My One and Only(3)

“Two times in thirteen years doesn’t make it a habit,” he corrected. “And this isn’t exactly the same thing.”

“You’re right. This one is very different.” The laughter went out of her eyes as Haleigh dropped her hands into her lab coat pockets. “So why were you in there?”

Excellent question. One Cooper had been asking himself for the last half hour.

“Because somebody had to be, I guess.” Which was true. No one should have to go through that alone, especially not a frightened teenager.

“But you say you don’t know her.”

“I don’t. I found her in the storage building behind my garage. Spence and I fixed a hole in the roof last week and I wanted to make sure it was holding up in the rain. That’s when I found Jessi huddled against my old Thunderbird. I thought she was hurt at first. When I realized she was in labor, I rushed her here.”

“And you stayed.” Haleigh pressed.

What was she getting at?

“She was scared and alone, so I stuck around. But I never meant to be in there for the whole show.” And Haleigh was at least partly to blame for him having to witness that. “Thanks again for the assist there. You could have helped me get out.”

The grin returned. “Where would be the fun in that?” She followed that teasing statement by poking him in the chest, and then looked surprised when he didn’t budge. “Seriously. Do you fix cars or toss them for sport?”

The look of female appreciation as she tested his biceps threatened to short-circuit his brain. “I work out.” Now he sounded like a caveman.

“That’s obvious.” She snorted. “It’s hard to believe you’re the same lanky guy who sat behind me in World History.”

The only class Cooper ever looked forward to in his entire high school career. He’d even passed it, thanks to Haleigh’s tutoring.

“Still me, just bigger,” he said. “You’re as tiny as ever.”

“I only look tiny because you’re so tall.” Haleigh had a point. He had her by nearly a foot in height. “So what do you know about this girl?” she asked.

“Not much,” he said, replaying what little the new mother had shared. “On the way here, I offered to let her use my phone, but she turned me down. I suppose the panting would have made talking difficult.”

“I’m sure she’ll want to call someone now.” Haleigh reached for the handle to Jessi’s room, but Cooper needed to know something before they went back in.

“Did everything really go okay in there? I saw a lot of blood on my way out.”

“What you saw was normal.”

Normal? That shit was not normal.

“You can’t be serious. That’s how it always goes?”

“Well, not always that smoothly. Jessi got lucky that her little girl was in a hurry. I don’t know how long she suffered in your storage building, but first births can take anywhere from four to twenty-four hours. Sometimes longer.”

“You’re shittin’ me.”

The response earned him a giggle. “You’re right,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re still the same old Cooper.”

His ego prickled at the comment. She made him sound like a hound dog to be scratched behind the ear.

“But bigger,” Cooper reminded, wanting her to see him as something more. Even if only physically.

“Oh yes,” she agreed. “The bigger part is hard to miss.” As the hidden innuendo floated between them, Haleigh blushed. “That sounded way more innocent in my head.”

“Innocent is overrated,” Cooper replied, surrounding her with an arm braced on each side of the door frame. “And you’re still pretty when you’re flustered.”

Brown eyes narrowed as he loomed above her. “Are you flirting with me?”

With one brow raised, he pressed his luck. “Maybe.”

Haleigh crossed her arms as she relaxed against the door. “I’d be flattered if I didn’t know that you could flirt with furniture.” She poked him in a particularly ticklish spot on his side, making him drop his arms. “Save your moves for a more susceptible female. One who never saw you in your underwear at age fourteen.”

She’d only caught him in his skivvies because he’d been trying to catch Haleigh in hers. By high school he’d learned to hate her floor-length pink bathrobe. Was a bare ankle too much to ask for?

As she reached once again for the doorknob, he said, “I look a lot different in my underwear now.”

Her husky laugh shot straight to his groin. “I bet you do. Too bad we don’t have sleepovers anymore so I can see for myself.”