He smiled. “Okay, good. That’s good. Wouldn’t want you to be stiff and cranky all summer.” He turned back around to the food he’d set out on the counter. “I’m making eggs and toast. How do you like yours?”
This was the second time he’d offered to feed me. It was nice. I’d kind of envisioned us doing our own thing, but I guess it made sense to work together. More efficient that way.
“Any way is fine. I’m not picky.” I took a sip of my coffee and accidentally let out a groan. “Fuck, what’d you put in this? It tastes amazing.”
He grinned. “It’s just really good coffee. A friend of mine got me hooked on it and sent me a bunch of it when he heard I was going to be living in the backwoods all summer. Oh, and I put flavored creamer in it too.”
He went back to cooking while I savored the hot drink and continued waking up. I could tell from the dish on the floor that Cooper had already fed Nacho. I thanked him and then kind of felt awkward when silence fell between us again.
“So, I’m going to set up those cameras after breakfast and then—”
I heard the sound of a picture being taken and glanced up. Cooper finger typed onto the screen and then slipped the phone back in his pocket. “Sorry, continue.” He turned to tend to the eggs before reaching over to push the bread in the toaster down.
“What was that for?”
“You just look really cute right now. I wanted to post a pic.”
I blinked at the back of his head. “Oh, uh, okay. Um…”
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “You seriously don’t know why your subscriber numbers are as big as they are, do you?”
“People like to learn how to make stuff.”
He laughed so hard I thought he was going to pull a muscle, and then he didn’t say anything until the scrambled eggs and toast were on plates. Once we sat down at the dinette, he reached across and squeezed my arm.
“You’re sexy as fuck, big guy. I’ll bet if we did a deep dive into your subscribers, we’d see a very small portion of them actually own a hammer. They’re probably mostly drooling women and jacking-off gay guys.”
I almost choked on my eggs. “No. You have a mixed-up view of the world. You’ve been in California too long.”
He shook his head and dove into his own breakfast. “And you’re adorably naive. I will bet you a thousand dollars—which I obviously don’t have, so this is symbolic, mind you—that this sleepy beefcake pic gets more likes than the time you posted that handy feet-to-meters conversion trick.”
“Pfft.”
He shrugged and sipped more coffee. “You’ll see. And the comments will be obscene, mark my words.”
I grunted. “I don’t read the comments.” The sound of his laughter was something I could get used to with my morning coffee every day.
“Of course you don’t.” He took a few more bites of his food before asking, “Did you sleep well?”
I felt my ears go hot, but I kept my eyes on my toast. “Mm-hm. You? You, ah… you… I mean, nothing happened or… I didn’t do anything, did I?” I realized how that sounded, so I quickly tried to clarify. “I mean, like hog the bed or kick you…?”
Cooper didn’t say anything at first, so I risked a peek at him. His nostrils were flared, and his eyes danced like he was holding back a laugh. “Nine, sweetie. Baby. What happened last night, hmmm?”
“What? Nothing.”
“Then why did you just eat a forkful of air?”
I looked down at an empty plate and wondered when I’d run out of eggs. “I was pretending you’d cooked me enough eggs,” I grumbled.
More laughter. I wanted to bathe in it regardless of how embarrassed I was. Why did he affect me this way when no other man did? When no other person did?
Cooper slid out of the booth and came back with two bananas and a piece of string cheese. “Here. I forgot I was feeding a growing boy.”
I ripped open one of the bananas and slid it into my mouth, stupidly taking that moment to glance over at him.
He stared at me with his mouth open. For a split second, the moment hung heavy between us. I had a giant banana halfway down my throat, and Cooper was looking at me like I was his next meal.
8
Cooper
I scrambled out of the booth and gave the rest of my breakfast to Nacho. “Welp, lots to do today,” I said quickly. “Better make hay while the sun shines.”
What the fuck? That was not a phrase I’d ever used in my life.
I was sure if I’d looked back at Nine, he would have been smirking at me for sounding like a cowpoke. Didn’t matter. I grabbed my laptop and bolted from the RV, intent on checking out the long, thick log at the edge of the clearing. Apparently everything in my life right now was phallic. Whatever, I planned to use the fallen log as a bench so I wasn’t stuck inside all day.