Chapter 7 #2
It’s fine. I can do this. It doesn’t have to be weird.
I’ll just play it cool and let him set the tone.
I grab a beer out of the nearest cooler after my quick, internal pep talk and make my way over to him totally casually.
Wait, it would probably be more casual if I stopped to talk to someone else first, right?
Showing up and going straight for Cooper doesn’t really fit into the “play it cool” plan.
I stumble slightly, but it’s too late anyway.
He’s seen me coming and he’s still watching me; it’ll look weirder now if I try to pretend like I wasn’t coming over to talk to him.
“Pull up some sand.” He nods at the empty patch of beach right next to him.
I hesitate for just a second, considering sitting on the driftwood instead. It’s not like the sand can be avoided though. Whether I sit right in it or not, I’m going to be showering it out of every crevice when I go home. I give in to the inevitable and plop down next to him.
“Good morning,” I say.
He snorts, but keeps strumming his guitar in tune with the music that’s playing through the speakers, unbothered by my teasing. “It’s a lot easier to figure out the time of day once the sun is down.”
“Not always.” I twist the cap off my beer bottle and take a sip.
“There are places in Northern Sweden, Alaska, Norway, and a few other countries that get twenty-four hours of darkness for weeks or months in the winter, and then the opposite in the summer. Plus, much more mundanely, it could be early morning and still be dark.”
He shakes his head, still grinning. “I’d be so damn mixed up if I lived somewhere like that. I’d never know when I’m supposed to sleep or what time I can order pancakes without getting weird looks.”
I lean in a little closer and drop my voice like I’m going to tell him a secret.
“They make these things called watches…”
Cooper chuckles. “Time is a construct. Aren’t you the one who always told me that?”
A warm feeling spreads through my chest. He remembers that? I nod.
“It is. I did.”
“Plus, I always lose watches,” he adds.
“You know, your phone has a clock on it too.”
“Yeah, that’s around here somewhere.” He glances around like he expects it to just appear out of nowhere.
“Oh, hey, Lyr, I think I found your phone.” One of the guys I don’t recognize jogs over and hands him a cell phone that’s covered in sand and has a big crack down the middle of the screen.
Huh, go figure. I guess it worked.
“Thanks, man.” He takes it and makes a move to shove it into his pocket. It misses and thunks down into the sand next to him, and he either doesn’t notice or just doesn’t care.
I bite back another laugh as the guy jogs away again.
“Who was that?” I ask. “I thought I’d met everyone.”
“Oh, that was Ten. He used to live here, then he moved, but now I think he’s back. He’s a doctor. His boyfriend, Bambi, is too.”
I see who he means. The gorgeous tattooed guy who just gave Cooper his phone scoops up a petite blond with big doe eyes and spins him around.
That must be Bambi. His laughter echoes over the music and makes my chest ache just a little.
Not that I begrudge him happiness. I don’t even know him, and I certainly don’t want his man…
although he isn’t hard on the eyes. I just can’t remember the last time I felt so happy that I laughed like that.
My stomach swoops again, and actually, I do remember the last time I laughed.
It was about a month ago when I tripped over Cooper’s shoes and we fell to the floor together.
We laughed before we tore each other’s clothes off.
My cock stiffens eagerly at the memory, and I take another long gulp of my beer to try to cool the feeling heating my gut.
“Okay, prepare me for the tourist season. What should I expect?” I ask.
He stops strumming his guitar and sets it on his other side, stretching his arms across the wood behind us and sinking a little deeper into the sand to get comfortable.
“Non-stop parties, the bar will be packed from open to close, naked dudes everywhere you look. It’s wild and a lot of fun,” he sums up, his fingertips brushing against the back of my shoulder in a way that could be intentional or might be an accident.
He eyes me with a smirk. “You’re going to have guys tripping over their own dicks to spend a night with you. ”
Heat creeps into my cheeks and I laugh. I know people find me…
visually appealing. The problem is, as soon as I open my mouth, it’s obvious that I’m a bit of an oddball.
That’s never stopped me from getting laid, but I guess it’s made me a lot pickier.
There’s something gross to me about fucking someone who would have bullied me in high school for being the “weird science nerd.”
I wrinkle my nose and his fingertips brush my shoulder again.
That touch felt a lot more intentional, but maybe he doesn’t realize he’s doing it.
Cooper isn’t like me, he doesn’t analyze and plan every move he makes and every word out of his mouth.
It’s refreshing, but it also makes understanding him a lot harder.
“Is that how you spend the summer? Fucking a different guy every night until Labor Day?” That sounds playful and non-judgmental, right? Just a couple of friends bantering about sex, no simmering jealousy or desperate need for validation here.
“Some years.” It’s the most Cooper answer I can imagine, and I can’t even be annoyed at him about it because he really doesn’t owe me any kind of explanation, even if I really fucking want one.
“And other years?” Ugh, I need to shut up.
“Other years I just enjoy the beach and let the summer drift right by.”
I refuse to let myself ask him which kind of year he thinks this one will be.
I don’t want to picture him with a string of eager men in his bed, especially if I’m going to be too busy at the bar to do anything about it.
Even if I wasn’t going to be busy and likely exhausted from bartending all summer, what exactly would I do about it?
Tell him that I’ve spent eight years wondering if I made the wrong decision?
Crawl into his bed every night so he never has a chance to look at anyone else?
Okay, yeah, that might not be the worst idea, but it’s probably not a good one either.
I can’t go back in time and change things, and I can’t expect Cooper to feel the same way I do after all these years.
If he wants to spend the summer hooking up with dozens of guys, I don’t have any right to stop him.
We still have tonight though. One more long, humid night before I’m the last thing on his mind.
It’s the opposite of my “play it cool” plan, but fuck it.
I finish off my beer in a few gulps and then lean in again, bringing my lips to his ear.
I can feel eyes on us, but no one says anything.
I’m sure my hand on his thigh and my lips brushing his earlobe are the least scandalous things any of them have ever seen at one of their parties.
They probably won’t even remember by tomorrow morning, and I’ll do my best not to either.
I’m not here to invade Cooper’s life, after all.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” I whisper.
“Anywhere in particular?” There’s a mixture of amusement and interest in his voice, like he’ll be up for whatever I suggest. I never doubted it.
“Somewhere… quiet? Is there a private beach nearby?”
“Yeah, I know a place.” He stands up, grabs his guitar, and straps it across his back. I pick up his phone out of the sand and stuff it into my pocket, then I take the hand he’s offering and let him haul me to my feet.