My One and Only(35)
When he tapped her cheeks, Haleigh finally stirred. “Stop that,” she ordered, swatting his hands away. “I’m good. Just give me a second.”
Her words were clearer. That was a good sign.
Brown eyes blinked open as she slapped her lips together. “My mouth is dry.”
“We’ll get you water inside.”
“Let me try standing up.” Moving slowly and with a tight grip on his sleeve, she set both feet on the driveway. “No spinning so far,” she reported. “But my head is still buzzing.”
Cooper chuckled. “That’s what rum will do to you.”
“I think the bartender skimped on the Coke part.”
“If Denny made them, that’s probably true.”
Haleigh pinned him with a one-eyed glare. “Do you know everybody?”
“I’ve lived here all my life,” he said with a shrug. “It’s a small town.”
“Yes, it is. Tell me I didn’t do anything that’s going to race through the gossip mills tomorrow.”
He hadn’t checked for witnesses during their exit, but saw no need to add to her worries. “You didn’t dance on the tables or flash your bottom, so I think you’re good.”
Massaging her temples, she said, “You just described my first two years of college.”
With complete honesty, he said, “Wish I could have seen that.”
“Trust me,” she answered, “no one needed to see that.” After a deep breath, she squared her shoulders. “Let’s do this.”
Once upright, Haleigh listed to the right, but Cooper caught her. “Maybe a little slower,” he said with her hands in his. “That buzz isn’t going away for a while.”
“The sad thing is,” she said, gingerly putting one foot in front of the other, “I’d go back for more if I thought I could get myself there.”
Letting her set the pace, Cooper asked, “You want to tell me what’s so bad that you’re trying to drown it in booze?”
She stopped and met his eye. “Not really.”
Disappointed, he said, “Fair enough.”
Haleigh squeezed his hands. “Cooper, I know you mean well, but I’m not dumping the black hole that is my mental baggage in your lap. However, if you don’t take two steps to the side, I am going to toss what little is in my stomach all over your boots.”
Cooper heeded the warning just in time. As Haleigh retched into Abby’s flower bed, he held her hair out of her face and kept a soothing hand on her back. When she was finished, he handed her the handkerchief from his back pocket.
“How do you always happen to have one of these handy?” she asked, dabbing at her chin.
There were things Cooper didn’t feel like sharing tonight either. “Just do. You ready to go inside?”
She nodded. “Yeah, but I feel bad about Abby’s flowers.”
They stepped onto the porch side by side. “I’ll come out and hose it away.”
Pushing through the front door, Haleigh sighed. “Of course you will.”
Toothpaste was Haleigh’s first priority. Cooper stayed silent behind her as they made their way into the house. The TV was on in the living room, but the sound had been muted. In the glow of a pretty young woman twirling in a wedding dress she was probably about to say yes to, Haleigh located Abby passed out in the recliner with a sleeping Emma on her chest.
“Where’s Jessi?” Cooper asked, obviously not spotting the sleeping child.
Haleigh held one finger over her lips. “Probably in bed,” she whispered back as she pointed toward the infant. “Emma gives new meaning to the phrase up all night. If you wake her, we’ll all kill you. Slowly. And with malice.”
Cooper held his hands up in surrender and kept his piehole shut. This had been the crappiest night she’d had in a while, and having Mr. Perfect witness most of it put a nice coating of humiliation on top of an already thick helping of personal disgust.
Why did she let her mother get to her? Better yet, why did she cling to the hope that anything would ever change in their relationship? That a miracle would happen and the angels would sing and her mother would actually like her?
And maybe the drunk fairy would fly through her window tonight and leave Haleigh’s dignity beneath her pillow.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, about to release Cooper from his babysitting duties and send him on his way. Until she realized he’d driven her car. Which meant he had no way to get back to his own. Dragging him quietly into the kitchen, she kept her voice low. “How are you getting home?”
He ran a hand through his thick hair, leaving curls standing on end. “I’d planned to have Abby drive me back to the bar, but I guess that’s not an option.”