by Sophie Stern
“Tomorrow,” he repeats.
We start kissing and fire shoots out over my skin. He ignites my body, plays me like no one ever has. Cooper knows exactly what it takes to light me up and he wastes no time.
We’re so involved in the kiss that we don’t even notice Kasey until she’s snickering beside us.
“Gross, guys. Get a room.” She pushes past us to the fridge, giggling as she grabs the milk and pours herself a glass.
“Sorry. We were just talking about going to my mom’s tomorrow.”
“So I heard. You’re brave.” Kasey eyes me up and down, then takes a sip of her milk.
“What makes you say that?” Carter asks. “Her mom can’t be that bad, can she?”
“I don’t know how to put this delicately, but Bailey’s mom is a huge bitch.”
“Kasey!” I protest, blushing furiously. What the hell? Where is this coming from? Granted, she and my mom haven’t always gotten along, but a bitch? Really? Is that kind of talk necessary?
Kasey puts a hand on her hip, then looks at me.
“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, Bailey. Honestly, I should have told you a long time ago, but let’s get real, okay? I kind of figured you knew how your mom was, but just put up with it. Then everything with Dominic happened. Now stuff with Professor Scranton is happening, and where is she?”
“What do you mean?” I narrow my eyes, not liking where this is going.
I don’t like that suddenly, Kasey is shattering the image I have of my mom.
Like it or not, I’ve always considered my mother to be a good role model. I’ve always considered her to be someone who really, truly cares about me.
The idea that she’s less than perfect doesn’t sit well with me.
It hurts.
Kasey sighs and shakes her head, like she can’t believe she has to do this in front of Cooper.
Cooper.
What must he think of this?
As Kasey watches me quietly, my head is filled with all the times my mother hasn’t been there for me. I’m suddenly remembering all the times she was out drinking instead of picking me up from school on time. I’m thinking of all the times she was out with her friends instead of coming to my recitals. I’m thinking of how when I told her Scranton was my professor, she already knew and thought it was funny.
I’m thinking of how I didn’t tell her about Dominic because I knew she’d blame me.
Who does that?
Who blames the person who got cheated on?
Shouldn’t the cheater be the one who gets blamed?
That’s not how my mom will see this, though. That’s not what she’ll think when she finds out what happened between us. No, she’ll think I did this on purpose. She’ll think I pushed him away, so he had no choice. She’ll think I was bad in bed, so it was only natural he turned to my cousin.
She’ll think everything is my fault.
I feel like my entire view of her is being shattered as Kasey watches me, waiting to hear what I’m going to say back to her, only I don’t have anything to say because honestly, I know she’s right.
I just don’t want her to be.
“Bailey, your mom is never there for you.” Kasey runs a hand through her hair. The effect is ruined by her huge milk mustache, but Cooper hasn’t said anything yet, and I’m not going to, either. She can be a little bit embarrassed. Just for a little while.
“I think that’s enough,” Cooper begins, but I hold up a hand.
“It’s okay, Coop. She’s right.”
“I am?” Kasey’s eyes go wide. “I mean, I think I am, obviously, but I’m surprised to hear you say it. You’ve always been so supportive of your mom.”
“I think you’re right about everything. I’ve just been too blind to see it.” I turn to Cooper and smile wistfully. “Sorry, Cooper. You had no idea what kind of crazy you were walking into when you started dating me. I get it if it’s too much for you to handle.”
He laughs and pulls me close.
“This is nothing, baby. Nothing. You have a crazy mama. So what? We all have some sort of issue. All of us. Every person on this beautiful planet has some issue that makes them hard to live with. Yours isn’t so bad in the grand scheme of things.”
“What’s yours?” I ask before I can think about the consequences of blurting it out. Immediately, I regret speaking, and I slap a hand over my mouth. Kasey squeaks, then leaves the room quickly, obviously not wanting to witness this.
But Cooper doesn’t freak out. Instead, he rubs my back slowly.
“I don’t want to tell you,” he says. “Especially not now. I suppose it’s as good a time as ever, though.”
“Tell me what?” I ask quietly, my heart sinking a little. I try to brace myself. I don’t want to, but it’s time. It’s time to accept the reality of the situation. Cooper Lance is perfect. He’s everything I could possibly want in a guy, but there’s something he needs to tell me. It’s so horrible that he doesn’t want to.
Maybe it’s my own awful history with men, but to me I’m wondering if this means there’s another woman.
Has he fallen for someone he works with? An Air Force girl would be perfect for him. They could talk about their jobs and uniforms and duty stations. They could eat at the chow hall together and they could hang out in the common room at their dorms.
They could do anything. Everything.
Besides, what do I really have to offer a guy?
Despite being one of the best new students at Club Kitten, my self-esteem suddenly plummets as I wonder what horrible news he’s going to drop on me.
“I’m going to deploy in a couple of weeks.” He looks sad as the words fall from his lips. “And I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”
Chapter 9
Cooper
My words hang in the air between us, but Bailey looks confused: not scared.
“Um, so?” She asks, cocking her head.
“So? I just told you I don’t know how long I’m going to be gone, and your response is ‘so’?”
“Yeah, so what? You’re in the military. Isn’t that kind of your job?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“But what? You thought you could just dump me because you’re going to be gone for a few months?”
“It could be several months.”
“So what?” She steps forward and wraps her arms around my neck. “So fucking what, Cooper? Are you telling me you don’t want to come back to me, baby? Are you telling me you don’t want to be with me anymore? Are you telling me this was just a fling?” She whispers in my ear and I feel her hot breath against my skin.
Fuck. My dick is already hard. This is a serious conversation and I’m so fucking hard I’m going to break.
“Or are you telling me you’re scared, Coop?”
“I want you so fucking much, Bailey.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
I pull back now and look in her eyes: really look in them. She doesn’t look like she’s afraid of me or my job. She doesn’t look like she’s ready for a way out. She doesn’t look like she’s irritated or annoyed I have to go away.
No, Bailey looks completely confused.
Baffled.
“I can’t ask you to wait for me,” I say finally, and she rolls her eyes.
“Oh? You got some other sugar on the side, Coop? You gonna get yourself a deployment girlfriend?”
Now it’s my turn to raise an eyebrow.
“Oh yeah. I know all about what guys do on deployment. Well listen up, you.” She pats my chest playfully. “No cheating. No kissing. No girls. Email me as much as you can. Call me when it’s possible. Think of me every day. Write to me.”
She lowers her voice and looks up at me with those big, beautiful eyes I’ve come to love.
“Miss me.”
“I already miss you,” I tell her honestly. “And I haven’t even left yet.”
She kisses me then, and keeps kissing me, and soon I forget what we were
talking about because the only thing I see is her.
***
Bailey’s mother lives in a two-story blue house with white shutters and a tiny porch. Her yard is perfectly manicured with bushes that line the front of the house. A small sidewalk leads from the porch to the driveway where I park with a frown on my face.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” I ask.
“I’m sure,” she says.
Only Bailey doesn’t make a move to get out of the car. Instead, she sits and stares at her mother’s house.
“Bailey?” I ask carefully. “Do you want to get out of here? There’s no reason we have to be here.”
“It’s fine. I’m probably just overreacting.”
“What is it?”
“I’m nervous.”
“But why?” I pat her hand and rub her leg softly. “What is it that you’re worried about, babe? You think she won’t like me? ‘Cause let me tell you: I’m quite lovable.”
I wiggle my eyebrows at her and she erupts in giggles.
“It’s not that. It’s just that nothing I ever do is good enough for my mom. Kasey was right.” She furrows her brow. “I should have known a long time ago that I couldn’t please her.” Bailey takes a deep breath, but she’s on a roll now, and she continues. “I don’t want her to ruin this.” She waves her hand between us. “Whatever this is that we have going. I don’t want her between us. I don’t want to lose us.”
“Nothing that happens today will ruin what we have, honey.”
“Are you sure?” My poor Bailey looks close to tears, so I hug her tightly and kiss her tiny little nose. “We can go. We can go far away from here.”
I hate the idea of her mom hurting her feelings. I hate the idea of anyone being rough or careless with Bailey. In such a short time, she’s come to mean so much to me. That’s why I hate her asshole ex-boyfriend so much. It’s not that I’m jealous of their time together. I’m not. We all have people in our past we’ve spent a lot of time with, shared a lot of ourselves with.
What I hate is the fact that no one in Bailey’s life, except maybe Kasey, seems to appreciate her.
“It’s okay,” Bailey puts on a brave face. “It’ll be okay. We should just do this. I want you to be in my life for a long time, Cooper. You’ll have to meet her eventually. I’m just being stupid about this.”
Finally, we get out of the car and walk quietly up to the door. A woman – Bailey’s mother, I presume – opens the door when we reach the porch.
“Well, I was wondering when you’d finally get out of the car and come inside,” she says, but her voice isn’t playful.
I realize at that moment that we should leave, but for some reason, Bailey really wants to talk to her mom today. I think she wants to fit in, just for a little while.
So we go inside.
Bailey turns to her mother, who is staring at me.
“You didn’t tell me you were bringing a guest,” she says.
“Mom, this is Cooper. Cooper, Lucille.”
“Nice to meet you,” I hold out my hand, and she stares at me for a moment before shaking my hand, then turns back to Bailey.
“I didn’t know you were bringing someone.”
“I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“Well, you should have told me,” Lucille hisses, and I wonder why it’s such a big deal to Bailey’s mom, but then another person joins us in the living room, and suddenly, it all makes sense.
“Hey, is that Bailey?” The man is wearing a goofy grin until he spots me, then it falters. “Who the hell is this?” He glares at me.
“Dominic,” Bailey squeaks out. “What are you doing here?”
She tenses next to me and I know she’s as caught off-guard as I am. As far as I know Bailey hasn’t spoken with Dominic since he and her cousin got together. Well, at least since Bailey found out about him and her cousin getting together.
“I think we should talk, Bailey.” Dominic’s words are cautious, guarded, and I know exactly what the fuck he’s about to say. He wants to get back together with her. Why else would he be here? What? Things didn’t work out with her cousin, so now he wants her back.
Bailey’s mom keeps glancing nervously at me, like she thought this would work, like she thought things would magically fall back into place between Dominic and Bailey.
I’m the wild card she hadn’t counted on.
And she has no idea how wild I can be.
“Why are you here?” Bailey repeats, then she turns to her mom. “Why didn’t you tell me Dominic would be here? You invited me to have dinner with you and Scranton.”
“Professor Scranton is in the kitchen making the potatoes,” Lucille says coolly. It seems like she’s gotten control of herself. She runs her hands over her smooth pastel skirt, getting rid of invisible wrinkles, then looks back to Bailey.
Dominic speaks.
“Can I talk to you alone?”
“No.”
“Bailey, I think you should hear what I have to say.”
“If you have something to say to me, you can say it in front of Cooper.”
Dominic shoots me a wary glance, but seems to weigh his options and realizes that I’m not going anywhere.
“Bailey, I forgive you for everything that happened between us.” Her jaw hits the floor, but he doesn’t seem to notice. “Things are over between me and Pumpkin. Really over. I realized she was just a fling, that I was only using her because you hurt me so deeply, but I forgive you, Bailey, and I’m ready to try again.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Bailey practically screeches.
“Bailey! Language!” Her mother frowns.
“I, I forgive you,” Dominic repeats, as if that explains everything.
“You cheated on me, asshole,” Bailey whispers. “Did you forget about that?”
“Well, but that wasn’t my fault,” he fumbles, and it’s all I can do to keep from laughing out loud at this jackass. Is he for real? “It’s because you were such a prude in bed, you know. I didn’t have a choice. I had to get satisfaction somewhere, and now that you’re taking those classes about how to be a better lover, well, I think we should try again.”
I’ve heard enough.
Bailey looks like she’s in shock and Dominic takes a step forward to touch her, but I insert myself squarely between them.
“Leave,” I tell him.
“What? You can’t-“
“Leave,” I repeat. “Before I punch you in your piece-of-shit nose. You cheated on her, fucker. Do you understand that? You fucked somebody else. She doesn’t want you back. You’re scum, Dominic. Bailey deserves someone who will love her no matter what. She deserves someone who is going to put her needs first for once in her life,” I shoot Lucille a pointed look, but then I keep talking.
This is the most fucked-up family dinner I’ve ever been to, but there’s no quitting now.
“Hey, now, just you listen to me,” Lucille’s face turns red, and I wonder how Bailey has put up with her mom’s crap for so long. No wonder Kasey can’t stand the woman: she’s a beast. “I will not tolerate that kind of language.”
“And I won’t tolerate this kind of ambush. I love Bailey. I plan to spend the rest of my life with her, if she’ll have me, and I will not put up with you treating her like she’s somehow not worthy of true, honest love,” I tell Lucille. Then I turn back to Dominic. “And you need to leave. You’re a dick. You fucked her cousin, then blamed her. Why the hell should she be with you? She doesn’t take pole dancing to be a better lover, dipshit. She takes classes because she loves it, because she’s graceful, and because she cares about her own mental and physical health.”
Dominic doesn’t make a move to leave and neither does Lucille. They just stare at me and Bailey, open-mouthed, and then Professor Scranton comes into the room wearing oven mitts and a bright pink apron.
“Hey, did I hear some shouting in here?” He says with a big, stupid grin. “Would some fried potatoes make everyone feel better?”
“Feel free to call Bailey when you’re ready to apologize for your behavior,” I tell Lucille, completely ignoring Scranton. Then I take Bailey’s hand and pull her from her mother’s house.
She deserves so much better.
Chapter 10
Bailey
I sit in silence, crying quietly until we get back to my apartment. Cooper parks the car, then looks at me.
He strokes my cheek and asks if I’m okay, but I’m completely caught up on just one thing.
“Did you just propose?”
“That’s what you’re thinking about, honey? That I want to marry you?”
I nod.
“Does it scare you?” He asks.
I shake my head.
“Does that mean you’ll be my bride, Bailey?”
“What about your deployment, Coop? What about your career?” I shake my head. My whole world is spinning right now and I’m afraid that I’m going to wake up at any second and find out this has been a long dream.
In what world does a girl like me get the guy?
In what world does a girl like me get the happy ending?
“What if I hold you back? We’re both so young. What if you find someone better?”
“I’m not scared of our youth, Bailey. I want to grow old with you. Hell, I want to grow up with you. I don’t want you to quit school and be a housewife or give up on your dreams. My job might mean we have to move in a few years and it might mean a few deployments, but I’m willing to work it through if you are.”
All I can do is nod.
All I can do is be shocked I’m so lucky.
All I can do is kiss him, hold him, promise him that everything will be fine, promise him that I’ll be his for always.
No one has ever stood up for me the way Cooper stood up for me today with my mom. No one has ever made me feel so perfect, so loved, so adored. Cooper managed to take a situation that was about to become completely unbearable and out of control, and he made it okay.
He makes everything okay.
“I love you, Cooper,” I whisper.
“I love you too, Bailey,” he says.
We go inside my apartment and I lock the door.
