“And find a job.”
He laughed. “Yes. Maybe.”
Maybe?
“Surely you won’t waste your PhD and nearly a decade of education.”
“No. It won’t ever be a waste. But do I want to be a neuroscientist? I’m not sure,” Cooper said.
“Right, but you have money, so you don’t need to race out and get a job.”
“I get it. It makes me sound like an asshole,” he said.
“No. It’s just a different way of living, I guess,” Harper said. “I don’t have that luxury. If I don’t work, my bills don’t get paid.”
“Do you want to stay in New Zealand?” he asked, resting on his elbow with his long legs stretched out.
Harper still had her legs crossed and was chewing on the last of the strawberries.
Did she want to stay in New Zealand?
She wasn’t sure.
With dual citizenship, because her father was Hawaiian, moving to the United States had been on her mind recently. Not because of Daniel. Not because of the contract with BookFlix. She’d just felt a pull to do it since David had left her. It would mean leaving Kristen and many of her other friends, but there was a knowing something more was out there for her.
“No,” she answered honestly.
It was late in the afternoon, and the sun behind them was beginning to drop.
“We won’t see a sunset here,” Cooper said, glancing behind him when he saw her glance at the sky. “But I thought you’d like it here. It’s quiet.”
“It’s perfect,” she said, shifting to settle on one hip.
“Here.” Cooper placed some towels behind them, as pillows, and leaned against them, his arms behind his head. “Lie down.”
She looked at him hesitantly.
“I don’t bite, Harper,” he said gently. “In fact, you’re going to have to make the first move. If you want to.”
Harper wasn’t sure how to respond, but she knew she could trust him. If there was one word to describe how she felt about Cooper from the moment they’d met, it was comfortable.
She lay beside him, looking at the darkening sky, using his bicep as a pillow.
“The sky looks different in New Zealand,” she said. “Would you ever come to visit me?”
“Without hesitation,” he answered
Harper smiled.
That was what she wanted. Someone who put her first and moved heaven and earth to be with her. Someone who made her a priority and damn everything else. Yet it seemed so hard to believe anyone would, or could, ever want her that much.
“Really?” she asked, turning to him. “Just that easy?”
“It’s not easy, Harper, but yes, I would,” Cooper said, tilting his head to look down at her. “Why the hell wouldn’t I?”
Her brain misfired as images of Daniel and Cooper merged. Feelings and emotions from nearly two weeks of these two men competed for space in her brain. Could it be she wanted the wrong man?
Had Daniel simply been a path to Cooper?