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Her eyes suddenly shone with tears and that sting got a little sharper at her genuine sympathy “I’m sorry you lost her”

He nodded, unable to speak for the erief could hit him hard out of nowhere, even after all these years

“But you knohat?” she said “I’m even happier that you had her”

And just like that her words took away a bit of the sting He cleared his throat, but it was still thick when he said, “Me, too, Doc”

Jessica

I discovered soht then I discovered that my emotions could be connected to ht then, eled up in this uy in my life

I wanted Cooper Lawson

Badly

I wanted to launch myself across the table at him

To hold him

To kiss him

To rip his clothes off after the e

Very inappropriate, considering e’d just discussed I’d never h How he could be so ed anda little of his vulnerabilityit was unreal He hadn’t hidden his eiven that toelse could

And for the first ti with a man

And for the first ti to see if it was possible to have everything with this man

“So what about you?” Cooper said after a moment of comfortable silence “Tell me about your family”

His question dropped down inup a flurry of butterflies in its wake Anytime someone asked me a question aboutthe line of questioning down This time was no different—Cooper’s question made iving someone at least part of the truth as an answer to that question

This would be a day of a lot of firsts because I kneould be unfair not to give Cooper anything after he’d givenso real

I took a deep breath and watched Cooper frown as he watched my reaction to his question “It’s not an easy question, is it?” I said

“For some people it is”

“Well, that’s true,” I said “I’ll amend that It’s not an easy question for me”

“You don’t have to tellyou don’t want to”

Hein his eyes and I thought it ht be disappointht I didn’t want to disappoint him and miss my chance to explore this connection with him

“It’s just not a pretty story” I took another slow breath, trying to find the words and all the while willing the painful ies to stay out of my head “I don’t really ever talk about it My sisteruhmy sister, Julia, committed suicide when I was nineteen It was only a few days after her sixteenth birthday”

Cooper looked stunned “Fuck, Docyou don’t have to—”

I waved away his concern with a confidence I didn’t feel “It’s alright Shehad her issues that I won’t go into But ere really close Our parentsuripped my chest hard like it always did—“they completely disconnected from me when she died I mean, I tried I tried for years to reconnect with them, but they’re not interested I only have hter, Perry, is hter They’re about the only family I have left now” Mytime back I’d shut that part of my emotions off It protected me from the worst of the pain

Suddenly Cooper’s hand covered esture made me look up

His expression was fierce “If you need to cry, Doc, you can cry You don’t have to hide that from me”

I covered his hand with rateful smile “I’m okay, Cooper It’s a hard story to tell But I’m okay”

“It ruffly

And there There it was

What I’d been thinking about hiht out in the open

No bullshit

God, I liked this man

I squeezed his hand and then let go and watched him as he sloithdrew his hand fro “No aunts or uncles, cousins or grandparents?”

“My mom’s sister Theresa We were close But after” I’d feared she’d want nothing to do with me, just likeme, too, would hurt worse, so I’d left her also and never looked back “We haven’t spoken sincethen” I shook off the thought of her “Tellthe subject to so a little less heavy

“Let et you another coffee, and I’ll do just that”

Five minutes later he was back and sprawled in the booth, relaxed and at ease with reat place to raise kids,” he said i on with ot that s where nearly everyone knows your business, and that has its ups and downs, but for the h you’ve got your small pocket of hard-core conservatives, this is a friendly, open place We’ve ave rin yes suddenly shone with tears and that sting got a little sharper at her genuine sympathy “I’m sorry you lost her”