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“Oh shit, that’s my agent calling. Okay if I call you back?”
“Of course.”
But he didn’t. Not then and not later that evening either. I’d gone back to work, more motivated than ever to knock these projects out so that Cooper would be free to accept any offer he might get. By the time I finished tiling the shower and installing the fixtures, my body was done for the day. I cleaned up as well as I could and headed for the RV. Thankfully, Cooper had left a mountain of delicious leftovers for me, so all I had to do was warm something in the microwave again.
I fed Nacho, got my own dinner started, and stepped in my shitty RV shower. Since the cabin’s water heater would have to be installed by someone licensed to work with the gas line, I couldn’t take advantage of the new shower just yet.
Once I was finally settled at the kitchen table with my dinner and my phone, I checked again for any messages from Cooper.
Nothing.
Nine: Just checking in.
Did that make me sound too needy?
Nine: Don’t worry about it if you’re too busy to message back.
Shit. I tossed my phone down right as it buzzed. I scrambled to pick it back up just to see it was my brother Eli calling.
“Hey,” I said in a rush, wondering if somehow he was calling with news about Cooper. If Coop had been in an accident and the hospital had called his mom, his mom would call Eli, right? “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, fine. How’s it going there?”
I let out a breath in a whoosh and tried to get my heart rate to calm back down to human levels. “Fine. Just, you know, working.”
“Coop’s in LA, huh? I saw it on your Instagram.”
“He had an audition. For a part in a movie. Speaking part.” Why did I sound like a lunatic? Maybe because I could hardly catch my breath. I hadn’t realized just how worried I was from not hearing back from him.
“That’s great. What happens if he gets it? Would they need him in LA before you finish your thing with Stallion?”
I pushed my plate away and leaned back in the booth, enjoying the cool breeze coming in through the open window. “I don’t know, but I’m trying to hurry up the work here just in case. He still has to do the procedure for Jacks though.”
“Shit, right. And he can’t do that till he has the money from your thing.”
“No. He told me Jacks doesn’t need it yet. I’m sure if he did, they’d go ahead and do it.”
Eli was quiet for a beat before coming back on the line. “No, they don’t have the money. That’s why he’s doing the Stallion thing. I thought you knew that.”
“Well, yeah. I mean, I know he doesn’t have insurance and they need the money to pay for it, but…” I thought about it. “Surely the hospital would give them a medical loan or something for it and let them pay it back over time, right? I thought he needed this money to pay back the loan when the time comes or help out with other things like Jacks being out of work.”
“They don’t have any credit because of Cooper’s dad. That means no loans and no credit cards to help. They can’t do the procedure until they have the cash.”
I felt tingles under my skin as awareness washed over me. “Wait, wait. So, Jacks needs this procedure right now but they can’t do it yet?”
“No, I don’t think it’s like that exactly. They’re buying some time with blood transfusions until they can save up the money for the bone marrow thing. How do you not know this? Haven’t you guys talked since you’ve been living together? Jesus, Nine. On social media it looks like you’re so close.” He chuckled. “You’re a damned fine actor, dude. Mom will be happy to know.”
That was laughable. I couldn’t act my way out of a paper bag. “Mom will be happy to know what?”
“That it’s an act. She started to think it was real. You and Coop. I told her she was crazy, but she didn’t believe me.”
The tingles in my skin turned to live-wire nerves. Was this what it felt like coming out to your family?
“It is real. I told her that.”
He laughed again. “No, I mean you and Coop. The boyfriends thing. If you only knew how weird it was for me to see my brother and my best friend kissing in front of the whole world. Christ, it’s like CGI or something.”
I closed my eyes and counted to three. Calm down. “It’s real, Eli. I’m falling in love with him.”
Now the laughter was loud enough for me to have to pull the phone away from my ear. I couldn’t decide if I was angry or sad at his reaction. And then there was the little devil on my shoulder trying to convince me none of it mattered. Why try and convince Eli when Cooper was going to move to LA anyway?
