Chapter 35
Work was dead and it wasn’t really necessary to have both me and Sophie clocked in. But when I told her she could get out of here and have the rest of the evening off, she refused.
“It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever. Since you’ve been so busy sucking face with your new boyfriend, we haven’t been able to have any kind of girl time outside of work.” Sophie glared at Declan, who was sitting at the bar, trying to pretend he wasn’t checking me out.
She wasn’t wrong. I haven’t had an ounce of down time since I moved back here. And most of my time was spent here at work or at Declan’s house.
Or I guess I should say our house.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, leave me out of this. I’m just an innocent bystander in all of this.” Declan raised his hands in the air, surrendering.
“Well, you may need to get used to sharing your girl with me. Girl time is good for your mental health you know,” Sophie bantered back with a pouty look on her face and crossed arms.
“That’s exactly why I was going to offer for you to come over to our place after work tonight. I can set up a whole girl’s night for you two. Wine, charcuterie boards, whatever you ladies want. I’ll hole up in another room and keep myself busy while you two get in some much-needed girl time. I’m sure Paige has a lot to fill you in on.” Declan leaned back against his bar stool, sipping on his Coors Light oblivious to the fact that he didn’t just offer up the sweetest idea in the world.
“You’d do that?” Tears formed in my eyes at the gesture.
“Anything for you, baby girl. I can even set up and leave the house, go hang with Myles and leave you two with the place to yourselves.” I opened my mouth to respond when Sophie chimed in.
“Wait a minute. Our place ?” Sophie asked, her jaw dropping as she looked between the two of us.
“Like I said, I’m sure you two have plenty to catch up on.” Declan winked with a smug grin on his face.
After Declan came to the rescue and essentially planned a whole girl’s night for me and Sophie, I was able to convince her to clock out and go home. That we would catch up after work with some fine wine, meat and cheese.
When I walked into the house after work, Declan was waiting on the couch with the fireplace lit. I dropped my purse, tore off my coat and headed straight for him. Before he could stand up off the couch and get a word in, I pushed him back down—my body over his as I slammed my lips against his and kissed him like it had been weeks since we last saw each other.
After a long passionate moment, Declan pulled his lips from mine. “Fuck, baby girl, you’re going to get me all worked up. Isn’t Sophie coming over?”
“Yeah, she’s on her way. But I just needed to thank you and show you how much I appreciate you first.”
“I want you to know how much I’d appreciate it if you could greet me like that every time you come home from work. But what are you thanking me for exactly?” He couldn’t be serious.
“Seriously? For setting this whole thing up for me and Sophie tonight. I think it might be the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“Sweeter than breaking your ex-boyfriends’ nose?” Declan teased.
“That was the sexiest, not the sweetest.” He let out a chuckle.
“It’s really not a big deal, baby. As much as I want you all to myself, I want you to have other people in your life that you can confide in. I’m glad you’ve met Sophie; I think she’s the kind of person you’d want in your corner.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips.
“All I ever wanted in life was someone who treats me right, some close girlfriends and to be closer with my family. You’ve made me completely forget that I’ve ever had a life that wasn’t here in Alpine Peak. Because of you, I have all of those things here and I couldn’t imagine ever leaving again. I love you, Declan. So much.” His blue eyes studied mine, looking back and forth as he gripped my waist firmly in his hands.
“I love you too, Paige. But I’ll never take the credit for you bonding with Sophie or growing closer with your family. That was all you. This is your home too. Have whoever you want over. Do anything you would normally do at your house, just join me in bed every night and eat a few meals with me.”
I was in a dark place returning to Alpine Peak. I came back home with zero expectations. But Declan gave me my smile back. It didn’t take much but he turned that darkness into light. I may not have thought I was going anywhere, and I didn’t have it all figured out. But with Declan by my side, I felt more comfortable than ever. Like I finally belonged here.
I belonged here with him.
My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Sophie was here.
“That must be Sophie. I’m going to head out and check on Myles. See how his conversation went with my parents the other day. Text me when I’m in the clear to come home.” He kissed me on the forehead as we stood up.
“You can come home whenever you want. I’ll make sure to get all of the juicy details out in the beginning, so you don’t come home to us talking about how big your dick is.” He shook his head at my joke before opening up the door to let Sophie inside.
Declan threw his coat and boots on so he could slip out the front door as Sophie came in. He slapped my ass before calling out over his shoulder, “Have a fun night, ladies. Oh, and don’t forget to check the freezer!”
I invited Sophie in, and we headed straight for the kitchen to check out everything I completely skipped over when I first came home. I ended up heading straight for Declan, ignoring the food spread he set up for us.
“Holy shit. Who else is joining us?” Sophie asked.
“No one to my knowledge. I guess Declan just wanted to make sure we were well fed,” I said as I took in the kitchen island that was flooded with food. He ordered us a pepperoni pizza that was still hot; it had to have gotten here just moments before I did. A charcuterie board that looked like it came straight out of Laura Cooper’s kitchen, and six bottles of wine. I knew he was taking notes when I noticed the two bottles of pinot grigio, my favorite. There were also two bottles of cabernet and a couple of rosé too. A little bit of everything.
Remembering what Declan said on his way out, I drifted toward the freezer and when I opened it up I was stunned by the perfectly stacked Ben and Jerry’s pints looking back at me. There had to be one in every flavor created.
This man was a fucking saint.
“Damn. Can we clone your boyfriend so I can have one too?” Sophie joked as she went straight for the cabernet.
“I honestly have no idea how I got so lucky. Sometimes I wonder when the ball is going to drop, and then it never does. He just continues to surprise me.” I poured up a glass of wine for myself and when we both had full glasses we made a toast.
“To girl’s night, and new relationships!” Sophie announced as we clinked our glasses together.
With plates full of food and a bottle of wine each, we made our way over to the couch where the warm fire was lit. The perfect setting for a girl’s night.
“Alright… So where do I start?” Sophie and I had so much to catch up on. Even when we had seen each other at work lately, it was super busy, which left very little time for long winded conversations.
“Start with the tea about why you had to miss work the other day. Had to be serious if you were asking me to cover for you.” Sophie took a sip of her wine as she listened.
“You may want to top off your wine for this. It’s a long story…” Sophie got comfortable with her cabernet and a cozy blanket on the couch as I gave her all the gritty details. From the night of Thanksgiving, the conversations with Myles, the meet up with Logan and the end result of him getting hauled off to jail.
Shock was written all over her face as I divulged every detail. “There is so much to unpack here… First of all, Logan killed your dad and tried to pin it on Myles? Who the fuck does that? I am so sorry, girl. This has to be insanely hard for you and your family.” She set her wine down, scooting closer to me when she wrapped her arms around me. She showed me the type of comfort that I needed and didn’t know would feel this good coming from her.
“It was definitely a shock and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around everything that’s gone on in the last few days.”
“Jesus, I can only imagine. If you need more time off from work, please just let me know. You know I have your back,” she offered.
“That means a lot. Thanks, Soph. But I think working and staying busy might actually help. Keeping busy is the way that I’ve seemed to heal lately.”
“I can understand that.” She reached out to grab her wine, taking another sip. “How did your mom and brother take the news?”
“I wanted to tell her in person everything that happened, but after it all went down Declan and I were wiped—running on almost no sleep. I just didn’t have it in me to make a trip over to her house.” I looked down at the golden ring I spun around on my finger, an old graduation gift from my parents. I was surprised it still fit me after all of these years.
“I called her last night when Declan and Myles were having a moment alone to talk. Luckily, she was at home and not at work when I called. Naturally, she was upset and needed time to process it which I could understand—even I’m still processing.”
I reflected back to the phone call with my mom that took place last night. She was silent on the other end of the phone the entire time while I let the word vomit flow. Words continued to fall from my mouth, one incident being explained after the other. I wasn’t even sure if the line was still connected because I had talked so long without a response. While I was fresh out of tears, I could hear the struggle in my mom’s voice when she finally did speak.
Wow. I knew there were still some unanswered questions… but I never would have imagined. You did such a good job, honey; you’ve always had a wonderful gut instinct. Thank you for always listening to it. We will all get through this together, as a family.
“I couldn’t fathom having to go through what you and your family are going through right now. But you’re one of the strongest women I know, Paige, and if anyone can get through this and make it out on the better end, it’s you.” Sophie had a soft look of sincerity painted across her face as she talked with me about everything that had happened recently.
She may just be the closest friend I’d ever had.
“I’m sorry this girl’s night has taken a depressing turn. It was supposed to be all rainbows and unicorns and screw top wine,” I let out a forced laugh, “at least that’s what I had envisioned a girl’s night looking like.”
“Don’t you dare be sorry. Girl’s nights are allowed to be anything you want them to be. And this one is meant to get all of the sad depressing shit out of the way first and then we can get fucked up off cheap wine and talk about boys.” Sophie lifted her glass for another toast. “Cheers to round two of girl’s night! To having girlfriends you can confide in and to boys, because what’s a girl’s night without a little bit of penis to talk about?!” We laughed, clinked our glasses and took a gulp of our drinks.
“Now, speaking of boys—I feel kind of bad with the way I have been judging Myles. He’s had so much going on and I just thought he was being an idiot twenty-one-year-old who drank and partied too much,” Sophie admitted.
“Yeah, I mean, I think we were all guilty of thinking that for a minute…” There was a moment of silence between the two of us as we both got lost in thought. But before we took this topic any deeper, Sophie did what she did best, cracked a joke to lighten the mood.
“Okay, but how fucking hot is it that Declan stuck up for you and beat the shit out of Logan?” She fanned her face with her hand and let out a whistle.
“Oh, I definitely let him know how hot it was the next morning.” I giggled, my mouth full of cheese and crackers.
“Ugh… I’m so jealous of your sex life. It’s been ages since I’ve hooked up with someone,” Sophie pouted.
“Well, I may know a single guy that’s recently cleared his name…” I hinted at Myles trying to gauge her reaction.
“No. hell no. I said I felt bad for judging him. But he is still a player. No way, never gonna go there.” She shook her head side to side. Something seemed off with her response. She was adamant that’s for sure.
“One ‘no’ will suffice, Soph. Something about the other Cooper brother seems to have you a little hot and bothered. But I’ll drop it for now,” I said with a wink as I took another sip.
“Whatever!” Sophie rolled her eyes. “This isn’t about me and my lack of sex life anyways. Tonight is all about you. So, tell me how the hell this all happened. You’re living here now, in this house, for good?”
“I guess I am. It all just kind of happened so quickly. It was like the second I came back to town; Declan wedged his way into my life. Every time we hung out feelings just continued to grow. It was unexpected, but he’s been by my side through everything in the last couple of months.”
“Sooo…” she said eagerly. “You’re moving back here for good, and I get to keep you in my life?!”
“You do. And yes, I’m here for good.” It felt so good to say those words out loud more and more. “I couldn’t imagine leaving all of this behind to go back to Phoenix. There wasn’t anything there for me anyways.”
“I love this for you so fucking much. I call dibs on being the maid of honor at your wedding!” she teased. The thought of Declan and I becoming that serious one day gave me goosebumps. I’d never thought that far ahead with any man before. With Declan I could see it, but I didn’t want to jinx it.
“Pump the breaks. Just because we are in love doesn’t mean we are getting married yet,” I scoffed, not wanting to sound crazy by admitting my thoughts about Declan were about as serious as they could be.
“ Yet?... Love…? Oh. My. God,” Sophie squealed, the alcohol clearly getting to her.
“Oh, yeah… Had I forgotten to mention that we spilled our feelings for each other yesterday? We officially said the L-word.” I blushed behind my glass of wine at the admission.
“Who said I love you first?” She turned her body toward mine with a wide smile on her face, perching her chin on her hand like she was intently listening.
“Actually, I did. It kind of just slipped out while we were fu—having breakfast.” I wasn’t normally so open about my sex life and the bottle of wine I was chugging didn’t help the almost slip up. Sophie was tipsy just like me, but nothing got past her.
“You said ‘I love you’ while you were fucking? Oh my God, now I definitely need more details!” she squeaked.
“No, I said it while we were having breakfast!” I lied as my cheeks burned red.
“Uh-huh. “Breakfast,” she said, winking as she used her fingers to make air quotes.
“Okay fine. You caught me. I couldn’t hold back any longer once he started licking syrup off of my tits and treating me like I was his breakfast.” My hands covered my face when I peeked through the cracks between my fingers and waited for her response. Instead, she stood there with her jaw on the floor, speechless.
When she finally picked her jaw up off the floor, she said, “How unfair, now I’m horny and want someone to be kinky with.” She frowned as she made another meat and cheese sandwich between two crackers—an adult lunchable as I liked to call it.
“Are you on any dating apps?” I asked out of curiosity.
“The apps are trash out here. Everyone already knows everyone. Plus, anyone that is my age I would have gone to high school with anyways. My only chance is to pick up someone who happens to be traveling through and stops at the bar for a drink.”
“Pull up one of the apps. Let’s take a look, just for shits and giggles.” What harm could it do to just take a look? I never fucked with dating apps myself, but I knew they were great for getting a hook up if that’s what you wanted.
Sophie clicked on a black and yellow app she had already downloaded on her phone. A profile was already set up when the application loaded. Immediately the app had choices of men you could swipe left or right on.
“Nope.”
“Not a chance.”
“Not my type.”
“Went to high school with him,” Sophie said as she continuously swiped left on each guy the dating app recommended for her.
“I’m going to need more wine if I’m going to keep swiping and entertaining this bullshit.” She grabbed the bottle of cabernet and poured out just a couple drops before she realized the bottle was empty.
“Well, guess we need to grab the other bottle for you in the kitchen!” I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the kitchen, where all the extra bottles were lined up on the counter.
“If I’m diving into bottle number two then you need to catch up,” she challenged me.
I grabbed the rest of the pinot grigio and dumped it into my glass filling it to the halfway mark. “I’ll drink this one fast and grab my back up bottle and bring it back to the living room.”
With more wine than we should probably be having in one sitting, we stumbled our way back to the couch and giggled over every guy's profile that popped up. The way some of these men described what they were looking for was so cringy.
“This is obviously a hook up app so let’s cut to the chase. Wanna fuck? Message me.”
“Looking for something short-term. Preferably at a motel.”
“I want a woman with personality. Ideally just one though.”
“Gross! What is wrong with these men?” I asked in complete shock at some of the bios I just read. It’s no wonder Sophie hadn’t had any luck.
“Boys. Not men. And I told you, absolute garbage. Plus, I’m pretty sure half of these are fake profiles because I’ve never seen some of these guys before and I know almost everyone in town. Probably a ton of douche bags cheating on their wives seeking some young pussy. What guy that’s over twenty-one years old in this town hasn’t dropped into Peaks before you know?”
Sophie continued to swipe left on each guy that popped up when I glanced over at her phone and recognized a familiar face. “Wait!” I hollered not wanting her to swipe left just yet.
“Let me see your phone,” I asked as she handed it over.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she pleaded as her eyes turned serious.
“Myles is on this dating app?” His picture looked back at me and mischievous thoughts of playing matchmaker ran through my mind.
“I told you. He’s a player. Of course he’s on every dating app that exists,” Sophie scoffed. She sipped her wine while I caught a quick glance of her not paying me much attention. Deciding to play cupid, I swiped right.
“Huh. Was just curious what his bio said. Doesn’t look like he is too active on this app though because it was blank. Just said his name and age.” I handed her back her phone and tried to play off I ever swiped right on him. She would never know unless he decided to swipe right on her as well and then they matched on the app.
DING!
Sophie’s phone rang with a notification. Oops I was in trouble. Blame it on the alcohol, Paige.
“Did you really just swipe right on Myles Cooper from my account?” Her face turned flush. I hoped she wasn’t upset with me, and it was just the wine adding color to her face.
“Oh, shit! Does right mean you want to match with them? I thought that was left!” I tried to cover up the fact that I was totally trying to play matchmaker.
“Paige! Now he’s going to think I want to fuck him like every other girl in town.”
“Just tell him it was a drunken mistake. Tell him you thought he was someone else!”
“Oh, like who? His brother? Oh wait, he’s taken by my best friend.” Best friend? The title caught me off guard. I don’t think I’ve ever really had a best friend before. I always had more friends that were guys and never let too many girls close to me growing up. Usually, girls were so petty and dramatic, and I never wanted anything to do with that.
Something about that title, best friend, had me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. “You think of me as your best friend?” I muttered in delight attempting to change the subject.
“Well, of course… I don't really have any other girlfriends. Acquaintances, sure. My old high school friends all moved away and we kind of just drifted and I never went to college. So just like men, girlfriends are limited in this town. You moved back and I found we just kind of… clicked.” She shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal that she just gave our friendship a title.
With a smile plastered on my face, I took a moment to think back to the last couple of months and everything there was to be grateful for. Some nights were God awful when I was up thinking about my dad and everything that happened, but other nights were full of love. Just like this one. Sitting here in a place I can now call home, waiting for my boyfriend to come home, and having drinks with my new best friend.
Life had a funny way of knowing what was best for me. Just like Declan said on Thanksgiving. With every tragedy, comes a new beginning.
And I was a big fan of this new beginning. I was going to make the most of it. There was no point in dreading all the ‘what ifs’. This was my life now and I needed to fully grasp it and move forward. It was time to start healing completely.
“Does this mean you forgive me for swiping right on Myles for you?”
She gave me the side-eye. “Not a chance.” We both burst out in laughter when my phone dinged with a text from Declan.
Declan: Leaving here in a few to head home. You two need anything?
“Declan wants to know if we need anything, he’s on his way home soon.” Sophie looked down at her wine and back up to me.
“I am a bit tipsy—actually more like drunk from all of this wine. Any chance he can give me a ride home?” she asked skeptically.
“You want to just crash here in the guest room? I can ask Declan to give you a ride if not,” I offered.
“As much as I want to hear you two bumping and grinding all night to the sweet sounds of Marvin Gaye, I think I’d rather sleep off the hangover coming my way in my own bed,” she said jokingly.
“You’re not wrong. I’ll probably jump his bones the second he walks through that door.” I laughed and looked back down at my phone to shoot a quick text back to him.
Me: Any way you can give Soph a ride home? All the wine you left out got put to good use.
Declan: Of course baby, I’ll make sure she gets home safe. See you soon.
“Looks like Declan can give you a ride home. He’s on his way back now.” I put my phone down and began cleaning up our mess the best I could before he got here. I didn’t want him to think moving me in here was a mistake because I was a messy person or something. The least I could do was move everything back into the kitchen from the living room and deal with it all in the morning.
We were in the kitchen putting away the leftover food when the front door opened. Declan walked in, but he wasn’t alone. Myles stood by his side. “Hi, baby girl, how was your girl’s night?” he asked as Sophie and I looked back and forth at each other and then to Myles who stood in the doorway.
“Uh, it was great! Wine. So much wine,” I blabbed drunkenly. Declan walked toward me in the kitchen as I stumbled around with the Tupperware.
He pulled me in close and murmured in my ear. “You seem a bit drunk. It’s cute.” He kissed me just below the ear.
“What’s Myles doing here?” I whispered.
“You said Sophie needed a ride home. I cashed in a favor and Myles is going to get her home safe.” Sophie overheard what he said as she pulled out her phone.
“Oh no, that’s not necessary! I can just get an Uber.” She laughed and avoided eye contact with Myles at all costs.
You could cut the tension with a knife. Maybe it was sexual tension brewing between them? I hoped so.
Myles walked over to Sophie and took her phone away. “Get your shit together and let’s get out of here. It won’t be the end of the world if you have to be in the car with me for ten minutes,” he growled. Sophie looked up at him, but her eyes didn’t quite reach his gaze. She looked nervous around him which was shocking because Sophie was the most confident person I’d ever met.
She strutted toward me and wrapped her arms around me as she mumbled in my ear so only I could hear, “Mr. Grumpy is demanding he take me home. If he mentions anything about how we matched on the dating app, you owe me one.” The tight hug she had me in ended and she pulled away before I could respond.
Not wanting to make it awkward I called out, “See you at work. Text me when you get home!” And just like that, Myles and Sophie were headed for the front door. His hand laid across her lower back as he guided her out and it made me giggle when she refused his help by shaking off his touch like the independent woman that she was.
The door closed as Declan gave me a quizzical look. “What the fuck was all of that about?”
“Let’s just say, I think there is a lot more to come where they are concerned.” His eyebrow raised in confusion.
“Don’t worry about it. Just take me to bed. I want to cuddle and force you to watch another chick flick with me,” I slurred.
“I could get used to you asking me to take you to bed every night, baby girl. But where the movie is concerned, we will be watching How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and I won’t take no for an answer.” My feet left the ground when he picked me up and whisked me away to the bedroom.
“Perfect, one of my favorites.”