Games
A rich chocolaty aroma stopped Cooper by the nose the minute he stepped through the sliding door. His legs moved on their own, drawn under a spell. The sound of music, laughter, and clanging drew him around the doorway to the kitchen and into a scene he’d pay to have on film.
While Quinn was entranced in her usual baking-slash-dancing routine, Brayden sat in the middle of the floor, surrounded by pots and pans he must’ve dragged out of the bottom cabinet. He looked up from his makeshift instruments and expanded a chocolate-coated smile at Cooper. Shrieking in delight, he banged a wooden spoon over the back of the nearest pot.
“Nice beat, hoss.” He rubbed Brayden’s hair.
Quinn turned from the counter where she was using a spatula to smooth out a decadent looking mixture in an aluminum pan. “Oh good. I have something I need to talk to you about, but give me twelve minutes or so.” She opened the oven and slid the pan inside. “And you can try these cheesecake brownies I’m testing out for Ginny’s party first.”
“Looks like you guys have been taste testing without me.” Cooper sauntered across the tiles and wiped a dollop of batter from her bangs.
A coy smile spread flour smudges across her cheeks. “Maybe a little.”
Loose wavy strands of hair falling from her ponytail fluttered under the vent, and Cooper simply stared. He’d come in to make sure they both knew where things stood between them, but all he could do was stand there like a speechless idiot.
“What’s wrong?” The faintest collection of freckles wrinkled on her nose. “You look like something’s on your mind.”
More like tearing his mind apart. He pulled on his ear, downplaying. “Just surprised to see you okay with a big mess like this.” A panoramic glance around the disheveled kitchen ended in a sideways smirk. “All without a single sticky note, no less. You’re really taking this leap stuff seriously, aren’t you? I’m not sure if I should be impressed or nervous.”
The stiff grin she doled at him morphed into something almost devilish. “Making a mess can be kind of fun.” She unrolled a bag of flour on the counter. “When someone else gets to clean it up.” With the last word hanging in a laugh, Quinn flicked a handful of flour at his face.
Cooper didn’t move except for a single blink. “You did not just start this.”
“Oh, more than start.” She grabbed the beaters and turned them on high speed, splattering chocolate batter across his face. “I just finished it, hoss.”
Giggles erupted from the floor as Brayden waved his giant spoon in the air like a conductor. “’Gain. ’Gain.”
Quinn backed up, her pinched lips barely restraining a laugh.
Nice try. Cooper lassoed her at the waist before she got more than five steps away. “You think that’s funny, do you?” He whirled her around and wedged his head past her flailing hands to smear the chocolate from his face to hers. “It’s on now, girl.”
She squealed while reaching for more flour to dust his hair with.
He intercepted the bag, flung a scoop at her, and caught her wrists when she tried to retaliate. “You’re right. It is fun when someone else is cleaning it up.”
“Don’t think you’re getting out of this one, buddy.” She squirmed harder, but Cooper backed her into the corner by the sink with no way to escape.
“I’m sorry, who’s the one needing to get out of something?”
Quinn braced her palms against his chest. “You’re lucky Brayden’s here.”
That made two of them. With her backed against the counter, bookended between his arms, his pulse jack rabbited past the adrenaline of horsing around into a sphere far more uncontrollable.
Emotion shifted in her eyes as she reached a thumb to a smudge of batter that’d ended up by the corner of his mouth. “The kitchen isn’t the only thing that’s a mess.”
She had no idea, and he was only making it worse. But instead of listening to reason, a yearning he couldn’t douse kept him in place. His pulse drowned out the music coming from her phone and hedged all logic back to the dock where he’d obviously left it.
On instinct, he let go of the counter and cupped the back of her neck. Breaths passed between them, each one anchoring him in eyes drawing him deeper. The sweet fragrance of chocolate mingling with honey consumed his senses until nothing else mattered.
Quinn held his gaze with earnest, and the spell that’d lured him in from the beginning overtook his heart. He lifted his free hand to her cheek and pressed in till his lips barely grazed hers.
She leaned back, looking torn between two opposing emotions. His heart sank. What did he expect? He’d crossed a line they both knew needed to stay intact.
The doorbell blared from the entryway, but he didn’t move at first.
Quinn pulled the hair band out of what was left of her ponytail and stared at the grout between the tiles.
Good job, Anderson. Instead of clearing things up, he’d made them even more convoluted and uncomfortable. He kneaded his shoulder, stalling. If he found the right pressure point, maybe he’d unlock something half decent to say.
Not even close.
When the doorbell rang a second time, he shuffled backward. “I should go . . .” Put an end to the awkwardness overtaking the room? Stretching it even further instead, he made a clumsy about-face and almost smacked right into the edge of the open doorway. He tapped a hand to the trim. “Nice and sturdy.”
Really? Forget awkward. How about pathetic?
Cringing, Cooper made a beeline to the hall and opened the front door.
On the other side, his realtor stood with a middle-aged couple beside him, looking like they’d just come from a country club. The blatant once-over they cast down the brownie batter left on Cooper’s face joined Ray’s mortified stare.
Cooper ran his hands across his cheeks and through his hair, as if there was any dignity left to salvage. “Ray, why didn’t you tell me you were stopping by?”
His realtor’s phony laugh filled the stagnant air hovering on the porch. He splayed an arm between the couple and Cooper. “Businessmen. We’d all be lost without our secretaries. Am I right?” He clamped a hand on Cooper’s shoulder and pitched his suave smile at his clients. “Give us just a quick moment.”
Ray steered him through the door. “Since when aren’t you answering your phone? I left you two messages.”
Cooper patted his empty pockets. Clearly, his head wasn’t the only thing he’d lost recently. “I’m sorry. I got caught up in—”
The oven timer went off.
“I know exactly what you’re caught up in.” Ray’s line of sight ricocheted down the hall and landed on Quinn, setting the pan of brownies on the counter. “This isn’t the time for games, Cooper.” He pointed to the closed door. “You have potential buyers expecting a tour today. Do you want to sell this place or not?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then start acting like it.” Ray adjusted his tie. “Listen, I want to help you out, but you’ve gotta decide whether you’re leaving or staying.”
A tendon on Cooper’s neck flexed. “There’s nothing to decide.”
“You positive?” He flicked a glance at Quinn again. “’Cause that sure looks like a complication to me.”
First Drew, now Ray. His phone call with his brother stormed to mind, sparking his frustration with people’s perceptions of him and his lifestyle.
“She’s the nanny, all right. There’s nothing holding me back from leaving. Certainly not a temporary employee.” The heated words came out louder than he meant them to. When he caught a flash of hurt move past Quinn’s eyes, complication didn’t come close to covering it.
His shoulders slumped. Releasing a hard breath, he started toward her without thinking, until Ray cut him off. Cooper glared at the hand on his shoulder.
Ray let go. “The ball’s in your court. When you’re ready to make a move, you call me.” He backed up and showed himself out while Cooper just stood there. Lost.
What the heck was wrong with him?
Back in the kitchen, Quinn dabbed a washcloth to the corners of Brayden’s chocolate mustache.
His heart tanked again. He wasn’t playing games, but Ray was right about one thing. He had to start living like his choice was the one he truly wanted. No more getting sidetracked by feelings that didn’t matter. No more giving in to spells. Just truth, facts. They’d be parting in a week. It was time he made it clear what that meant.
A knock at the door stopped him mid-step down the hall toward Quinn. Ray couldn’t really think he’d cleaned everything up in two minutes.
He hustled back to the door, swung it open, and froze. Not Ray. “Livy?”
His good friend from Ocracoke raised her delicate shoulders. “Surprise.”
After Livy had a chance to settle in and meet Quinn and Brayden, Cooper got cleaned up and then gave her a quick tour of his place. Out on his dock, he nudged his toolbox beside the bench to clear the path. “I still can’t believe you drove up here without telling me.”
“Correction. I tried to tell you. Someone isn’t answering his phone very often these days.” Livy tossed him a pointed look.
If she didn’t know him better than most, he would’ve tried to dodge it. “Yeah, guess there’s been a lot going on around here.” He scratched his jaw, expecting her to dish out an intuitive comment about Quinn.
When it didn’t come, he angled to catch her gaze. “I’m sorry for losing touch lately. It really is good to see you, Liv.” He raised a suspicious brow. “But Drew didn’t happen to put you up to coming, did he?”
Saying everything and nothing at the same time, an evasive smile clung to the sunlight as she turned toward the lake. “I can see why you like it here. It’s beautiful.”
He’d let her sidestep the question. For now. “It’s nothing like the ocean, though.”
“It has a different kind of charm. You can feel the peacefulness here, you know? The seclusion, serenity. It’s almost . . . freeing.” She watched an osprey glide across the water, as though wishing she had wings of her own.
Cooper sidled up beside her at the end of the dock. “Something going on you wanna talk about?”
“Just feeling like I’m ready for a change, I guess.” She slipped her hands into her back pockets and rocked on her feet. “I don’t know, Coop. This past year, things have been . . . different. You’re gone. Seeing Grandma Jo and Mr. Fiazza together is just plain weird.” She laughed. “And Drew and Ti are adorable as ever.”
“They’re not making you sick, are they?” Grinning, Cooper grabbed a chisel from his toolbox along with a file.
“I’ve never seen Drew and Maddie so happy.” Her expression turned wistful. “Or Ti, for that matter. They’re so perfect together. It still amazes me—last summer, I mean. After everything they went through, now look at them.”
“As Grandma Jo would say, things have a way—”
“Of working themselves out. Yeah, I know.” Livy twisted her long blonde hair up and fanned her neck.
“I take it you don’t believe that.”
“Do you?” Tilting her head, she let her hair fall and studied him. Avoiding the question obviously didn’t disable her ability to read between the lines. “Drew would take Brayden, you know. If you asked.”
Cooper stopped filing and stared at his chisel, wishing the truth wasn’t as sharp. “I know he would.”
“But that doesn’t mean it’s your only choice.” She twiddled her fingers, head down. “Being able to raise a son . . . It’s a special gift not everyone’s lucky enough to have.” She looked up with eyes carrying the same brokenness in her voice. “I just don’t want to see you throw something away out of fear. You’ll end up regretting it all your life.”
Instead of pressing it further, she left the comment hanging in the thick air and returned her focus to the backdrop surrounding them.
The same bird from earlier skimmed across the water in the opposite direction. This time, Cooper wouldn’t have minded being the one with wings. Maybe in the sky, he’d find perspective. Or at least escape.
Livy steadied his fidgety hands. “I admire you, Coop. Always have. And I think opening the boat shop in honor of your dad is really courageous, I do.” Squinting, she jabbed a pointer finger in his chest. “As long as you’re not running away.”
“From what?” He strode to the bench, probably sounding about as nonchalant as that blasted osprey, squawking for its mate.
If Livy’s chuckle meant anything, she obviously agreed. “You know the problem with being good friends? I know when you’re lying. Even to yourself.”
Cooper peered at the house and heaved an exhale. “There’s nothing to run from, Liv. Brayden needs a solid family, and Quinn’s . . .”
“Different?”
He chucked his tools on the bench. “I know what you’re gonna say, all right? Everyone assumes I’m just playing games, but—”
“Actually, I was going to say, I think there’s something there worth giving a chance.” She crossed the boards and leaned a shoulder into his. “C’mon, Coop. It took me all of two minutes with you guys to see it’s more than a fling.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You’re so infuriatingly daft sometimes, you know that? You’re as bad as your brother.” She punched him in the shoulder.
“Dang, GI Jane.” He rubbed his arm. “When did Mr. Fiazza start tacking weights onto those trays you carry around all day?”
“You’re lucky we’re not in the restaurant, or I’d dump one of his specials right on your head. Maybe then you’d wise up.”
He matched her sassy brow. “Wow. Looks like someone’s been spending a little too much time with Grandma Jo lately.”
“For your sake, I won’t tell her you said that.”
Their shared laugh drifted into the breeze careening along the dock, leaving a sense of gravity in its wake. Gentle laps against the shoreline hovered in the quiet.
Livy’s arms came uncrossed with a sigh. “Listen, you know I’m the last person to give advice on life, especially relationships. So, all I’m going to say is this, and then I promise I’ll leave it alone.”
She turned him to face her. “I’ve watched you carry the weight of loss for a long time. You’ve covered it up for years, pretending to be the free, unattached bachelor without a care in the world. But I know you. You want more than that.”
When Cooper’s forehead scrunched in defense, her smile softened all the more. “You’re a terrible liar, remember?”
Apparently, worse than he thought.
“All I’m saying is, look what Drew and Ti would be missing if they kept running instead of risking a second chance?” She squeezed his hand and turned toward the lake again
The deep-seated tenor in her voice held a palpable ache as familiar as his own. Cooper brought his longtime friend into a hug. “I’m glad you came, Liv.”
His gaze roamed toward the house again, his thoughts toward the girl inside.
Livy must’ve noticed. “What are you waiting for?”
“The courage you seem to think I have.”
“To tell her . . . ?” She waved a hand, prompting.
With a deep inhale, Cooper raked his fingers through his hair. “The truth.”