Chapter 7 #2
“Because you were looking for me?”
Cooper raised a brow, the corner of his lips twitching. Duh.
“I’m under orders,” he said. “From my mom, to invite the exciting new stranger in town to dinner. And Benji, to invite his new favorite adult to dinner. Dad didn’t say anything but I think he’d probably like to meet you, too.
He pretends he’s above town gossip, but he always knows everything first. So I’m here to beg you to come so I don’t disappoint everyone I love at once. ”
I blinked at him, taking a second to process all of that.
“You’re inviting me to dinner?”
Cooper shrugged. “You’re probably used to written invitations, but—”
“No!” I interrupted. God, was that what he thought of me?
I suppose I’d thought Otter Bay was alien to me. Logically, I was just as alien to it.
“No, uh. I’m used to being summoned by text, actually,” I said, smiling wryly as I thought of one of Avery’s 7pm. Harland’s. Wear that blue shirt I gave you, texts. “Are you going to give me a dress code?”
Cooper laughed. “Come naked if you want,” he said. “It’d give my dad something to talk about.”
A rush of heat rose up the back of my neck at the idea of Cooper asking to see me naked. Which he hadn’t actually done, he’d been making a joke, but…
I wanted him to see me.
I hadn’t wanted anyone to ever see me naked again. I hadn’t wanted to see myself naked, hadn’t wanted to look at the long, ugly scar down my thigh—I’d been going out of my way to avoid looking in the mirror on the way in and out of the shower.
Cooper was kinder than me, though. Maybe he could look at me and be kind.
“You are also allowed to say no,” Cooper continued when it took me too long to answer. “It’ll break Benji’s heart, but—”
“Are you making your famous spaghetti sauce?” I interrupted, remembering Benji’s enthusiasm for it.
“Uh.” Cooper blinked at me. “I can?”
“Then I’d love to,” I said, surprised to hear the warmth in my own voice.
I would love that. A normal family dinner?
I hadn’t sat down to one of those in… a decade.
Longer, maybe. Not even at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
The company had been my family. Right up until they weren’t. “No need for emotional blackmail.”
Cooper raised his hands in defense and made a shocked expression, as though that wasn’t exactly what he’d been about to do.
Despite everything, I smiled at him. I didn’t mean to. My face did it all by itself.
“Tonight? Around six?” Cooper asked. “I know that’s early, it’s just that Benji—”
I held up a hand to stop him, the smile on my face widening. Cooper was sweet.
That was the thing. Attractive men, I’d been surrounded by all my life. You didn’t get far in ballet if you weren’t beautiful. Cooper wasn’t ballet-beautiful, but he was handsome in a boy-next-door way and I had not stopped thinking about the eyeful I’d gotten of him the other day.
The sweetness was new, though. I’d never even imagined a man being sweet to me like he was. It was a surprise to like it, but I did like it.
“Six is perfect. Red or white?”
Cooper raised an eyebrow.
“Wine,” I clarified.
Cooper’s other eyebrow joined the first one. “Oh. Uh. We don’t really… do that,” he said, scratching the back of his neck.
My mother would kill me if she ever found out I’d gone to dinner at someone’s house without bringing something for my host. Not that she would ever find out—not that she’d known anything about my life in years, or cared to—but still.
I’d been raised… right was probably a stretch, but with one or two good ideas.
“All I want is your company,” Cooper said. “We want, I mean.”
Was he blushing? The tips of his ears had flushed a deeper color. He was blushing.
Adorable.
“Well, for what it’s worth, you can have it.”
Cooper beamed at me like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery.
God, this man. How had no one snapped him up and put a ring on him? He was too good to be true. His ex-boyfriend was an idiot.
“Six o’clock, then,” Cooper said, picking himself up off the floor. “You okay, before I go?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. I’d take a painkiller and lie down and do some stretching in a minute. Cooper had seen more than I’d wanted him to already, I couldn’t bring myself to show him more just now.
Although, as I watched him leave the studio, I couldn’t imagine him being cruel about it.
Avery: wish I was there to do your makeup. we could make this a sure thing
Heat rose to my cheeks as I checked my messages one last time before heading out the door.
Felix: it’s a family dinner.
Avery: how do you think babies are made?
My lips twitched into a smile. The nervous knot in my stomach eased off a little. Avery always had a way of dragging me out of my head, even when they didn’t know I needed it.
Well, that probably wasn’t accurate. They knew by now that I almost always needed it.
Felix: don’t pretend to me that you know any better than I do.
Object as I might, I was wearing an Avery-approved outfit we’d spent forty-five minutes debating over the details of.
Jeans that fitted like compression tights, Avery’s favorite shirt, lavender with a faint stripe to the weave.
Two buttons undone, they’d insisted—more would look desperate, less was too formal.
Two was the perfect balance—let him have a little peek at what you’ve got but leave him wanting more.
So the answer to the question they’d asked when I called them for advice—do you want him to fuck you or not?—wasn’t or not, apparently.
Avery: what I’m saying is, have a little faith in yourself. And me.
Felix: Wish you were here.
I hesitated over the send button, then tapped it harder than I needed to with a surge of love and loneliness. After the accident, everyone else in my life had fallen away one by one. Except Avery.
Which was probably why I couldn’t stop thinking about Cooper. He hadn’t been there at the time, but I already had the feeling he would’ve stuck around. He’d seen me at my worst earlier today and still invited me to dinner.
It wasn’t romantic. He was just being friendly. All the same…
Avery: wish you were *here*, babe. But if you have to be there, I wish you great dick and a chance to feel good about yourself. You deserve it.
Felix: love you, too
I tucked my phone in my pocket as I approached the Big Dick’s sign, juggling the enormous bunch of flowers I’d picked up just as the florist was closing for the night.
I’d forgotten to ask Cooper where he lived, but Amelia had been happy to tell me the Richards house was tucked behind the shop.
I guessed he was used to everyone knowing that.
Small towns. I’d almost forgotten what they were like.
It took me a minute to figure out where the front door of the house was.
After a brief search, I found it tucked around the corner, off the main street.
Complete with adorable little porch, the light above it on and an inviting glow in the front windows.
The faint sound of laughter—Benji’s, and a deeper voice that I thought must have been Cooper’s dad—spilled out into the street.
I hesitated, listening to the sound. Whatever else was going on for them—and they’d lost a lot more than I had—they were laughing now. They were happy in there.
My feet took me right up to the door without consulting my brain, and the next thing I knew my finger was on the doorbell.
“I got it!” Cooper’s voice called from inside. “Whoa, hey, no breaking the land speed record indoors, kiddo,” he added, softer. I could hear the smile in his voice, imagine the look in his eyes as spoke to Benji, so full of love it made my stomach hurt.
I filled my lungs like I would have before going on stage to hold my chest full of butterflies still as the door handle turned.
Cooper appeared in the doorway. He was wearing a plaid shirt that could easily have been older than I was, faded and soft-looking, rolled up to his elbows.
Under it was a t-shirt that had probably started the day a clean white, but was now covered in red splatters—the famous spaghetti sauce, I assumed—along with streaks of blue, yellow, and pink.
He looked down at them when I did, breaking into a sheepish smile that had no right to be as attractive as it was. “We were fingerpainting,” he said. “Everything. You, uh. You look nice.”
I was overdressed. Of course I was. This was dinner with someone’s family and I was wearing a silk blend button-down Avery had given me for Christmas last year because they said the color brought out my eyes.
“Thank you.”
Cooper looked at me for another two heartbeats. I couldn’t have sworn to it, but I thought his eyes lingered on the hollow of my throat, just visible between the gap in my shirt where it was open at the top.
Thank you, Avery.
“Uh. Sorry,” he finally spoke up again, stepping back from the door. “Come in, welcome, thank you for coming. Are those for…?”
“Your mother,” I said.
Cooper lit up, eyes sparkling in the warm lighting of the front hall. “Good choice. She’s absolutely the one you have to win over.”
“Felix!” Benji squealed, tearing into the hall and skidding to a stop in front of me, looking up with the same big brown eyes as his uncle.
I’d only seen him in class, where he was on his best behavior.
Right now, he had a streak of blue paint on his cheek and a speck of pink in one of his curls, he was wearing a plaid shirt that must have belonged to Cooper, trailing behind him like a robe, and a grin so big he’d run out of face to spread it over. “You’re here!”
He must have been able to get away with anything, if he was always this cute.
“What makes you say that?” I teased, smiling back at him. I didn’t know what exactly I’d done to earn his affection, but I wanted to keep doing it. He was a good kid, well-behaved and dedicated in class, but aside from that, I liked him. He was easy to like.
He liked me, too. I might’ve wondered about that with an adult, but kids never hid their feelings—at least, not well. Benji liked me.