Description:

ONE It was half past eleven when Josie Taylor unlocked the door to her Greenwich Village apartment. She lugged her briefcase into the dimly lit foyer and leaned against the door until she heard it latch. Turning back to the door, she fastened the myriad of bolts and latches and chain locks that were standard equipment on the main entrance to an apartment in this part of New York City. Her heels made a tapping sound on the marble-tiled floor as she went into the living room. Light from the television lit the room, making shadows jump across Cooper's sleeping face as he lay stretched out on the couch. The sound had been muted, and she watched her husband for a moment in the stillness. He'd given up waiting for her. She could tell that by the nearly empty pizza box on the coffee table next to the theatre tickets for the show that had started--she glanced at her watch with a sigh of frustration--more than three and a half hours ago. Cooper had long since changed out of his expensive suit. He'd pulled his long hair free from the rather severe looking ponytail that he wore when he was dressed up. It fanned out in a golden-brown jumble of curls and waves around his face. The way he was dressed, in his ragged sweat shorts and sleeveless T-shirt, he looked so much like the wild-looking man she had first met nearly six years ago. Who would've thought she'd end up married to this exotic-looking man-child that she'd first noticed riding his skateboard in Washington Square Park? He'd been wearing purple jams covered with bright green peace signs and a pair of orange Converse high-top sneakers. The spring day had been warm, his T-shirt was off, and his long, honey-colored hair was loose around his broad, bronzed shoulders. Sunlight had glinted off the hard, tanned muscles of his chest. It was hard not to watch his antics as she sat eating her lunch. He soon realized he had caught her attention, and flashed her his quicksilver grin and winked one of his brilliant blue eyes. He rolled closer to flirt with her, and she was surprised at his imposing height. He had moved on his skateboard with the agility and speed of a smaller, more compact man. But up close, he towered over her. He was older than she had thought at first, too, closer to thirty than twenty, anyway. She was made nervous by his sheer size, and he backed off as if he sensed her discomfort, introducing himself only as Cooper. Cooper was there in the park at lunchtime the next day, and the next, and almost every single day after that as spring slowly turned into summer. Each time Josie saw him, Cooper would move a little closer, until finally he sat next to her on the bench, talking while she ate. It was as if he were a wild animal, and slowly but surely she was taming him. Later on, Josie had to wonder who had tamed whom. Although they looked like polar opposites, with Josie always dressed in her straitlaced executive skirts and jackets, she and Cooper had an awful lot in common. They both liked movies and plays. They both read murder mysteries. They both liked vacations at the seashore and rainy Sunday mornings. They both liked living in the city, with its excitement and pulsing life. And it was clear, right from the start, that they both liked each other. Josie found herself looking forward to lunchtime. It was definitely the high point