Jordan’s back was to Mason, so she didn’t see him coming until he was right on top of them. She gasped with surprise when she saw him there. “What’re you doing here?”
“Ladies, could I please have a moment alone with Jordan?”
“Of course,” Evelyn said, beaming.
If he was going to formally propose, he’d probably asked Evelyn’s permission first, because he was that kind of guy.
“Wait, we’re filming here,” Jordan said.
“This will only take a second.”
Gigi, Nikki and Evelyn stepped out of the shot and gave Mason the spotlight.
He dropped to one knee in front of Jordan.
Her hands covered her mouth as her eyes flooded with tears.
Gigi could barely see through her own tears.
Mason took hold of Jordan’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Hi there.”
Jordan laughed through her tears. “How’s it going?”
“Never better than since I met you. This has been the most beautiful summer of my life, and it’s all because of you. I’d given up on ever finding true love until I found you right here at Eastward Look. Granted, you weren’t at your best that night.”
“Near-death experiences will do that to a girl. Thanks for saving me, by the way.”
“Best thing I ever did was save you so you could save me right back. Jordan Stokes, love of my life, will you do me the immense honor of being my wife?”
“Yes,” Jordan said, leaning into the bear hug he wrapped her in.
He pulled back to kiss her as he slid a ring onto her left hand. “If you don’t like the ring, we can swap it out for another one.”
“I love the ring. I love you, and I can’t wait to marry you.”
They kissed again before Mason looked up at Matilda. “Did you get that?”
“We got it,” Matilda said, dabbing at tears.
“Are we allowed to hug them now?” Nikki asked.
“Go for it,” Matilda said, signaling to the cameraman to keep rolling.
They hugged, drank the sparkling cider Evelyn had ready in deference to Mason who was a recovering alcoholic and Jordan who was pregnant, and celebrated the happy couple as their season on Gansett came to a triumphant end.
When Gigi drove home alone after the celebratory dinner Evelyn had prepared for the family and the crew, she wanted to call Cooper and tell him all about it. But she couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair to call him after she’d ended things with him.
He’d respected her wishes and kept his distance over the last couple of days.
She’d seen him once, sitting by the pool with Lizzie and the baby, but otherwise, she hadn’t had any contact with him.
When she got back to the house, she went upstairs to her apartment and spent the rest of the night packing to leave the island at ten o’clock the next morning. She’d hired a guy to deliver her car to the dock to be shipped home at the end of the week, and with the car loaded and her bags packed, there was nothing left to do but go to bed and stare up at the ceiling, reliving every minute she’d spent with Cooper as tears slid down her cheeks.
The fucking tears hadn’t quit since she’d called things off with him.
It’d been the right thing to do. She still believed that, but damn, it hurt.
The night passed with excruciating slowness as she tried to keep herself from walking across the yard to him.
But she’d made her decision, and now she had to live with it.
She got out of bed at eight, stripped the sheets and put them in the washing machine with the towels and other linens. Lizzie had told her to start the wash, and she’d finish it. Their new tenant was due to arrive in September, and life would go on for all of them as if Gigi had never been there.
By the time she carried her bags down the stairs to the cab she’d called, Gigi was ready to take it all back if only she could have five more minutes with Cooper before she never saw him again.
Ned Saunders greeted her with a warm smile. “Nice ta see ya again, doll.”
“You, too, Ned.”
“Heading back to La-La Land, are ya?”
“Home sweet home.” Even as she said the words, she acknowledged that nowhere on earth had ever felt more like home to her than this ridiculous little island did after spending the best summer of her life there.
She’d seen Jared and Lizzie the day before, celebrated the news about baby Vi joining their family, said her thank-yous for having her and goodbye. Jared and Lizzie had promised to visit the next time they were in LA. She hadn’t seen Cooper, and none of them had mentioned him.
Leaving without saying goodbye to him felt wrong but necessary.
If she saw him for even a second, she’d never leave.
She got in the back seat of Ned’s car and shut the door, refusing to look back. Keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the future had kept her moving forward all her life, and that’s what she’d do now, too.
* * *
Cooper watched her leave from the living room window, astounded by how much it hurt to realize she was leaving without saying goodbye to him.
But what did he expect? She’d told him from the start that their relationship was nothing more than a fling. That’s all it had been to her. He was the one who’d let it get out of control. That was on him, and now he had to go on without her.
He’d given her room to breathe, and she’d made her decision.
But, God, it hurt to watch her go.
“Did she leave?” Jared asked.
“Yeah, just now.”
“I’m sorry, Coop.”
“It’s okay,” he said, although nothing about this was okay. “I’m going to sit by the pool and get some work done.”
“Let me know if you need anything.”
The one thing he needed was the only thing his billionaire brother couldn’t get for him. The irony of that might’ve made him laugh if it didn’t hurt so fucking bad. He took his laptop to the pool and gave his portfolio some attention for the first time in days, losing himself in the work so he wouldn’t be tempted to chase after her like a pathetic, lovesick fool.
A short time later, a sleek Learjet took off from the airport and went right over the house, taking the woman he loved with it. His heart sank as he watched the plane climb out over the island. She was gone. It was over. And now he had to figure out how to live without her.
Half an hour later, he was forcing himself to focus on the work so he wouldn’t howl from the pain of losing her. He was deep in the weeds of charts, graphs, prospectuses and trades when a car pulled into the driveway.
Cooper forced himself to keep his eyes on the screen until the click of heels and the unmistakable scent of his love surrounded him in a cloud of sensation that had him finally looking up. As he blinked at the sight of Gigi dragging a full set of Louis Vuitton luggage onto Jared’s pool deck into focus, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Funniest thing happened at the airport,” she said.
He was afraid to so much as breathe, let alone speak. But as he studied her one-of-a-kind face, he saw the ravages the last few days had taken on her in the swollen eyes, the dark circles under them and the unusually pale cheeks.
“I realized I’d left the most important thing in my life behind, and I had to come back to get it. I had to come back to get you, Cooper.”