“He still does,” Miguel said, forking a piece too. “That’s another reason I invited him.”
“Yeah, I admit it,” he said. “Chocolate is my one vice.”
“You have only one?” she asked, batting her eyes and smiling.
“The only one I’m admitting to,” he chirped back.
“Coop’s right,” Julie said. “You’re just as guilty, Taye.” Julie looked at the piece of cake that was now a plate of crumbs. “I guess I have your answers. Chocolate raspberry.”
“It’s really delicious,” Taylor said.
“At last, we agree on something.” Coop winked at her, a move that totally caught her off guard because whenever they’d conspire together, that was what he’d do to seal the deal.
As if the wink meantI’m with you. And that one wink sent butterflies swarming around in her tummy. It’d given her a glimpse of the boy he once was, and the man he’d become. And she began feeling things she had no right or reason to feel. Not about Coop.
He wasn’t an option.
Miguel spoke up. “Honey, I really think you’ve found the right one. Everyone seems to like it the best.”
She sighed. “It’s not light and airy, but…deep and hearty.”
Miguel grinned at her. “Just like our love.” Corny as it was, Julie’s perplexed face melted into a sweet smile and just like that, the decision was made.
Oh, if only life was always that easy.
*
Saturday morning, Taylorand Julie stepped out onto the back patio, coffee cups in hand, watching a crew of four leather-gloved men wearing hard hats and wielding axes break apart the gazebo. The takedown was hard to watch, both of them quietly observing the destruction of not just a weather-worn structure but the removal of yet one more memory in their lives. Taylor wondered if Julie felt the same sense of loss. Every time something was changed or removed, it was like losing a piece of their mothers all over again. Because the gazebo represented so much more than a fun place to play. It represented their youth, when both their moms were alive and vital. It represented friendship and secrets and first loves and, quite frankly, seeing the gazebo go down was like a sharp prick to the heart. She hadn’t expected to be this sad, to feel like another fragment of her family was being taken away.
“I didn’t think it’d hurt this bad,” Julie said.
Taylor turned to her. “I know. I feel it too. But something wonderful will go up in its place, Jules. Something that represents your future with Miguel.”
“I know you’re right.” She sipped her coffee.
Holding on to the past never did anyone any good. “I think your she-shed is going to be the next generation’s gazebo. If you know what I mean. It’ll be an icon, just like the gazebo was for us.”
“Progress, I guess.”
“Yeah.”
“I can always build a new one.” Coop sidled up next to them, wearing a hard hat, jeans and a pair of scuffed up work boots. The T-shirt he wore looked two sizes too small for his muscular arms. He held a clipboard in his hand and gave them both a good-morning smile. He must’ve come through the side gate. She hadn’t seen him until he was standing right next to her. Before she could catch her breath and stop her heart from speeding up, another hard-hatted Cooper appeared. This one, ten times more adorable. Her long blond braids fell past her shoulders, and in jeans, work boots and a T-shirt, she looked like a mini-Cooper. Not the car, the kid.
“Morning, Cassie,” Julie said.
“Hi, Julie.”
Coop put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “Cassie, this is Taylor. She’s an old friend.”
“Hi.”
“Cassie has agreed to be the flower girl in our wedding,” Julie explained. “We’re going dress shopping tomorrow, right Cass?”
Cassie gave a nod. “I guess so.” She didn’t look too happy about it.
Taylor bent to shake her hand. “Hi, Cassie. It’s nice to meet you. Are you helping your dad today?”
She nodded. “I get to fill the wheelbarrow, but only with the small pieces.”