There was a photo of us dancing in the clearing. When we’d finished the cabin project and watched the time-lapse videos of the clearing, it had been like watching a movie of the two of us falling in love.
There was the slow dancing, the long moments of kissing on the porch, the picnic. Coop had particularly enjoyed the clips of me dashing across the clearing in nothing but a towel and boots after having taken a shower in the cabin. He’d spent plenty of time watching footage from the days when he’d been gone, and he’d time-stamped his favorite parts to watch over and over.
Next to the photo of our dance was a still image from the first Instagram story good-night video we did where I looked spooked and weird. But then there was one of me with my head thrown back in laughter after trying to teach Cooper to throw an ax and he’d flung it deep into the woods. Behind us.
There was a framed picture of me standing on the sidewalk in Hollywood with the sandwich board, looking terrified. One of the two of us in the cheesy tuxedo T-shirts we wore when we crashed Jacks and Marchie’s elopement in Vegas. And one of us standing in front of each of the three houses we’d already renovated since starting Cooped Up With Nine.
I kicked off my boots in the rubber tray by the door. “I’m here,” I called, reaching down to pet Nacho where he was curled up on his favorite blanket. His tail wagged in response, but his eyes remained closed. I noticed the little gas fireplace was turned on and Coop’s music was playing softly. Cooper stepped out of the bedroom. He was crying and flapping a piece of paper through the air.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” I strode over to him, but he held out his hand to stop me. My heart lurched.
“How could you?”
Was he mad because I’d spent more than we’d agreed on for his Christmas present? No. I’d paid for his new laptop in cash, and it was locked in the toolbox of my truck underneath a bunch of dirty tools. There was no way he could have found out about it.
“How could I what? Help me out here.”
He swiped at his face. “You’re the anonymous donor?”
Oh. Ohhh. I tried to play dumb. That usually worked.
“Anonymous donor for what?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Jackson’s surgery. The bone marrow transplant. The hospital bills.”
Shit. “Um, no?”
He snorted. “You’re a shit liar, Isaac Winshed. The hospital sent a final statement to our post office box.”
“Oh, that. Well, yeah. I had the money, and you guys needed it.”
His eyes glittered at me. “Easy as that, huh?”
I shrugged.
“You were going to buy a piece of property with that money. That was your savings. It was for your future.”
I smiled at him and pulled him close, despite his weak attempts to keep me at arm’s length. “Yes, I was saving that money for my future, and that’s exactly what I spent it on.”
“Your future?”
I nodded. “My future family.”
He leaned his forehead on my chest. “God dammit. Stop being such a good fucking person. You make other people look bad. Asshole.”
I laughed and kissed the top of his head. “Sorry. I’ll try to be a shittier person next time.”
“Thank you,” he said softly into my chest. And I could tell he wasn’t joking anymore.
“You’re welcome. Besides, I only wanted to buy my own property so I’d have a project to work on and a place to call home. Now I have all of that anyway.”
Coop yanked my flannel shirt out of the back of my pants so he could warm his hands on my back the way he always did now that the weather was freezing. I winced when his cold fingers hit my hot skin. “I also called you in here because I just got a phone call from Mitch.”
Suddenly, the skin on my lower back wasn’t the only thing running cold. I still secretly worried there would come a big film opportunity that would be exciting enough to tempt Cooper back to LA. I knew now that it wouldn’t be the end of our relationship, but I still didn’t want to be far away from him. “Oh?”
When Cooper pulled back, I saw the giant grin on his face. “HGTV wants to talk to us about bringing our program to their network as a regular show.”
“What’s HGTV?” I asked with a straight face.
Cooper’s smile dropped. “What? You… what?”
“Kidding. That’s amazing. What do you think?” I laughed at his dumbfounded expression and stepped away from him to grab some water from the fridge. “Is that something we should consider?”
“Wait!” he screeched, lurching toward me and slamming me bodily against the refrigerator door. We both stood there, with him plastered against my back and my face smashed against the cool surface of the fridge, as the sound of his panicked shout echoed around us.