Page 29 of Return to Rosewood Beach

“I’m sure she will too. Your hair looks great, by the way.”

Behind her in the house, Julia heard a delighted gasp that she felt sure had come from Samantha. Repressing a smile, she turned around and closed the door behind her, catching a brief glimpse of Hazel and Samantha ducking out of sight behind the couch.

“Thanks for coming to pick me up,” she said, smiling at Cooper as they walked down the steps of the front porch toward his car. He looked nice, too, she thought. He was wearing a light blue dress shirt and jeans, and his dark brown wavy hair looked almost curly, making her guess that he’d applied some product to it.

“Of course,” he said. “I’m sorry again about the extra passenger. And I might as well warn you now, she’s going to take up a lot of my attention on the date.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled at him, but she felt another flop of disappointment.

Cooper tucked Macey into her car seat in the back of his car, and then he and Julia sat down in the front seats. She felt a kind of buzzing feeling under her skin, which gave her a sense of excitement but also of nervousness. He turned the key in the ignition, which started the engine of the car and also turned on the radio.

“Do you mind?” He grimaced apologetically as a kid’s song began to pour out of the car’s speakers. “It helps her stay calm while we drive.”

Julia laughed. “Oh, no worries. I haven’t heard ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ in years. This song is a classic.”

He laughed, looking delighted by her joke. She clasped her hands in her lap and looked ahead out the window, feeling pleasantly surprised to discover that the kid’s songs was lightening the mood and making her feel more at ease.

“Daddy, make the face!” Macey called out enthusiastically from the back seat. It was difficult to understand her words, but Cooper had no trouble understanding what she wanted. He dropped his jaw into a goofy surprised face, which was evidently supposed to be his reaction to the fact that London Bridge had fallen down.

As soon as Cooper had made the face, Macey collapsed in a fit of giggles, and Julia had to giggle herself. She was charmed by the way Cooper acted goofy for his daughter to keep her entertained. It was clear from the way he kept checking on her by glancing into the rearview mirror that he was an attentive, adoring father.

I’m so attracted to that,she realized, surprised.Just like how I didn’t expect to find his rough exterior so attractive, but I do. The way he interacts with his daughter is very attractive to me.

As soon as she’d had the realization, however, her heart twisted with worry. Clearly, Macey was Cooper’s whole world. As someone who’d never come close to having kids of her own, the idea of caring for a child all the time felt foreign to her. She didn’t know how she could date someone who already had a kid.

She shook herself, telling herself firmly that she couldn’t throw away all of her concerns about dating Cooper just because of how attractive he was to her and how considerate he was. Although she had to admit to herself that it had been a long time since she’d met a man as considerate as he was, she told herself that she would be able to find someone great who was in the same place that she was as far as kids went. That person wasn’t Cooper, so she shouldn’t let her heart get too carried away on this date.

Cooper drove them to a local ice cream parlor, where they parked and he got out a stroller for Macey.

“It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” He smiled at Julia as they walked up to the ice cream counter, which was built at a window so that customers could order their treats from the sidewalk. “That wind off the ocean is delightful.”

“It is.” She smiled shyly at him, completely forgetting her concerns for a moment, just as Hazel had predicted she would. He really did have wonderful eyes, she thought.

“What would you like? My treat.”

“Thank you. Um.” She paused to peruse the menu, which was posted on the wall outside the ice cream parlor. There were so many delicious options, and for a moment she felt sure she was going to take at least five minutes to decide. Then she saw that they offered a dish with one scoop of orange sherbet and onescoop of creamy vanilla ice cream, and she knew that was what she wanted.

“That was my favorite as a kid,” she told Cooper after she’d placed her order. “I used to take little tiny scoops of both with my spoon so I got the perfect combination of flavors every time.” She laughed, remembering. Although the ice cream parlor they were at was a new one that she’d never been to before, she’d gone to get ice cream with her family many times while she was growing up. For a moment, she missed her father terribly.

“Sounds brilliant.” He grinned at her. “I’ve never tried those flavor combinations, but it seems like a perfect example of opposites going well together.”

“I’ll let you try some of mine, if you want. I still owe you for that sandwich.”

He laughed, and then stepped up to the window to order himself a turtle sundae, and a vanilla ice cream cone for Macey.

Once they all had their treats, he turned to Julia with a smile. “I seem to remember promising you a walk. Want to walk along the ocean? There’s a great sidewalk that goes just along the beach—well, I guess you know all about it.” He laughed.

“I do.” She grinned at him. “That sounds like the perfect spot. And we can walk there from here.”

They set off along the sidewalk together, beginning to eat their ice cream. Cooper pushed the stroller with his elbows while he ate his turtle sundae, and Julia teased him, saying that she was impressed.

“Parenting gives you a whole new level of skills.” He laughed. “I can do things now that I used to consider to be superhuman. Functioning on an abysmally small amount of sleep, for example.”

She made a sympathetic face at him. “Well, it must be extra hard for you as a single parent.”

He nodded, all of a sudden looking more tired. She wondered if he was missing his wife. “It really is. Macey’s so worth all of it, but there are days when I feel like I can’t manage it all by myself.”

“I’m sure it must be very difficult. But if it makes you feel any better, I think you’re doing an amazing job.”

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