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“Gimli died,” she said. “He got smoke in his lungs, and he was too small to get over it.”
He did not much care about a fucking hamster right now, but he tried to fake it for Geneva. “I’m sorry, hon.”
She nodded. “I’m sad about it. But I’m glad Siena’s not hamster-sized.”
He almost laughed. It got halfway to his mouth and fizzled out. “Me too. Where is she?”
“She’s still sleeping. I go up every thirty minutes and check on her. I think she’s okay, just really tired.”
“That makes sense. I’m gonna go up and check on her, too.” He gestured toward the clubhouse and headed in that direction.
Geneva turned and went with him. “Don’t wake her up.”
“I won’t.”
“We lost everything,” she said as they arrived at the porch.
“No we didn’t, Robin. All we lost was stuff. You, me, your sister? We still have that. Everything else can be replaced.”
“But we don’t have any money.”
“I do. Don’t you worry. Everything’s gonna be fine.”
They climbed onto the porch. Lyra saw him and stepped out of Zach’s arms.
“I’m so sorry, Coop.”
“Come here.” He grabbed her and pulled her in to hug all his thanks straight into her bones. “I’m fuckin’ glad you were here. Thanks for taking care of my girls.”
She laughed softly. Against his shirt she muttered, “I didn’t even know youhadgirls until the other night. But I saw you and Siena together and knew she wasn’t just a chick. She’s your old lady. They’re family.”
Yeah, they were—and he’d just figured out that out in the past few hours. Siena wasn’t just a chick. She wasn’t just a girlfriend. He was in love with her.
Love hurt a fuck ton more than he’d imagined.
Cooper squeezed Lyra harder—so hard, in fact, she squeaked. “Sorry, sorry.” He let her go. “I don’t know how to thank you enough—except, I guess, squeeze you till you break.”
With a sweet chuckle, she put a warding hand up. “I’m sufficiently thanked, no worries. She’s up in your office. She’s been asleep pretty much since we got here.”
Cooper went into the clubhouse. Everybody else followed. There were a couple girls in here. He knew them both; they’d been hanging around regularly for a little while now. He nodded their way, and they both smiled with sweet sympathy. One, Belle, set her hand on her heart.
“I’m gonna head out and check the recordings from last night,” Kai said. “See if we got the doers.”
Cooper nodded. “Let me know as soon as you know anything.”
“We riding out today?” Ben asked.
“I don’t know yet. Let’s see what we can see, then we’ll talk and figure shit out. In thechapel, we’ll talk.” He tipped his head toward Geneva, hoping everybody but her understood his meaning.
Six nodding heads indicated they did.
“Would you be okay hanging with Geneva a while longer?” Cooper asked Lyra.
“I’m almost fifteen! I don’t need a sitter!” Geneva complained.
“We got her, boss,” Reed said. “Hey, Geneva—do you play pool?”
“No.” She said it with an exasperated sigh.
