The Windfall (17 page)

Cooper would have gotten a big kick out of that had he been working. But, it was his day off and I sorely missed him. After my talk with William, I found myself wanting to see Cooper and test the theory of the warning lights once more, just to make sure. I didn’t expect anything different to happen, though, and for that reason alone I was anxious to see him again. Maybe this really was what I had been looking for. Maybe Cooper had appeared at just the right time.

With a sigh, I finished my lunch and cleaned up my mess, walking back through the kitchen to let Betty know I was back.

“Oh, hey, here this was left for you,” she said, pulling an envelope out of her pocket and handing it to me.

I frowned as I took it, turning it over in my hands. “Which table was it?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Betty said with a shrug. “The woman approached me and said to give it to you for the lovely service.”

I put the envelope in my pocket with the rest of the meager tips I had garnered and looked at the table that had given me trouble early. Sure enough, it was empty, the scattered plates waiting for cleanup for the next party. On a whim, I walked to the front of the bar and peered out into the parking lot, seeing that the car I had ogled earlier was now gone. Maybe I had been right, maybe that woman had owned the car and decided that she had been mistaken in the order after all.

Patting my pocket, I turned back to the bar. It was time to make the rest of these customers happy as well.

* * * * *

After three long hours, I wiped down the last table and threw my rag into the nearby bucket, my back aching from all the running I’d done since arriving at work. The second half of my day had been just as difficult as the first part, the customers just as unhappy with their service, food, whatever . . . you name it, they complained about it.

“God, what a day,” Betty sighed as she slid into the booth I had just wiped down, emptying her pockets of the tips she’d garnered. “I didn’t make nowhere near enough to make up for the abuse I endured today.”

“It wasn’t just you, I promise,” I said as I grinned and did the same, the envelope I had forgotten about falling out onto the table with the rest of my tips. “Might as well see what this is about,” I said as I pulled open the flap and extracted a handful of travelers checks. I counted them in disbelief and did a double take at the amount on each of them, blood rushing to my ears. “W-who did you say that woman was?” I asked Betty.

“I don’t know,” Betty replied. “Emma, are you okay? You look kinda pale.”

With shaking hands, I pushed the check over to her, watching her eyes widen as she read the amount. “Ten grand for a tip? You’ve got to be kidding me! Is this legit?”

I picked up the checks and looked at each one, seeing nothing that stood out to say it wasn’t. The name payable to scribbled on each one was my name. “I . . . I guess so.”

“What did you do to get that kind of tip?” Betty asked as she counted out her bills with a pout on her face.

I shrugged and stared at the check, still unsure of what to do with it. Surely they had meant to leave me ten dollar checks instead of ten at a grand each. It had to be a mistake. I should call this woman immediately and tell her she made a mistake, but there was no name, return number, or address on the checks. I hadn’t seen that amount of money at one time, ever. It would do so much for me at this moment, the bills for Dad’s medication were overdue by two months. I could pay them off and do so much more. But should I accept these?

Grabbing the envelope and the rest of my cash, I stuffed it back into my pocket and climbed out of the booth. “I’m gone.”

“I would be too if I had that kind of cash burning a hole in my pocket,” Betty said dryly. “Seems it’s your lucky day, my friend.”

“Yes, yes, it does,” I replied as I hurried to my locker to grab my stuff. After waving goodbye to Chris, I walked out to my car, pulling out my cell phone excitedly. I knew exactly who to call.

Dialing the number, I let it ring once and smiled when his voice filled my ear. “Hey, Cooper.”

“Emma,” he said. “How are you? Did you have a good day?”

“I had the best,” I rushed out, climbing into the car. “Something crazy happened to me today, Cooper, something really crazy.”

“Well, this I have to hear,” he said, humor in his voice. I pulled the car out of the parking lot and onto the main road, my pulse bounding. “Cooper, some lady left a huge tip! I don’t know who it was or what I did to deserve it, but . . . I just, my God, I just can’t believe it.”

Cooper whistled in my ear. “Wow, Emma. That is crazy. Why would someone do such a thing? I mean you’re great and all but I have only ever heard stories of people being tipped like that before.”

“I know, right?” I said, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel. “What should I do with it?”

Chapter Sixteen

Cooper

I held my breath for a moment, enjoying the excitement in Emma’s voice as I listened to her chatter about her crazy tip over the phone. I was both excited and nervous as hell. It had been a bit of a risk to do this, and I wasn’t sure if it was actually going to work or not. After my conversation with Emma about her dad, I had come home and talked to Mom about it. I wanted so badly to help her, but I knew for sure that Emma wouldn’t take a donation from me outright.

Mom came up with the idea of leaving Emma an anonymous tip. “She can’t trace it, and I will make sure that she isn’t around when I plant it,” Mom had said, her eyes shining with excitement about helping the girl I was falling in love with. “It will be perfect, Cooper. Just think of how much this will help her and her father.” In the end, though I had some reservations, I had let Mom do it while I had waited on pins and needles, so afraid that she would be caught by Emma and then Emma would hate me forever for what I had hidden from her.

But it seemed as though it had all worked out. “What should I do with it?” Emma was asking, her voice sounding a bit unsure. “There’s no way I can keep this, right?”

“Umm, she did write the checks out to you, right?” I asked, trying to act nonchalant.

“Well, yes, she did,” Emma said slowly. “It’s just, it’s a lot of money.”

“Well, apparently she thought you did a great job,” I remarked, a hint of a smile appearing on my face. “Why wouldn’t you, at least, try to cash them, Emma? Just think of everything it would do for you and your dad. You could pay for is medications and even start back to school next semester.”

She was silent for a bit, and I hoped she was thinking about keeping the money. I didn’t know how else to help her without telling her my secret. “Cooper, why are you pushing me to take this money?” she finally asked.

“Emma, I’m not pushing you,” I tried to assure her, worried that she wasn’t going to accept this gift I had given her, even when I knew she needed it badly. “I just think you should take full advantage of the generosity of this woman and her money. She left it there for a reason, I’m sure of it.”

“I guess you’re right,” Emma sighed into the phone. “I just feel so guilty about this. I mean, what if she didn’t mean to leave me such large checks? What if it was a big mistake?”

I started to panic, racking my brain to figure out how I was going to get her to just cash the checks and feel good about it at the same time. “I’ve got an idea,” I said into the phone. “Travelers checks have serial numbers. Why don’t you just cash the checks and hold onto the money for say a day or two? Then, if the woman really did make a mistake, she will contact the bank and probably be coming back to look for you and then you haven’t spent a dime of it.”

“I could do that,” Emma said slowly as I tried to remain calm about it. “Then, if she doesn’t come around, I would know she meant to write them.”

“Exactly,” I finished, giving myself a mental pat on the back.

“Oh, Cooper, I knew you’d know what to do,” she said, making me feel a bit like a cad for tricking her so. But I had to get her to take the money. She needed it. “Thank you. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll look forward to it,” I said as she ended the call. I slid the phone in my pocket and looked around Aunt Sophie’s living room, turmoil in my gut. Had we done the right thing by doing this for Emma?

“I couldn’t help but overhear Emma’s name. Did she get the check?”

I looked over at the doorway to see my mom standing there, a big smile on her face. “She did.”

Immediately her smile disappeared and she crossed the room, coming before me. “What’s wrong? I was very incognito about it. Did she find out who I am?”

“No, nothing like that,” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “She’s got some reservations about bankrupting you to the point that she wasn’t sure if she was going to cash the checks.”

“Oh no, oh dear,” Mom replied, sinking onto the couch. “I didn’t think about that. I told you we should have used cash.”

I shook my head, thinking of the reason I hadn’t thought cash was a good idea. I wanted Emma to have to take control of the money and not think it was stolen or someone’s mistake. Those checks were very personal and directly solely at her and her only. “No,” I finally said. “We did the right thing. I was just stupid to think she would go out immediately and cash them.”

“Why don’t you just tell her the truth, son?” Mom asked gently as I joined her on the couch. “It would make all of this extremely easy. If she’s half the woman you think she is, she will understand your reasons.”

I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face, thinking of the repercussions of telling anyone else about the money. I remembered how Felix had totally changed his view of me, seeing nothing but dollar signs as a result of my ‘good’ fortune. All of those people who had bombarded me that day, not seeing the Cooper they might have known, but one that was going to help them get rich quick. It had been very disheartening and I never wanted to see that gleam in Emma’s eyes. I wanted her to like me for me and, so far, I felt like she did and I didn’t want to mess that up. I wanted to be certain the money wouldn’t change how she saw me. “I can’t do that, Mom. Not yet,” I finally said. “I don’t want to lose her and this relationship as it is right now.”

“Well, you can’t hide this money forever,” Mom chided softly as she rose from the couch. “Eventually, she will find out and then her feelings about your secret might be a bit different than they would be if you told her now. Look at how well Sophia and Bill took the news. Everyone is going to take it differently, and you can’t base everyone’s possible reaction off of what happened back home.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I said as she walked out of the room, my heart heavy at what Emma’s reaction might be. Emma was a smart girl, an understanding girl. Maybe I was relying too heavily on what had happened in the past by people who hadn’t cared about me. She cared about me, right? I hoped so.

My cell phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, my heart racing in my chest. Maybe it was Emma again. Looking at the display, I didn’t recognize the number, though the area code was from Atlanta. No one from back home had my new number. With hesitation, I pressed the button to answer. “Hello?”

“Cooper! Dude, you are a hard person to track down!”

“Felix?”

Chapter Seventeen

Emma

I placed the phone on the seat and drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, my insides churning. The checks were sitting on the seat beside me, and I constantly glanced over to ensure that they were indeed real and true. I really had ten thousand dollars sitting there, waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Cooper’s conversation had more or less gone like I expected. He’d said what I thought he would say, that this was a deserved good fortune that had come my way and I should take advantage of it. I just couldn’t fathom why anyone would want to give me that kind of money. I didn’t know this woman and surely she didn’t know my plight. I had never been one to spread my personal gossip around, so unless she knew my father or William personally, there would be no way she could have known how much this money would mean to my family. I had heard of people doing random acts of kindness for strangers, but this was over the top.

I found myself driving down a street that was popular for tourists, seeing all the happy families as they took in their slice of California in the fading afternoon sun. They all looked like they didn’t have a care in the world, their smiling faces causing my heart to ache. I could be that person; I could have that permanent smile on my face if I so chose to. I had caring people around me now. My dad, William, the crew at Keefer’s; they all cared about me. And Cooper. Just the thought of his smiling face made me all weak inside. Cooper cared about me. I could already see a potential future with that man — that kind, caring man.

Still, I thought as I headed toward the bank that I normally did business with, it would be nice never to worry about where the next check was coming from, to be able to go on vacation even. I hadn’t been on vacation since I was little when my dad and mom took me up to Washington to visit the Space Needle. It had been a wonderful trip, but not long after Mom got sick. Within a year, she was gone. A trip would be nice for me and for Dad, but I wouldn’t waste this money on a frivolous vacation, not when I could literally stock up on Dad’s medication and pay for another semester of school so money wouldn’t be so tight anymore. No, this money, for whatever reason it had made its way to me, was going for the greater good. If these checks were real, that is.

Pulling into the bank parking lot, I cut off the engine and took a breath as I grabbed the envelope. Either I was going to be laughed at, maybe arrested, or I was going to walk out ten grand richer. It was time to find out.

* * * * *

Twenty minutes later, I practically fell into my car and leaned against the headrest, my mind still spinning. The checks hadn’t been fake. They had been very real, and I had ten thousand dollars above and beyond my usual pay sitting in my bank account, free to do with as I wished. The manager at the bank insisted that since my name was written on the checks as the payee, there was no reason I should be concerned about the money not being intended for me. She assured me that whoever left me the checks did so knowingly, stating that they would have noticed their mistake after one or two checks.