With the end of filming in sight, they’d be under pressure about that before much longer. And with Jordan expecting the Gansett fire chief’s child, there was a very good chance that she wouldn’t be going back to LA at all.
Now that she’d stormed off the location, Gigi was at a loss as to where to go. If she went back to Jared’s, there was a chance she’d run into Cooper, and she didn’t want to see him. Not now when she was feeling so raw about what’d happened between them last night. And just for the record, it wasn’t at all like her to freak out about sex. To her, sex was transactional. Everyone got off and went home happy—most of the time, anyway. A lot of the guys she’d been with wouldn’t know how to get a woman off if their life depended on it.
Cooper hadn’t had that problem—or any other, for that matter. The man was a god in bed and out. That was the problem. She didn’t want to have found the unicorn. That stuff was for other women, not her. She had no time or patience for all the crap that went along with men and relationships. Gigi didn’t do relationships. The word gave her hives, for fuck’s sake.
Relationship.
It was so pretentious and full of loaded guns pointing at vulnerable hearts. If you didn’t get involved in relationships, you couldn’t get your heart broken. That seemed rather simple to her in concept, but with her two closest friends settling into relationships that had forever stamped all over them, Gigi had tried to keep her scorn and contempt well hidden.
Just because her friends had found their forever loves didn’t mean Gigi was suddenly interested in the same for herself.
And why in the hell was she even thinking about that shit?
It was all Cooper James’s fault. If he had just done what he was supposed to do and gone through the motions with the usual wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am routine, none of this would be happening. She wouldn’t be in trouble with Matilda—and probably Jordan, too—and she wouldn’t be looking for a place to hide out so she could avoid running into him.
Why’d he have to do the whole sweet, tender routine? Why couldn’t he be like every other guy who wanted to get his rocks off and to hell with what the woman wanted?
Ugh, she was furious with him! Yes, she was well aware that her anger was ridiculous. The man had given her multiple orgasms, after all, and that alone made him special. However, she didn’t want him to be special. She wanted him to be a late-summer fling with no strings attached. Wasn’t that the very definition of the word fling?
After driving twice around the road that ran the perimeter of the island, she pulled into the parking lot at the bluffs—the scene of the crime, if you will—rolled the windows down and killed the engine. As the warm summer breeze blew through the car, she took a deep breath and let it out.
She was being completely foolish, and she knew it. But if she held on to the anger, she wouldn’t do something stupid, like go find him for another round of unicorn sex.
“You are not doing that, Gabrielle. Do you hear me? You will not have sex with Cooper James ever again. That is my final word on the matter.”
Enough of that madness, she thought, reaching for the cell phone she’d left in the car during filming, intending to send a message to Matilda. But then she saw one from Cooper, and like the idiot she was where he was concerned, she devoured his words.
Dear Gigi, last night was amazing. Completely and totally AMAZING. For me, anyway. I sort of get the feeling that you don’t agree, and I think I might know why that is. You’ve been very vocal about what this is and what it isn’t. I respect that. I respect you. We both have lives that take place far away from this island—and far away from each other. It would be easy to look at this thing between us as nothing more than two ships passing in the night on their way to bigger and better things. But here’s the thing… I’ve never met ANYONE like you. And I’m not talking about the larger-than-life public persona that’s Gigi Gibson. I’m talking about YOU, Gabrielle, the woman behind the flash. I think you’re magnificent, and all I want is to spend as much time with you as I possibly can for as long as I possibly can. You make me laugh. You make me think. You make me want like I’ve never wanted before. You make me crazy. You make me happy. You have me reconsidering my life plan so it can include you. I’m sure this message is making you boiling mad because we weren’t supposed to be about THIS. Trust me, I didn’t want THIS either. But here we are. I’d like to bring you dinner tonight so we can talk. Would that be okay? I hope so, because I have so much more I want to say to you. Love, Cooper
Gigi wiped tears from her face and then reread the message two more times.
Love, Cooper. Swoon.
Gigi Gibson did not swoon over any man! But this man… Dear God, he was killing her.
Her phone chimed with another text from him. PS, I can see that you’ve read my text, so now I’m just suffering. You don’t want me to suffer, do you? Do you?
Now she was laughing and crying. Goddamn him.
She started typing. Goddamn you.
After she sent the text, he replied with laughing emojis. My heart can’t take all this romance.
This is NOT a romance.
Feels like it could be.
I don’t do romance.
I know, but jeez, Gigi, maybe we ought to give it a try, just this once, to see what it’s like?
No.
Yes.
No.
YES.
Cooper…
Gigi… I like you. I REALLY like you, and I want to be with you.
You’re just a little boy. You don’t know what you want. There, that ought to piss him off and get things back on track.
I think I proved to you last night that there’s nothing little about me.
Goddamn him. Goddamn you.
More laughter emojis.
You’re not taking me seriously, Gigi wrote.
I’m taking you more seriously than I’ve ever taken anyone.
You weren’t supposed to do that.
I know, but…
I don’t want this.
I know.
So???
Can I see you?
Gigi shook her head as she responded. No! You’re radioactive now.
LOL, stop being silly. Me liking you isn’t a threat. From what I hear, it can be the nicest thing to ever happen to a person. Just ask my brother and Lizzie, Jordan and Mason, Nikki and Riley, Finn and Chloe. Need I go on? They all seem pretty damned happy.
Gigi felt herself wavering. He was so damned tempting, and that was the problem. She didn’t need someone to like her or care about her or whatever. She had her people. Someone like Cooper had the potential to ruin her, and she’d already clawed her way back from ruination once before. She didn't have it in her to do it again.
I can’t. She typed and sent the two words before she could talk herself out of fending him off.
Yes, you can.
No, I really can’t.
Why? Is it because you’re afraid? I kind of am, too. I mean, I’ve never before said anything like what I said to you above. It feels like a huge risk to put myself out there, knowing you could stomp on my delicate heart with your stiletto heels and go on with your life as if I never happened. Something like this… It’s risky for both of us, and to be honest, I never wanted it for myself until I saw my brother with Lizzie. What they have… It’s something truly amazing, and it got me thinking about what it would be like to have that with someone special. But that was supposed to be in the far-off future, not now. Not when I have so many other things I need to do, like start my career and figure out where I’m going to live and stuff like that. So trust me, I get why you think you can’t do this. It makes no sense. You live in LA. I live in NYC, or I do at least until Jared kicks me out of his apartment. I have no idea what’s happening tomorrow, let alone months from now. But the thing is, I want you to help me figure out my life, and more than anything, I want you to be part of it. Will you be part of it, Gigi?