Some Girls Do (Outback Heat Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

her nose sniffling as the pressure of tears built again. “I suppose.”
    “How old is this … Jeremy.”
    It didn’t even occur to Lacey to lie but she did drop her gaze, knowing how sensitive Coop was to age gaps. “Thirty-eight.”
    She could feel his disapproval bouncing off her downcast head. “Jesus, Lace …” he rubbed his hands through his hair and she looked up in time for their gazes to meet and lock. “You have a daddy complex a mile wide, you know that right?”
    Lacey opened her mouth to deny his attempts at amateur psychology but something stopped her. Maybe he was right. Maybe she had been sub-consciously seeking out a father figure all along. Maybe that had been why she’d felt so instantly attracted to Coop.
    “So, what happened then?” he asked eventually, the silence stretched to the limit between them. “After the wife turned up?”
    “There was a lot of yelling and crying from both of us. I threw the bottle at him and then she told me to go, ‘ just go ,’ she said and she looked at me like … like I was this home wrecker. Like I was beneath contempt. So I did. I just walked out.”
    “Why didn’t you ring? I would have come and picked you up.”
    Lacey shook her head. “I didn’t have my phone. I walked out without my bag and my jacket, I just … left. I couldn’t stand being there for another second. I was crying and shaking, in total shock. I had no idea where I was going or anything. I don’t even think I realised it was raining or how cold it was until you dragged me inside just now.”
    Just thinking about the confrontation made Lacey want to cry all over again. “I feel like such an idiot,” she said, feeling desperately fragile and craving the warmth of his arms around her but determined not to ask.
    “Well it’s over now, right?” he said, his voice gruff.
    Lacey nodded but the finality of it all was depressing as hell. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat, but it was growing bigger, choking her.
    “I don’t know what to do now,” she said on a sob.
    “No,” Coop said, his voice brooking no argument as he wagged his finger in her face. “You do not cry over lousy, cheating scumbags, okay? Just no.”
    Lacey squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, his words bolstering her.
    “Unless there’s something more you’re not telling me?”
    He grasped her chin lightly between his thumb and forefinger and her lids fluttered open. She shook her head. “Nothing.”
    “Okay.” His eyes searched her face for a bit longer but he seemed satisfied with her denial. “Now, you are going to bed, you are going to sleep. You’re exhausted. And in the morning you can decide the rest. Okay?”
    Lacey nodded. “Okay.”
    “Good.” He helped her up and accompanied her into his bedroom. “I can sleep on the lounge, Coop,” she protested as he pulled the sheets back. “It’s not like I haven’t done it before.”
    “Yeah well, the other times were self-inflicted and deserved the heinous torture of my awful couch. This one wasn’t, so I’m being nice.” He fluffed his pillow. “In,” he ordered.
    Lacey didn’t protest. She sank onto the mattress and snuggled into the sheets. The aroma of Coop surrounded her and the urge to cry again at his kindness and the warm, solid familiarity of him gripped her throat hard.
    “Night,” he said as he turned to leave.
    “Night,” she returned, her eyes burning, her throat aching from holding back the well of emotion.
    *     *     *
    Coop was still wide awake twenty minutes later when the sound of a soft sob floated towards him. What the hell? He’d thought she was asleep. He rolled over on the world’s most uncomfortable couch trying to ignore it, but her crying yanked hard at invisible strings.
    There were a helluva lot of tears for a guy she didn’t even love. He sat up, swinging his feet onto the floor, his head in his hands, a battle waging on the inside.
    Go to her. Don’t go to her.
    Coop hauled