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Ellery
I didn’t prepare myself for Cooper Rice’s wooing.
The next morning, there’s another breakfast waiting for me, this time a huge spread since there’s so much food that will go bad in the fridge since it’s our last day here.
I grab my phone halfway through our meal and realize that I never turned it back on after our day trip yesterday. “Shit.”
Cooper leans back in his seat, sipping his coffee.
“Well, if we thought we had until we got back for people to figure it out, we’re wrong. Bryce sent this over to me.” Something in my gut told me those ladies on the park bench were staring at us a little hard, but I thought they were moms, and Cooper had a hat on.
I turn the phone for him to see the picture of us kissing on the path, another one of him carrying me to the car, me laughing, and a third of us walking around packages after shopping downtown. The headline under the kissing picture reads, “Looks like Cooper Rice finally found love with his best friend.”
He stands, kisses me, and goes into the kitchen. Refilling his cup, he doesn’t say a word.
“You have nothing to say?”
He shrugs. “People were going to find out one way or another. Now it’s done with.”
“Bryce says people are speculating whether this is going to be good or bad for you. That maybe I’m a distraction you don’t need. And she said some people aren’t being kind about the fact that I was with Bradley first and now you.”
My stomach drops. Sure, I’ve been photographed with Cooper, and we’ve always maintained that we’re best friends, so there was never any judgment except for the people who said a man and woman can’t be just friends. Now, I’ve opened myself to ridicule online. I pray I don’t affect his game, otherwise it will only get worse.
“They don’t have to worry about my game, that’s my responsibility. All I care about is you and me.” He comes back over, kissing me before he sits down at the table.
“Coop.”
He’s already shaking his head. “Nope. We don’t care about those people. They sure as hell don’t care about us, they don’t even really know us. The football fans only care if I’m performing well enough for their fantasy football league, and the single women think they should be the ones on my arm. I learned a long time ago to not give a shit. None of them can come on that field and do what I do.” I bite my lip, causing him to stop and scrunch his eyebrows at me. “What?”
I stand and walk over to straddle him on his chair. “You’re really sexy when you’re being all ‘I’ll tell you how it is.’”
He grins, and his hands slide under my shirt and he pulls me closer to him. “Should we talk about my views on politics?”
I laugh. “No. Definitely not. I just like it that way you’re all like, ‘This is my life and they can all be damned.’”
“It’s true.” He stares into my eyes so hard I grow a little uncomfortable with the intensity of the intimacy, but my gaze doesn’t leave his. “It’s taken us so long to get here, I’m not going to let anyone tell us it’s bad. And they’ll see next game day that I’m still the same quarterback they had before his gorgeous best friend snapped him up.”
I wrap my arms around him, nuzzling into his arms. I’m sore from how many times we’ve had sex, though I still ache to have him inside of me. Will that ever go away?
His hands run down my back. “I won’t allow anyone or anything to come between us. I promise, Elle.” He kisses the top of my head.
“I just wish we could stay here forever.”
“Me too.”
We stay like that for a while, but as soon as we get back to Chicago, I know our bubble is going to burst. I’m scared it could be like a tsunami, and it won’t matter how tight Cooper’s hand is in mine, they’ll slip apart.
Cooper rings the downstairs buzzer of my apartment building even though he has a key.
“Who is it?” I pretend to not know.
“I’m here to pick up Ellery?” he asks.
I chuckle. “I’ll be right down.”
He hits the buzzer again.
“Yes?” I answer.
