Chapter 29
Indigo
The sun was melting into the Gulf, turning the sky shades of vibrant orange and pink.
We had been on the beach for hours and were deep into our second bottle of tequila, the two of us sprawled on a big blanket with sand stuck to our skin and music playing from someone’s speaker down the shore.
Cooly was sitting farther down, watching the waves on some contemplative shit. The crowd had thinned out.
Diamond nudged me. “So… be honest, Indigo. You like Cooly? You want him?”
I nearly choked on the shot I was taking. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and laughed. “No. I find him attractive. But I find a lot of men attractive. He’s a friend.”
I looked over at him. He was shirtless, wet from the water, with sand clinging to his hair. He looked like the cover of a street-lit novel. A small, reckless part of me regretted never fucking him once.
Diamond grinned, leaning in closer. “He told me the whole story when he came looking for you. How you ran away from your husband, ended up in New York…” She glanced over at Cooly, who was watching us quietly from a distance.
“Cooly’s cool, Indigo. Patient. Loyal. Why not start over with him?
You can come back to New York. I miss my friend. ”
I stared out at the crashing waves, the tequila making my thoughts slow and heavy.
“It’s not that easy, Diamond. Malachai and I…
we've got history. A lot of ugly, messy, bloody history. I was content in New York doing what I was doing, but now that I’m back, it just seems like some spiteful shit I did. ”
Diamond nodded like she understood, but I caught the quick look she shot Cooly. She wasn’t being obvious about it, but I saw it. Had he told her to ask me?
“History is just that—history,” she said softly, squeezing my knee.
Cooly stood up and came over. “Let me grab us some food before y’all get too drunk to eat.”
He walked off toward the boardwalk. Diamond waited until he was well out of earshot, then leaned in again. “Just think about it, girl. A man who crossed state lines looking for you, who’s willing to wait… that’s rare.”
“Did Cooly ask you to say something?”
“No,” she spit out fast as hell, and I knew instantly she was lying.
I took another long drink, letting the burn settle in my chest. “I hear you,” I said, not bothering to call her out for pushing me toward him.
About twenty minutes later, Cooly came back carrying a paper tray of fresh shrimp, still steaming and smelling like garlic and lemon. He dropped down right beside me on the blanket, crowding my space. He picked up one of the large shrimp, peeled it carefully, and held it to my lips.
“Open,” he said quietly, his voice a low rumble.
I hesitated for half a second, then let him feed me. His fingers brushed against my bottom lip, his eyes locked on mine the entire time. The gesture felt way too intimate.
Out of my periphery, I could see Diamond smiling like she’d just won something. “See what I mean? Y’all cute as shit,” she whispered low enough for only me to hear.
I swallowed and wiped my mouth, trying to ignore the sudden heat crawling up my neck. The alcohol was making me reckless.
“So… when are you going back to New York?”
Cooly’s eyebrows lifted slightly, a slow smile tugging at his lips. “Why? Trying to get rid of me already?”
I let out a tipsy laugh. “Yes, actually. Because you’re trying to get me in trouble.”
He leaned in closer, his voice low and smooth, his eyes entirely locked on mine. “But I’m good trouble, Midnight. Really fucking good.”
I shook my head. “Trouble that ends in death can’t be good. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen if you keep this up.”
The smile on his face didn’t fade. If anything, it got wider. He genuinely thought this was a game.
I knew it wasn’t.
So why was I still playing with him?
Diamond watched us like she was enjoying a private show, saying absolutely nothing.
“Some things are worth dying for,” he said quietly. “You’re one of them.”
The waves crashed loudly behind us, but the air between us felt suddenly heavier than the humid Florida night.
I took another long drink from the bottle, hoping the burn would drown out the thrill his words sent through me.
I realized was digging myself deep as fuck into a hole by not setting boundaries for Cooly, but something in me just didn’t want to.