His eyes are full of humor, his grin has yet to be swiped off his face, and he leaves no space between us as he takes the pillow from me, tosses it on his bed, and gently caresses my cheek with the back of his fingers.
“What do you have going on here?”
“First-class embarrassment. What does it look like?”
“It looks like you were attempting to seduce me.”
“What? Pffft, you got that from this?” I motion up and down my body. “Clearly you’re not up to date on your seduction techniques. This is actually a new, modern way of greeting your host. A fun party trick, if you will.”
“Is that right?” he asks, his fingers playing with the lapel of his lab coat.
“Yup. It’s very popular in Europe, actually. Greet your host in a lab coat. Extremely normal, not at all odd or embarrassing, or utterly demeaning. Completely natural.”
“Looks like it.” His thumb swipes across my collarbone. “It suits you.”
My breath catches in my chest at his touch and the sexy glint in his hazel eyes. “Well, glad you enjoyed my little party trick. But, since you have company, it’s best I be going so you two cousins can catch up. And hey, you can work on that puzzle. What a delightful evening for you.” I pat his chest. “I’ll just get out of your way—”
Beau pins my hips still and gently pushes me against the wall, keeping me in place. “Are you listening, Palmer?”
“Huh?” I ask, confused.
“Are you listening to me? I’m about to tell you how this night is going to go, but I need to make sure you’re actually listening.”
I swallow hard from the authoritative tone in his voice. “Yes, I’m listening.”
“Good.” He tucks a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. “I’m going to go back out to the living room and grab your clothes. You’re going to get changed so my cousin doesn’t have the privilege of seeing you in this European tradition.” He raises a brow at me. “And then we are going to all puzzle together. When it’s time for bed, Roger is going to take the couch, and then you’re going to sleep with me, in my bed. Okay?”
“In . . . your bed?” I ask, swallowing back my nerves that just spiked again.
“Yes, in my bed. Understood?”
“Yes.” I nod. “But . . .” I wince. “What are we going to tell Roger?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what’s the reason I’m spending the night?”
He smirks at me and leans in, placing a soft kiss on my nose. “Not sure, but you seem to be pretty good at coming up with European traditions we Americans have never heard of before. Maybe try one of those?” He smirks and then tugs on the lab coat. “I’ll get your clothes.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
COOPER
Nora is sitting on my lap, wearing some sort of silky outfit that’s doing far too many things for my imagination.
Her legs are straddling mine.
Her nipples are hard.
Her hands are gripping my shoulders.
And I’m reminded of just how fucking great our one night together was.
But my mind isn’t focused on any of that. It’s focused on what she said.
She told Dealia.
About what we did.
What the actual fuck?
“What the hell did she say?” I repeat.
Nora reaches up and smooths her hand through my hair. “She was pissed.”
I take Nora’s hands in mine and then force her to look at me. “Nora, this is serious—you told my ex-wife that I fucked her best friend.”
Nora shakes her head. “No, I told my best friend that I had sex with her ex-husband.”
“It’s the same thing.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not, because your situation looks like a revenge fuck, whereas mine reads as betrayal, and that’s the exact reason I told her the day after it happened.”
“What?” I say, moving Nora off me and standing, making sure my towel is secure. “You told her the day after? So she’s known this entire time?” I pull on the ends of my hair.
Nora grabs one of the throw pillows from the couch and holds it in front of her. “Of course she’s known. There’s no way I could do something like that and not tell her. She’s my best friend, Cooper.”
“I’m well aware of who she is. Fuck.” I pace her living room. “And she was pissed?”
“Or course she was. She didn’t talk to me for months.”
Why is Nora so calm right now? How could she possibly be calm when Dealia knows that we had sex? I’m about to lose my goddamn mind.
“She never said anything to me.”
“Probably because you’re her ex-husband, and she has no control over what you do or where you choose to stick it,” Nora says, an edge to her voice.
I pause and turn toward her. “Why are you getting mad at me?”
“Because you’re getting mad at me. Instead of worrying and acting like you got caught, maybe you should sit down and talk this out like a normal adult. You know, maybe ask how I am? Not everything is about you, Cooper.”
Shit, she’s right.
Dealia is just my ex-wife—our ship has sailed. But Dealia and Nora are still friends. Nora risked so much more being with me that night than I did. She risked her friendship, one she’s had for many years.
Taking a deep breath, I sit down next to her. “Shit, I’m sorry, Nora. How are you doing?”
“Right now? I kind of want to punch you.”
“Punch me? Why?”
“Because why do you care so much what she thinks? You seriously look like you’re about to throw up. You’re not married to her anymore, Coop. It’s not like you cheated. Maybe used me—”
“I didn’t use you,” I say, even though the words don’t feel right coming off my tongue.
“You didn’t? So you just fucked me and forgot my number or where I worked or where I lived? Or how about the texts I sent you—that went unanswered—to see if you were okay? If you’re going to be open about this, let’s be honest about everything.”
“Why are we even being open about this?” I ask.
“Because it’s the elephant in the room, and I don’t know, it seems like when you keep coming to visit me at the shop, it’s not really about changing the cake order and more about using that as an excuse to see me. Or am I wrong?” When I don’t answer, she shakes her head and looks off to the side. “Just leave, Cooper. You’re clearly not ready to be a man about this.”
My initial instinct is to stand from the couch, grab my clothes from the dryer, and take off, but that’s exactly what everyone would expect from me.
Crawling under a rock when I don’t want to face the reality.
And the reality right now is that I like Nora. I like her a lot, but a black cloud is hanging over the beginning of something that I think can be great. But I’m terrified. I’m terrified of opening up, of what she might think when we do address the elephant in the room. I’m terrified of losing a second chance at being with this girl.
But if I want to move forward with Nora—which, with each passing moment, I realize that I desperately do—then I need to face the facts. We have to talk about this.