Summer Love: The Best Mistake / Impulse

“I’m going to go get the wine.”

“That’s good.” She sighed as he left the bed. She’d forgotten how to deal with the after, she realized. Or with the before and during, for that matter, she thought with a wry smile. Though she thought she’d done pretty well so far.

She hadn’t known how much had been bottled up inside her. Or just how much she’d needed to feel like a woman again. But then, she hadn’t known she could love again.

She shifted, slipping under the tangled sheets, automatically lifting them to her breasts when Coop came back with the wine and glasses.

The sight of her in his bed shot to his loins, with a quick detour through the heart. He said nothing, pouring wine, offering her a fresh glass and settling beside her.

“Why haven’t you been with anyone?” The moment the question was out, he wished for a rusty knife to hack off his tongue. “Sorry, none of my business.”

“It’s all right.” Because I haven’t fallen in love with anyone before you, she thought. But that wasn’t what he wanted to hear, she knew. Nor was it really what he’d asked.

“You want to know about Keenan’s father.”

“None of my business,” he repeated. “Sorry, it’s the reporter in me.”

“It was a long time ago—a lifetime ago. I don’t mind telling you. I grew up in New York. I think I mentioned that my mother’s an actress. I was the result of a second marriage. She’s had five. So far.”

“Five?”

Zoe chuckled into her wine, sipped. “Clarice falls in love and changes husbands the way some women change hairstyles. My father lasted about four years before they parted amicably. Clarice always has friendly divorces. I didn’t see much of him, because he moved to Hollywood. He does commercials and voice-overs mostly. Anyway, I think she was on husband number four when I was in high school. He had some pull with the Towers Modeling Agency. They’re pretty big.”

“I’ve heard of them.”

“Well, he got me in. I started doing some shoots. And I caught on.”

“That’s it,” Coop said, interrupting her. “I knew I’d seen your face before.”

She moved her shoulders. “Five, six years ago, it was hard to avoid it. I did twenty covers in one month, the year after I graduated school.”

“Cover ofIn Sports, swimsuit edition.”

She smiled. “You’ve got a good memory. That was six years ago.”

He remembered the long, sand-dusted legs, the lush wet red excuse for a bathing suit, the laughing, seductive face. He gulped down wine. “It was a hell of a shot.”

“And a long, grueling shoot. Anyway, I was making a lot of money, getting a lot of press, going to lots of parties. I met Roberto at one of them.”

“Roberto.” Coop grimaced at the sound of the name.

“Lorenzi. Tennis player. You might have heard of him.”

“Lorenzi? Sure—took the French Open three years ago in straight sets, then blew Wimbledon in the semis. He’s got a bad attitude and likes to race cars and chase women on the side. Hasn’t been seeded above twenty-fifth in the last two years. Got some bad press this spring when he tipped back too many vinos and punched out a photographer.” Coop started to drink, stopped. “Lorenzi? He’s Keenan’s father? But he’s—”

“A womanizer?” Zoe supplied. “A creep, a rich, spoiled egotist? I know—now. What I saw then was a gorgeous, charming man who sent me roses and jetted me off to Monte Carlo for intimate dinners. I was dazzled. He told me he loved me, that he adored me, worshiped me, he couldn’t live without me. I believed him, and we became lovers. I thought, since he was my first, he’d be my only. Anyway, I didn’t realize he was already getting tired of me when I found out I was pregnant. When I told him, he was angry, then he was very calm, very reasonable. He assumed I’d want an abortion and agreed to pay all the expenses, even to make the arrangements.”

“A real prince.”

“It was a logical assumption,” Zoe said calmly. “I had a career on fast forward, in a field that wouldn’t wait while I put on weight and suffered from morning sickness. He, of course, had no intention of marrying me, and thought, rightly enough, that I knew the rules of the game. I did know them,” she said quietly. “But something had changed when the doctor confirmed the pregnancy. After the disbelief, the panic, even the anger, I felt good. I felt right. I wanted the baby, so I quit my job, moved away from New York and read everything I could get my hands on about parenting.”

“Just like that?”

“Well, there were some scenes, some dire predictions, and a lot of anger, but that’s how it worked. Roberto and I parted less than amicably, but with the agreement that he would stay out of my life and I would stay out of his.”

“What have you told Keenan?”

“It’s tough.” And it never failed to make her feel guilty. “So far I’ve just told him his father had to go away, that he wasn’t going to come back. He’s happy, so he doesn’t ask a lot of questions.”