12. Cooper
W as this my best idea? No. Was it my worst? I was about to find out.
If it was, then it was worth it just to see Madeline looking like this. Cleaning away in leggings and a T-shirt, she gave off pretty girl-next-door vibes. I liked it. It was cute. Here, seeing her confident smile—even if it hadn’t initially been directed at me—and those painted-on jeans with that lavender sweater I first saw her in? It was like a lightning bolt to the chest. Tiny blips and zings of desire coursed through me. When she looked over at me and her pretty lips parted, her round cheek bones flushing and that crooked smile almost perking up, I knew it was going to be worth it.
I looked down at the menu, pretending as though I could focus on reading it when I was fighting the urge to stare at the woman sitting beside me. Or trying not to look at my best friend, who was diagonal from me. The one blatantly glaring at me from above his own menu.
Too late. I’d already licked the plate.
“Hey…Coop.” Olive’s greeting was more of a question than a hello.
“Hey, little Olive Branch.” I looked up from my menu at her, watching as she pulled her lips in to fight a smile. “How’s baby Finn?” I glanced at her swollen belly. I still remembered how they’d told me. Finn said he had a surprise for me. I was hoping he was going to tell me that I could have my favorite sunglasses back, the ones he stole months ago. But my World’s Best Uncle shirt was pretty great too.
“Still baking.”
“Glad to hear it. Do you guys want appetizers? I’m thinking bacon cheese fries.”
A server with tight blond curls in a dark blue sweater approached us with a notepad. “Are we all ready to order?”
“I’m sorry.” The man beside me, who looked like he still split his phone bill with his parents and had a dirty microwave at home, ignored our server and spoke directly at me. “Who are you?”
I stuck my right hand out to him, but I didn’t look up from my menu. “Finn and Olive’s best friend.”
The guy watched my hand for a beat, and the server stared at us, mumbling, “I’ll…give you guys a minute to decide” before slowly backing away from the table.
Eventually, Calvin reached up and shook my hand warily.
On my other side, I felt an elbow nudge my ribs. I turned from my menu to glance at Madeline. She looked up at me, those big brown eyes wide and her brows ducked down in confusion. She wore more makeup than she had the other times I’d seen her, and I loved that I could still see those scattered freckles beneath it. I smiled at her and dipped my chin. “Evening, Madeline.”
She looked up at me, her nose flaring. I’d never seen angry Madeline. Didn’t know that she existed, as much as she smiled.
Glancing behind me, she checked on her little date before looking right back at me and mouthing What are you doing here?
I shrugged and mouthed I had to check out your new boyfriend. I pointed my thumb to the far too young man beside me.
She shook her head, facing her lap, but I didn’t miss the way her smile pulled when she did it. Even irritated Madeline smiled.
Eventually our server—now a redhead with a short bob and a pink I love wings sweatshirt—came around to take our orders. When Caleb beside me started asking about vegan options, I turned back to Madeline and saw her looking up at me.
“Hi.” I smiled.
“Hello, Coop.” She smiled back, a little timid. The same smile she’d given me when she said no to my offer.
“Have a good day?”
“Mostly.”
“Good. Mini Coop and Half-Pint have a good day too?”
Her smile deepened at that, her eyes lighting up too. “Yeah, they did.”
“Good.” I turned back to the menu and ordered my own food.
Stacking all our menus together, I handed them to the redhead and took a deep breath, extending my chest. “So, Colter—”
“Colton.”
“Yes, that’s what I said.” I stirred the straw in my drink. “Are you good with kids?”
He hesitated. “I think so?”
“How good?”
“Uh…I don’t know.”
I pulled my straw out, sucking the Coke off the end and letting it hang from my fingers like one of those long cigarette holders from the fifties. “So you have little experience babysitting, let’s say, a nine-year-old and a two-year-old?”
“Oh, jeez.” Finn groaned across from us as Olive giggled.
“Not exactly.”
I stuck my straw back into my drink and stirred some more, Godfather style. “So do you feel you are qualified to be a dad?”
A nerve pinched in my side. It was actually Madeline’s nails digging into me. I still stared at the guy next to me, waiting for a reply.
Cameron looked to Olive and Finn, as if he needed help to defend himself, before turning back my way with a lifted brow.
He glanced between Madeline and me. “Are you her brother or something?”
“Oh you wish I was her brother.”
“All right.” A set of hands clapped once beside me. “Cooper, let’s go outside.” Madeline set her fingers on the table and began to stand up.
Olive sighed across from her. “I’m getting déjà vu.”
“I wasn’t that bad, was I?” Finn asked.
“You were worse,” Olive and I said in sync.
“I think I’m just gonna…go…” Coleman stood, grabbed his keys, and slowly backed away from the table, leaving his almost full beer sitting there.
“What just happened?” Madeline asked, settling back down in her seat and dropping her hands to her lap.
My arms crossed as I leaned back in my chair. “I just saved my friend from a terrible decision.”
“I-I honestly do not know what to even say right now.”
“I came on behalf of Mini Coop.” My chin ducked. “He would want me to do background checks.”
“Charlie?” She shook her head a little. Finn’s and Olive’s heads bounced back and forth between us like they were watching a tennis match. Or like they were dogs following a fish swimming from one side of the bowl to the other. “You came here on behalf of Charlie?”
“Yes. He needs a proper step-uncle. I don’t trust just anyone near him.”
“You’ve met him three times.”
“We agreed we’re best friends now.”
“Oh my word.” Her hands lifted to her hair, and a chuckle, possibly a nervous one or a pissed one—I hadn’t quite been able to read those yet—fell out of her mouth. “You two are absurd.”
“If Mini Coop can’t be here to meet your future husband, then I will stand in his place.”
“Future husband?” she squeaked. “I can’t even date right now.”
“That’s what I thought you said, but here we are. On a double date.”
“Is that what this is?” She gasped a laugh, this one sounding much more real and a lot less confused or distant.
“Yes, I am Colon’s stand-in now.”
“Colton.”
“Sure.”
Across from us, Finn draped an arm around his wife. “Ah, just like it was yesterday, huh, little grinch?”
Her head fell to his shoulder, and she let out a wistful sigh. “I kind of miss it.”
Madeline laughed beside me, and I felt this giant ball of light bouncing around my chest, playing pinball inside me. It felt good, knowing I’d done right by my tiny friend. Felt even better knowing I was going to spend the rest of this evening not having to witness Colin sneak glances down Madeline’s sweater.