Chapter 2 #2
Cooper was refreshing. He hadn’t tried to be anything other than himself, and even though he’d scared the shit out of her by trying to save the car, she gave him credit for the effort.
His brother was one of the world’s richest men and could buy the Porsche a thousand times over.
But Cooper had still risked his own life to save the car, and she had to give him big points for that, even if she’d died a thousand deaths waiting for the firefighters to arrive.
Speaking of firefighters, she hadn’t mentioned to Jordan that she was going out with Cooper. Mason would tell her, as they told each other everything. They were so crazy in love as to be nauseating.
“Oh, shut up,” she said as she found her cell in her purse. “You’re just jealous.”
Watching Jordan fall madly in love with Mason had been jarring, to say the least. After Jordan’s disastrous marriage to rapper Zane ended in dramatic fashion, Gigi had expected her best friend to stay single for a while.
But then she’d met Mason when he saved her life, and Jordan had been a goner for him almost from the get-go.
Gigi would never understand why people wanted to shackle themselves to one person for the rest of their lives.
Monogamy made no sense to her. She’d never seen it work long term.
Her ex-mother was married for the third time, her ex-father for the fourth, and from what she heard from people at home, both marriages were failing.
She’d stopped bothering to get to know her various stepparents, because the marriages never lasted. Hell, she barely heard from the parents who’d adopted her and then forgot about her until she took them to court to emancipate when she was sixteen.
Jordan and her twin sister, Nikki, had been through one of the worst custody battles Gigi had ever witnessed after their parents split.
Yet they were madly in love with Mason Johns and Riley McCarthy.
Love was in the air on Gansett Island. Riley’s brother, Finn, had fallen hard for Chloe Dennis, and even Riley and Finn’s dad, Kevin, had found new love with Chelsea after his thirty-year marriage ended.
Why did people put themselves through it? Gigi would never understand that, even if she had to admit that she’d never seen Jordan happier than she was with Mason. They each glowed when the other was around, and Jordan smiled all the time, even when Mason wasn’t there.
She composed a text to Jordan. Before you hear it from Mason, I went out with Cooper James (Jared’s brother) tonight.
Jordan wrote right back, probably because Mason was on duty, and she was home alone.
If Mason was off, it could take twelve hours for Jordan to respond to a text.
That was another remarkable change in her always-connected friend since the freakishly tall fire chief had come into her life. Where’d you see Mason?
Of course Jordan would rather know where she’d seen Mason than what Gigi was doing with Cooper. Ran into a little problem at the bluffs, and the firefighters came.
OMG! You didn’t fall off, did you?
No, but Jared’s Porsche almost did. Cooper somehow stopped it from going over. Very scary.
HOLY SHIT, G. Are you ok?
I’m fine, but Coop is banged up. We’re at the clinic. Or, well, he is. I’m sitting outside wondering what I’m doing here.
The phone rang, and Gigi took the call from Jordan. “Hey.”
“What the hell, G?”
“I know! I have no idea what’s happening.”
“Tell me the whole thing. How’d you end up going out with him?”
“I was swimming in Jared’s pool, and Cooper came out. We started talking, he asked me to go out, and I thought he was cute, so I said yes.”
“You said yes? You never say yes the first time a guy asks you out.”
That was true. Before she agreed to go out with any guy, she usually made them ask three or four times to make sure they were legit.
Cooper had asked only once. “He seemed nice, and I’m bored with you and your sister being all domesticated.
It was something to do.” As she said those words, she felt disloyal to Cooper, which was weird.
She’d known him for twelve hours. Why would she feel disloyal to him?
It was those damned wildflowers.
“Is Cooper okay?” Jordan asked.
“I think so. He hurt his ribs and his face and probably his hands and arms.”
“That must’ve been really scary.”
“It was crazy. I kept screaming at him to let go, but he wouldn’t.
There was this rotted log, and he had his feet hooked behind the log as he held on to the car for dear life.
I don’t even know how it all happened. One minute, we were messing around taking sunset pictures with the car, and the next minute, he was lunging and bleeding. ”
“Yikes. Sounds like a close call.”
“It was. My hands are still shaking, and I have no idea why I’m sitting outside the clinic worrying about a guy I barely know.”
“If Cooper is anything like Jared, I bet he’s hot.”
“He’s not ugly.”
Jordan cracked up. “I’m still trying to get past you saying yes to him the first time he asked.”
“Don’t make a thing of it. I told you. I’m bored, sweaty and sick of this power failure and heat wave.”
“Right.”
If there was one person she could never lie to, it was Jordan, who knew her better than anyone else on earth.
“Maybe he’s your one.”
“Oh my God. Will you listen to yourself? My one? I have no interest in having a one, and you know that.”
“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” Jordan said in that sexy, suggestive tone that had come along after she started getting busy with Mason.
“Not happening, so you can quit with all your blissed-out bullshit. I went out with Cooper because it was something to do. That’s it.”
“So, you’re not going inside to check on him?”
“I’ll do that because I’m not a monster, but then I’m going home.”
“I want you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“Give this guy a chance. If he’s anything like his brother, he’s a really good guy.”
“He’s an infant. I think he’s barely twenty-five.”
“So what?”
“Come on, J. Get real, will you? This is me we’re talking about. You know how I am.”
“I know how you’ve been. That doesn’t mean things can’t change.”
“Things can only change when you want them to. I’m happy just the way I am.”
“Are you, though?”
Gigi laughed. “You’re killing me with this. You’re all freshly fucked twenty-four seven these days, so you think everyone wants what you have.”
“First of all, it’s not twenty-four seven.”
“Okay, twenty-three six, then.”
“Very funny. You’ll have to forgive me if I want my best friend to know what it’s like to be in love.”
“I’m good. Thanks, though.”
“How can you know that when you’ve never gone there?”
“I know it because I’ve seen where going there gets people, and I’m not interested.”
“You think Mason is going to break my heart, or Riley is going to break Nikki’s?”
“I haven’t given that much thought, to be honest. They both seem like nice guys, and I’m happy for you two.
I honestly am. But that lifestyle isn’t for me.
Why are we even having this conversation?
I went out on a date. Big whoop. People do that all the time.
Dates are something to do when you’re sick of doing nothing.
They don’t necessarily lead to happily ever after. ”
“They can.”
Exasperated, Gigi said, “Just because you’ve been bitten by the love bug doesn’t mean I want to be.
That’s the last thing I want. I like my life just the way it is, thank you very much.
I’ve got to run and check on Cooper and get home.
I’ve got client work to do.” Somehow, she’d managed to keep up with her law practice and the needs of most of her LA clients while marooned on Gansett Island for the summer.
“Text me later and let me know how he is.”
“I will.”
Gigi ended the call with a feeling of relief that she’d shut down Jordan’s nonsense. Soon enough, she’d be back in LA where she belonged, and her summer on Gansett would be a distant memory. Couldn’t happen soon enough for her.