Chapter Fifteen – Slow Dance #2
“It’s not like that,” Cooper and I both said simultaneously.
Lydia laughed. It was light and musical. Endearing. Just like she was, and it made that ache for all the things I’d never had surge even stronger.
Luca came jogging back into the room, and Akela sat up and whined.
“Good boy,” Luca said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out another of the all-natural treats Teddy had convinced me to buy from the online store he and his wife ran. “Lie down.”
The dog did just as Luca told him.
Lydia deftly and efficiently placed tarts on brightly colored plates and set them on wicker placemats at each spot around the table. Dale held a chair for Lydia, and she smiled up at her husband before sitting as he tucked her in.
Cooper offered a wry smile and held a chair out for me across from his mother. I wasn’t sure I’d ever had a man do that—certainly not in his own home. Not casually. Not like it was second nature.
All the emotions from the day hit me hard and fast all over again.
Weariness struck, and along with it the headache I’d expected after the panic attack. It had held itself off for longer than normal.
As Cooper sat down next to me, he glanced over, and his brows scrunched together. “You okay?”
Three more sets of eyes swept in my direction.
I forced a smile. “Sure. Just a bit of a headache.”
I purposefully took a bite of the tart, and the conversation shifted away from me. Dale and Lydia asked Luca about his candy haul, and he jumped up to grab the bag he’d left by the door, coming back with something he’d dug out of it.
“The curio shop was giving out these mini insect drones instead of candy. Pretty cool, right?”
Dale took it, examined it, and handed it back.
“Pretty expensive treat to hand out. Wonder where Abe is getting all his money these days.” He gave Cooper a look, something passing between them that I didn’t quite understand, but it took the frown that Cooper had sent toward me and leveled it up another notch.
“No shop talk,” Lydia insisted. Dale mimed zipping his lips. “Luca, you’ll need to invite Wysteria and Nahomy to the great birthday bash.”
Luca’s face broke into a smile. “Okay.”
Lydia looked at me. “And you’ll have to come as well, Andie.”
“Mom,” Cooper said, a clear warning to stop.
She waved him off. “Dale and I share a birthday, except he’s a year older than I am.
When he turned seventy last year, he insisted he didn’t want a big to-do made of it, but there was no way I was turning seventy without a great big party.
Life is too short not to celebrate major milestones.
” She looked at her husband, smile wavering.
“Especially after our scare this year. So, in three weeks, we’re having a knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred party.
No presents are allowed, because what do we need that we don’t already have?
We simply want to enjoy family and friends, some fabulous food, and some rocking good music. ”
“Thank you…for the invitation.” I felt the tension radiating from Cooper. “You said in three weeks? We have a huge Hollywood wedding that weekend, so I’ll likely be pretty busy at the ranch.”
Lydia hmphed. “Well, didn’t you just hire that new woman to help you? What’s her name? Misty Lane? Seems to me you should be able to take a few hours off to enjoy yourself.”
My fork stopped halfway to my mouth, amazed as always by how fast news traveled in towns like Swift Rivers.
The small community I’d grown up in had been the opposite.
It seemed like everyone went out of their way to avoid knowing what was going on with their neighbors.
Or maybe that was just my experience as the sheriff’s kid, who no one wanted to know the truth about.
“This will be Misty’s first celebrity wedding since coming on board, and the actress has been a handful. I wouldn’t want to abandon her to the wolves.”
“Well, our party is on Friday night. That’s just the rehearsal dinner, right? I’m sure you can figure out a way to swing it. Luca and Cooper will want you there.”
My face turned to fire, but Luca didn’t seem to notice. “You need to come, and bring Akela, Andie.”
“Everyone stop,” Cooper said. “You’ve issued the invite, Mom. Now back off.”
His defense of me only seemed to make Lydia happier. Her smile widened. “Of course, Cooper. Whatever you’d like.”
But she winked at me.
Dale deliberately turned the talk to the DJ Lydia was trying to hire for the party, and the entire conversation sort of faded to background noise as my brain whirled with impossibilities.
What would it be like to be a part of this family? To have Cooper want me to come to his parents’ birthday, and for Luca to want me there for more than my dog?
Danger signs roared in my head.
I took another bite of the tart I usually loved, and it turned to ash in my mouth. I pushed back from my chair.
“Thank you for having me. This headache is really starting to hit, so I’m just going to take off.”
I took my plate to the sink as Lydia cooed her concern while her husband and grandson expressed their disappointment at my leaving. But not Cooper. He just watched me with knowing eyes.
“Come, Akela,” I said. The dog sat up and bounded toward me, tail wagging fiercely.
“It was a pleasure visiting with you, Andie. I look forward to seeing you again,” Lydia called out to me from the table. “You take care of yourself.”
Cooper stood and walked me to the door. I grabbed Akela’s leash from the side table and hooked it on. He probably didn’t need it when we were just walking right next door, but it was a good habit, and I didn’t have the energy to chase after him if he did decide to run.
Out on the porch, the jack-o-lanterns were still flickering with artificial candles, but the night had turned quiet. The crickets and birds had all settled down, while the nocturnal animals hadn’t quite stirred awake yet.
“Thank you for letting me hand out candy with you. I would never have expected to need so much, but I’ll know for next year.”
“You’re welcome,” he said.
“Good night, Cooper.”
I was halfway down his path when his words stopped me.
“I’d like you to come.”
I turned back. His face was nothing more than a shadow, almost like it had been the night of Maisey’s wedding when he’d startled me in the parking lot.
“What?”
“I’d like you to come to the great birthday bash,” he repeated.
My heart leaped and thudded. My throat bobbed. The ache in my chest that had been there since witnessing them all together on Main Street expanded.
“Why?”
He stepped off the porch, closing the distance I’d put between us, and the flare of attraction reemerged, zipping and zapping along my veins.
“Why?” he repeated. “You’re a beautiful woman, Andie. I’m sure you’ve had many men ask you out.”
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”
He reached and pulled my finger away from my chin. I hadn’t even realized I was running it along the scar there. To my surprise, he replaced it with his own, dragging his thumb along the length of the old wound.
My breath evaporated. Heat pooled in my core. Desire burned hot and fast and heady.
“You’re probably right,” he said softly, and disappointment curled through me only to vanish when he continued. “It’s not exactly the best place for a first date, but I’m not sure I can swing another one before then. So, we’ll have to make do.”
“Cooper…” That single word held a rush of conflicting emotions.
“Don’t say no,” he insisted. “You feel this…” He slowly, seductively slid his hand so it was cupping my face as his thumb shifted to glide over my bottom lip. “Just like I do. This all-consuming need… It’s not smart for us to heed it, but then again, maybe ignoring it isn’t either.”
The thrill of his voice as it deepened was just another lure, and it took every single inch of willpower I had left to push his hand away and step back.
“I… I need to think about it.”
I tugged on Akela’s leash and made it to the curb before he said, “I’ll be in touch, Andie. Don’t you dare ghost me again.”
And it was that command, with its promise of reprisal, that sent me scurrying as fast as I could home. I couldn’t afford to accept his dare any more than I could accept the date. I’d been down this road before. Down the road, felt the pain, and lived with the scars.
And I couldn’t afford to do it again.
I wouldn’t survive a second time.