Chapter 8
8
Haley
“Sure.”
Standing from the bed, Cooper offers his hand and despite my brain telling me not to take it, to not get invested in him beyond friendship, I find my brain telling my heart to shut the hell up and take the comfort he’s offering. He walks me back out to the living room where I hear male voices talking, and I instantly come to a stop. I’m still in my smoke covered clothes, for crying out loud.
“What?” he asks, looking down at me, and I use my free hand to point at myself.
“Who is that? I’m a mess!” I whisper shout, and he smirks.
“My brothers. It will only take a second and then I’ll show you to the shower. Or you can use my bathroom and take a bath, whichever you’d like.”
“Okay,” I agree, and we cross the remaining feet to the living room. Two guys stand there surrounded by bags and boxes of things from Target, and my eyes widen in shock. They both like so much like Cooper that it’s startling to see, though they’re clearly younger. One has dark brown hair that’s cut similar to Cooper’s, while the other has the same dark blond hair as Cooper but it’s long and wavy, pulled back in a messy bun.
“Coop, what is all this?” I ask, and his eyes flash with humor when we both hear me shorten his name for the first time.
“First, Haley, this is my younger brother, Axel,” he introduces, pointing to the long haired one. He comes over to shake his hand and I give him a smile. “And this is our youngest brother, Joey.” He also comes over to shake my hand, and then I release Cooper to wrap my arms around my stomach.
“It’s nice to meet you both. But what is all this?” I ask, gesturing to the piles of stuff.
Cooper stuffs his hands in his pockets and rocks on his heels. “Remember how I requested to not be killed?” I nod and gesture for him to get on with it. “I had them get this stuff for Roman.”
My eyes widen and I step away to look at everything in front of me. There are piles of clothes and blankets, diapers, toys, and even a portable crib for Roman to sleep in. Suddenly, the enormity of what has transpired in the past twenty-four hours hits me and I’m suddenly more overwhelmed than I ever imagined I could ever be.
These three men, two of whom I’ve never even met before now, went out of their way to make sure my baby had clothes and a safe place to sleep. And diapers, because God knows how expensive things like that are. Based on the tags, their didn’t spare any expense for him.
Dropping to the couch, I fold over on myself and begin to sob, the emotions from everything finally hitting me, leaving me to feel like I’m drowning in the middle of the desert, no water in sight. Warm arms come around me, and I tuck my face into Cooper’s neck. I can feel vibrations from his chest, but I can’t hear him over the sound of my own cries. I finally slip my arms out from between us and loop them around his back before gently squeezing him.
“It’s okay, Hales.”
His voice is so gentle and soft, the same way he is with Roman, and I can’t help crying even more at how easy it is for him to fall into a protective role over me. I’ve never known anyone like this before except for Jensen, and it both terrifies and comforts me.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize, pulling back from him, but keeping my arms where they are.
“No, don’t be. I’ve thrown so much at you in the last couple hours. I should be the one apologizing,” he says, and I sniffle before wiping my hands over my face.
“You’ve been so kind to me and my baby. You have nothing to apologize for. I’m just so overwhelmed at your generosity, Cooper. For everyone who has helped us out. It means more than I can ever explain.”
“We got you, Hales. We got you both.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, drying my tears as best as possible. I realize now that Cooper is kneeling in front of me and his brothers are no longer standing in the living room.
“Where did your brothers go?” I ask. My voice sounds hoarse and my throat is sore and scratchy from all my crying.
“They took off. Axel has a shift at our bar tonight, but they didn’t want to upset you and make you feel anymore overwhelmed than you already are. They’ll come by on my next off shift I’m sure to officially meet you and Roman.”
“Your bar?” I ask, tilting my head as I try and recollect him ever telling me about it.
Cooper chuckles and stands from the floor before holding a hand out to me. “Oh, we have so much to talk about. Hope you don’t mind that your new roommate is a total chatterbox,” he jokes, and I giggle.
Chatterbox? More like a real-life golden retriever.
“Okay, so the real question is, would you like a shower or a bath?”
I think it over before looking up at him. “I’m too tired for a bath, as weird as that sounds. A shower would be great. I think everything is catching up with me. Plus, I didn’t get any sleep at the hospital.”
Cooper helps me walk back to the bedroom that has now become mine, and I ruffle through the basket of clothes as he goes to get me a couple towels. I find a comfy looking pair of shorts and some faded university tee, before tossing them on the bed. Roman is still sound asleep, and I turn around to find Cooper coming back into the room.
“Would you mind horribly if I used your shower instead?” I ask, glancing back down at Rome. “I don’t want to wake him up while he’s so peaceful.”
“Absolutely.”
I scoot Roman towards the center of the bed, and use the pillows to create a protective barrier before I grab my clothes and follow Cooper across the hall to his bedroom. It’s a large room, with the back wall covered in enormous windows, and a ceiling fan over his king-sized bed.
A king-sized bed with a white sleigh shaped headboard and footboard.
My dream bed. Of course, he has that.
I take in the matching dresser and night stands, and the television mounted on the wall. The walls are done in a creamy off white, with a light gray bead boarding. His room is stunning, and yet elegant and masculine.
“You have good taste,” I quip, and he starts laughing.
“The furniture is all I brought here. This was the only room that had been remodeled prior to me purchasing it.”
“Well, it’s gorgeous.”
He leads me into the bathroom, and that room is also beautiful, done up in white subway tiles and navy-blue cabinetry. For a second, I rethink the whole bath thing, when I see the huge soaking tub under a massive window, but I know that I can maybe get away with sneaking one in while he’s on shift sometime. He doesn’t seem like he would mind in the slightest. Cooper sets the towels down on the counter near the shower, and then reaches under the cabinet for a plastic tub filled with bottles and soaps.
“Feel free to use my stuff, or I have random bottles acquired from Axel when he insisted on stocking my house a couple years ago. I think there’s even some conditioner in here as well. Either way, make yourself at home. Take as long as you need, and I’ll keep an eye out for Roman as well.”
“Thank you,” I say earnestly, and with a simple nod, Cooper backs out of the bathroom and leaves me to it. I take the hottest shower possible, and I can’t help myself. I use everything that was Cooper’s, save for a bottle of conditioner that smells like roses. Once I get dried off and dressed, it dawns on me that I don’t have a hairbrush here, so I scour his bathroom until I find a brush and comb in one of the drawers.
Deciding to not use the brush, I pull the wide toothed comb through my long hair, making sure to watch for knots before placing it back. Peeking in to make sure Roman is still settled, I find Cooper just off the living room in what looks to be his laundry room. I watch in silence as he loads up the washer with all the new baby clothes shuts the lid so carefully, trying to be as quiet as possible.
He hits start, and as the washer starts to fill, he looks up to see me standing there. He pulls the laundry door shut behind him, and I follow him out to the living room where he takes a seat on the couch. Settling next to him, I lean my head back on the couch and close my eyes. But I can’t fall asleep. My mind won’t let me, despite knowing Roman is safe.
Safe. Unlike how close I came to almost losing him last night. Tears well behind my shut eyes, and I can feel exhaustion clinging to my limbs. But the last time I went to sleep, I almost lost everything.
The sound of the television turning on has me opening my eyes, and I watch Cooper scroll through the guide until he settles on a Braves game. I fight like hell against the sleep trying to pull me under, when Cooper pauses the game and turns to look at me.
“You’re exhausted.” It’s not a question, and I shrug before pushing myself to stay alert.
“I’m okay,” I reason.
“Hales, you’ve been through something traumatic. You said you didn’t sleep at the hospital, so by my calculations, you’ve been awake for over twenty-four hours at least.”
“Not quite,” I whisper, and I bite my bottom lip to suppress the wobble of it.
“What is it?” Coopers carefully, and I huff before rolling my head to stare at him.
“The last time I fell asleep, my son almost died.”
“Haley girl…”
“I don’t want to sleep, Coop. I’m afraid I’ll shut my eyes and I’ll lose him,” I say brokenly, and I’m pulled against his solid chest as he leans us both back, kicking his feel up onto the coffee table. Reaching behind him, he pulls down a checkered blanket and pulls it over us.
“You’re safe. Roman is safe. I promise nothing will happen to him with me in the house. I’ll keep you safe, but you need to sleep. You’re dead on your feet.”
“Promise? You promise to keep my baby safe?” I ask, and Cooper kisses my forehead.
“I’ll protect that kid with everything I have. Now sleep, sweet girl. I got you.”
“Rome, come on, dude. You’re gonna wake your momma up, and she needs her rest, buddy.” The sound of Cooper’s voice draws me from a peaceful sleep, and I slowly crack my eyes open. I’m still on the couch, with a pillow now under my head and the same blanket covering me. Through half shut eyes, I see Cooper laying on his side in front of some blow up structure that Rome is currently sitting inside. It’s filled with those plastic pit balls, and my sweet boy is tossing them everywhere he can manage while giggling loudly.
Covering my mouth with my hand, I pull the blanket up over most of my face so I can sneakily watch the two of them while also feigning being asleep. Cooper keeps trying to wrangle all the balls to one location, but he’s never met my child before when he’s got fistfuls of weapons. Cooper lays down on his back and reaches for a ball that rolled away, but Rome takes advantage and begins pelting Cooper in the face. Cooper is sadly at the mercy of my son as he goes all MLB pitcher on this poor man.
My fa?ade is blown almost immediately when I begin snort laughing under the blanket, and both of my guys turn to see me awake. Wait, my guys? No way, Jacobs. Shut that down immediately.
“Mama!” Rome shouts, and he crawls out of his mini ball pit and comes hauling for me. Reaching over the edge of the couch, I lift him in the air and roll to my back, settling him on my lap.
“Hi, bub. Were you being mean to poor Cooper?”
“Poopa.”
Giggling, I try to keep a straight face when both myself and Coop discover he’s learned the full version of his newfound name. “No, baby. It’s Cooper. Coooper.”
“Cooopoop.”
“You’re making it worse, Mama. Knock it off. I’m Pooper March. I can learn to live with it.” Laughing even harder, Pooper drops down onto the couch next to me and tickles Rome’s belly, causing him to shriek with laughter. “Besides, he’ll eventually learn to say it right.”
“You better hope anyway,” I tease, and he feigns hurt.
“Well, now that you’re up, I’m gonna go order us a pizza for dinner. You must be starving, huh?”
“Wait, what? Dinner? I fell asleep at like ten, didn’t I?”
“Yes, ma’am. You did. It’s almost six in the evening, and while I was able to make Rome some macaroni and cheese for lunch, I don’t have anything kid friendly for dinner. We’ll have to go grocery shopping tomorrow.”
With Rome in my lap, I sit up and look at him as I wipe sleep from my eyes. “Geez. You should have woken me up. I didn’t need to sleep all day long.”
“You were wiped, so clearly you needed the rest.”
“Yeah, I guess. Well, would you mind if we got cheese pizza? Rome will only eat that. Unless the pizza place has spaghetti. That’s his favorite.”
Cooper smiles. “I know for a fact that my usual pizza place makes some kickass spaghetti, so I can do that. Anything else you’d like?” he asks.
You.
“No, that should be good. Thank you. If you have any pancake mix and some cinnamon, I’ll make you breakfast in the morning.”
“You know, I think this roomie situation is gonna work out just fine, my friend,” he jokes, and I laugh as he moves into the kitchen. Rome and I sit in silence, before he wiggles to be let down, and moments later I join him to play on the floor.
The idea of how domestic this all is becoming is not lost on me, but I can’t let myself sit and think about that for too long. Cooper is just my friend, and he’s helping us out more than I can ever thank him for.
But we’re just friends. That’s all.
He’d never want to tie himself down to a young single mom and her baby.
No matter how much that baby is beginning to fall in love with him.