Chapter 12

Tulip

Ireally thought the movie premiere might be the start of something. Serves me right for dreaming big. It’s just … we were more than a bit of fun, a fumble between the sheets while he was here. We had a connection.

I spent a long time wondering if I was just falling for his charms, whether everything was an act on his part. The actor, the deceiver, right? But that night in the hotel, when he kissed me, said goodbye, I felt how much he cared. And he loved me, he did. He probably doesn’t anymore though, which is why for the three weeks he’s been back here filming on site, I’ve avoided the film set like you avoid the rear end of a horse.

Seeing him again will only bring back memories, days spent working alongside each other, laughing, talking, the nights spent wrapped up in each other, hot, steamy, perfect.

Clover has tried to talk me into it. Told me she followed him out of the hotel, that night, that he was sobbing in the street. Blossom has done the opposite, told me I’m best steering well clear, that I’ll only end up getting hurt again. Maybe Blossom is right. His life is all bright lights and stardom, mine is mowing, mud, and manure.

I just keep thinking back to the times he spoke about his life, how he didn’t like that side of things, how he was so happy here. And at the premiere, he didn’t kiss Bunny. I saw it clearly. She came up to him, threw herself at him. And it obviously shocked him. And then the chaos started, her lies took on a life of their own. The flashbulbs and calls for smiles and details. The side of his world that he hates. The side I chose to reject him because of, because I was scared to take it on. In that moment I saw my future laid out, me, the woman on his arm, forever being overlooked while every woman in the world flirted with him as if I didn’t exist because all I am is some country girl, nothing special, nothing classy and fancy and poised.

I rejected him.

The man ran after me, left an event for me, did an interview in the press a day after the photos ran stating that him and Bunny Miller are very much not an item, that he’ll be suing her for the lies she’s told about him, and that his heart is elsewhere, but that it’s a private matter, and that’s how he wants to conduct his relationships, privately and away from the public eye. He never named me, but the press picked up on my presence at the premiere, speculation ran rife for a few days, and then it was on to the next celebrity scandal.

I rejected him.

The man who came in and became part of this family regardless of the cold front I welcomed him with. Who wanted nothing more than to help us in our time of need. Who plotted and planned and worked his arse off to allow me to do things my way, to raise the money instead of being given a handout.

I rejected him.

The man who may never have said those three words to me but who showed it in every single thing he did.

This isn’t the first time I’ve sat at this kitchen table and let these thoughts percolate in my brain. But it is the first time I’m doing it knowing that those trucks rolling out right now mean that filming has finished, that Cooper Fox will be leaving this farm any minute and probably never coming back.

And that thought kills me.

I rejected him. And I’m in love with him.

The chair tips over as I stand, but I don’t have time to fix it, I skid across the kitchen, grab my wellies from the boot room, pull them on as I hop towards the door, and then I’m outside, nearly knocking over Blossom and Clover as they get out of the car.

“Where you going?” Blossom asks.

I wave them away and keep moving, but not before I hear Clover answer for me. “Where she should have gone the very first day he was back here. She’s going to get her man.”

My man. Could Cooper Fox really be my man? Is the fact I love him going to be enough to make him forgive me for pushing him away? I hope so, because the thought of him leaving today, of walking out my life and me never getting to see him again except on TV and in the papers, it makes me realise I don’t care what comes with him, the paparazzi, the stories, the lies, the highs, the lows, none of it matters, because I love him more than any of that. And you find a way, you find a balance.

What if he’s already left?

The warm spring afternoon does little to calm the shivers that run through me at the thought, and I pound the dirt beneath my feet, racing towards the field where he was filming his last scenes.

But when I get there, when I stand on the bottom rung of the gate to get a better view across the field, all I see are crew shirts, people who are tidying up, ensuring no trace of them is left behind. That no trace of Cooper is left behind. Except in my heart.

There’s one last trailer though, a couple of crew toing and froing from it with cases and bags, loading them up on the back of a shiny new navy pickup. One from behind which Cooper emerges, gives each of the guys a hearty clap on the back and drives off in. Through the other gate, the far gate. The one that leads right to the front gate, out onto the road, and away. Fuck.

I pump my legs hard as I run for it, I can’t lose him now, I can’t be this close and let him drive out of my life without telling him how I feel.

The gate is open when I get there, the pickup idling just outside as Cooper hands a tall blonde a set of keys, gives her a hug and watches her drive away. His head tips back and he takes a deep breath in.

“Cooper?”

He spins to face me, a smile breaking out across his face. Surely that’s a good sign, right?

“Coop, I’m sorry, I was stupid and—”

I’m cut off by him pulling me to him and taking my mouth with his in a kiss that would rival any romance book or film ever written. I’m breathless, boneless, consumed by every feeling rushing through me right now.

“Baby, you weren’t stupid. You were protecting yourself. And I let you. I let you walk away. I didn’t fight for you. And all I’ve wanted to do from the second I met you was take care of you, of all of you.”

“You did, you made everything better just by being you. I shouldn’t have pushed you away.”

“Tulip, none of that matters now. I’ve spent the last month sorting things out, and that’s why I’ve not come to see you while I’ve been filming, I wanted everything in place before we spoke. And that,” he says, thumbing to the car now in the distance with the blonde in it, “is my agent, Kirsten. She’s just taken the keys to my apartment.”

“Oh…”

Was I wrong? But he just kissed me. What is going on here?

“Fuck, no, Tulip, not like that. Fuck. I mean, she’s taken them because I’ve put it on the market. I’m selling it.”

I’m a mess of emotion and my brain isn’t thinking clearly because I can’t work out what he’s trying to say. “Why? Where are you going?”

“Right now? I was going to buy the biggest bouquet of tulips I could find. Because someone very smart and incredibly beautiful once told me I should have a sanctuary, somewhere to come home to outside of work. And she was right. But I didn’t want just anywhere. I wanted the only place that has felt like home in a long time.”

Please let him be going where I think he’s going with this. “Where?”

“Here. I want to be here with you, Tulip Springfield. I love you. Have been in love with you from the moment we met right here a few weeks ago and I know it may be sudden and impetuous and scary as hell, but I promise you, I’m not like the others, I’m never going to hurt you. I want you, and only you, for the rest of my life.”

“Coop… I … I love you too.”

He smiles. “Thank fuck for that, because I’ve got everything I own packed up on the back of this truck and nowhere to live.”

I can’t help but tease a little. “There’s a glamping pod I can let you stay in.”

“I’ll stay wherever you let me. As long as it’s somewhere on this farm, so I get to see you every day.”

“You really want to live on a smelly farm?”

“I do. I’ve pulled out of the next movie and am all yours for the next six months.”

“Six months, huh?”

“Yep. You said I needed to find something I loved to do while I was between movies. I did – you. Oh, hang on, that sounds awful. I mean, not that I don’t love doing you, but—”

I throw my arms around his neck and shut him up with a kiss. “I love doing you too, Cooper Fox.”