The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) by Victoria Purman Read Free Book Online

life in boardrooms or airplanes and couldn’t fill the void of a mother’s love, not that he tried too hard. Cooper barely made it through high school because he sought solace for his loss in the waves and in the surfers he met. His own family had fractured, so he’d searched for a new one.
    But there were things he did remember about family, about his mother,that came back to him every now and then: being tucked in every night, a kiss on each eyelid and then each cheek. A loving, ‘Night night, Coop’. The smell of her perfume and her silky soft hair. And that great, huge indefinable thing a boy feels for his mother. That mother love—constant, applied in good times and bad, without judgement. Evan was lucky to have that. And while the kid had noclue now, it would shape him and make him the man he was bound to be. Maggie was doing an amazing job with the little grommit.
    Cooper struggle to his feet, mindful of the doctor’s orders to keep moving. He wasn’t expecting miracles after only a couple of days, but he hadn’t sensed any improvement. Those glass shards were still grinding behind his knee and the heavy throb in his lower left legstill made it feel like a dead weight instead of a limb. But he put some weight on it and walked. Or hobbled. Slowly, unevenly, he managed to make it to the kitchen to fill his glass from the tap. He heard footsteps. When he looked over his shoulder, Maggie was there, a frown on her tired face. She’d pulled her hair into a twisted knot on top of her head and she looked like a young ballerina. Exceptfor the Converse sneakers.
    ‘I could have done that,’ she admonished.
    He narrowed his eyes at her. ‘Relax, Maggie, I can get a glass of water.’
    Cooper drank up and put his glass on the sink. ‘The little dude’s asleep already?’
    ‘Out like a light,’ Maggie said, sighing in response. The sigh became a yawn pretty quickly. ‘He’s had a huge day.’
    ‘He’s not the only one. You look exhausted.’
    Maggieraised her eyebrows. ‘Why, thanks.’
    ‘Seriously.’ Cooper turned and backed up against the sink, his hands propped on either side of him to carry some of his weight. He leaned towards her to get a closer look. It was a face he knew well. That smart mouth. Those big brown eyes and that button nose. Her lips seemed to be a ripe peach colour most of the time. ‘You’ve got bags under your eyes. Bigblack smudgy bags.’
    ‘I always have big black smudgy bags under my eyes, Cooper, but I usually get the time to cover them with concealer. See this?’ She lifted a finger and pointed to her face. ‘This is single mommy working face.’
    And then Cooper felt bad in about ten different ways. ‘You know what Maggie Mac?’
    ‘What?’ She looked at him with a question in her eyes.
    ‘You are something. I’vewatched you all these years, handling this all by yourself, year in year out. Raising Evan and always doing right by him.’
    ‘Oh, stop it, Cooper,’ she said with a dismissive wave. ‘I haven’t handled this all by myself. I don’t know what we would have done without Mom … and you, you big dope.’
    ‘I wish I could be here more to help out, to hang with Evan.’
    Yeah, because it was all about Evan, right?Who was he kidding? It was about Maggie, too. She was easy, uncomplicated, fun. When he was continually surrounded by people more interested in what he did than who he was, he knew he could always came back to Maggie and their no-bullshit deal. So he’d just won a major pro competition in South Africa? It didn’t absolve him from having to stack the dishwasher when he came around for his celebratorydinner with Maggie and Evan. That was their deal. She cooked and he cleaned up. Evan was getting pretty good at stacking. Cooper made sure the kid was learning that boys had to do chores, too. The history they shared, and her friendship, was important to him. He was a long way from the family he was born into and this, right here, with Maggie and