They needed to change the subject quick.
“Does Cooper have these cookouts often?” Haleigh inquired.
Her passenger nodded. “From the minute it’s warm enough until we’re all bundled up and holding our hands to the fire to stave off frostbite.”
Haleigh suspected she knew the answer to the next question, but asked anyway. “How long has it been since you went to one?”
With her eyes locked on the passing scenery, Abby said, “I haven’t felt like it for a while.”
A while meaning since Kyle died, no doubt.
“What is there to do besides sit around eating and gossiping?” Jessi’s voice implied she found neither of these options entertaining. “I’m not even going to know anyone.”
Could these two get any more annoying? Good reason or not, Abby’s woe-is-me rut was getting old. And Miss Too-Cool-For-A-Cookout had jumped at the chance to come when Haleigh had first mentioned it. Now, as if to protect her teenage coolness, she deployed the eye-rolling attitude.
“Look,” Haleigh said. “I just worked twelve hours after pulling three sixteen-hour shifts in the last three days. If anyone has reason to be unpleasant at this soiree, it’s me. But I’m not going to do that. And neither are the two of you.” Her index finger bounced from one passenger to the other. “It’s a beautiful night, and we are going to be social. We’re going to eat good food, enjoy the stars, and have a freaking good time.” Catching Jessi’s wide-eyed stare in the rearview mirror, she added, “Everybody got that?”
“Good time,” Jessi repeated. “Yes, ma’am.”
Silence loomed from beside her.
“Abigail?”
“I will be a veritable ball of glee.”
Sarcasm was a side-step away from jovial. In some countries.
“I’ll take it,” Haleigh said, contemplating how quickly they could leave without appearing rude.
Chapter 15
“You’re killing me, dude,” said Ian O’Malley while rubbing his inexplicably flat abs. “I haven’t eaten since lunch. What are we waiting for?”
Young Mr. O’Malley, Cooper’s cousin on his mother’s side, swallowed more calories in a day than could be found in one of Lorelei’s cookie displays, yet he remained skinny as a rail. The family had long ago determined that Ian had the metabolism of a hummingbird. Ironic, since he moved at the speed of a drunk slug.
“Not everyone is here yet,” Cooper explained, not for the first time. “The grill is hot and once the meat hits the fire, it won’t take long.”
“Let me cut the brisket,” Ian begged. “That’s been done for hours. If I don’t get something soon, I’m gonna start gnawing on my boots.”
“If you don’t shut up, you’re going to be sitting on my boot.”
“Aw, jeez,” the younger man grumbled.
“Time to set up the buffet line,” Lorelei said as she and Caleb positioned bowls and casserole dishes on the table to Cooper’s right.
“Everyone isn’t here yet,” he reminded them. Abby had let him know two days before that all four females in the house would be joining them. And they would get their food hot and fresh off the grill like everyone else.
“Relax, big boy,” Caleb said. “Carrie says Haleigh’s car just pulled up.”
Unexpected nerves sent his stomach buzzing like a hive knocked from a tree. Haleigh had been to his house before, but she hadn’t seen his pride and joy. Like any man, Cooper felt the inside of the house served no other purpose than to hold his stuff and keep him from getting wet in the rain.
But the backyard. That was where a man lived.
“I hope we aren’t too late,” Haleigh said as she handed Cooper a bucket of fried chicken. “The drive-thru was slow. My mother would be scandalized if I showed up at a social gathering empty-handed.”
Cooper couldn’t respond. Haleigh never failed to look pretty, but with the color high on her cheeks, a layer of gloss on her lips, and hair shining like spun gold in the light of the tiki torches, she took his breath away. Signs of exhaustion around her eyes were the only hint of imperfection in an otherwise flawless face.
Pulling himself together, he said, “You can never have too much food when Ian is around.”
“Ian?” she asked.
“You remember the little kid who went around stealing everyone’s bread during Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Sticky Fingers O’Malley?”
Cooper chuckled at the old nickname. “We all thought he’d grow up to be a thief, but it turned out he just likes food. A lot.”
Abby walked by with a wave, but said nothing. Jessi approached holding Emma on her shoulder. “Where can I change her?” she asked.