Free Lantern Lake by Lily Everett Page A

for you, made sure you were okay. Instead, I went off and made my fortune…and you lost everything.”
    Vivian shook her head, her brows wrinkled in concern. “Cooper. Don’t blame yourself. I certainly don’t. And anyway, I might have lost a few things along the way, like my horrible ex-husband and the fantasy that my parents loved me and cared about me…”
    “And all your money,” Cooper reminded her.
    She laughed. “And all my money. But I found a couple of important things, too. Like my self-respect. And the strength to pick myself up and start over—that one was a nice surprise. I didn’t know that about myself, that I was capable of that kind of resilience.”
    “You should be proud of yourself,” Cooper said, fierce protectiveness expanding his rib cage with every breath. He hated it that Vivian had ever been made to feel like less than the strong, amazing woman that she was. “I’m proud of you, if that means anything.”
    “Of course it does!” She blinked up at him, dark violet-blue eyes wide with something like shock, mixed with trepidation. “Cooper, you’re everything. The last couple of weeks with you…that’s my latest and best discovery. That the past doesn’t have a stranglehold on us. Because if you can forgive me for what I did to you, then maybe, just maybe…there’s hope for the future.”
    She stopped as if she’d run out of words and breath, and the expression on her face made Cooper want to shout and rage and tear down the world with his bare hands—because Vivian Banks should never look at Cooper Hayes like that. As if she didn’t know that she was everything to him, too.
    Cupping her face between his hands, Cooper did his best to drill every word straight into her heart. “Vivian. I forgive you. I do. We were just kids, and the pressures your parents put on you…it must have been overwhelming. They sound like master manipulators, and you were so young, so sweet, so hungry for love. Your parents knew that, and they used it against you. It wasn’t your fault.”
    Joy lit her eyes like sapphires, but she shook her head. “It means more than I can tell you, to hear you say that. I’ve wanted your forgiveness for a long time. But I can’t put all the blame on my parents. As you pointed out, I could have stood up to them. I wish I had. Every day and every night of my marriage, believe me, I wished I had the guts to tell them all to go to hell.”
    She shuddered, darkness moving through her like a cloud passing in front of the sun. Cooper tensed, his muscles going tight and battle-ready as every part of him ached to fight off her demons. But then she smiled, and the sun came out once more.
    “Just knowing you’ve forgiven me is the greatest gift, Cooper. I can hardly believe it.”
    The adrenaline in Cooper’s bloodstream converted to hunger in the blink of an eye. “Believe it,” he said, bending to sweep her up into his arms and hold her high against his chest.
    Vivian didn’t even tense at the abrupt move—she only sighed happily and melted against him, winding her arms lazily around his neck. “I’ll try,” she promised, pushing her face into the side of his neck and inhaling as if she liked the smell of sunshine, male sweat, and roofing dust. “But it might take a while.”
    She shot him a glance from beneath her lashes, and Cooper realized what she was really asking. A sense of rightness steadied his steps as he carried her around to the front of the cabin, heading toward their warm, soft bed. “Take as long as you need,” he told her seriously, laying her down on white cotton sheets that already smelled like the two of them. Like home.
    Vivian caught her breath. “You mean…”
    Leaning over her, Cooper smoothed back a lock of her hair and brushed her bottom lip with his thumb to make her shiver. “I mean, we have time. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. And neither are you.”
    And as they sank into each other, Cooper tried to lose himself in the