“That’s great news, you guys,” Nikki said, hugging them both. “You’ve worked so hard. I’m proud of you.”
“You’ll come to wherever we are to make an appearance, right?” Jordan asked her twin.
Their most popular episodes included Jordan’s identical twin.
“Of course,” Nik said. “Sign me up.”
“Everything’s falling into place,” Jordan said, her smile as big as Gigi had ever seen it. “One more episode to film for this season, and then we’re on vacation until January!”
“I’m not on vacation, diva,” Gigi said. “I’ve got a law practice to get back to.” She’d had two associates running the office in her absence, but it was time to get back to reality. “I’m leaving Tuesday.”
“What? Why? You don’t have to go yet.”
“Yes, I do.” She needed to get out of there while she still could. Gigi glanced to her right, where Cooper was with Riley, Finn and some other guys Gigi didn’t know. He was laughing and talking to them, but his troubled gaze was fixed on her.
Jordan and Nikki hooked their arms through hers and made off with her.
Chapter 28
“Um, okay, what is happening?” Gigi asked as they perp-walked her into Nikki’s office and closed the door.
“An intervention,” Jordan said, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. “What’re you doing?”
“I don’t understand the question.”
“Why are you leaving when you have a great guy who’s crazy about you and clearly wants more with you?” Jordan asked.
“I’m leaving because I don’t live here.”
“You’re self-employed, Gigi,” Nikki said. “You don’t have to leave the second shooting ends. What’s another week or two after three months?”
Another week or two would make it so she couldn’t leave him. She had to go now while she still could. She shook her head. “I have to go.”
“You’re running away from him,” Jordan said.
“No, I’m going back to my real life. This place is a fantasy.”
“It feels pretty damned real to me,” Nikki said.
“And to me,” Jordan added. “He’s in love with you.”
“No, he isn’t. He’s in love with the idea of me.”
Jordan shook her head. “He sees the real you, and he loves the real you.”
Feeling more desperate to escape this intervention with every passing second, Gigi laughed. “You’re so in love with being in love, you think you’re seeing it everywhere you look. Cooper and I are friends. It was a fling. That’s it.”
“Who you trying to convince, G?” Nikki asked softly. “Us or yourself?”
“You guys are insane! I’ve known him a couple of weeks. People don’t change their lives or their plans for someone they just met.”
Nikki raised her hand. “I did.”
Jordan raised hers. “Me, too.”
“It’s different for you guys. You want hearts and flowers and happily ever after. I’m not wired that way.”
“You think we were wired that way after living through the worst divorce and custody battle in recorded history?” Nikki asked. “Things were tough for you growing up, but don’t forget how rough it was for us, too. If we can take a chance on hearts and flowers and happily ever after, why can’t you?”
“Because I don’t want it. I like my life the way it is—uncomplicated and unencumbered. That’s what works for me.”
“For now,” Jordan said. “But that life is going to look very different without us in LA, isn’t it?"
Oh, low blow. Gigi’s chest ached, and that goddamned lump lodged in her throat again. “I’ll be fine.”
“You didn’t ask for our opinion,” Nikki said, “but I think you’re going to regret running away from what this could be with Cooper.”
“Maybe so, but I’ll survive. I always do. Can I go now?”
“Don’t do something you’re going to regret, Geeg,” Nikki said gently. “Cooper is a great guy who genuinely cares about you. Let him.”
If she didn’t get out of there right away, she was going to break down in front of them, and that couldn’t happen. “I hear you, and I love you both, but I’m leaving.” Blinking back tears, she turned to leave the room and crashed right into Cooper’s broad chest.
He wrapped his arms around her, and she lost it all over him, shaking with sobs and choking on that damned lump that had settled permanently in her throat, or so it seemed.
“Hey,” he said, “what’s this?”
Gigi couldn’t speak, and anyone who knew her well would say that was a rare thing. She gave herself five lovely minutes of being comforted by him while she breathed in the scent she’d forever associate with him. “I have to go.”
“I’ll take you home.”
“No, I have to go, Cooper. This, with you… I can’t do it. I just can’t. I’m sorry.” She pulled herself free of him and got the hell out of there while she still could. Half running, half walking, she made it to the ferry landing in a matter of minutes and jumped into the first cab she saw. “Can you please take me to the James estate?”
“Sure thing,” the driver said. “Y’all right, doll?”
“I will be. Eventually.”
“Ya wanna talk about it?” he asked, looking at her in the mirror with kind eyes.
“No, but thank you for asking.”
“My missus and I, we love yer show. You and Jordan are a hoot.”
“Thank you so much,” Gigi said, wiping away tears.
“I read somewheres that the funniest people are the ones who feel things the deepest, or somethin’ like that.”
His kind words had more tears flooding her eyes.
“I met yer friend Cooper. Seems like a real nice young man.”
“He is.” Gigi held back a sob that wanted out right now. How did he know about her and Cooper?
“Tough to say goodbye to someone special like that.”
She nodded, hoping he could see her in the mirror.
“I’m sorry. You said ya didn’t want to talk about it, and here I am prattling on. But can I tell ya a little story ’bout myself?”
“Sure,” Gigi said, wiping away more tears.
“I met a gal right here on Gansett Island round about thirty-three or so years ago. Fell madly in love, the kinda thing you never recover from, ya know?”
She was starting to know all too well. “What happened?”
“She married someone else.”
Gigi was heartbroken for him. “Oh no.”
“Yeah, it was pretty rough for a long time. They had a coupla little girls, and I had ta watch her walk around town with an unhappy look on her pretty face. I knew he wasn’t treatin’ her right, but what could I do? She’d made her choice. Then one day, he up and left on the boat and never came back.”
“He left her with two little girls?”
“Yep.”