Cooper (The Family Simon #6) - Juliana Stone Page 0,68

It was only for a second. I saw his name, and then we hit a patch of black ice.” She paused and caught his gaze in the mirror. “Have you ever hit black ice?” She didn’t wait for him to respond. “Our car skidded sideways, and I don’t remember much after that. I know that we did a one-eighty and then slammed into a transport truck carrying a load of fuel. We flipped over, my mother was ejected, and I was trapped in the car when it landed in the ditch.”

She closed her eyes. Images and smells inundated her brain with. Cold. Fire. Burning flesh. Her flesh. The light from her cell phone. Nathan’s name illuminated and burned into her brain.

“The trucker pulled me out, or I would have died. But my mom…” Morgan was breathing heavily now, and she shook her head. “She didn’t make it. She died at the scene. I remember seeing her there in the snow. She looked like she was sleeping, you know? And I tried to get to her, but my leg was so busted and my skin was falling off, and then…then I passed out and woke up days after her funeral.”

“Oh, sweets,” Cooper murmured, his hands holding her tight.

“After that, everything I had slipped away. My dreams. My dad. My family. My fiancé and my best friend. All of it disappeared.”

All if it was my fault.

“If I hadn’t looked at my cell for that one second. If I hadn’t insisted my mother come with me. If I—”

She didn’t know tears were coursing down her face until his hand swept across her cheeks to wipe them away. And then he cupped her chin, turned her around, and pulled her close. Morgan couldn’t remember the last time she felt so safe and wanted. So protected.

“Look at me,” he commanded. “Hey.” His fingers forced her head up, and she had no choice. What she saw there surprised her. Cooper Simon looked pissed off.

“What happened to you was a tragic accident. Tragic. Accident. You got that? You hit black ice.”

“But I looked at my phone.”

“You still would have hit the black ice.”

He didn’t get it.

“I should have stayed home. Should never have forced my mom—”

“Don’t do that.” He shook his head. “If your mom was anything like you, I’m pretty damn sure no one could force her to do something she didn’t want to do. The past can’t be changed. Trust me, I’ve tried. It’s a bitch that knows no master, so there’s no point. All you can do is learn what you can from your mistakes and move on. We don’t honor the dead by living our days as if we’d died with them.”

Something in his tone got to her, and Morgan jumped on it. “Have you?” she asked, watching him closely. She was on to something. She felt it. “Have you moved on?”

He was tense, and for a few moments, she wasn’t sure he’d answer her. But then he shrugged and pulled her back into him. He rested his chin on top of her head and slid his hands down her body until they rested at the small of her back.

“I’m trying,” he said simply. A heartbeat passed. “Promise me you will.”

Could she?

Morgan didn’t answer because her vocal chords no longer worked. She sank into Cooper, and when his hands cupped her ass once more—when she felt his burgeoning erection against her stomach—she reached for him because she needed to forget.

She grabbed hold of his mouth and kissed him until she was dizzy. Until both of them were panting and hot and aroused and filled with a need to connect. Cooper was her connection. Her conduit back to the living. Was it a connection that would last? Would it save her?

Or would it bite her in the ass?

He lifted her up into his arms and carried her back to bed. Morgan wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to slay the ghosts that haunted her. But in this cocoon they’d built overnight, right now, here with Cooper, she was more than able to forget about everything except him.

And for now, it was enough.

25

Cooper kept Morgan to himself for as long as he could, but by late afternoon, she needed to get back to Fisherman’s Landing. Her cell had pinged several times, and each time she looked at it, a little bit of the sunshine left her eyes. He tried to convince her to stay one more night, but with a soft smile, she shook her