggest you go back into whatever club you were in and buy a pretty girl a drink.”
“Drinks out here are expensive,” she heard him say before she ended the call. Haleigh rolled her eyes as she tossed the phone back on the nightstand. Flopping onto her back, she stared at the ceiling, pondering her long-standing pattern of dating self-centered, shallow men. The habit went all the way back to high school. You’d think after David had dumped her, leaving her to deal with the pregnancy by herself, she’d have learned a lesson.
She’d been so scared that summer, but just as he’d done for Jessi, Cooper had stepped up to take another man’s place. David should have been the one shelling out money and holding her hand in the clinic waiting room. Gah! She really could pick them. Well, no more. Men were off-limits until Haleigh’s judgment improved. With her luck, that would be never, but better to be alone than married to a man like Marcus Appleton.
Haleigh shivered at the thought.
Chapter 4
Cooper spent his Tuesday lunch break filling the back of his truck with cargo he never thought he’d be hauling. After Haleigh made her exit, he’d returned to Abby and Jessi to find them building a sizable list of baby items. To his dismay, they’d expected him to fill the order as if he knew anything about drool cloths or suction bulbs.
He didn’t even want to know what they planned to do with a suction bulb.
“I couldn’t find the name-brand powder, so I grabbed the generic,” Lorelei said, tossing several white plastic bags into the bed of the truck.
Lorelei Pratchett, another former schoolmate, spent twelve years chasing a Hollywood dream before returning to her senses and coming back to Ardent Springs. To hear Cooper’s best friend, Spencer, tell it, she came back for him, but then Spencer liked to make his fiancée laugh. She’d guffawed at this version of the story on more than one occasion.
To Cooper’s great relief, when Lorelei learned of his mission, she’d volunteered to come along.
The plastic bags joined a bassinet, rocker, changing table, and car seat—all used but for the car seat, as no one was willing to compromise on safety in that area—in the back of the truck. Blankets and clothes had been donated by Carrie Farmer, his best friend Spencer’s ex-wife, who had a four-month-old girl of her own.
Carrie’s husband had been killed in a bar fight while she was still pregnant, so the entire gang had stepped up to make sure the munchkin wanted for nothing, especially not attention. Baby Molly had stolen Cooper’s heart the first second he saw her, and she loved nothing more than to bend him to her will. Which most of the time meant holding court atop his shoulders while drooling into his hair.
“I think that’s everything,” Cooper said, checking the last items off the list. “Now we have to set it all up.”
Glancing to the back of the truck, Lorelei said, “Didn’t you say this is a temporary situation? We’ve collected a lot of stuff for this girl to stay with your sister only a week or two.”