“Here and there,” I said, clasping his outstretched hand for a few pumps. “What’s new with you?”
“Not much. Business is great.” My cousin always felt the need to inform me of that. Damon was practically the only family I had. His mother and mine are twins, and his move to Florida a few years back had been with the goal of owning his own place. I was there for him when he needed an investor. When I became a silent partner, it had nothing to do with making a profit. Little did he know every check he sent me ended up in an account in his name.
Damon slid my preferred whiskey with a twist toward me. “Hey, have you talked to your mom lately?”
The look on his face caused the blood to drain from mine. “A few days ago. What’s wrong?”
Picking up on my panic, he raised his hands in defense. “Oh… nothing, man. I just wondered,” he said, not meeting my eye and looking like a cat that swallowed the canary.
“Bullshit. What do you know?”
“Shit. I assumed she told you.” My raised brows and bulging eyes had him rushing on. “Apparently, she’s in love.”
“What?!” Seriously… the fuck? Love?
“Yeah. Some dude named John. They met online.” My mouth hanging open in shock caused him to chuckle.
“When?”
“Like six months ago… I think. I assumed you knew she was seeing someone.”
“No. I didn’t. She’s too old to be meeting people online.” Or screwing a man. Bleh.
“Dude, she’s only fifty-four. I think it’s great. She’s been single far too long and needs someone to make her happy again. My parents are loving the fact they can double-date now.”
Feeling like a shit, I slumped a bit on my stool as he excused himself to serve another customer. I may have been watching the game, but I was thinking of my mom. We told each other everything, and as quickly as that thought popped in, another starring a certain college professor shamelessly interrupted. Guilty of keeping that from her, I thought of how far Cooper and I had come, and she wasn’t even aware of him yet.
I had the benefit of knowing his entire family. I’d been to where he’d grown up and spent his time. There was so much he didn’t know about me. Even sexually we were just scratching the surface. Sure, he had come a long way, but there was so much we had yet to experience. All while the clock continued to tick down until he would head back home.
And those thoughts led to a surge of desire that made my skin feel too tight for my body. As though my energy called to him, out of nowhere, a firm hand clamped down on my shoulder.
Shocked silent, he smirked at my surprise and shrugged. “Hey.”
My brain finally caught up when I asked, “Stalking me now?”
“With good intentions,” he said on a grin, taking the seat beside mine.
“How did you find me?”
“Rebecca,” we both said at the same time.
“I went by your place, and you weren’t there, so she suggested I look here.”
Damon sauntered over, flinging a dishrag over his shoulder. “Cooper, this is my cousin Damon. He owns the place.”
Damon’s eye caught mine before he corrected, “Part owner.” Offering a hand to Cooper, he then added, “Nice to meet you, man.”
“Same here.” Cooper’s gaze swept over Damon’s face. “You guys could be brothers.”
“Our mothers are twins,” Damon replied. “What can I get you?”
“Do you have Modelo?”
On a nod, Damon said, “Coming right up.” As my cousin placed a monogrammed napkin on the shiny wood before us, Cooper’s finger absentmindedly traced the letters D & R.
“This place is awesome,” Cooper said to me, taking a moment to admire the pub. It was tastefully decorated in dark woods and highly polished brass… something I’d insisted on. However, Damon had won the argument regarding the wall-mounted TVs and the pool table in the back.
No sooner had Damon stepped away from us than Cooper stared at me with a raised brow. “Is this the favorite hangout you mentioned?” Lifting my whiskey, I nodded before taking a sip. Cooper’s attention then went back to the ivory paper napkin. “And would the R in D & R stand for Ricky?”
“Busted… but I’m just a silent partner. The place is all Damon’s.”
“In other words, you helped financially?” Cooper called me out. I wasn’t surprised he had. He seemed to know me well, which probably accounted for the reason he was even there. I’d acted like an idiot earlier, and I wasn’t sure how I would talk myself out of that.
He held my eye, those hazel orbs mesmerizing me in so many unexpected ways. That shouldn’t have surprised me either. Everything he had done since arriving in Florida had been one unexpected turn after another.
When Damon returned with Cooper’s beer, sensing the mood, he said, “If you boys need anything else, just holler.”
One sip later, Cooper got right to the point. “Want to talk about today?”
“Sure.”
“You first.” He tilted the bottle at me. “And remember we agreed to complete honesty,” he threw in my face.
“Like you would let me forget.” I tried for funny and failed. Needing the courage, I shot back the rest of my whiskey and sighed. “I worry you’re moving too fast.”
The instant the words were out, I regretted them, even before seeing his frown. “I’m moving too fast?” he repeated. “Is that how you feel? You want to slow down?”
“No… not us. I mean with everything else.”
“So you, who didn’t want to be involved with someone who was still hiding in the closet, now has an issue I’m out?”
Fucker. “What are you, a shrink?” Again, my humor fell flat, so I went with the truth. “That’s an unfair generalization. Coming out is a very delicate process. I don’t want you to have any regrets.” Or a change of heart. I hated feeling that, and I hated it always came back to that. Before today, I thought I’d moved on from that argument… clearly, I hadn’t. Knowing that his parents now knew made this a whole new ball game.
Cooper stared into the narrow neck of his beer, appearing to be searching for some kind of an answer inside the golden liquid. He twisted his head to stare at me. “You seemed supportive earlier. You…” Instead of completing his sentence, he began picking at the label on his bottle.
“I what?”
“You placed a hand on my shoulder as I was about to tell my mother what we had wasn’t love, even though for me it may be.” He turned away and focused on the game.
What was I supposed to say to that? That he misunderstood a supportive gesture as conceding to the notion we could be in love? That he and I couldn’t possibly be in love with so much emotional baggage weighing us down?
“Look,” he went on, his tone becoming defensive, “I get my track record going into this discredits how I’m acting now. It’s not lost on me the first time I voiced I was gay was a few hours ago to my parents. With my actions, yes, I’m asking you to make sense of the nonsensical. And I know you’ve compared me to Corey, dumping me in the same bucket because we were both straight. But Corey’s crime was being an asshole… Mine was denial. To you, it may be the same. I get that. You were hurt. But I’m telling you it’s not the same. Unlike Corey, I came to terms with my real truth and refuse to hide behind it anymore.” With that, he turned back to the TV, but his annoyance rang through in the clench of his jaw.