“I want you to not rule anything out.” When she started to protest, he gently laid a finger over her lips. “Don’t rule anything out.”
“Cooper…”
“Hey, Gigi, what are you two whispering about over there?” Jordan asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Gigi said.
“Yes, I would. That’s why I asked.”
“Mind your own business, darling,” Evelyn said, “and leave Gigi alone.”
“She never leaves me alone,” Jordan retorted, sticking her tongue out at Gigi.
Gigi stuck hers out at Jordan.
“Now, that’s more like it,” Evelyn said. “These girls have been minding each other’s business since they were little kids.”
“How old were you all when you met?” Cooper asked.
“Second or third grade?” Gigi said.
“Third,” Nikki said. “The year we all had the chicken pox. Remember that?”
“How could we forget?” Gigi asked.
“They all came down with it at the same time,” Evelyn said, “so I kept them together at my house, figuring they’d be happier suffering together.”
Cooper found it interesting that Gigi had stayed at Evelyn’s when she was sick, rather than her own home. If his plan had any hope of working, he realized he needed a visit with Evelyn sometime when no one else was around. She would have insight into Gigi that could prove useful to Cooper.
What are you doing, man? Plotting and scheming to make her fall in love with you? Really?
As she tipped her head back to laugh at something Jordan had said, Cooper was struck once again by how incredibly lovely she was.
Cooper wanted to truly know her. He wanted to understand what made her tick. And he was starting to think he could love her. This was unprecedented territory for him, and he ought to be thinking about how he might extricate himself from this situation before it got complicated. That’s what he’d do under normal circumstances.
But nothing about this was normal.
* * *
Much later, after most of the guests had left, Gigi and Cooper joined Evelyn, Jordan, Mason, Nikki, Riley, Finn and Chloe at the fire pit.
“So I’ve waited all night to hear this news you have,” Nikki said to her sister. “Spill it.”
Jordan, who was seated on Mason’s lap, smiled at him as he held her even closer. “We’re pregnant.”
Nikki let out a shriek that had everyone else laughing. “I told you,” she said to Riley. “Pay up.”
“You bet on what it was?” Cooper asked.
“Hell yes.”
“How much did she win?” Jordan asked.
“Fifty bucks,” Riley said with a playful frown as he slapped a fifty into Nikki’s outstretched hand.
“What did you think it was?”
“That you guys had eloped.”
“I told him you’d never do that to me or Gram or Gigi,” Nikki said. “We deserve to be there for your happy ending.”
“You’re right,” Jordan said. “You do deserve to be there.”
“We’re going to find a time this winter, after your wedding, to get it done,” Mason said. “Maybe we’ll go somewhere warm.”
“Sign me up for that,” Evelyn said. “I’ll even pay for it.”
“You don’t have to do that, Gram.”
“I’m old. I can do what I want.”
“I love when she plays that card to shut you guys down,” Gigi said, laughing.
“She’s playing that card a lot more often lately,” Nikki said.
“I’m getting even older,” Evelyn said. “I plan to get much worse before I depart.”
“You’re not departing,” Jordan said. “Ever.”
Gigi couldn’t begin to imagine life without Evelyn Hopper telling them all what to do and how to live. The very thought of her leaving them was enough to turn Gigi’s stomach.
Cooper reached over and took her hand in a smooth, subtle move that seemed well practiced.
In the past, she might’ve worried about her man of the moment wanting to talk later about something he’d overheard her saying about him. But Cooper had already set her mind at ease and let her know he wasn’t angry. She appreciated he hadn’t let it fester to the point that it ruined an otherwise lovely evening.
Nikki was so excited about Jordan’s news, the two of them buzzing the way they did about weddings and showers and babies. Gigi felt truly separate from them for the first time in all the years the three of them had been a squad. Their lives were going in very different directions, and before too much longer, Jordan and Nikki would no longer be in her daily life.
The show would probably end with the season on Gansett, and Jordan would live happily ever after with Mason, while Nikki did the same with Riley. Finn and Chloe, who’d become friends during the summer they’d all spent together, were engaged and planning a spring wedding. Everyone around her was figuring out their shit.
She would go home and pick up the law practice she’d neglected somewhat during the years she’d appeared on Jordan’s show. Maybe she’d take a closer look at some of the lucrative endorsement deals or business opportunities she’d been offered as the show skyrocketed in popularity. As a single woman with no family of her own, Gigi understood the importance of making as much money as she could while the iron was hot, so to speak, to ensure she’d have plenty for later in her life when the stardom faded, as it always did.
No matter what, she’d figure it out the way she had from the time she was a teenager, even if life without Jordan and Nikki at the center of it wouldn’t be as much fun.
“Do you want to go?” Cooper asked.
“Sure. I’m ready if you are.”
“I’m ready.”
They said their goodbyes and headed for her car.
“You want me to drive?” he asked. “I quit drinking hours ago.”
She handed him the keys. “Don’t drive my baby off any cliffs.”
“A guy has one close call at a cliff, and suddenly, he has a reputation.”
“That’s right, and we’ll never let you forget it.”
“Good to know.” He held the passenger door of her white Mercedes coup and waited until she was settled.
“Nice manners, Mr. James.”
“Why, thank you, Ms. Gibson.”
When he was in the car, she turned to him. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better than I was earlier today. I’ve always bounced back fast from injuries and illness.”
“You’re lucky. We had a cameraman on the first season of the show who broke ribs in a motorcycle accident, and he was out for months.”
“I broke my arm when I was twelve. I was only in a cast for three weeks. The doctors couldn’t believe it was totally healed that fast.”
“Wow. That is fast.”
“And I was thankful because it happened on the last day of school. The last thing I wanted was to be in a cast all summer.”
“Which hurt more? The ribs or the arm?”
“The ribs. Way worse at first, but it’s dwindled to an ache at this point.”