Say You'll Be Nine

“That’s fantastic!” And it was. Even if it was the end of my little dream world, I was thrilled for him.

“It’s just for an audition. I told them I couldn’t leave here until at least late July.”

I grabbed his upper arms and forcibly removed him from my embrace so I could look him in the eye. “You can absolutely go. You don’t owe me anything.”

His eyes flicked everywhere but at mine. “Maybe not, but I signed a contract with Stallion.”

Oh. He wasn’t staying out of loyalty to me. He was staying because he was legally obligated under a contract. Right.

I clamped my teeth together and tried my hardest to remember what he’d said about method acting. I would sink into the role of supportive friend with everything I had.

“Maybe we can look through the contract and see if there’s any wiggle room,” I suggested.

He still didn’t look at me. Maybe the floor or his bare feet were more interesting. “No, it’s fine. I probably won’t get the part anyway. But they do want me to come audition as soon as possible. I said I’d talk to you to figure out the best time for me to be gone a couple of days.”

“You’ll get the part,” I said with as big a smile as I could manage. I wanted to punctuate the thought with a kiss, but I wasn’t sure if we were still doing that. I’d never been all that great with understanding relationship stuff, but with Cooper, it had been easy. Now, however, I felt like I was navigating uncharted waters. “When do you want to go? My mom always says to strike while the iron’s hot. You could go tomorrow, and I could use the time to put in the hardwood floors.”

He finally looked up at me. “We were going to do that together.”

“It’s backbreaking work, and I’d be nervous about you pulling your stitches. Besides, seeing you on your hands and knees would mean the job would take ten times as long.” I winked at him which seemed to finally relax him.

He smiled. “Yeah, okay. Are you sure?”

I nodded and kept the smile going. I was a supportive friend. I was a supportive friend.

“You can take the truck to Denver.”

“What if you need to go somewhere?”

I drew my arm through the room in an arc. “I won’t need to, but if there’s an emergency, I have this lovely beast.”

“You’re a good man, Isaac.” Cooper put his hands around my neck and pulled me down into a kiss.

Thank fuck.

I lost myself in him for a few minutes, rubbing my hands under his shirt to feel the warm skin of his back and down over his ass. I picked him up carefully and started walking back to the bedroom, but he pulled back.

“Mm, no. Dinner. It’s been waiting. Then naked time.”

I made a resigned sound and set him down, indulging in one last, long kiss. When I finally let him go, he looked a little dazed for a minute before telling me to take a quick shower while he got everything ready. It wasn’t until I was in the shower that his words came back to me.

You’re a good man.

It was something I’d heard many times in my life. I was the dependable one. The sacrificing one. The guy who would drop anything to jump a dead battery or help haul heavy furniture from your apartment to your new house. Cooper had said it several times too, and it was like… a backhanded compliment.

Sometimes it felt like all I was was a “good man.” I wasn’t the fun one, the interesting one, the creative or talented one. I was simply the reliable one. I looked out for others, but no one really needed me. They just needed someone.

The water trickled over my body too softly. I wished the RV had better water pressure, but I guessed that was more incentive for me to get the shower installed at the house. Maybe I’d do that while Cooper was gone so he could return home to a palatial bathroom with multiple jets and unlimited hot water.

I dried off quickly and threw on some lounge pants and pulled on a T-shirt while walking back to the table. I leaned over and kissed the top of his head before sitting down. “I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything this good.”

As we sat down to eat, I forced myself to calm down. He wasn’t leaving yet, and when he did, it was just for a couple of days. It was fine. I had work to do anyway and lots of it. If I could put my head down and really hustle, I could help speed up our timeline in case the LA people needed him finished sooner.

“You’re being awfully quiet,” he said after a while.