Sara’s mouth went dry. But she would not be attracted to him. Not after what he’d said, regardless of her compassion for him and her understanding of his reasons. She shot Cooper a glare before shifting her gaze to the older man’s. “Joseph, I need to speak to you immediately.”
“What is it?”
She darted a glance at Cooper, who raised his eyebrows at her as if daring her to tattle on him.
She dropped her chin and asserted, “In private, please.”
Joseph shook his head and placed a big hand on his grandson’s broad shoulder again. “Cooper is a part of my family now, Sara.”
Her heart stuttered. A part of his family. Something Sara would never truly be. But that didn’t diminish her loyalty one bit, regardless of how much it had already cost her.
Joseph’s voice was thick with pride. “A McCoy by blood, if not name. Though I’ll want to discuss the name thing some time down the road.”
She met Cooper’s gaze, but his hooded expression revealed nothing of the animosity she’d seen there when he’d speculated about being required to change his name. His ability to hide his true feelings hardened her resolve and drew her farther into the high-ceilinged room that was as much a library as a place for Joseph to work at home. “Joseph, please—”
“As such—” Joseph interrupted her and moved to stand behind the massive cherrywood desk he routinely ran an empire from. When he spread his hands wide on the gleaming wood and braced his weight on his fingertips, as he did now, he always reminded her of a captain taking the wheel of a great ship. “I expect you to speak freely in his presence, just as you would with Alexander or would have with my poor Marcus, God rest his soul.”
Only a week had passed since Marcus’s death. But after the memorial service on Thursday, where Joseph had grieved so heavily Sara hadn’t been able to stop crying, Joseph had declared that because of the revelations in the will, it was time to move on. And he seemed to be doing just that, with his trademark gusto.
That didn’t mean he was seeing things clearly again, though. “But Joseph—”
He heaved a sigh. “Spit it out, girl.”
She glanced at Cooper again and her gaze snagged on the challenge in his. He kicked up a corner of his way-too-sensual mouth in a silent I double-dare you.
She raised her chin, more than willing to meet his challenge now. “It seems Mr. Anders bears the McCoy family ill will.”
Joseph scoffed. “Ill will? Whatever made you think that?”
She looked back at Joseph, the man her own father had admired more than anyone on earth, the man who’d always been there for her, and just said it. “He told me he plans to ruin the company.”
Joseph chuckled. “You misunderstood him, Sara. Which surprises me. You’re normally such a good listener.” He lowered himself into his large, dark brown leather desk chair.
Sara blinked. “I misunderstood him?”
Joseph nodded with certainty. “Cooper has already expressed to me his concern that his inexperience might harm the corporation. I was just reassuring him that he knows more about big business than he realizes.”
To Cooper he said, “Your construction company is successful, is it not?”
Cooper tucked his thumbs in his back jeans pockets, drawing her attention unwillingly to the hard contours beneath the snug denim. She jerked her eyes upward, but landed on the muscular chest beneath his chambray work shirt before making it to his remarkably handsome face. That she noticed such things added to her growing frustration and incredulity. How could Joseph believe him over her?
Cooper said, “It’s not just my company. I have a partner, Ted Orson, who fortunately can handle things while I’m…otherwise engaged. But yeah, we’ve operated in the black for some time now, doing custom residential and small commercial remodels.”
They were already aware of as much. In the few days since the reading of Marcus’s will, Joseph had employed a local private investigator he trusted to be unquestionably discreet to augment his lawyers. Their goal had been to learn everything possible about those now referred to as the Lost Millionaires.
Joseph nodded again. “So you know how to implement a viable and sustainable business model. You’ll be doing the same thing at McCoy Enterprises, only on a much larger scale, of course.”
Cooper’s smile was tight. “By a few billion.”
Sara shook her head. She was not going to let this happen. “No, that’s not what he meant—”
Joseph cut her off. “You can’t fault a man for nerves. But he doesn’t give himself enough credit. That’s become plain in the short amount of time he’s been here.” A look of pride softened the wrinkles on Joseph’s face. “Humility is a very admirable quality in a businessman.”
Sara’s jaw went slack. In the space of, at most, twenty minutes, Cooper Anders had completely snowed Joseph McCoy, founder and chairman of the board of one of the most stunningly successful enterprises in the history of retail business.
Her heart started pounding hard enough to drum in her ears. Had he forgotten they’d begun the day with a phone call from the private investigator about the youngest of the Lost Millionaires landing himself in jail the night before? “But—”
Cooper spoke. “My grandfather is right, Sara.” His already deep voice dipped further, and intimately, at her name.
He was trying to mess with her. Judging by her current state, he was succeeding.
He lowered his chin. “You misunderstood me.”
She gaped at him, her earlier empathy disappearing as the anger and frustration rose like a tide of acid inside of her. “Misunderstood?” she choked out. “Why, you two-faced, lying—”
“Sara!”
The sharp edge to Joseph’s voice brought her up short, especially since she’d never heard that tone directed toward her before. Yet, she’d never lost her cool in front of Joseph, either.
Joseph’s slow rise to his feet wasn’t a sign of age—he’d turn seventy-five in a matter of weeks—but rather a reminder that he expected to receive the respect he’d rightfully earned. “Cooper is a McCoy now. I want you to treat him as such.”
She nodded curtly and kept her mouth tightly closed against all the reasons, heard straight from the source, that Cooper should not be given the same devotion she’d never questioned giving Joseph, Alexander or even Marcus on the rare occasions he’d been around before his unpleasant death. Joseph was grieving for Marcus, and she understood his need to embrace a grandchild he hadn’t known he had.
Even if that grandson had the heart of a snake.
She looked at Cooper. He’d cocked an eyebrow and watched her with a casual—no, make that innocent air—but the shadow of pain in his eyes made her feel for him despite what she was thinking.
Okay. So she did empathize with him. She would acknowledge that and
