Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
COOPER
My roommates took off to catch a new action movie with Elliot. I stayed back when Chase innocently told me she wasn’t going.
She’s not going because it’s Monday and Sutton has another date with Zach.
I tried to catch her before she left, fully intending to tell her not to go. No one was home when I stopped by, so I left the vase outside their door.
That was three hours ago.
If anyone peeked in through the kitchen window, they’d think I’m tunneling myself into the laminate with my pacing.
I can’t stop. I tried sitting on the couch, but my knee wouldn’t stop bouncing.
Even making a bowl of popcorn and turning on a movie was a complete fail.
Sweet and salty pieces litter the carpet.
It’s been this way since everyone left.
The doorbell rings, louder than her favorite movie I’m punishing myself with playing low in the background. I ignore it.
I hear a key in the lock, and rush to the front window to see who it is—Jaxon moved the hook-up-key this morning, texting our group chat with Elliot and Sutton the new location. Elliot is with them now, and Sutton is occupied…
Peeling back the blinds, I can’t see anyone from this angle. The darkness masking both of us.
In desperate need for some WD-40, the door creeks open.
“Cooper?”
I’m frozen.
She closes the door. “Cooper, are you here?”
I’m still frozen. Move, Cooper.
Sutton scoff-laughs in amusement at the TV, rotating her body around the room. She doesn’t see me, and heads to the kitchen.
“Carmichael, I know you’re here.”
Sutton.
My Sutton. My brain doesn’t even correct me, reminding me that she’s never been mine—not like that.
“I guess I’ll go lie in your bed naked or raid your underwear drawer. I know that’s where you keep your diary.”
Finally, my feet move. I stand in front of her, keeping my distance, barely. Barefoot, and a pair of Levi’s that need retired, they hang loose on my hips. No shirt, I discarded that after my sixty-third lap in the kitchen.
Itching to touch her, I shove my hands in my pockets. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
Sutton’s eyes do all the talking, that’s how I know—just in time—to pull my hands from my jeans. Soft hands are thrown around my neck as she throws herself into my arms. Mouth sealed to mine. I catch her with one hand around her back, the other under her thighs hauling her closer, flush against me.
I walk us up against a wall, move a hand to cradle her head as we hit it. Run my fingers through her curls, kissing her deeper. Sutton’s explorative. Frantic, desperate hands in my hair, clawing at my back, grasping my biceps, slipped into my back pockets as I kiss her back just as needy.
I keep her pinned to the wall, leaning back to look at her. Thumbs rub over her cheeks, pressing into them as if I can feel and count each freckle. Twenty-seven on her left check, and I lost count on the other.
“Sutton.” I breathe, maybe pant, a sigh of disbelief. “What are you doing here?” Breathe, again. “Zach? Your date?”
“Date?” Her hazel eyes shimmer green. “We traded notes for a classes he missed Friday and today because of a pre-season games. If you would have answered my calls, or let me explain, you would have known that.” I open my mouth to speak, but the words die on my tongue.
“You would have also known I told him that we can only be friends. There’s someone else that I like leaving me flowers, knowing all my secrets, making me laugh. ”
I press a light kiss to her lips. “Who is that?”
Sutton leans further into my touch. “You.” She says it as if she’s relinquishing power, giving me the keys her heart.
It doesn’t take much for a smile to work its way onto my face, pressing my dimple in. Or for the remaining disappointment and doubt around Sutton and I to fade away.
“Sutton Elizabeth Davis. You like me,” I tease, emphasizing the words playfully. “Tell me.”
“I have a speech of things I want to—”
“They can wait. Tell me this.”
Sutton rolls her eyes at me—her signature one just for me. “Why? So your ego suffocates both of us?”
I shake my head no, giving her a quick peck. “Haven’t I already told you, I need to hear you say it.”
“Your words of affirmation love language is going to be insufferable, isn’t it?” I shrug playfully, scraping my teeth alongside her jaw and whisper in her ear before pulling back. “Don’t make me say it.”
“Now, I really want you to.”
“Fine. I like you, Cooper Carmichael.”
“Was that too hard?”
Sutton looks annoyed. She exhales through her nose, all dragon-like. “No,” she relents. “But you could say something back besides taunting me. I was trying to be all cute and romantic showing up here.”
I reach forward to tuck a strand of auburn hair behind her ear.
“Very romantic, but you aren’t cute. You’re beautiful, Sutton.
Always have been, and always will be to me.
I like you, too, by the way.” My hand trails down her jaw.
“Have for a really long time,” I say quietly, not sure if she heard me.
Not sure if I want her to have heard me. “And I should have told you sooner.”
“I’m here now.” She steals a kiss. “Guess I have some catching up to do.”
“No you don’t.” This is the part in her books where the boy tells her he’s loved her enough for the both of them, and maybe I have.
I could tell her that, but I don’t want her feeling like she’s behind with us, because she isn’t.
We are exactly where we are supposed to be, and I tell her so.
“Buuuuuttttt…I can think of some other ways we can make up for it.”