Chapter Fourteen
Aubrey spent the afternoon getting ready with all the girls, so she’s catching a ride over with them.
I was a little disappointed, but she was having fun, so I wasn’t going to selfishly caveman-style insist that she come with me.
Instead, I’m sitting at a table in Rebels with my brothers, listening to them giving each other shit about something or other while I wait for Aubrey to walk through the door.
I feel like I’m in high school again, which is par for the course with her, unfortunately. Waiting for my crush to come to the party.
“Look at this sap over here, looking at the door for his girl.” Hunter jokes.
“I’m sorry but weren’t you just in his position?” Wyatt sips his beer, but stares at Hunter.
“Whatever, dipshit. Can we focus on the fact that Cooper is dating?”
“Please don’t,” I plead.
“Baby Cooper is ready to be a man. Do we need to have the birds and bees talk?” Wyatt asks.
“Seriously? I’ve been plenty successful in that department. I’m good. Just focus on your own.” I nod over to Tiff who’s been sitting at the bar staring over here for the last ten minutes.
“One fucking time. I fuck a local, one fucking time and it haunts me everyday.” Wyatt chugs his beer now.
Tiff tries to use us to make Wyatt jealous, but it doesn’t work, he’s appreciative that we take the attention from him. If only she’d realize that it will never happen again and move on.
“That’s all it takes man. One time.” Roman adds in, his surprise daughter, my niece, I’m sure is at the forefront of his mind.
When the door finally opens and I see all the girls walk in, my breath catches in my throat at the sight of just one.
Aubrey looks stunning in a pair of jeans and a basic tee that she somehow makes look luxurious. If I could will her to transport right to me, I would. Instead I settle for watching as she saunters up to the table we’re at. Her eyes dart around the room, like she’s looking for someone or something.
“Hey.” She smiles at me as she comes up to take the seat conveniently left empty next to me.
“Hey. You look stunning.”
“It’s just jeans and a tee.” Her cheeks redden with embarrassment at my compliment.
“I don’t care what it is. You’re stunning regardless.” I pull her to me, holding her close by her ass cheek with my arm around her.
“Everyone can see us,” she whispers.
“I’m sorry.” I pull back, knowing she’s uncomfortable with what I assume is all the attention on us.
Her eyes are still darting around, and she’s fidgeting with her clothes and hands.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. Sure. It’s all… fine.” She tugs at her top once again, but I continue to stare. I know she’s lying to me. “Oh fine, it’s the first time I’ve been out in a crowd since… since… we can talk about it later. It’s just the first time I’ve been in a crowded space since Jack.”
“Do you want to leave? We don’t have to be here.”
“No. I don’t want to let the fear take over. I just want to be happy.”
I eye her suspiciously, I wish I had any clue what she was talking about. But before I can ask her again, Evelyn drops a round of shots at the table.
“Drink up, bitches!” The girls all clink their shot glasses together, including Aubrey who has a smile plastered on her face now. I just can’t tell if it’s real or fake.
“Oh, my God! Cooper Keaton!” Tiff pushes Aubrey practically off her chair and flounces into my lap.
Her boobs push right up into my face as she situates herself on my lap and hugs me, somehow at the same time.
My brain is frozen in shock at her boldness and touching me.
Mom always taught me not to hit a woman, but that’s all that’s coming to mind.
Over her shoulder I mouth help me to Aubrey, or anyone really.
Aubrey’s face is showing a range of emotions right now.
It started with her wide eyes taking in the scene that quickly unfolded in front of her.
Then I watched as the annoyance set in and she looked around to the other girls trying to figure out if I was two timing her.
Then the anger. Her narrowed eyes, and balled fists came first. Then her hand on Tiff’s shoulder pulling her off me.
“Excuse you!” Tiff says, whipping her head around to Aubrey.
“No, I’m sorry, you’re confused here. Excuse the actual fuck out of you. Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Tiff looks her up and down. “Oh honey, I’m the regular around here. You’re the tourist-one-night-stand trying to get with any of these men, and honestly I can’t blame you, but it’s not going to happen.”
If I didn’t know how sweet Aubrey was, I’d be a little terrified by the smile that spreads as Tiff talks.
“Oh you’re cute, babes. I don’t know if you’re new around here, but I’m not. And if you don’t get your body off my boyfriend, I’m going to be happy to show you how to do so myself.”
If it’s possible, her eyes are twinkling at the thought of putting her hands on her. Tiff lets out a chuckle, and before anyone can figure out that Aubrey is moving, Tiff is knocked off my lap and flat on her back on the floor.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tiff sputters.
“I gave you a warning.” Aubrey steps over her and takes up residence on my leg, keeping her gaze locked on Tiff. “It’s not my fault you don’t know how to listen.”
The rest of us are sitting in stunned silence, trying to reconcile the girl we know with this girl in front of us right now. Tiff struggles to get up, until Emma reaches out and pulls her off the floor.
“Bye, Tiff! So nice to see you,” Emma says in a sickly sweet voice.
She storms off, trying to straighten out her dress, and probably lick her wounds.
As soon as she’s out of sight, we all turn to Aubrey who slaps her hand over her mouth.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I don’t know what came over me.”
“Damn girl, if I’d known you had that in you I would have asked you to come help me out with her months ago!” Wyatt holds out his hand for a high-five.
“No! Gosh! That was so mean. I’m not like that. I mean I was like that, but not anymore!”
I wrap my arms around her middle, holding her close. Whispering in her ear, I say, “You called me your boyfriend.”
“That’s what you got out of all that?” She chuckles.
“It’s the only part that mattered to me, but I am glad to know you can handle yourself.” I kiss her cheek and then she’s stolen from me.
The girls pull her out to the dance floor and she’s lost in the crowd.
“Hot damn. Think she’ll leave me alone now? There’s none of you left to be a buffer.” Wyatt rolls his eyes.
“Depends. Did your dumb ass learn your lesson to keep it in your pants?” Wyatt glares at Roman’s comment but doesn’t answer.
“It’s been in my pants too long. Maybe I should go find him a friend for the night.” He chugs his beer and takes off into the throngs of people on the dance floor.
“That fucker won’t learn.” I laugh.
“Never.” They all echo.
After a few too many rounds of beer and shots, Aubrey is collapsed on my lap, fading from all the dancing she’s done with the girls tonight.
“My feet are going to fall off,” she whines.
“I believe it. Wanna go home?”
She rests her forehead in the crook of my neck. “I don’t want the night to end.” She kisses her way up my neck.
“We can go back to my place if you want?”
“Mmhmm. I want that. Very much.” Now her hand is running up the back of my neck into my hair.
“Are you sure? Is this a decision being made on alcohol or you really want this?”
“I didn’t have any alcohol in me when I put on what I got underneath these clothes. I want you, Cooper. All of you.” Her words give me an instant hard on that I know is digging into her ass. “I see you like that idea.”
“More than you know, gorgeous.” I lift up, taking out my wallet and throwing money on the table. “Let’s go.”
I scoop her up and carry her out to my truck without saying goodbye to anyone. But we don’t miss the girls calling out to her and telling her to “get it.”
After depositing her in the passenger seat, I run over to my side. Ready to floor it back to the inn.
“It’s weird to not have Lily again. This is the second time I’ve been without her,” she says quietly, staring out the window.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m having a hard time reconciling Lily’s sweet mom with the woman who ripped Tiff off my lap tonight.” I chuckle recalling the scene in my mind. “Both are equally as hot.”
“I can’t believe I did that. I wasn’t always so sweet.
There’s a reason I got mixed up with Jack.
But the day I got pregnant, I knew I wanted to be better.
Then I met Aggie, and I strived to be just like her.
She was my role model. So I became the best mom I could be for Lily.
I wish I could say the same for Jack.” She reaches over to rest her hand on my leg.
“I’m sorry he was like that. You and Lily didn’t deserve that.” She gives me a self-deprecating laugh in response.
“It’s fine, honestly, I feel like it’s the karma I deserve. I was a mean girl. And I got what I wanted, when I wanted it. Until I didn’t. I learned real quick how cruel life could be. The only bright light I had at the end was my best friend Sophia. I miss her.”
“You don’t deserve anything but the best.”
She looks over at me, smiling in the moonlight streaming through the windows as I park outside my cabin. “I think I found it.”
Leaning over the center console, I meet her, our lips meshing together until we’re both panting and trying to reach for each other.
I have to pull away from her if I want more of her, so I hesitantly peel myself away. But I don’t waste a second running around the truck to pull her out. Her legs wrap around my waist and her lips trail feather light kisses down my neck as I struggle to get the door unlocked and opened.
My fingers are itching to explore her body, to see what’s underneath her tee. I spin our bodies once we get inside, slamming her back into the door and returning the trail of kisses down her neck. Her head lulls back against the door as she moans out her pleasure.
“Tell me you’re sure about this, about us. I don’t want a fling. I’m all in for you, Aubrey.”