Chapter 6 #3
He crawled towards the opening, his eyes wide.
He was such a small boy, he would have no concept of the mayhem that he had unleashed.
“Yes. They’re fine. They’re all put away, and nothing bad happened.
Though I think it’s maybe a good lesson.
You know, there are gates for a reason. And walls on wagons.
If you push the boundaries too hard, you, an animal, or another person could get hurt.
That’s why you have to pay attention not just to the rules, but to maybe why the animals might be locked up. ”
He nodded. She really didn’t want to lecture him, she wanted him to feel safe. But she also wanted him to actually be safe.
He sat next to her in the sand, and she took her phone out of her pocket. “I have Lara in my phone, if she’s still up near where the parents are, she can tell them to meet us here.”
“Good idea,” Cooper said.
She typed in a quick text and received a reply a moment later.
“She says the parents are on their way to the beach. So, let’s go to one of the bonfires so we’re easy to find.”
Cooper bent down and scooped up the little boy, and she actually thought that her heart might explode. She turned away, trying to get a grip on herself. And they walked toward the bonfire closest to the walking path. It didn’t take long for Aiden’s mom to come running onto the sand. “Aiden!”
Cooper set the little boy down, and he ran full tilt to his mother. Grabbing her around the leg. His dad was a few paces behind, and he picked his son up, holding him fiercely. “Aiden, you can’t run off like that.”
She took it as her cue to slip away, and Cooper followed, both of them moving down the beach. There was a bonfire with empty chairs around it, and near there, was a station that had cider.
“You want a drink?” Cooper asked.
“Oh, sure,” she said.
She sat in a chair by the fire, and Cooper returned a moment later with two paper cups steaming with spiced cider.
He sat down next to her, and she looked at his strong profile, illuminated by the flames. She couldn’t help herself. She started laughing.
“What?”
She couldn’t breathe. She was laughing too hard. “What’s funny?” he asked. “It’s just… This is… What a strange evening.”
“Well. Yeah,” he said, looking down at his cup.
“We caused this, you realize that.”
He tilted his head to look at her. “What?”
“You were going to kiss me.”
“No,” he said, turning away, looking out at the ocean, which she knew full well he couldn’t even see right now. It was crashing, over there in the darkness, but it was definitely not visible.
“You don’t have to lie.”
“I’m not lying.”
“You were going to kiss me,” she said, her cheeks getting hot. She would be damned if he took that away from her.”
“Well, it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Oh, I knew it. I knew it,” she said, pointing at him. “You think I’m cute.”
“You’re a menace, Eliana, and every time we’re near each other, you are even more of a menace, and you cause menacing things to occur. You fall out of wagons –“
“I didn’t fall out of the wagon.”
“Because I caught you. Horses escape, whole petting zoos escape.”
“It only happens when you’re thinking about kissing me,” she said. “Because I’m cursed. Oh God, you did think about kissing me years ago.”
He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, but nothing came out.
“Do you have a crush on me, Cooper?”
He practically growled. “I don’t do crushes.”
“No. Of course not. That’s way too soft. Do you want me?” What was the point of even asking that question? In fact, asking here was probably the worst place. They were going to get sneaker-waved out into the abyss because she had brought up kissing.
It was a real concern.
“I don’t think that’s a question that it benefits either of us to answer.”
“No,” she said, waiting to be washed away on the tide. “I know it doesn’t. Because you think I’m silly.”
“I do.”
“And you’re my brother’s friend.”
“Yes, I am.”
“And I’m cursed.”
“Ridiculous.”
So we can’t.”
He turned to look at her. “Yeah. We can.” He sighed. “Not for those reasons, Eliana. Because you’re a virgin. And I’m not going to be your first. It would be a mistake. I can’t offer you the kinds of things someone should offer a woman who’s waited as long as you.”
He might as well have slapped her with a fish. “Excuse me? Did you not hear the whole story about why I’m still a virgin – and great, really glad we’re announcing this to everybody out here.”
“Alternatively, you can keep your voice down.”
She ignored him and continued. “I don’t want it. I tried to get rid of it. I’m not saving myself for anybody. I’m just stuck. And you may not want to acknowledge the curse, but I have no choice but to acknowledge it. I’m rescuing you by not seducing you, quite frankly.”
“Are you?”
“Yes. Because it could quite literally be the last thing you do.”
“Do you think so?”
“I’m cursed. All the men who fall in love with women in my family–”
“You’re making a big leap between sleeping together and…that. I don’t want to fall in love. I don’t want to get married. I don’t want to have kids. None of that.”
“Well. Well. Maybe you wouldn’t be able to help it.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
She was so offended, and somehow, she had argued herself into a really weird position, and she wasn’t even totally sure how all she was offended.
“You don’t believe in the curse. That’s the thing. So you must just not want me.”
“No, I don’t want to hurt you.”
The silence lapsed between them. She couldn't imagine what it would actually be like. To have the full force of his attention on her. To actually be wrapped up in a relationship with him. In a situation. It was almost impossible to imagine, because he had been a fantasy for so long, and she had decided a long time ago that she didn’t get to have her fantasies.
She already knew that about herself. She didn’t get to have them because she wasn’t that girl.
Whatever the reason. Honestly, it was more comforting to believe she was cursed.
Except that it gave her real, existential dread for Cooper.
“I’ve been hurt,” she said. “By life. I’ve already lost my dad, I am…
I’m lonely, Cooper. I love my mom and my grandma, I love Marcus.
It’s great when he’s in town. My friends are in and out, you know how this place is.
They leave for a while, they come back. When they’re back, it’s great.
My closest friends are married with kids, and that’s wonderful.
I’m happy for them. But I also feel like I’ve been left behind.
If you think that you have the power to hurt me…
I don’t know. I don’t know, man. I feel like you’re overestimating yourself just a little bit.
I feel like, maybe you aren’t being very honest about how resilient I am. ”
“I’m not sure if you’re trying to talk me into this or out of it.”
“Neither,” she said. She sighed. “Well, out of it. I just don’t want you to think that you’re sparing me because I’m fragile. But also, you can’t have me. Because nobody can.”
He reached across the space, and suddenly, she found herself being hauled out of her seat.
There were people there, just a few feet away at the next bonfire, and he jerked her onto his lap, cupping the back of her head.
“Let me tell you something,” he said. “I don’t believe in curses.
And even if I did, I wouldn’t let it tell me what to do.
” Then he cupped the back of her head and closed the distance between them. He kissed her.
She’d been kissed before. But never like this.
His kiss was like something out of a movie.
Something out of the steamiest romance novel you could imagine.
His mouth was firm and hot. His lips a revelation.
She thought that maybe she was dying. He slid his tongue against hers, and her stomach went into a freefall.
He was kissing her like he didn’t care if people knew. Kissing her like she was precious. Kissing her like he had something to prove, and so far, a wave hadn’t taken them away, a seagull hadn’t pooped on them, nothing disastrous had happened.
She wanted it to go on and on forever. She didn’t want it to ever stop.
But they were in public, so they really did have to stop. She pulled away from him, and took a deep breath, she thought her heart was going to beat out of her chest. “Oh,” she said.
“Do you want this?” he asked.
“You just gave me a hundred reasons that I’m not allowed to want it, and that you’re not going to let me have it, so why should I answer that question?”
He fixed his gaze on her, clear and focused in the firelight. “Because I’ve decided. I’m going to break that goddamned curse.”