Writing Our Love

by Sammi Cee

  “He’s not wrong. Um, Elijah, is Cooper wealthy?”

  Coop

  I have no idea why I didn’t just tell Shayna I have money. It’s not like she’ll care or like it’s that big a deal, but for some reason it never came up. When we’d talked about her struggles being a single mom trying to balance her career with being a mom who was present, I’d talked about the trials my own dad had as a single parent. After that, it never seemed like the right time. If anything, it made me feel weird.

  Seeing Eli’s car pull up to the top of the driveway, I whistle for Bear and walk outside to welcome her to my home. Before she can even get out of the car, I’m at her door to open it for her. She’s giving me a funny expression and worry fills me about not just telling her before now that I’m not exactly poor.

  “Hi, precious,” I say as I lean down to hug her and give her a big smacking kiss on the lips.

  “Something you forgot to tell me about, Coop?” she asks with an arched brow.

  “Does it matter?” I counter back with an arched brow of my own.

  Just as she opens her mouth to answer me, Bear jumps up on her side ready to meet the new person. Shayna pulls away from me to focus on him. “Oh, pretty baby. Look at you. Aren’t you a beauty?” She goes down onto her knees, making herself the perfect height for him to jump up and put a paw on each of her shoulders. Before I can warn her to watch out, that he’s a licker, he actually tucks his face up next to hers.

  As Eli comes around the side of the car, he looks from Shayna and Bear to me with as puzzled an expression as I’m feeling. My dog’s amazing and there’s no question he was destined to be mine, but he’s been a little skittish with people. The place I got him had told me that there was no question he’d been abused and weren’t letting anyone with kids take him. From what they’d observed, kids scared him, and they didn’t want to release him into a situation where he’d have continuous anxiety.

  It had taken him several weeks to get used to me, and even now, when Eli’s up and walking around he’s still hesitant with him. Although, the minute Eli lays down to watch tv, he’s snuggled up right to his leg. But Shayna he’s already taken to. My precious-girl, even Bear sees how special she is.

  “Come on, let me show you inside and he can get to know you after I’ve shown you around.” I grip her arm lightly to help her back up. Bear whines as she gives him a last squeeze and a kiss on his furry head.

  “Aww… come on baby, you come with me. Let’s go inside, okay?” Shayna speaks down to Bear like he’s gonna answer her, but it’s almost as if he is because he immediately comes to her side, squishing his body into her legs and waits patiently for us to walk.

  “Huh, well, I guess Bear likes you a lot.” I lean over and kiss the corner of her forehead before saying in a low voice, “I feel the same way.” She tilts her head to smile up at my words, and I can’t resist bending down to give her a real kiss. Her response to me is always instantons, and as I step closer, she melts into me. We’re rudely interrupted by Bear’s whine and him butting me with his butt. Okay, then. I guess I’m sharing my girl with my dog.

  “Come on.” Grabbing her hand, I pull her up the few little steps to enter my home. Once we get through the door, I begin to feel a little anxious that she may not like it, and I really want her to be comfortable here.

  “Oh sweets, this is as beautiful inside as it is outside. Look at this place.” The trepidation leaves and is replaced with pride. My home is not only my sanctuary, but this is also the first place I’ve ever owned. We didn’t have much growing up, but my dad worked hard, saved all he could, and had been upping his life insurance policy since I was born. He’d also had policies set up for every little thing I would need as I grew. When it was time to get a car, the money was there. If I’d wanted to go straight to college, the money was there for it. He’d even had a wedding and first home fund for me. Unfortunately, he’ll never get to see how any of that money was spent. But I did save the wedding money in honor of my dad. It was his desire to pay for my wedding, and I’m going to let him and do it in his memory.

  “Coop?” Shayna is by my side, no longer looking at the house, but looking at me with concern. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah precious. Just lost in my head for a minute. No worries, let me show you the rest of the house.”

  Taking Shayna to tour my home is everything I could have hoped for. She appreciates the care I’ve put into this place. There are several things that I’ve redone myself, or had a builder come help me with, but I did help. After dad and I never having this opportunity, I wanted this place to be my ideal home. She’s ooh’ing and ahh’ing over the dining room table, chairs, and end tables I’d refurbished to the point I’m starting to get a little flustered. The only thing I’m not taking her to see yet is my bedroom, hopefully, she’ll stay for a long private tour of that later. And then she’ll see my most prized possession. The refurnished bedroom furniture is magnificent.

  Eli

  Watching Coop and Shayna tour the house fills me with longing. This is what I want. What I crave, if I’m honest with myself. The growing connection between them is tangible, and it makes me curious to know how it feels to be the focus of Shay’s radiant smile? As they tour the house, it hits me that I want to get random texts, just because I’m on someone’s mind, like Coop gets from Shay. And I want a lady who wants to talk to me right before bed, just because she says she sleeps better after hearing the sound of my voice, like Shay always tells Coop when he stays home with me. But I know for me that’s nothing more than fantasy, who wants a broken man with a scarred body, one who has to stay with his best friend to even get on his feet?

  After putting Shayna’s brownies into the kitchen, I grab fresh beers for Coop and me and pour a glass of wine for Shayna. Coop and I’d gone to the liquor store earlier and bought several different bottles of the reds we know she enjoys. To Coop’s agitation I also made fun of him all the way home when I realized why he’d been working on his latest project.

  Deciding it was time to have a little fun with him, I called out, “Hey guys, I’ve got drinks for everyone in here. And Coop, don’t forget to show Shayna what you made for her.”

  As they walk into the kitchen, Shayna takes her glass of wine and leans up to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, lovey. You really are a gentleman.”

  Coop snorts as he comes to grab his beer from me. “A gentleman wouldn’t try to embarrass his best friend.” But he winks as he says it, so I know he isn’t really irritated with me for calling him out.

  Shayna turns to him, “Well?” she asks as she reaches down to give Bear a pat on the head before taking a sip of her wine.

  Coop kinda chuckles, takes a sip of his beer, rubs the back of his neck with the other hand, and then does the weird little chuckle thing again. Aww…he really likes Shayna. And I don’t blame him, she’s a great lady, but his nervous routine is more my speed than his. “Just rip off the band-aid and show her, man. She’s gonna love it.”

  “Love what? Sweets, what’s he talking about?” Shayna looks back and forth between the two of us with the cutest little scrunch of her face.

  “Yeah, well, I know how you love wine, and I wanted to make sure you’d always have some when you’re here, and you know I really have nowhere to store it since I don’t drink it myself so um…I just went ahead and bought this old wine box thing at the flea market, that’s all.”

  Shaking my head at him, I grab Shayna’s hand to drag her into the pantry where Coop made a place of honor for said wine box. “He didn’t just buy an old wine case thingy, he bought a beautiful one that he’s restored, probably past its original glory.”

  Shayna looks at the wine box that’s filled with twelve bottles of wine, one for every hole, and puts her hand over her mouth. When tears spring to her eyes, I can tell she’s noticed what he’s done. In refurbishing the box, he also detailed it to match Shayna’s bookcases at her house.

  His voice comes from behind us where he�
�s leaning in the door jamb. “I know how much you love your bookcases and since the wine is for you, I just figured—”

  Shayna flies back past me, throws her arms around Coop, and rises on her tiptoes to squeeze the hell out of his neck before he can even finish. Holding her equally as tight, he rests his chin on her shoulder and beams at me. He’d told me last night that he was apprehensive that it would come across to her like he was trying to move too quickly, guess he didn’t need to worry about that.

  Spending time with Shayna really is a pleasure. She has a beautiful, wise soul—articulate, and caring— but she’s also witty and banters with us like the three of us have been doing this forever.

  As dinner winds down and we lean back to relax, I again clear the table. This time I set the dishes in the sink to just deal with later after Shayna and Coop are ready for some private time. On the way back from the kitchen, I grab the bottle of wine to refill Shayna’s glass before I sit down.

  While I was in there, Coop and Shayna have moved to the couch and adopted much the same position they had at Shayna’s house the other night. I refill her wine and walk over to sit in the recliner. Bear immediately moves from beside Shayna’s legs to run over and lay at my feet. He really is a kind animal, and I suspect he’s sensing the loneliness I’m battling watching Coop and Shayna snuggle together.

  “Thank you for getting me more wine, lovey.” Shayna gives me a little smile.

  “No problem.”

  She winks at me and tilts her head around to look at Coop. “Sweets, why is lovey such a gentleman? He says it’s your fault, but he won’t tell me what you did.”

  Coop bends down to kiss the tip of her nose, then fixes his gaze on me. “You’re a gentleman because you choose to be. That’s all you, brother. It’s not like I gave you a class on how to treat a lady.”

  “That’s not really true,” I mumble.

  “What do you mean?” Well, crap. Now he’s curious which means he’s not gonna let this drop. He’ll bug me and bug me and bug me some more until I tell him what I mean.

  “Maybe we can just talk about it later?” I implore him. Doesn’t he remember at all what I’m talking about? This seems like such a strange topic to be discussing with his girlfriend in the room.

  “Why? I’ll probably tell Shayna what you say anyway. Tell us.”

  Sigh.

  Diary Excerpt

  I thought my daughter was ridiculous before, but the amount of glee she expressed finding out Coop is not just younger than me, but apparently, pretty loaded is ridiculous. She was yelling what a sexy beast I must be. Oh my gosh, if anyone would have heard her, I would’ve been mortified. I’m not actually sure what he sees in me, but after that wine box, there’s no doubt that he cares.

  * * *

  Shelly may have been teasing me about being impressed with him having money, but I know my daughter, and if she ever gets the opportunity to see all the gorgeous things he’s made or refinished, it’ll blow her mind. His craftsmanship is amazing. The love and care he puts into each piece is evident. I thought the rest of the house was nice, but after Eli went to bed, and we finally made it to Coop’s room, I was stunned. The quality was beyond anything I’ve even seen in a furniture store. Coop was so adorable, too, as I raved over his bedroom set, he became increasingly bashful. I never realized how appealing it is to me to see big, muscly men blush. Between him and Eli, I think it’s becoming my favorite look.

  Shayna

  Six

  Shayna

  The last couple weeks since I ate at Coop’s house have been the most enjoyable times I’ve had as an adult woman. We’ve alternated going back and forth between our two houses almost every night for dinner. There’s a standing invitation for Eli to come when Coop comes here. Sometimes he actually joins us, but he drives himself over since Coop stays the night.

  If it wasn’t for Kitty, I’d probably always go there so that I know Eli will eat with us. I don’t like for him to be alone. It’s obvious that he’s lonely and since we can’t get him to date, it would be nice to know he’s with us. Plus, I can tell it bothers Coop when Eli doesn’t at least have dinner with us. His best friend is important to him which would be enough to make him important to me, too. But Eli has found a special place in my heart all on his own.

  Pulling into Coop’s driveway I park right next to Eli, not that it really matters since none of us are driving tonight. Sean is DJ’ing at a new place, and so Bobby called us and invited us to come with him. He’s not working the bar while Sean does his thing, which isn’t the norm for him, so he wanted company. Coop thinks we all deserve to have a fun night, so I’m meeting them here and we’re ubering over, and I’ll just stay the night here later.

  Coop rushes out the door before I’m all the way out of the car, but Bear beats him to me. He’s becoming just as much my baby as he is Coop’s, and I love him as much as I love my baby at home. Coop asked me the other night if I think they’re going to get along. My stomach tingles every time I think about it. This isn’t a short-term relationship to him, I can tell.

  Bending down, I give Bear a kiss on the head before I stand up and lean into Coop’s kiss. “Hmmm…” I sigh as he pulls away and back up to his full height.

  “Whatcha thinking about, precious?”

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about Eli’s story the other day.”

  “Oh yeah, and what about it?” he asks.

  “Well, he said that he was trying to pick up that girl, and he was being kinda aggressive and cocky.”

  “Yeah, he severely downplayed that. He was being a total prick. I couldn’t believe him that night. No one was gonna go home with a guy acting like that. At least no sane girl.”

  “Yeah, so that’s what I was thinking. He’s so messed up and self-conscious about his scar. Don’t you think it was kinda weird he was being so aggressive?”

  Coop walks around me to lean against my car and pulls my back to his front, resting his chin on my shoulder. I’ve noticed this is one of his favorite positions, not just with me, but he does it with Eli, too, when he walks up behind him in the kitchen. In my head, I’ve labeled it his talking position. I reach around behind us and rub the back of his neck as he begins to talk.

  “The thing you have to understand about when I first met Eli was what a bad place he was in. He was so confused about who he was, you know? Like, here he’d been the man to know, to hang with. And now all of a sudden, he felt rejected by his own family and insecure about his own body. I’m not sure up to that point he’d even been self-aware enough to feel the emotions all that caused.”

  At his pause, I murmur, “Yeah, that makes sense. But then why was he being so nasty?”

  “I think two reasons, actually. One, I think that’s how he really treated the girls in high school. Big man didn’t have to worry about being nice to anyone because he didn’t care about anyone but himself. If they didn’t want to date him, then fine. The reality is, he probably didn’t even give them attention long enough to decide they didn’t want to deal with his shit.”

  He pauses again, but this time I remain silent while he gathers his thoughts. “But I do think the other reason is because deep down, he knew that no one was gonna go home with him acting like that. It was like he wasn’t even confident enough for a little flirting to pass the time. He wanted to make sure no one was gonna get interested enough in him to ask him to hang out again. If no one saw his scar, he didn’t have to worry about being rejected by them for the it.”

  “Hmmm… well, I guess with you being quite the playboy, it was enough for him to get to watch you in action and change his approach.”

  Coop laughs softly in my ear. “To tell the truth, until I decided that Eli needed a lesson in how to treat a female, I was way more into men back then.”

  Turning in his arms enough to see his face, I ask, “Really, but I thought you were bisexual?”

  “Oh, I am. And I’m not saying I didn’t ever hook up with ladies, but at that particular tim
e in my life, I was just really into men. Maybe it was all the energy I was excerpting being in the military. All the testosterone floating around me all the time. I don’t know. When I went out before Eli started coming with me, I was generally in search of a nice hard body to get in.”

  While my mind speculates on that last part, out loud to Coop I say, “So as part of Operation Eli, you decided he needed How to Treat A Lady 101?”

  Coop leans down to give me a quick kiss, laughing against my lips. “I guess so.”

  Coop

  Before Shayna and I can discuss Eli’s former treatment of women any further, the man himself comes out of the house. He’s dressed in a nice pair of jeans with a button-down shirt that I made him put on. He tends to attack life in t-shirts, they’re always clean, but they don’t exactly make him stand out.

  “Oh, lovey, don’t you look nice tonight?” Shayna says.

  “Hey! You didn’t tell me I look nice tonight. In fact, you even bent down to kiss the dog before kissing me.” I act put out, but really, I’m thrilled she loves my dog, and I’m especially happy about her comment to Eli. He needs all the positive reinforcement he can get. He doesn’t realize how truly gorgeous he is. Scars be damned.

  As pink seems to be the permanent color of his face when Shayna’s around, I’m not surprised to see the color appear at her words. Mumbling, “Thank you,” to her, he comes into our space to bend down, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

  Before he can back away, I pull one of my arms from around her to reach up and grab his arm. “Man, I’m glad you wore that shirt tonight. We’ll be able to get you some numbers for sure.”