21. Chapter 21
Chapter twenty-one
Sutton
“ C ome on, Bella, really? You automatically assumed it was pregnancy, not that you undercooked that chicken or are stressed from your wedding and your new husband refusing to sleep with you.”
It’s the first night in a week that we’re both home at a decent hour and Dillon is nowhere to be found. The plan was to relax, shove some food into our faces, then meet our friends for drinks.
We took over the living room with a plate full of homemade marry-me chicken , made by Cooper, on top of spaghetti straight from the box, boiled by me.
It was a group effort to make dinner. But one of us is clearly more talented than the other, and I have zero complaints about that as I shove my second helping of chicken in my face while Cooper chuckles and shakes his head without taking his eyes off the TV.
“And are we supposed to believe that Mr. Virgin Eddy lasted long enough in bed to not only bruise her up but also destroy the entire bed, feather pillows included? Yeah fucking right.”
Cooper picks up the remote, turns down the volume, and faces me. “Why are we watching this entire damn saga if you hate it so much?”
I rear back and scoff. “I don’t hate it. I freaking love this shit.”
“You’ve literally done nothing but talk crap about it since the moment we turned it on.”
“So?”
He laughs. “It doesn’t sound like you like it in the tiniest.”
“Please, we both know my love language is shit-talking,” I say, snuggling in closer to him. It’s true. If I love something, I poke at it.
Cooper raises an eyebrow. “Oh, so that’s why you’re always picking on me. It’s your way of expressing your love for me.”
My lips thin. “Wrong. It’s due to the fact your face screams ‘make fun of me’ on a daily basis.”
“Sure it does.” He smirks. “Are you ever going to tell me how you ended up engaged to that loser, anyway?”
I groan. “Please don’t make me.”
“Come on.” He nudges my knee with his. “I won’t judge you…”
I look at him skeptically.
“Any more than I already have. I’m just curious how someone who romanticizes a sparkling vampire almost marries a wannabe Tommy Lee.”
“Tommy Lee is a drummer, not a guitarist or lead singer.”
He waves me off. “It still fits.”
“What even made you think of this?”
He gestures to the TV and sits quietly, waiting for me to speak.
I toss my hands up. “Fine. You want the sad, pathetic story?”
“Yes.”
“Dillon was about to turn twenty-six…”
“So?”
I inhale. “So he was going to be kicked off his parents’ insurance.”
He rears back. “Do not tell me you agreed to marry that douche to get him health insurance.”
I shrug. “It felt right at the time.”
“Did it?” he asks softly.
“I don’t know. I felt like marriage was the obvious next step in life.”
“Did he at least get down on one knee?”
I cover my face with a pillow, but Cooper pulls it away.
“Are you trying to embarrass me for being a complete and total idiot? Because don’t worry, I’ve already got you covered on that front.”
He stands from the couch and moves in front of me, crouching until he’s eye to eye with me. “I’m not trying to embarrass you. I promise. I just want to understand why someone as confident, smart, and beautiful as you would ever want him.”
“I can’t explain it. At first, he was fun, and that was the appeal. Then it was toxic, but I craved the excitement of not knowing where our days and nights together would lead. Eventually, that all led to a familiar comfort of sorts. Does that make sense?”
“Kind of,” he consoles.
“Can we change the subject, please?”
“Sure…” He sits back down, pulling me into his side and turning back to the TV just in time to see a certain car drive out of the shot. “Wait, is this movie why you drive a Volvo?” he asks, exasperated.
“Did you not just hear about how safe they are?”
“From a fictional vampire… You bought a car on a fictional vampire’s advice.”
I pat his chest with a bless-your-heart look. “He’s over one hundred years old, Coop. I’m fairly sure he knows a thing or two about cars that we don’t.”
“He isn’t real.”
“He is to me, in my heart.”
Both Viv and Audra are already sitting at the booth near the back of the bar when we arrive. I bolt toward them the moment I see them, leaving Cooper to find Nate and get us drinks.
Sliding into the booth, I grab the drink in front of Viv and down it before grabbing Audra’s and doing the same.
“Whoa there, boozy. Slow down,” Audra scolds.
“Seriously, Sutton, what’s gotten into you,” Vivian chimes in, her brows furrowed in concern.
“You mean besides Cooper?” Audra cackles.
“We made it official,” I squeak.
Both of their jaws drop.
“Official, official?” Viv asks.
I nod. “Do you guys have anything else to drink?”
“Hot damn, it’s about time,” Audra cheers. “But why do you look so deer in headlightsy right now? Shouldn’t you be all filled with love and whatnot?”
“Deer in headlightsy?”
Viv nods in agreement. “She’s right. You have this strange look in your eye like you are about to freeze or run for the hills.”
I sigh. “I’m not gonna run. But—”
“No buts,” Audra proclaims.
“I agree, no buts. You like him. He likes you. You’re already aware you two match on a physical level. So why the flighty eyes?”
I let my head fall to the table. “I don’t know. I guess I thought you guys were going to roast me a bit more for it.”
“So you needed liquid courage to tell us you are in a committed relationship with the man you’ve been banging for the past couple months?”
“Yeah?” I cringe.
“Well shit, either we are doing everything just right as friends or possibly everything wrong,” Audra contemplates, reaching for her empty drink. “I need a refill. Want me to refill yours, Viv?”
Viv shakes her head. “Nate’s getting it for me.”
“You?” she asks, pointing to me.
“Cooper promised to be my bitch tonight, so he is on it.”
“Ugh, I hate you both for reminding me how single I am that I have to get my own damn drinks,” she snarks, stalking off toward the bar.
I turn to Viv. “So.”
“So?”
“You gonna tell me why you’re drinking virgin Shirley Temples tonight, or am I going to have to guess?”
“Maybe I just wanted a booze-free night.”
“Maybe. Or, hear me out, maybe you are—”
“Shhh,” Viv whispers as she slaps her hand over my mouth.
I dart my tongue out to lick her, and she immediately retracts her hand in disgust.
“So?”
She looks down with a sheepish grin. “Yeah.”
“Yeah?” I ask, tears welling in my eyes.
She silently nods.
“Vivy. That’s amazing!” I wrap her in a tight hug. “I take it not everyone knows.”
She pulls out of my death squeeze. “We haven’t told anyone yet.”
I beam. “So I’m the first person to know.”
“Yes.”
“Fuck yes! Wait… Were you planning to tell me first, or am I just too smart to fool?”
“Did I plan on telling you tonight? No. Were you always going to be the first person we told? Yes. Well, you and Cooper, obviously.”
“This is so wild. My best friend, a teen mom.”
“I’m not a teenager, Sut.”
“Shhh, it’s okay, honey. I will make sure he does right by you and marries you.”
“Once again, not a teen, and we are already married.”
“Good thinking. That’s exactly what you should tell people if they ask.”
Vivian laughs, and I shut my mouth as Nate, Audra, and Cooper slide into the booth with us. Cooper hands me my drink before resting his palm on my thigh.
Vivian leans over to whisper in Nate’s ear. He looks up at me with a big grin, and I smile back, overwhelmingly happy for them.
Our night is filled with drinks and laughs. Apparently, the shock of Cooper and I being a couple is minuscule to these three. They all look at us like we are dumb for even announcing it, as if it was obvious to them.
“Do we want to do another round?” Cooper asks the group.
“Nah. I’m out,” Audra says, standing while typing into her phone. “Bel wants to meet up around the block for a round, so this fifth wheel is out.”
With Audra gone, Nate clears his throat. “Okay, apparently, the cat is out of the bag. So we can discuss.”
Cooper and I both turn toward each other. “You knew?” we both say at the same time.
I glare. “I just found out before you sat down. How long have you been sitting on this secret?”
He scoffs, rearing his head back. “Not that I need to explain myself to you, but I just found out when I heard Nate ordering his booze-loving wife a nonalcoholic drink before watching the bartender like a hawk as she made it.”
“Damn it,” Viv exclaims. “That drink gave away everything.”
“Maybe try not only drinking booze around us and we won’t be able to guess instantly next time,” I joke.
Vivian shrugs. “I make no promises.”
“Okay, so back to the important stuff. How far along are you? Because wasn’t it just a couple weeks ago that we watched you drinking margaritas like a fish?”
“Yeah, so about that…”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. You knew then? But how? I watched you drink.”
“But did you?” Nate asks.
Both Cooper and I nod. “Yeah, we both did.”
“You remember how I made multiple pitchers of margaritas?”
“Like you usually do?”
“Well, I made the first one with zero alcohol before anybody showed up. And it just so happened to be the one I had all night.”
“But how could you be sure? They weren’t labeled.”
“The handle was a different color, but also, I put so much tequila in the others that there was no way I could accidentally drink it anyway.”
“You sneaky bitch.”
“When did you guys find out?”
Nate is practically glowing as he says, “The week before the barbecue.”
“We are pretty sure we conceived on the honeymoon you gave us, Sutton.”
My shoulders soften. “I’m the reason this perfect angel is going to be born?”
“Um, I wouldn’t go that far,” Cooper says before sipping on his beer. “I think them being horn dogs had something more to do with it than you.”
“And Cherry getting her IUD removed months ago probably had something to do with it,” Nate offers.
“Nope. It was the romantic setting my fleeing the altar provided you both with.” I raise my glass. “To the baby growing inside Viv.”
“To the baby,” we all cheer, clinking our glasses together.
Nate and Viv start talking about when they plan to tell their families as Cooper leans down to whisper in my ear, “Fleeing the altar?”
“Yes, I was practically a runaway bride.”
“Um, from what I recall, you went through the entire sham of a ceremony to that creep before dumping him.”
There’s a bite to his tone that has me concerned.
“Cooper, you can’t seriously still be annoyed.”
“Why the hell not? You went through with the ceremony, Sut, and now the guy won’t leave you—us—alone. Of course I’m annoyed. I’m actually fucking livid.”
I sigh because he’s right to be annoyed. Hell, I’m annoyed by it as well. “Can we talk about this at home?”
“Look at them, waiting to have a fight till they get home,” Vivian interrupts.
“Practically married already,” Nate teases.
“And with that, I think I should be getting this grandpa home. It’s well past his bedtime, and you know how he gets when the sun goes down.”
Cooper grumbles as he slides out of the booth to stand. “Knock it off with the elderly jokes. Someone is going to think you’re ageist.”
“How can I be ageist if my boyfriend is an elderly man?” I climb out of the booth to stand beside him.
Frustration contorts his face as he runs his fingers through his hair. “Why am I into this?”
“’Cause I am irresistible, baby. Don’t fight it.” I smile up at him.
Cooper grabs my hand and waves with his other at our friends. “Okay, see you later, Mom and Dad.”
“Love you,” I call out as Cooper drags me away.