Page 60 of Collide

Or again, maybe Cooper was just a fucking asshole because he let Noah believe his family knew he was here. He didn’t want Noah hurt, he told himself. Noah cared about Cooper’s aunt and uncle, even though, like Cooper, he didn’t often agree with Vernon. Yet Vernon thought they were all better off when Noah and his family left. That’s all this was about, protecting Noah from being hurt by how Vernon really felt.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Noah grabbed a hold of a rock and pulled himself up. He and Cooper had gotten to the cabin just a couple hours before. After dropping off their stuff, the first thing they’d done, was go for a hike. They both loved being outdoors. Always had. The weather would be changing soon, winter keeping them from doing a lot of the things they loved to do.

“I still can’t believe you don’t like skiing,” Cooper told him, as they worked their way along the path. “I’m making you go with me this winter. You’ll end up loving it.”

Noah shook his head. He loved that Cooper thought he could do anything, but this one wasn’t happening. “Didn’t you tell me that when we were kids? It didn’t happen then and it won’t happen now.”

“Eh, I guess I thought you were a little smarter now then you were then. What kind of Coloradoan doesn’t like to ski?”

“The kind you’re fucking,” Noah tossed back at him.

Cooper shoved Noah’s arm, as he stepped over another rock. Noah grabbed a hold of him. “You put your hands on me and I’m not letting you go.”

He wondered if Coop would pull away, but, he didn’t. But then, it wasn’t like there were a whole lot of people out here. It was just the two of them.

“How we going to climb if we’re holding hands? I didn’t know you were such a romantic, Noah.”

Noah stopped walking, tugging Coop toward him. “I like my hands on you, whenever I can have them there.”

Cooper leaned forward and pressed his lips to Noah’s. “You’re good at this. Usually I’m the one using lines like that.”

He tried to start walking again but Noah held him in place. “It’s not a line, Coop. Tell me you know that.”

The look in Cooper’s eyes changed. Softened, but flared with heat, too. “I know.”

Before Noah tried to take him right here in the trail, he let go, and they started hiking again.

“You haven’t talked about your parents once since you’ve been back. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little curious,” Coop said.

Noah was surprised Cooper had gone this long without asking. Wasn’t like it was a huge secret, but he also didn’t like talking about his family. He also was never very good at keeping things from Cooper.

“Dad died about a year ago. Heart attack. Went to bed one night, never got up the next morning.” He was grateful when Cooper didn’t try to stop hiking as they spoke.

“Shit, man. I’m sorry about that.”

“Yeah,” Noah said. “Me too. I miss him. We always kept in touch over the years, even when I didn’t speak to her. He loved her till the end. Didn’t matter how many times she hurt him.”

“Or you?” Cooper asked.

Noah looked over his shoulder and nodded. Those simple words cemented all the reasons Noah was in love with him. Because he knew he was. Trying to deny it wouldn’t change it. In some way or another, he’d always loved Cooper Bradshaw. Now, he was in love with him.

“Or me.”

It was another few minutes before Cooper spoke again. “And her?”

“She’s alive and kicking. I went back home when Dad passed. He’d left me half of everything, so there were papers to sign and all of that. I planned the funeral. I wanted to do it for him. Not that she wouldn’t have but…I don’t know why, but it was important to me, and she gave me that. I left the day after and haven’t seen her since.”

There were days he missed her, days he even thought about calling her, but then he’d remember his father and pain he had endured all those years. He’d remember leaving different homes, leaving Cooper, and Noah just couldn’t do it. He was so different than his father. The other man had forgiven so many times, Noah couldn’t bring himself to ever do it. He saw forgiveness as a weakness, a way to get hurt.

Cooper let the conversation go after that. They climbed for another hour and a half before they made it to the top. Noah took in their surroundings. The thick trees, mixed with rocks and the world below them that looked a million miles away.

“It’s beautiful.” Noah glanced at Cooper beside him to see him looking off at the distance.

“The air feels different up here. Like it’s not the same air others are breathing.”

There was this sort of awe in his voice that hit Noah right in the chest. He wanted to show Cooper everything. For him to see the world differently when they were together. It’s what Coop had always done for him.

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