Throb(44)

I called Flynn the day after Cooper and I reunited to thank him. The next day, Flynn took Jessica out to a very public lunch and then kissed her for a full five minutes while cameras snapped away in a frenzy. After that, I was free and Flynn was deemed a playboy who broke the girl-next-door’s heart.

“Your brother was out there at seven this morning, practicing,” Mom says, coming up behind me and looking out the window over my shoulder. Cooper had a wide wooden platform constructed that leads from the inside of the restaurant to the altar set up on the beach, so that Kyle would be able to walk me down the aisle in his wheelchair. All he needs to do is push a button to start and stop motion, but that’s not always a feat he’s capable of.

“He puts too much pressure on himself. I wish he would let someone wheel him down.”

“He wants to escort you alone. He’s stubborn. But he can do it.”

Between the experimental drugs and promising therapy, my brother has made progress. But the progress isn’t always consistent and he sometimes grows frustrated. Cooper and I had a custom wheelchair made for Kyle’s birthday last month. I might not let my generous fiancé buy me cars, but chipping in for a ten-thousand-dollar wheelchair is more than okay.

The tick of the clock growing louder, Mom helps me attach my veil. There’s a knock on the door as I take one last look in the mirror. “Who is it?” my mother asks, but the door creaks open before the response comes.

“I need a minute with Kate, Lena.”

“No! Cooper. It’s bad luck.” She tries to shoo him out and shut the door, but she doesn’t really have any idea who she’s dealing with.

“It’s okay, Mom. It’s fine. He can come in.”

Her eyes go wide as saucers. “Really? But it’s bad luck.” She can’t believe what she’s hearing. Oddly, me, the person who doesn’t step on a crack for fear of breaking my mother’s back, is actually okay with seeing the groom ten minutes before the wedding. It’s kind of shocking even to me.

Cooper opens the door and my mother leaves the two of us alone. He eyes me in the mirror I’m still facing. “You look … gorgeous.” I may not be the most beautiful woman in the world, but to him, I am at this very moment. He leaves no room for anyone else.

“Thank you. But you could have told me that in ten minutes.” I turn, placing my palms on the lapels of his swoon-worthy tuxedo. “It must be important if you’re willing to risk bad luck, knowing how I am.”

“You know that none of that’s true. You’d beat me at cards whether you had a lucky chip or not and we’ll grow old together fifty years from now.” He wraps his arm around my waist.

His nose nuzzles in my hair. “You smell good too.”

“Cooper?”

“Hmmm.”

“Did you come here for a reason? Because I am not having sex with you ten minutes before we are getting married.”

“That sounds like a challenge,” he says and I see that look growing in his eye. The one that both of us know I can’t resist.

“Cooper …” I warn. “I’m kicking you out.”

He takes a step back, his hands scrubbing the hormone-induced haze from his face. “No. I came to give you something.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

He grins. “Get your dirty mind out of the gutter, soon-to-be Mrs. Montgomery. I’ll give you that after the ceremony. In the coat closet, on the way to the reception.” He winks. I wouldn’t put it past him for a second.

“Close your eyes.”

“Seriously, Cooper, we …”

“Just trust me. Close your eyes.”

I do as he asks. I feel him move around the room and then he’s back in front of me. “Open your eyes.”

He’s kneeling down in front of me.

“Lift.” One hand on my ankle, he guides me to lift my foot, then slips off my shoe. His finger goes to the toe and he removes the four-leaf clover I’d stashed there, but never told him about.

“But … I already tempted fate by letting you see me before the ceremony.” Panic starts to rise.

Cooper lifts my bouquet placed at the floor next to him. I hadn’t even noticed he put it there. He hands me the simple bundle of roses with a few silk ribbons cascading from the bottom. “Look underneath.”

Confused, I turn the flowers upside down. Something sparkly affixed to the top of the ribbon captures my attention. It couldn’t be. How could he ever find them?

“Are these …”

He nods. “They’re mine now. But I thought you might need something borrowed.”

My eyes sting with tears I desperately try to hold back. “I can’t believe you got these back for me.” Securely fastened to the ribbon under my bridal bouquet are my father’s lucky four-leaf clover cufflinks, the ones he had made when I was born. He wore them to all four World Poker championships—firmly believing they brought him luck each time he won. Sometime between his last win and next loss at the national championships, he lost them in a “sure thing” bet he made. A year later he died of a heart attack.

“I don’t even know what to say. I love them. You found my father’s lucky charm.”

“I’m glad you love them. But you’re wrong. I’m marrying his lucky charm in a few minutes.” He kisses my lips softly.

“You’re going to make me cry.”

“No. I’m going to spend the rest of my life making you smile and giving you orgasms.” He pulls me flush against his body. I have no doubt he’ll do both. This man is a royal straight flush. A field of four leaf clovers. He’s red skies at night. I need no other lucky charm, as long as I have him.

“Thank you, Cooper. I love them.”

“And I love you.”



Ten minutes later, at exactly eleven-eleven, on the eleventh day of November, I married the love of my life. As my husband said when he kissed me for the first time as his wife, “There’s nobody luckier than me.”

And just like that, the game was finally over.