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“Holly has everything to do with you and Morgan Don’t you get it? Morgan could be the one The girl to fix that piece of you Holly destroyed But hoill you ever knoith Holly in the way?”

“Holly isn’t on my radar”

Maverick shook his head slowly “She is You just don’t know it And until you deal with Holly, she’ll always be there Whether she’s in Europe or Florida or Tiive her Jesus Christ, Coop You need to forgive yourself”

Cooper saw red, and for a second, fists clenched at his sides, he fought the urge to throw a punch

“That’s never gonna happen”

Maverick got in his face “Then you’re royally screwed You’ll keep running your entire life and end up alone with a bottle of bourbon for company and not much else Hell, you can’t even face the success you’ve earned, because in the beginning, she had everything to do with it”

“Fuck you” Cooper could barely speak He reached for his keys and started toward the exit His er so palpable that the folks in the bar parted like the Red Sea as he approached them

Cooper strode across the parking lot and slammed his door shut so hard, the Land Rover shook He fired up the engine and headed for the open road, his only thought to get back to his place and be alone

Once there, he cut the engine and sat in the cab of his truck for so long, his teeth were chattering from the cold Holly Adams Back in the States

Cooper slid from his truck and stared up at the star-speckled sky above hilanced at his silent home At the dark s and e wave after wave of anger roll over him, until, with an abrupt move, he headed to the back of the house and made his way out to the shop

He was restless Full of anger and pain, and he needed an outlet before he did soed a bottle of whiskey from the cupboard in the kitchen and then settled hi up the desktop while he poured hilass of the amber liquid

He downed the da before the colass, deciding it was a straight-froht He stared out theinto the dark for a long tiht had nearly done him in

With a curse, he opened his docuot to work He was nearly at the finish line with this project, and, fueled by a bunch of stuff he didn’t really want to think about too closely, he set about finishing it

It was time Ready or not, Cooper needed to move on

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