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The adult, present-day, hunky Cooper blinked at her. “You don’t think my parents deserve it?” he asked, sounding confused and a little insulted.
Jo Ellen flushed, horrified. “Oh my God,” she gasped, covering her mouth. “I didn’t mean it that way at all. I’m sorry. I just…I was talking about…” She blinked rapidly when she realized what she’d actually been referencing.
His brown gaze settled, filled with kind understanding…a sentiment she knew she hadn’t earned. “S’okay. I know what you’re talking about.”
Utterly uncomfortable, she cleared her throat and lifted her hand to poof at her hair, but dropped her fingers when she realized she’d been about to display a nervous gesture.
Cooper sent her a forced grin that had no doubt broken women’s hearts all over Tommy Creek. “Honestly, it’s no sacrifice at all.” He patted his stomach, drawing her attention back to his steely abs. Seriously, was he hiding sock rolls under there? “My mother’s keeping me well fed over the whole ordeal.”
Dexter, bless his soul, cleared his throat, and spoke loudly enough to break up their conversation. “Speaking of well fed.” He rubbed his wife’s belly and grinned.
“Hey,” Lexi muttered, clearly offended, though she flushed when Dex dabbed at a spot of barbecue sauce on the corner of her lip with his thumb. “Do you want me to give birth to a weak, puny, little son, or what?”
“No, ma’am, I most certainly do not.” To appease her, he picked up her next piece and held it to her mouth, manually feedin
g her.
As she watched Alexa tear off a piece of pork with her teeth, Jo Ellen swallowed down her loneliness. To make matters worse, Bran cuddled up to Emma Leigh and herded her to a pair of barstools on the other side of Dex and Lexi.
Jo Ellen knew she should follow them, but for some reason, her gaze lifted to the man beside her.
His expression matched her mood. He must not like being a single in a group of pairs any more than she did. But when he looked at her, every other couple in the room seemed to melt away.
He shifted, moving his legs to tuck them under then bar instead of stretching them out to the side where he’d been resting his boot heels on the rungs of the seat next to him.
“Need a seat?” he asked, offering her the free stool.
God, she couldn’t sit so close to him. Her hormones were already twitching as if someone had just fed them speed. But she certainly couldn’t be rude and turn him down either. Lowering her gaze, she seated herself and timidly demurred, “I’m sorry.”
He chuckled and leaned toward her, stirring her hair with his breath. “I think the correct sentiment is actually supposed to be thank you, not sorry.”
She shivered, inhaling the light scent of roasted peanuts, before she glanced up. With his long legs wedged under the bar the way they were, his large body looked crowded and uncomfortable. Her first impulse was to move, give him back his room to stretch. But her skin felt hot and prickly, her stomach stirred with a feminine awareness she was glad to learn she still possessed. For the last few years, she’d grown afraid the ability to feel arousal had died off inside her.
But it stirred now, waking up organs that hadn’t seen use in too long, making them stretch and yawn and glance around to see who’d awakened them. Unable to help herself, she shifted on her stool to ease a breath closer to him.
“Thank you,” she repeated dutifully, though she no longer remembered what she was thanking him for, him giving over his second stool for her to sit on, or him awakening a long-dormant part of her so she could grow ultra-aware of him as a man.
Her lips were so dry as she spoke they stuck together a little. She licked them and a shocking jolt speared up the insides of her thighs when Cooper’s whiskey-pale gaze lowered to her mouth. He nodded and smiled, his eyes lifting to hers only to flicker back down. He looked as if he wanted to lean in and kiss her.
God, he was tantalizing. Panties must drop wherever he went. In fact, the pair she wore suddenly felt a little strange and ultra-sensitive against her skin as if they were tempted to slither down her legs and fall away on their own accord.
“So, Em said you’re in Dallas now.” Clearing his throat, Cooper reached past her for more peanuts.
When his elbow came within a fraction of an inch from brushing her already sensitized breasts, she drew in a breath. The sound must’ve touched his ear because he turned just in time to see how close he’d come to grazing her. His eyes flared and he opened his mouth, lips forming an apology, but he changed his mind at the last moment and decided to ignore the close encounter.
She prayed she wasn’t nipping. But from the way he zipped his attention back to facing forward, rushing out a heavy, uneasy breath, she feared the worst.
Jo Ellen took her turn to clear her throat. “Yes, I uh, I started my own business there.”
Gaze darting back to her, Cooper stared hard before a slow, appreciative smile worked across his feature. “Did you?” She could see it in his eyes, he was genuinely happy for her. “What kind of business?”
She hesitated. If he called all her hard work a rent-a-hostess, she’d have to…she’d have to…well, she wasn’t certain what she’d do, but it wouldn’t be pleasant. It’d probably be embarrassing, tearful, and very, very…unpleasant. Stomach knotting with apprehension, she explained her job. But instead of snorting or even giving a polite, disinterested nod, letting her know he’d totally lost interest, he watched her as if enthralled.
“That’s amazing, Jo Ellen.” He looked proud enough to make her chest swell with honor. “I bet you’re perfect at that. I can easily see you organizing a high-society party.”
A quick frown knit her brow. “You can?” Because only cheap rent-a-hostesses did such menial tasks; or because he’d always seen her as some kind of prissy highbrow?
She should’ve known better than to think he’d in any way demean her, though. Loren Gerhardt would only raise a perfect gentleman. “Sure,” he told her, his grin broad. “You’re the most…elegant person I ever met, a natural hostess. I bet all the rich socialites are knocking each other down to get you at their parties.”
