Cooper leaned down and whispered so quietly I almost couldn't hear him. "I want you naked right now in my bed, and I'd make your life perfect. I'm that good, baby."
"Sure, let's go."
Cooper sighed. "I want you to want it so bad that I'll have to pry you off me. We're just not there yet."
"I really can't see that ever happening. I'm not a girl who glues myself to people."
"You will with me. How can you not?"
"No comment."
Cooper gave me a very serious expression. "I'm going to do something. Do not freak out. Be casual. Can you do that?"
"No," I said in a panic.
Cooper reached behind me, and I felt his fingers on my ass. Forcing myself to stay very still, I felt him fiddling around and then he pulled his hand away.
"That suit is old, and it's riding up," he explained, taking a beer from his brother who walked by. "I didn't want anyone seeing my girl's ass cheeks."
"I didn't notice," I said, reaching awkwardly behind me.
"It's too hot out to notice. You're fine now."
"You could have just told me," I said and then rolled my eyes. "But why would you when you could touch my ass instead?"
"My girl is pretty fucking smart," he said, giving me a big, bright smile.
"Did you have braces?" I asked, basking the imperfection of his teeth.
"Yeah."
"I have pictures!" Bailey screamed, suddenly in front of us.
As she ran into the house, Cooper sighed and frowned down at me.
"I'm dating this guy right here," I said, touching his chest and ending his brain power for a moment. "I don't care about the dorky old Cooper."
"Can I see pictures of you as a kid?" he asked with a genuine smile.
"No. Never. I'll burn them first."
A laughing Cooper sighed again when Bailey returned with a picture in her hand.
"Here's the loser with his braces."
"You had braces too, shit for brains."
Bailey ignored him and thrust a picture at me. Looking it over, I frowned. The picture was of a slightly shorter, less muscular, still tanned and gorgeous Cooper. Oh, and he had clear fucking braces. He didn't even look like a dork. I couldn't catch a break.
"Disappointed?" Cooper asked, grinning.
"He was so ugly back then," Bailey said. "Like a mutant." When Cooper squinted at his sister, she backed away. "He wet his bed too."
Bailey ran away screaming while Cooper slowly followed her, taking his time to exact revenge. I stared at the picture of a teenage Cooper with his tattooless chest. I wished that chest still existed. The tattoos were his only physical flaw. Otherwise, he looked like absolute perfection to me. Even as he threw a tater tot at his sister, he was gorgeous. So busy staring in wonder at him, I didn't notice Sawyer grab the picture from me.
"Don't mock him!" she screamed, running into the house.
Startled, I froze and remained very still as everything sped up around me. Cooper stopped hounding Bailey so he could wrestle with Tucker, who must have whispered something to his brother. Now they were shoving each other around on the deck while Maddy watched on. Bailey walked to the grill and whined to her father, but Kirk just shrugged.
With all of the fighting, the dogs got riled up below the deck. Sawyer ran back outside and pushed Bailey away from their father. Quickly, the sisters were screaming at each other while the brothers continued their sweaty battle.
Standing on the deck overlooking the fantastic view, I ignored the chaos around me. Cooper and Tucker were beating on each other while Sawyer threw a pickle at Bailey, who made a lewd comment about pickles and dicks. Kirk laughed at her comment as he turned over the meat. Oh, and maybe a hundred dogs were attacking each other below the deck as if reenacting the siege at Helm's Deep from "The Two Towers."
Soon, Jodi joined me and lit a cigarette. I glanced at her and smiled as she watched me with her bright blue eyes.
"You're eighteen, right?" she asked, exhaling a ring of smoke.
Nodding, I felt small under her gaze. Even knowing I had mother issues didn't prepare me for the stress of watching a mom dissect me with her eyes.
"I was sixteen when I met Kirk. He was forty-two. People told me it wouldn't last. People told me when I got pregnant with Cooper how Kirk would ditch me in a trailer park and walk away. People don't know shit, though. You'd be best to ignore them when they give you advice."
With the way the locals feared the Johansson family, I doubted I would ever get negative advice about the relationship. I nodded anyway.
"Boys like Cooper come in two sizes. One is like his pop. He probably fucked every woman in the state and couldn't find a single one who interested him. He just didn't have it in him yet to settle down. By the time he met me, he had a need no easy fuck could satisfy. Kirk grew into commitment. Some say he got too old to fuck, but trust me he hasn't slowed down any."
Jodi and I shared a smile.
"Then there are guys like my boy. He isn't ready to be committed. He needs time and to fuck everything that walks past him. Instead, he found you. Now he can't let that feeling go. Sometimes, a man grows into an ability to love. Sometimes, they just wake up one day in love whether they've grown enough or not. Cooper hasn't grown shit, but he's in love. He doesn't know it yet because he's an idiot. Men his age are all idiots, but Cooper's especially stupid. Mostly because he's the smart one in the family. It makes him think he doesn't have to think. He just assumes he has all the answers. With you, he doesn't because he's not ready for you. He thinks he is, so he's going to fuck up all over the place. You best prepare yourself for that."
"We just met," was my idiot reply.
"Every time you two butt heads, he comes whining to me. His pop tells him to fuck someone else, and it'll be fine. I know, though. I saw the stupid in Kirk's eyes when he realized he was in love and wasn't walking away. Cooper's got that stupid look now, but he's too stupid to understand. He just wants what he wants. When it ain't easy, he gets pissed. Then he whines about how getting pissed didn't fix anything. Then he wants to dump you and move on. Then he realizes he can't because he needs you. Then he figures he'll make things happen like he always does. When it doesn't work immediately, he's pissed again. The fucker is in a downward spiral, but he's a good boy and will eventually figure things out."
In those last few minutes, Jodi said more to me than my mother had in the last two weeks. I felt an odd need to impress this woman. Maybe not so odd since my need for a mom was why I grabbed onto Mrs. Prescott so tightly. She was everything Amy wasn't.
Now Jodi was sharing with me. Before I could get too comfortable with the idea of bonding with her, she continued, "My boy deserves the best. I don't know that you're good enough, but you're what he wants. If he can't have the best, he deserves to have what his heart needs. You better be kind to my boy because I'd hate to go mama bear on you."
Jodi smiled like she was kidding, but I knew she wasn't. I didn't know much about the Johansson family, but I knew they caused scary people to get out of the way. Like those guys at the party who roofied Bailey and I never saw again. It was a small college, and I'd seen one of them every day at school before the incident. Afterward, he was just gone. People who could make that happen would have no problem disappearing me too.
"I understand," I said.
"You're a smart girl. Coop says you want to be a teacher. That's a nice job for a young woman. Then when you give me grandbabies, you can stay home and teach them."
Nodding, I glanced at Cooper, who had Tucker in a headlock. The brothers were both eating hot dogs, but Cooper wouldn't let Tucker go. Yet his younger brother didn't even care. He was too busy flirting with Maddy, who had a serious case of the giggles. I think she liked seeing him in the headlock. Not that she would ever admit this fact. I didn't blame her. The Johanssons were a scary family.
Once Jodi left to turn on a Heart CD before joining Kirk at the grill, Cooper finally dumped Tucker next to Maddy. He strolled to me with a hot dog covered in ketchup, mustard, and relish.
"Is someone hungry?" he teased, pressing the hot dog against my lips.
"Thank you."
Cooper stepped close enough for me to lean against and I did because his mom had scared the shit out of me. What happened if Cooper and I had a fight? What if I didn't put out? Anything could happen to me and who would even care?
"Did she threaten you?" Cooper whispered in my ear as his arms wrapped around me.
"No."
"Really?" he asked, smiling. "I thought she loved me."
"I'm doing my best."
Cooper's smile disappeared. "What does that mean?"
"I don't upset you on purpose," I lied.
"She's teasing you, Farah. Or maybe not, but she just wants me to get what I want."
"Maybe we should, you know?" I asked, biting into the hot dog even though my stomach churned full of anxiety.
"Should what?" Cooper asked, taking the burger Bailey handed him.