Susan Phillips - First Star I See Tonight

Coop gripped the phone tighter. “Among other things.”

Pipe shouted at him in the background. “You can’t get married without a prenup, you idiot! And a prenup isn’t something you put together in a couple of hours!”

“I’m afraid she’s got you there, Champ,” Heath said.

“You’re worth millions!” she yelled. And then, presumably to Heath, although she was still yelling loud enough for Coop to draw the phone back from his ear. “Do you see what I’m up against? He’s an adrenaline junkie.”

“She’s obviously thought about this,” Heath said. “Under the circumstances, I strongly advise you not to go any further without getting your attorneys involved.”

“Otherwise, I’ll take you for every cent you have!” Even with the phone held away from his ear, he had no trouble hearing that.

“Did you hear?” Heath said.

“Hard not to. You tell her to worry about herself.” He hung up.

***

Annabelle worked her magic. His garden furniture and potting table disappeared from the terrace. Workers delivered chairs, along with outdoor heaters to keep the guests warm against the November night chill and a wooden crate with something that looked suspiciously like a chandelier poking out of the top. As the caterers took over his kitchen, he sealed himself upstairs, growing more anxious by the minute. When he couldn’t stand it any longer, he called Heath. “Is she going to show up?”

“Not a clue. I figure you’ve got a fifty-fifty chance at best.”

That wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

The minister arrived at four thirty. Or, more properly, the “wedding officiant” arrived. Coop was a wreck.

Shortly after, the guests began to appear. He’d kept the list small, choosing only people Piper knew and would be comfortable with: Tony and the bouncers; Jada and Karah; Mrs. B., who appeared with a sheepish man she introduced as Willie Mahoney, her boyfriend. He wished he could have flown Faiza in, but leaving Canada would make her anxious. Jennifer MacLeish arrived with a happy-looking Eric Vargas on her arm.

Coop pulled her aside. “Have you talked to her?”

Jen looked worried. “Berni and I both knocked on her door, but she told us to go away-except not that politely-and she won’t answer her phone. This was not your smartest move.”

He was afraid she was right, and he tried to remember why he’d been so sure this would work.

Jonah came up to him. “You want me and the boys to go get her?”

Coop was so tempted, but he shook his head. “She has to do this on her own.”

“Risky, boss. Very risky.”

Nothing he didn’t already know.

Six o’clock arrived. The doomsday hour. Everyone had appeared. Everyone except the bride. He was crazy to have given her an ultimatum. Nobody liked being backed into a corner, but that went triple for Piper Dove.

Another five minutes passed. Then ten more. He’d have to go out on the terrace soon and make the humiliating announcement that the wedding was off.

Just then, the elevator doors opened, and there she was.

She wore a stricken expression and a short lace off-the-shoulder dress that she’d probably bought at H&M and that reminded him of vanilla cake frosting. She’d pulled her hair away from her face with a narrow rhinestone headband that showcased her cheekbones. Every inch of her was perfection. Except for those big blue eyes, which were as close to terrified as he’d ever seen.

He was at her side in three long strides. As she gazed up at him, he saw something he’d never imagined. Something so inconceivable, he thought it was a trick of the light. But it was no trick. Piper Dove’s eyes were brimming with tears.

The sight made his own eyes sting, and he clasped her hands. “Babe…”

She looked up at him, a single, beautiful tear caught on her bottom lashes. “I’m scared.”

He’d never loved her more than at that moment. As crazy as this was, they were doing the right thing. “I know you are.” He kissed the corners of her eyes. Tasted the salt. Understood what it cost her to reveal so much.

“You aren’t scared?” she said.

“Not now. But a couple of minutes ago… You don’t want to know.”

Her glossy lips trembled. “You were afraid I wouldn’t show up.”

“Terrified.”

“I couldn’t do that to you. I love you too much.”

The swelling in his throat made his voice husky. “I can see that. Because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be here.”

She pressed her palms to the lapels of his suit coat. “I don’t know anything about being a wife. Are you sure about this?”

“Sixty percent.”

That made her smile, the sweetest smile he’d ever seen, a smile so beloved he had to clear his throat before he could speak. “How about this for a plan?” He brushed his thumb against the corner of her mouth. “Once we get through the next couple of hours, we’ll pretend tonight never happened. We’ll live together, go about our lives, and never mention the word marriage again.”

She beamed up at him. “You’d do that for me?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay, then.”

He took her hand and slipped it through his bent elbow. “Pretend it’s a bad dream.”

“Not bad at all,” he thought he heard her whisper.

He led her across the living room to the terrace door. Together, they stepped out into his fairyland of a rooftop garden.

A softly glimmering crystal chandelier hung from the center of a white canopy swagged with dozens of strands of twinkle lights. Flowers in big gold urns showcased all the colors of fall: plum dahlias, burgundy roses, green hydrangeas, and orange calla lilies. The guests, seated in gilded Chiavari chairs, turned as they entered, and he heard more than one sigh of relief followed by a piercing wolf whistle from Jonah. Piper managed a wobbly smile. He’d flown Amber in on a private plane from Houston as a surprise. She waved at Piper and began to sing “Come Away with Me” in her exquisite coloratura soprano.

Twists of brown and mulberry velvet ribbons marked the makeshift aisle, and the chandelier made her rhinestone headband glitter in her dark hair. She was so caught up in Amber’s solo that she didn’t notice who waited for them at the front of the aisle, not until the final chorus faded and he began to lead her forward.

Her fingers dug into his arm. “You didn’t!” she whispered.

“We needed somebody to marry us,” he whispered back.

“But…”

The last notes of the song faded away. He cupped his hand over hers as it rested in the crook of his arm and led her the rest of the way down the aisle to the place where Phoebe Somerville Calebow, the owner of the Chicago Stars, waited to marry them.

***

“I warned you from the beginning that I’m a user,” Piper told her husband that night as she lay in his arms, all woozy and satiated from their lovemaking.

“How long do you think it’ll be before I outlive my usefulness?”

“A very long time.” She curled into his chest. She didn’t know exactly how she’d pull it off, but she intended to be a superstar wife. “I can’t believe we’re married.” She sighed.

“I thought we weren’t going to mention it.”

“Only tonight.” She flipped to her back. “Now that I’ve landed a man, I’m thinking about letting myself go. No more dresses, makeup, haircuts…”

“You barely get haircuts now,” he pointed out, drawing her close once again.

“Dresses are a lot of bother.”

“Fine with me, but you’re going to miss sneaking looks at yourself in the mirror whenever you get dressed up.”

Her smile turned into a frown. “You have to get a prenup. Or a postnup. Honestly, Coop! For someone who’s supposed to be a crackerjack businessman, you’ve been completely irresponsible.”

He yawned and curled his hand over her thigh. “You and Heath work it out.”

“Is that the way this marriage is going to go? The three of us. You, me, and your agent?”

“That’s how it rolls when you marry an overprivileged ex-jock.”

She laughed and held up her hand, admiring in the soft bedroom light the ring he’d given her. A spiral of tiny diamonds wrapped a narrow gold band. “You could have afforded a lot bigger.”

“True.” He kissed the slope of her breast. “But you’d have killed me.”

He knew her so well. Not only her jewelry preference, but also her flaws and insecurities, along with every one of her hang-ups. But he loved her all the same.

“I have a ring for you, too,” she said, “but you won’t get it for a couple of weeks.”

He twisted the platinum band she’d bought him by wiping out a big chunk of her savings. “I already have a ring.”

“Not that kind of ring.”

His head came up off the pillow. “Tell me you didn’t-”

“I had to. It was on my conscience. Mrs. Calebow and I had a long conversation after the ceremony, and she and I worked out a trade. A replacement Super Bowl ring in exchange for some computer security work I’ll be doing for the Stars this winter.”

“Pipe, I don’t give a damn about that ring.”

“You’d better give a damn!” she exclaimed. “Because now I’ll have to give up all my Bears T-shirts for real.”

He laughed. “It’s a good thing you’re tough.”

Not so tough. But tough enough. Because once you married a champion, you had to be ready to play at the top of your game.

Jada sat cross-legged on the floor of Piper and Coop’s house in Lincoln Park and watched eleven-month-old Isabelle Graham and her twin brother, Will, wobble from one piece of furniture to the next looking totally drunk. They were batting around a scruffy pink pig and babbling to each other in a language only they understood, which made them even more adorable. She loved them with all her heart.

She remembered when Piper had found out she was having twins. Jada had been staying with them while her mom was in Lansing meeting Eric’s parents for the first time. She’d been a junior in high school, old enough to stay by herself. But she liked spending time with Coop and Piper, so she hadn’t bitched about it.

Piper was super nervous when she got pregnant, but that was nothing compared to what happened when she had her first ultrasound. Because Jada was taking biology-and because she’d pleaded with them-Piper and Coop had let her come along for the doctor’s appointment. When Piper found out she was having twins, she had a total freak-out. She’d jumped off the table, ultrasound goo still plastered all over her stomach, and charged Coop. “One!” she’d yelled. “I said I’d have one for you! And you agreed to take care of it! I never said anything about two! Do you have to be an overachiever in everything?”

Coop had lifted her off her feet, getting goo all over himself, and said she’d be the best mother of twins ever because of her competitive nature. Then she’d yelled that he was the one with a competitive nature and that she was too emotional to have twins. Coop said it was true she was emotional and asked her if she felt like crying. When she said she did, he’d told her to go ahead. She had, but not for long, and then she’d started hugging him back. The whole time, the medical technician was standing there with the ultrasound thingy in her hand and staring at them like they were both crazy.

Coop had been right about Piper being a great mother, but Coop was a great dad, too. They’d both gone through a lot of changes in the three years since they’d gotten married. Coop had sold Spiral and started an urban gardening program. He already had seven gardens growing in abandoned lots that used to be littered with a bunch of old tires and broken liquor bottles. Coop had former gang members planting and weeding alongside old people and single mothers, everybody working together to feed their communities. In September, Coop was opening a training facility to aid young people in finding jobs in the food industry. Piper said that helping transform neighborhoods was a perfect occupation for a man who loved big challenges.

In Jada’s opinion, Piper’s work was even more interesting. Dove Investigations now specialized in background checks and fraud investigations for a bunch of companies, and Piper had enough business to hire two employees. But that wasn’t the fascinating part. The more Jada had talked to Piper about child sex trafficking, the madder Piper had gotten until she was even more passionate than Jada. Now she used her computer skills to put pimps out of business and find the men who preyed on the girls. Among other things, she posed as a fourteen-year-old in online chat rooms. She also built phony Web sites that the police used to set up stings. Eric, who was a lieutenant now, took over from there. Piper said it was dirty, stomach-churning work, but she’d never felt cleaner.