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“I turned around and you were gone!”
I blinked at him. “I just walked into the woods to get some branches.”
He looked around us with crazed eyes. “You’ve been gone two hours! It took me thirty minutes to find you. I thought you were gone. I thought you’d wandered off and… and something had happened to you.”
I wasn’t used to having to tell someone when I took a walk. Even though I thought he was overreacting, he was upset enough to need a little calming. “I’m… sorry?”
He threw his hands up. “You don’t just fucking walk away without telling someone. There are bears out here. And snakes. There are ravines and… big rocks. You could have at least texted me or, fuck, taken your phone with you.”
I pulled my phone out and held it up. “No service out here maybe.”
His hands were fisted at his sides and tendons stood out on his neck. His hair was sticking out like he’d been running his fingers through it. “You’re such a fucking man!” he shouted before turning and walking away.
I didn’t take it as a compliment.
He whipped back around. Apparently, he wasn’t finished.
“And another thing. Maybe, just maybe, when you’re upset about something, talk to me! Don’t just do the silent, brooding routine where you storm off into the fucking woods like an asshole.”
I blinked at him. The only reason I’d gone into the woods was to look for branches for my trim project.
Cooper threw up his hands. “Are you even going to say anything?”
“I’m… sorry?”
He paced back and forth between two saplings. “When we first met, I thought you were shy or you weren’t a talker or whatever, but then I came here. And you’re not shy with me. You tell me things. You talk about your thoughts and feelings. But now… ever since the call from my agent, you’ve gone back to being the guy who grunts.”
I made a noise in my throat, disagreeing with him.
“See?” He clutched at his hair. “See what I mean? That. You grunt at me when you’re holding back your true feelings. Just fucking tell me what you’re thinking! I hate this. I hate not knowing what you’re thinking.”
I stared at him, unsure of what he wanted me to say.
“Fuck,” he shouted and turned around and stormed off.
I stared after him wondering what had just happened. He’d seemed overly upset for me simply taking a walk in the woods. Granted, I could see his point. If I was going to be this long, I could have given him a heads-up, but then again, I didn’t know it would take this long to find what I wanted. And it wasn’t like I was far from home. He probably could have shouted for me and I would have heard him.
But then all the talk about me being a talker. I’d never been a talker, mostly because people didn’t seem to need yet another opinion about something. There were enough talkers in my family to meet the needs of anyone for the rest of infinity. So why would I talk for the sake of talking?
Nacho had taken off after Cooper, so I trudged behind them with my armload of branches until I could deposit them in a pile by the cabin. When I climbed up into the RV, I smelled something amazing enough to snap me out of my thoughts.
“What are you cooking? It smells amazing.”
Cooper had his back to me at the refrigerator like he was looking for something, even though the fridge was small enough not to need that much scrutiny.
“Chicken tikka masala,” he muttered.
“What’s that? I’ve never had it.”
He still didn’t look at me. “I know. That’s why I made it. It’s an Indian dish.”
Even though I was nervous he might reject me, I walked up and closed the fridge door before turning him around and pulling him into a hug. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think I’d be gone that long, and I sure as hell didn’t think you’d worry.”
Cooper scoffed. “I didn’t worry.”
I bit back a smile. “Okay. I didn’t think you’d be mad.” I kissed the top of his head and secretly relished the fact he was nuzzling into my neck the way he seemed to like to do. “And I’m sorry if I grunt too much. I’m not used to people caring much about whether or not I talk. I’ll try to do better.”
“Mpfh. You smell like dirt.” His voice was muffled against my skin. Clearly he wasn’t all that bothered.
“Want me to shower?”
He didn’t answer at first, and that’s when I realized his body was trembling slightly. Had he really been that nervous about my disappearance? My truck was still here, so he had to have known where I’d gone.
“They want me in LA,” he blurted. His arms tightened around me so I couldn’t pull back to look him in the eye.
