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“I’ll be in the cafeteria with your coffee, babe.” He winked and then gave me another kiss. “I’m out, Coop. Happy birthday!”
The bathroom door opened. “Thanks, Arch…see you tomorrow.”
Then there was just us, and Coop raised his eyebrows. “You’re doing the happy pee pee dance.”
The dry comment made me giggle snort, even as I flipped him off. Chuckling, he backed off to let me in the bathroom.
Ten minutes later, washed up and changed, we headed for my car. “I’m serious, Frankie. I can order food for us,” he offered.
“So can I,” I said with an exasperated grin to try and soften the snap that almost escaped. “But it’s your birthday, and I want to make you dinner and a cake, and I’m the world’s worst friend because I didn’t get you anything.”
“I don’t a need a present,” he told me flatly. “I’m getting to be with you, and that’s the best gift there is.”
The moment elongated as we stared at each other over the roof of my car. Then the corner of his mouth kicked a little higher, and a laugh escaped mine. Giggles assaulted us as his smile deepened.
“Too bad we can’t buy wine to go with all that cheese,” I deadpanned once we were in the car, and he braced his hand on my seat.
“Ha ha,” he said with a grin. “Yuck it up.”
At the grocery store, Coop and I debated the list. He nixed the birthday cake idea and pointed out cupcakes in the bakery. There were some obnoxious ones with blue frosting. It would totally turn our tongues and teeth blue. But the puppy dog expression in his gray-green eyes had me saying yes. We got four. Then we went in search of staples that I needed. When I tried to go for food for his dinner, he kept redirecting us elsewhere. Like me, Coop knew how to shop a sale and we never missed the rack in the back with clearance items. So what if part of the bread was smooshed, it was a steal at fifty cents.
The deli was the next stop, and I figured out his plan. They had deals on the barbecue whole chickens, pre-cooked and ready to go that included a pair of sides for free if you buy the whole thing. One of those would feed me for the next few days, even after we had dinner.
“Chicken?” He grinned.
Eyeing him, I made a promise. On Coop’s next birthday? I was going to make him a huge meal and a perfect cake. “Sounds good.”
The only real problem we ran into was when we got to the register. He’d wanted to pay for my groceries, but I beat him to the punch. A fact he sulked about on the way to the car with the bags.
“Coop, it’s my food. I should be the one paying for it. Besides, I’m also the one with a job.”
“I got a job,” he dropped in casually as we stowed the groceries in the backseat. It was way too hot in the trunk.
“Since when?”
He gave me a smirk and just climbed in the passenger seat. Slamming the door closed, I dove into the driver’s seat and started the car.
“Since when?” I repeated. When had he gotten a job and why hadn’t he told me?
“Since I got the car,” he admitted, smiling. “I’m delivering food. It’s not glamorous, and sometimes I don’t make much in tips, but it’s still money, and in the evenings I’m not with you or the guys, I’m going to keep it up. I needed to get back to saving money for school, too.”
“That’s awesome,” I told him. I never thought about delivering food with the car. I had Mason’s, but it might be a way to pick up some extra money. An apartment on my own was really going to cut into my savings account.
“Yeah?” That hesitant shyness was Coop to his core. He was so laid back about everything, except those things he might be uncertain about. A job that he’d just managed to acquire with his brand-new car?
“Yeah.” I leaned over and kissed him. When he cupped my chin and nudged my mouth a little wider to deepen it, I sighed against his mouth. The fact we were making out in the grocery store parking lot surfaced, but then Coop tilted his head and sucked my tongue against his teeth, and I didn’t give a damn where we were.
My body was humming by the time he lifted his head, and I was thankful for the air conditioning because it had gotten warm in here. With gentle fingers, he traced my cheek then the outline of my lips.
“I really want to say something cheesy and deep right now,” he told me. “But all I got is damn, I like kissing you.”
I grinned. “I’ll take damn, I like kissing you, because damn—I like kissing you, too. You’ve been making me crazy with all those wild kisses and then leaving or dragging me off to school.”
“Yeah?” His expression ranged from tender to smug. “I wanted to make sure you remembered me.”
“I’m not likely to forget you.”
He chuckled. “Good. I’ll tell you a secret though.” When he crooked his finger, I leaned in closer and braced a hand on his thigh. Lips against my ear, he whispered, “I think about those kisses every time I rub one out. Nothing compares to the real thing though.”
