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She gave me a dubious look. "How exciting," she said wryly.
I laughed and was relieved when she turned into the house, letting the screen door slam shut but not bothering to close the door. I smiled over my small victory, but my sense of triumph vanished when she emerged from the dark living room in a tiny bikini that left nothing to the imagination.
Good God, what did I get myself into?
"Alright then," I said, blowing out a long breath and hoping to God I could somehow mask my boner. "Grab a board, we have work to do," I said, directing her to the row of surfboards on my side of the carport.
She looked at me and muttered, "I sure hope you know what you're doing."
I offered a dark laugh, "Me too."
Haley
Ididn’t know what game Cooper was up to, but I was in no mood for it.
Except Cooper doesn't play games.
The voice reminding me of that fact was annoying—and not wrong.
Cooper had never been one to play games. Forthright to a fault, he is actually the exact opposite of Marcus.
It’s been a week since I'd walked out of my own wedding, and I’m realizing I don’t recognize the person I was when I was with Marcus. I don’t know what possessed me to stay in that relationship. He was unlike anyone I'd ever dated before and at the time, I thought that was a good thing. But now I can't help but wonder what I saw in him other than stability and somebody who was always in charge.
In this particular moment, however, he and Cooper had one thing in common: they were both bossy.
Cooper was back to his old bossy self, and I bit back a smile. I'd been a little dismayed when he interrupted the time I usually slipped from the house to go for my run, but he was determined. So at his instruction, I went and put on my bathing suit and then followed him to his side of the carport, where he selected a small board for me.
"Cooper, I have no idea how to surf," I said.
"I know you don't. That's why you're going to learn," he said, his board under his arm as he led me out across the sand.
I hurried to keep up with his long strides, struggling with the weight of the board underneath my arm. "Listen, I know this is your thing now, but do you have to convert everybody who comes to the island?"
"Of course not, but you? Yes," he said without turning around, but I could hear the smile in his voice.
"Why me?" I asked, instantly regretting it. The one thing I always cherished about Cooper was his total honesty. But sometimes he could be a little much. I didn't know if I could handle it in my current fragile state.
"Because you need to get out of that house and commune with nature. It will make you feel better," he said simply.
"I commune with nature," I protested, still struggling to keep up with him in the thick sand. "You told me yourself you saw me going out for my runs."
"Not that kind of nature," he was quick to say.
I laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize there was a specific kind I needed to be taking part in," I answered sarcastically.
"There is," he said without a trace of humor. "You're out there running, letting your mind run in a million different directions, and that's not getting in touch with nature. You're here to learn something new and focus all of your concentration on it. Yourmind won't be able to stray and do all the unhealthy things it's been doing."
"Since when did you become a therapist?" I asked, irritated.
He stopped then, so abruptly that I almost ran into him with my board.
"It's all about mental agility. Sometimes things happen in life that challenge us, and it's perfectly understandable to want to hide away, but if we do that for too long, we lose our ability to cope and then we have a hard time dealing with anything... I'm not a therapist, but I had to learn that lesson the hard way. So it's time to stop feeling sorry for yourself, get out of that bungalow to learn something new and commune with people. And I know you’ll appreciate the irony that this advice is coming from me, of all people."
I looked at him in mock horror, then started laughing uncontrollably... because he was right. I didn't know what to do with that.
Cooper was a lot of things: marginally grumpy, forthright to a fault, and he never required a lot of social interaction, but even he was sensible enough to know that a human being needed some socialization to survive. And if he, as a person who had little use for most people, was telling me I needed interaction, I knew I was in trouble.
My laugh turned into a sob, and I hiccupped, choking on my cry as I turned my head away so he wouldn't see, but it was too late. He'd already heard it.
