Chapter 20
Cooper
“Come on, Naomi!”
“I’m coming! I made Grandma Dixie something and I want to give it to her,” she yells from her room.
I have no idea what she’s talking about, but I give her a minute and glance at my phone again. I was hoping for a text or maybe even a call from Mae, but she’s been silent, and I don’t know how to take it. Everyone texts these days, but she might not be a texter.
But who isn’t? I should message her, see what she’s up to. A part of me wanted to invite her to family dinner, but I felt like that might be pushing the envelope a little too far, too fast. She’s not my wife … I mean, she could be. Whoa, pump the brakes there, Hayes.
The point is, she’s not my girlfriend yet, so I should go a little slower. Plus, I want to be absolutely sure about her before I allow her around Naomi for more than buying flowers.
When we get to the house, everyone is already here, including Gracie and Sterling.
“Uncle Ledgy!” Naomi yells and runs right into Ledger. He grins, picking her up.
“Shoes, Naomi!” I yell pulling my boots off and hanging my hat next to all the others on the hooks on the wall.
“Coop, want a beer?” Fletcher calls from the kitchen.
“Please,” I say loudly, sitting on the couch that’s right off the kitchen.
This is one of my favorite times of the week.
Naomi can be around all our family, and we can all relax together.
Sometimes we watch a movie, play a board game, or some days it’s a simple dinner.
We sit and talk to each other until it’s time for everyone to get home because we have early starts the next day.
In my younger years, it also consisted of Fletcher and me getting into trouble, June and Gracie involving themselves, and Ledger not sure what to do because he was too busy trying to keep us from breaking the law.
He was always meant to be a Sheriff that’s for sure.
I hear the girls laugh and glance up, expecting to see June and Gracie, but to my absolute delight, I see Mae.
As her eyes meet mine, I swear they light up. I grin and stand, but then Naomi comes running into the living room, going for her corner where Aunt Dixie has her table and chairs with her coloring book and toys stacked in a bin.
I look between them and stuck isn’t the right word, but the desire to gather Mae into my arms and kiss her breathless is strong. Yet my hard and fast rule keeps me from doing exactly that.
I clear my throat. “Princess, shoes, please.” I remind Naomi.
She grumbles and takes them off, setting them next to my boots. When Naomi goes back to her corner, pulling out her coloring supplies, I focus on Mae.
“Hi,” I say a bit breathless, and annoyingly nervous.
“Hey,” she says, and glances at Naomi with a soft smile on her face.
“June invited me. I hope that’s okay,” she says, shifting on her feet.
June scoffs as she throws an arm around Mae’s shoulders. “Everyone is welcome at the Hayes house, right, Gracie?” June asks.
“Mhm,” Gracie sings while she’s eating chips and dip.
“It's good to see you,” I say under my breath to Mae.
“I need a snack,” June says, spinning on her heel back to the kitchen.
“It’s good to see you too,” Mae says.
“So, uh, you met Fletcher and his wife, Tatum?” I ask her, fumbling for words.
She nods and takes a sip of her water. “They’re really nice. I remember them from the Wooden Cowboy, but we didn’t get to talk.”
I run my hand through my hair and glance at Naomi. She’s in her own world, working on something.
“Can I show you something?” I ask her.
She makes a face. “Um, sure.”
My hands tingle as I lead the way down the hall to my old room I shared with Fletcher.
When I moved here as a teen, we had to share since his room was the biggest compared to Ledger’s.
And Sterling was usually sharing with Ledger on and off.
Now it’s a guest room with one bed instead of two twins, and a few of our old things on shelves like sports trophies and our diplomas from high school.
“This is, uh, me and Fletcher’s old room,” I say, gesturing as Mae steps in.
She stops past the threshold and stoops down to look at a framed picture on the dresser of me, Fletcher, Ledger, and Sterling in our football gear after we won a game.
She smiles. I grab her wrist, gently pulling her into the room, closing the door, before I back her up against it.
Her lips part, eyes widen, and she clutches the glass of water between us.
Mae’s gaze is locked onto mine, and my heart is beating out of my chest. Something about this feels forbidden. Naomi could come looking for me at any second. But I’m dying to kiss her.
I take the glass from her hands and set it on the dresser.
“Is this okay?” I ask her.
She bites her lower lip. “You probably should have asked me before you closed the door, but yes,” she says as if she’s struggling to breathe right.
I chuckle and slip my hand behind her neck, tugging her to my mouth. And it’s like I found my oasis. Sliding my hand into her hair, the curls tangle around my fingers and she hums in my mouth. I can feel the vibration of it through my chest, as if it dug a hole and made its home there.
Mae’s hands come to my chest and push me back.
Her chest heaves, and she drags a finger over her lower lip while keeping one hand on my chest.
“Are you sure we should be doing this? Your whole family is out there and we’re acting like teenagers sneaking around,” she says.
I chuckle and take a step in pushing her further back into the door. It moves with the weight of both of us.
“You look beautiful.”
Her cheeks somehow get rosier as I stare at her olive green dress with a bow on the side. The hem stops right above her knee and looks like it wraps around itself. It V’s in the front, and the little sleeves puff on her shoulders.
“It’s just a dress,” she says, looking down at herself.
“You’re right, it is, but you make it look incredible.”
Mae snorts and shakes her head, her curly hair shifts with the movement, and I grab a corkscrew, winding it around my finger before letting it go.
“You’re either a total playboy and know all the right things to say, or you’re … really charming and this is all a figment of my imagination.”
I chuckle and lean in, pecking her lips. “Does that feel like an illusion?”
“No. No it does not,” she says wistfully.
I smile and take her hands, hoping what I’m about to say doesn’t offend her. But I have to do it.
“I wanted to tell you I don’t bring women around Naomi. I try to be really careful with that, and since you’re here, and we’re us. I don’t want to confuse her. Things are a little complicated, and I do it to protect her.”
Mae tilts her head, studying me. “Is it because her mother is in the picture?” she asks.
“No, she’s not,” I answer quickly.
Mae rolls her lips over her teeth as if she’s trying to decide if she should say something.
“You can be straight with me. If this is too much, tell me now. I understand my life is not a normal situation.”
“No, that’s not it. I understand. It’s okay. You don’t have to worry about that, but if I’m in the picture, how does that affect Naomi’s mother?” she asks.
I puff out a breath. “That’s the complicated part, and I’ll be honest, I’m not ready to lay that out there. But it’s not because I don’t—” I cut myself off. Those words are far too serious, too intense for barely knowing each other.
“It’s because her mother is not in the picture that I want to be careful with women who are not directly related to me,” I hurry out.
Mae smiles. “I respect that. It’s okay, I can keep my hands to myself.”
I chuckle and place her hands on my shoulders. “Well, you don’t have to right now. You can put them wherever you want.”
She smiles and leans into me. “Thank you for telling me,” she says.
I kiss her long and hard, and perhaps a little too passionately.
Her eyes are glazed as she looks up at me.
“Thank you for understanding.”
She dips her chin and stares at me.
“We should probably get back out there,” I whisper.
Mae nods again, and I laugh this time. “Have I rendered you speechless? I don’t think this bodes well for us.”
Her hands tug on the back of my neck, pulling me down to her short height. “You scare me,” she whispers.
I frown and start to ask why, then I hear Naomi call for me.
I groan and kiss Mae on the forehead before handing her water back.
With one hand she smooths out her dress and hair, and I open the door for her to go first.
When I round the corner, Naomi calls for me, and I fully focus on the drawing she made and the math worksheet she decided to do all on her own.
But the whole time I sit in the little chair next to Naomi, I can’t help but sneak peeks at Mae.
Aunt Dixie says dinner is ready, and we all pile into the dining room, big enough to hold twenty people at the giant farmhouse table.
I get Naomi set up in her place, and her plate filled before I get my own.
June and Gracie frame in Mae, while Sterling sits next to June. Fletcher, Tatum, and Ledger sit on our side. Aunt Dixie and Uncle Mason sit at either end of the long table. Gracie is directly in front of me, and Mae is across from Naomi.
While we eat, I keep trying to be subtle about it, but I doubt I am, as I admire her from across the table. She and Gracie are talking, and I’m staring like a total creep.
“Who is that?” Naomi asks, pointing at Mae.
I push her hand down. “We don’t point at people, Naomi.”
She shrugs.
“This is my friend, Mae,” Gracie says and glances at me.
I dip my chin once.
“I’m pretty sure you met her at the flower shop,” Gracie says.
Naomi’s eyes light up with recognition. “You gave me the rose.”
“I did. Did you put it in water when you got home?” she asks Naomi.
Naomi nods up and down. “I put it next to my bed so I could wake up to see it every morning.”
“Oh wonderful, I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“My Grandma Dixie and Grandma Lilah liked the flowers too,” Naomi says.
“We really did, Mae, thank you,” Aunt Dixie says from down the table.