by Cindi Madsen
Everything progressed nicely from there, all those get-to-know-you blanks I felt like we skipped slowly getting filled in. It wasn’t quite as smooth or entertaining as the conversations Cooper and I had, but because of our history and becoming even closer friends the past few weeks, naturally that would happen, so I wasn’t sure why my brain even decided to bring it up.
Especially since I already knew we had a good time together, just like I knew Cooper and I didn’t feel the same about a lot of things. Like how there were fun activities not involving rowing or the lake, and how necessary it was to train “all out, 100 percent of the time.” We definitely had a different outlook on grades and school in general…oh, and prom—that was a big one. He thought it was just some silly dance that required too much time and effort, and I still couldn’t believe he didn’t even want to go.
His loss, because it’s going to be amazing.
If I stop getting distracted by random thoughts and focus on whatever Mick’s saying now so I can ensure I have the perfect date, that is.
By the time the party started winding down, Mick and I were clicking rather well, enough so that I almost brought up prom. Just straight-up asked if he had a date already, and if not, would he go with me.
But then the raven-haired beauty came to say good-bye, her body language speaking of either a past she and Mick had or a future she hoped they’d have, and I felt like I needed a little more time to show him how awesome I was before I asked him to spend one of the most important, memorable nights of high school as my date.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cooper
The last person I wanted to see first thing Monday morning was Pecker, but as my shitty luck would have it, there he stood.
Clearly he wanted to talk to me, which made me want to slow my pace even more. “Hey, Callihan,” he said.
“Hey,” I said, dragging out the word. Hopefully he got the message that this situation was odd, and I’d rather he get it over with or go away. Preferably option two.
He glanced around and took a step closer. “I wanted to ask you a question about Kate.”
Every muscle coiled tight; my breath froze in my lungs. “What about her?” While I tried to cover the tension in my body, my voice came out sharp.
His forehead crinkled up. “Wait. You and she aren’t a thing, are you? I asked her.”
Would it make a difference? The temptation to tell him to stay away from her was strong, but he was who she wanted. Claiming her would only make her a bigger challenge as far as he was concerned anyway. “We’re friends.”
“I’ve always thought she was pretty, but I thought she was one of those serious, all about the rules girls, so I kept my distance. But I still can’t quite figure her out. You guys ever…mess around?”
The pencil in my hand snapped and I gritted my teeth. “You’re asking about my sex life? What? The cable not working at your house, Pecker?”
He clenched his jaw. “Never mind. Jeez, I forgot what a prick you could be.”
Well, I hadn’t forgotten what a prick he could be.
But then I thought about Kate and what she wanted, and I was trying not to screw up her plans, even as all my instincts told me to. “She’s smart, so everyone thinks she’s serious, but there’s a big difference.” As I said it, I realized how true it was. I’d never laughed the way I did with her. She wouldn’t even let me be too serious—she pushed me to slow down and have fun.
Before I got distracted with thoughts of all the fun we’d had, and that afternoon we’d ended up in the lake, I charged on. “She’s funny and sweet, and she’s one of the best people I know. It’s none of my business what you two do, just like it’s none of yours what she and I do.”
Was I really going to add the rest? Seal the deal with the act we’d set up and then get the hell out of this crazy scheme? At this point, it might be the only way I ever slept again—I definitely hadn’t this past weekend, wondering how far Kate took her mission. “The truth is, I wouldn’t mind getting more serious, but she’s all about just having fun. With graduation and college coming up, she doesn’t want to be tied down.”
Pecker looked way too pleased about that news. Helping Kate land her crush didn’t feel like a challenge anymore. It was more akin to slow, drawn-out torture. In fact, I think I’d rather have someone tear out my fingernails one by one. At least that would end eventually, because I only had so many fingers.
“So please,” I said, “screw up. I’m cheering for you to be an ass, because then she’ll realize she’d be better off with just me.”
That last part wasn’t part of the plan, it just came out. But the truth of it reverberated through me. I’d done my best to give Kate what she wanted. Now all I could do was hope that the tool in front of me screwed it up so that maybe I could get her to see me.
But I wasn’t gonna hold my breath.
…
For the next few days, I avoided Kate as much as I could. I texted her and told her I couldn’t do the rowing thing because I had some family stuff to take care of.
She’d texted back that she couldn’t believe I actually knew what it meant to take a break from training, family stuff or not.
In spite of how much I wanted to, I didn’t text her back. Instead I forced myself to dwell on the image of her in the school hall with Pecker’s arm around her; of them sitting close during lunch—their cuddling sessions were burned into my brain anyway, so I figured I might as well use them for good.
When I noticed her seated at the edge of the parking lot on Thursday afternoon—in the very same spot I’d seen her in a few weeks back—I told myself to climb in my truck and leave as fast as I could.
Of course my body didn’t listen, automatically angling toward her.
Our eyes met, and she flashed me a sad smile that nearly dropped me to my knees. Without thinking, I rushed over. “What happened? Did he hurt you?”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “He?”
“Pec—Mick.”
She pressed her lips into a flat line like she was fighting her emotions, and I decided I’d kill him. Ironic that I’d need a good lawyer afterward, but I’d think about that later. “You’re hurting me,” she said.
My blood froze in my veins, the shift from anger to guilt giving my internal organs whiplash.
She reached up and twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “I saw you on the lake yesterday after school, when I was with Mick. Was I not fast enough?”
The way her voice cracked made my chest ache.
“I thought I was getting better at the rowing thing, but I’ll work on it,” she said, her pleading eyes wide. “I’ll be more serious about your training from now on, I promise. I’ll even try to refrain from calling you Coach Grouchy Pants, no matter how tempted I am.”
I shook my head. “It’s not you.”
“Really?” Her features hardened, that unexpected fiery side of her rising to the surface—and God help me, it sent a dart of desire right through me. “You’re going to use a pathetic break-up type line on me? You know that everyone who’s ever said that is full of crap.”
I raked my fingers through my hair, trying to decide whether to let it go or engage. After all, I’d kept my part of the bargain the other day and told Mick what he wanted to hear. Despite how hard I’d tried to stay out of the drama, I’d ended up in the thick of it, because of this girl. In some ways, cutting my losses and focusing on my original goal of more time on the lake and not let anything else get in the way would be the smart play.
But leaving things strained between Kate and me? It’d eat away at me, and trying to ignore her had already left me feeling raw for days. Surrendering to the crazy magnetic pull she had on me, I stepped over the curb and moved to sit, but I had to bump her with my hip to clear enough room. “I’m not breaking up with you. I just needed space.”
“Well, remember how I told you that you’re my only friend? No pressure, but I need my friend.” A contemplative crinkle creased her foreh
ead. “Okay, I guess that’s pressure, but you know what, I don’t care. You don’t get to just blow me off with a lame claim of needing space. Friends talk to each other.” She crossed her arms, her expression all business. “So talk.”
I wanted to tell her that her logic was flawed, but I couldn’t exactly explain why I needed space without confessing a whole lot more. Like how I couldn’t stop thinking about her, everything from her laugh to her smile to her fandom talk. How I didn’t want her to hang around with Pecker anymore, because I wanted her to pick me instead.
Talk about a good way to end a friendship. Since she’d pointed out I was all she had in that area, it’d make me a huge jerk to let my selfish wants eclipse what she wanted. Especially since she’d been clear about hers from the very beginning.
I rubbed the back of my neck and glanced around—evidently the paranoid tables had turned. She was talking freely, and I worried about eavesdroppers. “How about we head to the lake, but not for rowing. Just to be there and have fun and forget everything else for a while?”
She blinked at me.
“Unless you’re waiting for Mick?”
“Yes. I mean no. I mean, no I’m not waiting for Mick, and yes to heading to the lake. Let me just text my mom and tell her I’ve got a ride home. Assuming you’ll take me home after?”
I almost slipped and made it crystal clear as to how I felt about her by telling her I’d take her anywhere she wanted me to.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kate
I told myself to just be happy that Cooper and I were finally talking again, but there was some invisible presence in the cab of the truck with us. Not like an actual ghost or paranormal being. More like everything left unsaid crowded the space and made it hard to know what to actually say.
The past few days completely freaked me out, and I’d been sure Cooper was about to pull an Amber on me and just phase me out of his life like it wasn’t a big deal. The same eclipsing sense of loneliness hit me full force, and I’d had trouble sleeping. I worried I’d come on too strong or done something wrong, and I didn’t want to do anything that would mess up our friendship. I wasn’t sure how I became so attached after only a little over two weeks of consistently hanging out, but I had, and I needed us to be okay with a desperation I hadn’t felt since losing my dad.
I tapped my fingers on my leg, trying to come up with something to fill the quickly-turning-awkward silence. When I thought I recognized the song on the radio, I reached over and turned it up. “Hmm.”
“What?” Cooper asked.
“At first I thought this was the song they played during one of the Haylijah scenes on The Originals, but it’s not.”
“This is the same show you named your pet dragon after?”
Warmth tingled through me. He remembered. “Yeah. Even Klaus—the vampire version—ships them, which is complicated since she had his baby. I was hoping after Elijah and Hayley hooked up, which I waited for-seriously-ever for, we could get to the canon stage, but of course it’s not that easy.”
“To shoot a cannon?” His expression read as serious, but the teasing tone made it clear he knew that wasn’t what I meant.
“A canon’s a ship that’s been confirmed by the series.”
“Okay.”
“You’re fighting the urge to call me crazy now, aren’t you? I can see it in the little twitch in your cheek.” I wanted to poke one of his dimples, like I’d done before, but with our friendship in barely-getting-back-to-normal territory, I didn’t know if it’d cross a line. “Don’t try to deny it, because last weekend I found out I’m really good at poker. I made a couple hundred dollars off Mick and his friends—enough for a prom dress, I hope.”
The twitch I’d pointed out took hold and a smile curved his lips. “You hustled those guys out of their money? Let me guess, you used mathematical deviousness?”
“Hey, I didn’t choose the math thug life, it chose me.”
Cooper’s laugh bounced across the cab and the happy sound echoed through my chest. “I’m so proud. And for the first time, I’m actually regretting not crashing that night.”
All that suffocating unsaid stuff lifted, and then we were back to Kate and Cooper, friends who understood each other, even when we didn’t.
Naturally I questioned that theory when Cooper pulled two fishing poles out from behind the seat of his truck.
“Um, what’s that all about?” I gestured to the poles, making a circle to encompass them.
“We’re going to just enjoy the lake, remember?”
“By fishing?”
“Put your nose back where it belongs,” he said, making me realize I’d scrunched it up. “It’s going to be fun. Don’t tell me you haven’t fished before.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.”
His eyes widened. “For real?”
“My dad used to go now and then, but I acted as his assistant rower. I refused to put a pole in the water, because I didn’t want to hook any poor little fishies.”
“That explains why you can row. You could move the boat with him in it?”
“Not very far,” I admitted. “But I was determined to try so that he’d take me. He was gone a lot, even when he wasn’t deployed, so if I had the opportunity to go anywhere with him, I jumped on it. Even if it meant fish might be flopping around on the floor of the boat at my feet. He used to tease me by swinging them toward me and asking me to unhook them, or picking one up and talking on his behalf, always about how honored he’d be to serve as our dinner.”
Memories from those lazy days with my dad on the lake flickered through my mind. His goofy floppy hat, the empty Dr Pepper cans in the middle of the boat that acted as a measure for how long we’d been out on the water, and how we always returned home sunburned but happy. “One day I surprised him by granting his request to unhook a fish, only to release the slimy thing back in the water and tell him to swim away as fast as he could and not to fall for food that seemed too good to be true. I thought my dad might get a little upset, but he just laughed and told me I was still his favorite fishing partner.”
Cooper’s voice softened. “You don’t talk about him much.”
“Probably because I worry if I do, then I might cry, and that’d be embarrassing.” Over the past few days I’d thought about him a lot, as if my mind was incapable of missing anyone without remembering who else I missed.
Cooper reached out and brushed his fingers across my cheek. “Not embarrassing. You lost someone.”
My heart swelled and tears clogged my throat. “He was my hero. We used to go on these made-up missions together—which is probably why I’m enjoying this one with you so much. We’d pretend people we passed on the street were spies and plot how we’d take down their evil organization. We also went on real missions, where we’d go shopping to find the perfect present for my mom, which usually involved another salt and pepper shaker for her collection. Stuff like that.”
Cooper ran his fingers down my arm and squeezed my hand. “He sounds awesome.”
“He was.” My voice faltered and I worked to put more sound behind it. “After he passed away, the only thing that made me feel better was binge watching TV and cheering for those characters’ happy endings. I’d always been prone to fandom tendencies, but that definitely moved them into overdrive.”
“Confession time?” Cooper raised an eyebrow. “It’s one of the things I like most about you. Even if I don’t understand half of what you say.”
I hugged him around the middle, and the fishing poles clattered to the ground when he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back. “Look, I’ve already been abandoned by a friend, and it really hurt. So I know this is super selfish, but could you please not need space ever again?”
He tucked his chin on top of my head. “Right now, the last thing I’m thinking about is space. Between us, or the space that’s over our head and in a distant galaxy far, far away. And that’s saying something.”
I laughed and pulled bac
k so I could look him in the eye. “I like your obsession with space, and I also like that you’re equally obsessed with boats and water.”
“Obsession? I’d call them more…mild infatuations.”
“Just take the compliment, Callihan.”
He lifted one finger and gave me a mini-salute. “Aye, aye, Hamilton.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cooper
Since Kate would liberate any fish we caught and it wasn’t her thing anyway, I switched gears and pulled the Jet Ski out of the shed.
I drove us out on the middle of the lake, and it was possible I’d driven a bit faster and made sharper turns than usual because it meant she held on tighter to me. Her little squeals of excitement also heated my blood and egged me on.
Man, I’d missed her. It seemed like we’d been apart weeks instead of days, and being out on the lake with her again only made me want the day to never end.
I slowed and let the waves determine our path as I looked over my shoulder at her. Water droplets clung to her hair and lashes and her cheeks were pink and wind whipped. “What do you think?”
Kate rubbed her hands together. “That it’s my turn to drive.”
We switched places and she leaned forward and gripped the rubber handles. I waited for us to move. After a few seconds, she glanced back at me. “Yeah, I’ve never done this before.”
“Oh. I got you.” I reached around her, and my cheek brushed hers as I placed my hands over hers. “Reverse on the left”—I demonstrated—“forward on the right, and squeeze for brakes. Got it?”
Her eyes remained on mine; I forgot how to breathe. “Maybe one more time,” she said, and the breathlessness in her voice implied she wasn’t totally unaffected by our closeness. Or maybe my imagination was getting carried away.
I cleared my throat and went over everything again.
