He looked like hell only iflike hellalso meant very, very… surprisingly sexy.
I took a deep breath to pull it together.
This wasCooper. He used to sit on me and fart.
But that’s when Cooper lifted those dark blue eyes and looked right at me through his black lashes.
I felt a buzz in response. Like I was a doorbell, somehow, and he was… ringing me.
Had I just tried to convinceanyonethat Cooper looked bad?
Even Cooper didn’t buy it. He gave me what can only be described as a flirty look and said, “Liar.”
Now he’d gone too far.
It was one thing to crash my wedding—late—infull Patagoniaand walk in here with all those muscles. It was quite another to give me aflirty look.
This was a kid I’d peeled grapes with so we could call them eyeballs. This was a kid who’d dared me to suck a spaghetti noodle up my nose. This was a kid who’d hocked Jell-O cubes out of his mouth into the air so I could catch them in mine.
We werewaypast flirting.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
He shrugged. “My oldest friend is getting married.”
“So?”
“So, I should be here.”
“You RSVPedno. With extreme prejudice.”
“I was being an ass.”
“Yes. You really were.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Cooper said.
“No, you’re not.”
Somewhere, in a distant land, an ancient lady named Mrs. Allen was waiting for me to start my bridal procession.
But how could I do that when Cooper was stepping closer—and looking me over?
“You look like a bride,” Cooper said next, in a tone like he couldn’t believe it.
“Iama bride.”
I guess Cooper knew enough about my whole dynamic with Pearce to ask next, “How did you get him to propose?”
I thought about lying. But this was Cooper. We were even more beyond lying than we were beyond flirting. So I confessed: “Ultimatum.” Then I said, almost just to see how Cooper would react, “I told him to shit or get off the pot.”
Cooper blinked and then said, deadpan, “That’s romantic.”
I deadpanned back, “Isn’t it?”
Cooper took in the sight of me again and said, “Well. However it happened, you look beautiful.”
Beautiful?I felt a funny sting in my chest.
