The Cottage

“Maybe it does. Do you really want to give up having kids? And even if you could have talked him into it, he would never have participated in that with you.” She knew Jimmy was right. When Jimmy had had his accident, Coop had entirely removed himself, because going to see him at the hospital was “unpleasant.” In the long run, she needed a man who was willing to do both pleasant and unpleasant. And Coop would never do that. She hadn't liked that side of him when she'd seen it.

“I don't know. I just feel like shit.” It was comfortable opening up to Jimmy again. She had missed his friendship. The only one she'd spoken to since it had happened was Taryn, who had been very understanding, but also thought Coop had done the right thing. And in some part of her, so did Alex. It just didn't feel good.

“You'll probably feel like shit for a while,” Jimmy said sympathetically. He knew it well. He had been there after Maggie. But ever since the accident, he was feeling a lot better. It had been a kind of epiphany for him. “When I get my casts off, I'll take you to dinner and a movie.”

“I'm lousy company,” she said, feeling sorry for herself, and he smiled.

“So am I a lot of the time. I've been biting my mother's head off. I don't know how she stands me.”

“I suspect she loves you.” They both knew she adored him.

He promised to call Alex again the following day, and when he did, she sounded a little better. He called her every day until they took his casts off. And to celebrate, he took her out to dinner. His mother drove them, and she was relieved to see that Alex looked better than she had expected. It had been a hard blow, but maybe the right one in the long run. It was hard to say, but she hoped so. Coop had talked to her about it again. He had thrown himself into doing a series of commercials, which distracted him. And for the moment, he was worried about Charlene's DNA test. The last thing he needed now was a baby to support, not to mention Charlene, whom he was still furious with.

“I swear, Valerie,” he had told her the day before, “I'm never going out with another woman.” He was positively fuming and she had laughed at him.

“Why is it that I don't believe you? If you were ninety-eight and on your deathbed, I wouldn't believe you if you made a statement like that. Coop, your whole life has been about women.” Over the past weeks, they had become friends, and he was surprisingly open with her, and she with him.

“True,” he said pensively, reconsidering. “But in most cases, the wrong ones. Alex wasn't the wrong one, and if I'd never known about her money, it might have been different. I knew about it from the first moment I met her. It was always a factor in how I felt about her. I was never able to separate the two elements. What I felt for her, and what I needed from her. It was too confusing in the end.” He had reexamined it a thousand times, but always wound up in the same place. Confused. And then, finally, he was sure he had done the right thing. He had even admitted once to Valerie that Alex had been too young. A first for him.

“I still think you did the right thing, Coop,” she said honestly. “Although I'd understand it if you married her, she's a very special girl and she loves you. You could do a lot worse.” But she hoped he didn't marry her. For Alex's sake.

“I love her too. But the truth is I didn't want to marry her. Not really. And I certainly didn't want to have babies with her. I felt I had to marry her, or should, because I needed the money. It's what my accountant wanted me to do.” Given what he said, she still thought he'd made the right decision for both of them.

“What are you going to do now to solve those problems?” Valerie asked him with concern.

“Make a great movie,” he said thoughtfully, “or a lot of very bad commercials.” He had already told his agent that he was willing to take some very different parts than the ones he'd played previously. He was willing to consider playing an older man, or someone's father. He no longer expected to play the leading man. His agent had been dumbstruck, and it had nearly killed Coop to say it. But his agent was more hopeful for him than he'd been in the last decade.

It was the first of July before Coop looked like himself again, and Alex finally seemed more cheerful. Valerie had driven Jimmy to see her at the hospital several times, and one weekend that she knew Coop was away, Alex had actually come to the gatehouse to have dinner, with Mark and Taryn. The kids were coming home after the Fourth of July. They had finally agreed to go to their mother's wedding. They still said Adam was an asshole, but they were doing it for their mother. And Mark was proud of them.

“We're getting engaged,” Mark said with a look of pride at Taryn. They were both feeling a little shy about it, but it was easy to see that they were both excited, and very much in love.