Say You'll Be Nine

Uh-oh. Now he was pissed.

“Fine. I’ll sleep outside.”

His jaw dropped. “I don’t have fucking rabies, you asshole. It’s a giant king-sized bed. I thought we could share it. But if you’d rather sleep outside with the wolves and bears, then by all means.”

Before I knew it, he’d stormed out.

Shit. I’d only meant that… I hadn’t wanted to impose on him and assume we’d…

I sighed. The truth was, there was no way I could imagine myself sharing a bed with Cooper. I didn’t even want to share a bed with one of my own brothers. How the hell was I supposed to wake up with morning wood next to a guy who… who… And what if he had morning wood too? What if our morning woods… touched?

I felt my dick begin to act out the scenario. Not helpful.

“Isaac!” Cooper’s terror-filled scream shot through the cabin. I bolted out of the small space and into the fading sunlight. Cooper stood in the center of the clearing staring at the open RV door. His hands were propped on his knees, and he was practically hyperventilating.

“What? What is it?” I put him behind me and kept my eyes in that direction, expecting a bear or a mountain lion, or something else equally threatening rattling around inside. I’d brought my rifle, but it was still in the truck’s locked storage box and my keys were on the RV’s kitchen counter.

“There’s a bat in there.” His voice shook. “Fuck! There’s a giant fucking bat in there.” He shuddered. “It came right at me like it wanted to eat me or something. It fucking touched me, and now I’m going to have to burn my clothes and my skin. Bats have rabies, don’t they? Do I have to get shots in my stomach now? Shit. If I have to do the shots in my stomach because some bitch-ass flying demon did a drive-by on my face, I’m going to—”

I poked my head in the RV. All was quiet for a minute until I caught movement from the front windshield area.

It was a tiny brown sparrow clearly terrified and trying to escape through the large clear window.

“C’mere, little one,” I murmured, trying to get close enough to cup him between my hands. But he was too frantic for that. I finally found one of the paper shopping bags and flattened it. After closing the bedroom and bathroom doors, I returned to the front of the RV and used the bag to direct the bird out the main door. It took a little while, but it finally worked.

When the little sparrow flapped its way out the front door, Cooper let out another squawk of fear. I laughed at him from the doorway.

“Dude, it was a tiny songbird. Hardly the grim reaper. And I can assure you if you have rabies, it’s not from Tweety Bird over there. That poor baby was terrified.”

Cooper threw up his hands. “Thank you, Steve Irwin. New rule. The RV door stays closed at all times. If I wake up with wildlife all up in my business, we’re going to have a problem.”

This was the Cooper I was familiar with. Prissy and bitchy. Even though he wasn’t born and raised a city boy, he may as well have been. The man wouldn’t even visit our horses when he stayed with us since he claimed they “gave him the stink eye.”

I chuckled. “Something tells me you’re going to have a long summer, princess.”

He shot me a look. “Not all of us grew up with baby chicks as pets.”

He’d use any excuse to bring that story up. “Take that back. Sir Pecks-A-Lot was a faithful companion. I loved her.”

Cooper’s dimple appeared. I hated to admit I wanted more of it. “She was a chicken. Who lived in your closet. You were fourteen.”

“My dad wanted to eat her. What else was I supposed to do? You don’t know what it’s like developing feelings for an animal whose only purpose is to feed your huge fucking family.”

“So when he couldn’t find Sir PAL, what happened? Your family just went without dinner?”

I grinned at him. He already knew the answer to this because he’d been there. “He killed Cupcake. Which was fine with me because that chicken was a total bitch.”

He threw his head back and laughed. It made me feel light-headed. Maybe I was just happy to give him a lighter moment while he’d been worried about his brother, or maybe I was happy to make anyone laugh for any reason. But it was like a drug. Addictive. I wanted another hit.

“Is the internet stuff working?” I asked. “I need to put in a supply order now that I know what we need.”

So much for making him laugh. I wasn’t naturally funny. I was naturally boring as hell.

His smile dimmed even though his eyes still danced. “Uh, yeah. It’s good. Better than I expected all the way out here.”