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Cooper’s jaw drops and he looks down at the face that’s clearly made of plastic while the “baby” starts to cry again. “What the blazing fuck?”
Wide eyes meet mine while he still cradles the doll, and we stare for a good ten seconds before I burst out laughing. The relief is overwhelming.
“Why does it sound so real? And it’s heavy!” The indignance in his voice and his appalled expression are hilarious. The man is offended. He chucks the doll back on the bed while I slide down to sit on the floor, holding the stitch in my side while I try to stop laughing.
A second later he joins me on the floor, and we lean back against the bed. The doll decides to be quiet, but I lose it again every time I look over at Cooper. A little grin grows on his lips. “The look…on your face,” I gasp, fighting for breath.
His chest shakes and he nods. “Scared the shit out of me.”
“Me too.” We both spend a second catching our breath before I turn to him. “You almost called an ambulance for a doll.”
“I wasn’t the one calling for it like a cat. Here, baby baby.”
“I couldn’t remember her kid’s name! You kicked in her door.”
He runs a hand over his cheek with a sheepish smile. “Yeah, I’m going to have to fix that.”
“I’ll call Kate and let her know,” I tell him, standing up. “Let’s go. I can’t feel my face.”
He rises and catches me off guard when his cool lips land on mine. It’s only a few seconds, but it feels better than it should. “I can feel it fine,” he murmurs.
The half laugh half snort I let out is the farthest thing from cute that must exist in the universe, but his smile widens. “You’re stupid.”
The doll starts screaming again, and he steps away from me. “Okay, let’s go before I drop kick that thing.”
Between the alcohol, the few moments of pure terror, and that kiss, my head is spinning. On our walk back to the community building to warm up, I call Kate. She answers right away despite it being almost midnight. Fortunately, she isn’t the least bit upset about her door and Cooper promises to get it secured tonight.
I’m telling the whole story to Lila and Cara when Cooper returns from working on her door. “That damn thing is still screaming. If there’s a way to take the batteries out, I don’t see it. It might be possessed,” he says, joining us where we sit on a pallet of blankets.
“Kate said to tell you she’s sorry for the scare. Apparently, her fifteen year old nephew forgot it there last night.”
“Why does her nephew want a screaming doll?”
“He didn’t want it. It’s one of those dolls they make high schoolers care for to show them not to have kids too young. We had to do it too,” Cara answers. “It sucked but I got an A.”
“Mine cried too long too many times because I slept through it,” Lila chuckles. “I can’t remember what grade I got but I passed.” She glances at me with a grin. “I didn’t kill mine.”
Cooper’s head swivels in my direction and his eyebrows leap up. “You killed your fake baby?”
“No! I mean, it died, yeah, but it’s not like I murdered it.”
“No, you just stuffed it in your locker to eat lunch,” Cara says.
Lila slaps Cara’s knee. “And left it on the bus overnight, don’t forget about that.”
“That’s right! Didn’t it also have an injury?”
All eyes are on me. “Okay, it may have somehow ended up with a broken arm. The cat Pops used to have liked to play with it.” Shrugging, I grin at their silent laughter. “I told them I already knew I didn’t want kids. It’s not for me.”
Our conversation is cut short when the lights flicker then stay on. Cara looks at her phone. “Just past one a.m. Not bad considering it was three days the last time we had this much snow. I’m going to go wake Monroe.”
Some tenants choose to wait another thirty minutes or so to make sure the power is going to stay on and to give their trailers time to warm back up, but eventually the building empties out. Cooper is busy talking with Pops and Hector when I wave. “Going home! Take me off the clock!” I tease.
His expression makes it clear he’d be happy for me to head over to his office trailer instead, but it’s been a long day. Tonight was fun. Cooper was fun. It was also sexy as hell when he kicked in that door. Maybe it’s the alcohol or the exhaustion, but my perception of him feels different. This is how I get myself in trouble, falling for dumb little things about a guy when I know they’re not a good person. I have to remind myself of who he is; a rich jerk who had to be court ordered to care. A fuck buddy not a partner.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
