I turned my head to face him. “Do guys manscape?”
The whites of his eyes shone in the dark room. “Um, I’m sorry. What?”
“Never mind. Forget I said anything. That was stupid.” I turned around onto my side and faced away from him. “Good night.”
The silence wasn’t as uncomfortable as I expected. After a little while, Cooper’s warm hand landed on my shoulder, making me jump. “Hey. Turn around. Ask me what you want to know.”
I took a breath and turned around. “It’s just… I mean, my brothers don’t talk about this shit, and I don’t really have guy friends or anything. I keep seeing these ads on my channel about something called the Lawnmower, and at first I thought it was an actual lawn mower. But it’s not. It’s a shaver for like, your dick. And it just made me wonder if all guys are doing something I should be doing.”
Thank goodness for the darkness because my face was going to melt off.
Cooper took my question seriously. “This is kind of like asking what kind of clothes you should wear. It’s definitely a personal choice, but I would say het guys are probably not as likely to be paying much attention down there as gay guys do. Gay guys run the gamut. Some wax, some shave, some just keep it super-trimmed.”
I wanted to ask him what he did, but my throat was too clogged to get the question out. I also didn’t want to think about how he knew what so many gay guys did. Had he been with that many people? Had he seen that many dicks?
Cooper shifted closer. “Nine, have you gotten comments from the women you sleep with? Is that why you’re asking?”
Ha. As if there was a whole line of them in my past to survey. “No. I just assumed if someone was attracted to me in the first place, they’d know I was… I mean… it’s not like it’s a secret I have thick hair or anything.”
“Do you want to know what I think?”
I swallowed. What if he told me I was disgusting? “I guess.”
He leaned across and ran his fingertips through my beard, tugging it a little to make his point. “I think your hair is hot as shit. I think anyone would be an idiot to let a little body hair turn them away, especially when it’s this glorious, thick, shiny brown hair. If you ever find someone who’s bothered by the way you are, drop them in a skinny minute and look for someone else.”
He let go and leaned back. The ghost of his touch lingered in my beard, and his words settled in my chest. I felt more relaxed and began to doze off. Cooper’s words broke into my haze.
“Shit. You know what we should have done? A recap post for the day. Like a little video saying what we got done today and how we’re feeling about it.”
“Mm.”
He shifted. “No, for real. Wake back up. We need to do this. You don’t ever get Day One back.”
“Huh?”
He flicked on the light switch, causing me to grunt and squeeze my eyes closed. “I’ll just use my phone and we’ll knock it out really quickly. Here, lean in.”
I leaned in to the center of the bed. Our heads ended up on the same pillow. I could smell the scent of Cooper’s toothpaste breath. Gradually, I was able to open my eyes. “What’re we going to say?”
“Leave it to me.” He moved closer until his head was on my shoulder, but then he sighed and sat up, pulling my arm out before settling back down in the crook of it with his head on my shoulder again. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder automatically. It felt awkward and strange, but not in a bad way. More in a foreign way.
When he turned the camera image to face us, we looked like a real couple. His wavy hair already looked tousled by the pillows, and my eyes looked squinty with sleep. I wondered what my family would say when they saw me like this with him.
Cooper hit the Record button. “Hi, everyone, Cooper and Nine here. We just wanted to say good night. We spent the evening sketching out plans for the cabin, and Nine placed a big order for supplies. The design looks amazing.” He turned to look up at me, and I realized what a good actor he really was. The man looked at me like I was the most precious thing in the world to him.
My breath caught.
He looked relaxed and happy. “You’re really talented, babe.”
I was frozen in a combination of fear, nerves, and shock. Surely, I looked like I’d just been goosed by a wild monkey. Cooper’s laughter rang out while he turned back to the camera. “He’s shy, but you already know that about him. He’s also humble as hell. My guy’s not all that comfortable with praise. We’ll have to work on that.”