“Emmie can wait if you need help showering.” He waggled his eyebrows.
She laughed. “Tempting, but you promised to call her. She’s probably sitting by the phone, waiting for it to ring.”
“You’re no fun,” he grumbled. He called her as he walked to the living room.
“Finally,” she said on answering. “I’ve been trying to guess all day what you wanted to tell me.”
“And what did you guess?”
“That you met someone. Did you? What’s her name?”
He grinned, imagining her shock when he told her. “I did meet someone. Her name is Olivia, but I call her Livie.”
“I knew it. Is she pretty? What am I saying? Of course she is.”
“She’s beautiful, actually.”
“What does she do?”
“She goes to school.”
“You mean like college?”
“No, like kindergarten…or maybe preschool. I’m not sure. Considering she’s my daughter, I need to know these things.” He chuckled at the silence on the other end. He wished he could see her face right now.
“Cooper? What are you saying exactly?”
“Exactly what you heard. Livie is my daughter. She’s almost five and is the cutest, funniest and sweetest thing in the world.”
There was more silence, and then, “You have a daughter? How come you never told me?”
“Because I didn’t know myself until a few days ago.” He told her the story from the night he first met Kendall up to now.
“Wow, this is all unbelievable. In my wildest guesses of what you were going to tell me, this wasn’t even on the radar. You’ve had your world turned upside down. Are you okay with this, with having a daughter?”
“Emmie, I’m so okay with it that I want to shout it to the world.”
“And Kendall, what are your feelings on her?”
“That I’m in love with her, but she’s not ready to hear that yet. She does have feelings for me, that much I know, but right now, she’s scared for both Livie and herself. When she feels they’re both safe again, I’ll—”
“Romance her. That’s what you need to do.”
“I plan to.” Emmie had always believed in love and happy endings, even when growing up in the misery that was their homelife. She’d found it with her husband. John loved herdeeply and treated her like a princess. Cooper had liked him from their first meeting and was thankful she had someone like him in her life.
“When can I meet them?”
“Soon. When all this is over, I’ll bring them to Boston.” He hoped Kendall wanted to explore this thing between them enough to meet his sister. “When we hang up, I’ll send you a picture of them.”
He’d taken one today that he loved. When they’d returned to Grayson’s to pick up Livie, she’d begged them to let her go down to the beach so she could touch the water. The photo was of Kendall, Livie and Ruby at the water’s edge, his two girls laughing at Ruby being silly.
“I can’t believe I’m an aunt.”
“Aunt Emmie has a nice ring to it.” He heard the shower shut off. “Gotta go, though.”
“Okay. Congratulations,Dad.Send me that picture. Love you.”
“Love you, too, Emmie.”