Page 71 of Enticed

“No,” I snap before turning to him and sighing. “Fuck. Sorry, Dad. I just…”

“I had a feeling something was going on between the two of you,” he mutters.

“You had a feeling or Mom said something to you?” I cock my brow at him.

“Both.”

I huff and lean back further in my chair. My eyes scan the waiting room in the hospital, full of metal chairs with cushions covered in burgundy fabric and a television from the eighties hung high in the corner. Me and my dad, Perry, and a few other people who we don’t know are seated in the cold room, scattered among the chairs, waiting for news about our loved ones.

After my outburst at the party—which thankfully everyone outside didn’t hear thanks to the fireworks that were exploding overhead at the time—my dad caught up to me outside and convinced me to drive to the hospital with him and my mom since I’d had a few beers and shouldn’t risk my job because I was pissed. He came in the house just as I left apparently and saw Clara standing there in an emotional mess.

“Clara was pretty upset after you left,” he continues just as my mother comes around the corner and glides over to us.

“Yeah, well, she did that to herself,” I fire back, still raging from her words.

“She’s already five centimeters dilated,” my mom interrupts us, beaming from ear to ear. She’s about to be a grandmother and everything is right in her world.

Me, on the other hand—my world was just slashed into pieces with a machete. Clara sliced and diced my heart right along with it, and I don’t know whether to scream or punch something to make the ache in my chest go away.

“So it shouldn’t be long then?” My dad asks while my knees bounce up and down uncontrollably. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose while waiting on pins and needles for my mother’s next words.

“Hopefully not. The doctor said she’s progressing pretty fast for her first birth, so this baby girl could be a Fourth of July baby, or she’ll be born in the wee hours of the fifth.”

“How’s she doing?” I ask, looking for anything to distract me right now.

“Good. She just got her epidural, so she’s finally comfortable. Kane is a mess, but he’s right there being the man we know he is.”

My parents love Kane and I do too. He’s been the perfect man for my sister and truth be told, I can’t wait to meet my niece. One day that will be me—anxious and terrified in a hospital delivery room, awaiting the birth of my first child. And for the past few months, I certainly thought it would be Clara lying in that bed.

But now—the thought of any future with Clara just makes me see red. I’m so fucking pissed at her, I don’t know how to handle the anger flowing through my body. We had a plan and it would have been easy—tell Liv, let her react, then tell everyone else who mattered in our lives.

But she couldn’t get over her fear for two minutes. Nope—she let it shit all over our relationship and I had to watch it—like a bad car accident happening right in front of my eyes.

“Can I talk to you, Cooper?” Perry moves to stand and walks over to us cautiously, pulling all of our attention to her.

“Sure, yeah I guess,” I answer while rising from my chair and telling my folks I’ll be right back.

“I’m going to go back inside anyway. Come see her when you’re through, Perry,” my mom adds before we’re out of earshot.

I follow Perry around the corner to a coffee cart where she orders two coffees for us while we wait. I guess caffeine would be a good idea since it’s almost eleven and we don’t know how much longer we’ll be here.

Amy and a bunch of the other guests stayed behind at the house to clean up and lock the doors since my parents had to leave—but Perry insisted on coming and Liv wanted her here too. Perry’s husband took their kids home and asked her to call them once the baby was here to visit—at least that what I overheard her tell my mom.

“Here,” Perry hands me a Styrofoam cup as she walks over to a row of three chairs against the wall in the hallway. I swear, I don’t know how peopledon’tget lost in hospitals—every floor, every hallway looks the same—off-white walls, off-white floors, the occasional pop of burgundy thrown in in the form of a chair cushion or a curtain between beds. It’s like a maze they don’t want you to be able to escape from.

“So I have to talk to you, Cooper,” she starts, staring down at the cup her hand. Her blonde hair is tucked behind her ears so I can see the profile of her face.

“Okay…”

“I knew about you and Clara,” she admits, and my eyebrows raise in surprise.

“Really?”

She shrugs. “Yeah. She told me at Liv’s baby shower, but I kind of came to the conclusion myself as well. She didn’t name you… I kind of figured it out.”

“Okay, well, no worries about that anymore. I think it’s safe to say it’s over,” I say a little too harshly before burning my tongue on the sip of coffee I tried to take. Hell, maybe if my tongue is burnt it will hurt too much to speak and then I can forget everything that’s happened, not have to talk about it anymore, and just move forward.

I have to. I can’t keep doing this to myself. If this is what heartbreak feels like, then I get why people stay single forever.

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