Page 48 of Claws and Feathers

Abby swam towards him, unable to hide the smile from her face. She splashed him as she approached.Hard.

Cooper gaped at her as he plucked a string of seaweed from his hair. “You know you’ll have to pay for that,” he said.

Abby wondered why it wasn’t punishment enough just having to watch his wet t-shirt cling to every muscle on his chest. She matched his teasing gaze, mostly to distract herself. She was about to reply when he retaliated. Cooper dove over to her before Abby could attempt any sort of escape and picked her up out of the water with startling ease. It was a light-hearted moment. It was easy and fun and silly.

Cooper was about to toss her back into the water, but there was a brief pause. A fleeting deviation from the playful scene. Abby was in his arms, his strong and careful arms, and she was brought back to the day of the rescue. He had held her in a similar fashion. She had opened her eyes, fighting against the painful beams of sunlight, forcing her vision to focus. She had seen him then. Abby had felt overcome with warmth and hope, and an overwhelming sense of relief.It’s you,she had said.

It’s you.

She wondered if Cooper was also reliving that moment. But before she could reflect any further, she felt herself being launched into the air. Abby screamed as he catapulted her out of his arms, and she hit the water with enormous force. When she pushed herself to the surface, his mischievous smile had returned. Abby giggled, then inhaled gulps of fresh, summer air, and then plotted her revenge.

They chased each other through the lake, splashing, and kicking, and laughing as they swam beneath the hot sun. And when they climbed back onto the pontoon a while later, shivering and wet, with pruned skin and racing hearts, Abby realized they had completely forgotten about the hat.

Chapter fourteen

Why did you invite me?

Abby’s question swirled around Cooper’s mind on loop as they sat on the edge of his dock, their feet skimming the water. It was a fantastic question. It needed to be asked, and surely, it needed to be answered. But a sufficient response was lost on him; nothing he told her would make any sense. He was full of mixed emotions, and back and forth, and wrong and right. His feelings and voice of reason were constantly battling it out inside him. How could he explain that to her? How could he put such a complex answer into words?

And yet, it seemed so simple. She was here, sitting beside him, leaning against his shoulder as she stared out at the peaceful water. Cooper had invited her because there was no one else he’d wanted to spend the day with. It was a frightening realization, knowing he was falling for the one woman who should be entirelyoffhis radar. But if he told her that, Abby would take that as an invitation for so much more than a day out on the lake. There would be no coming back from an admission like that. Everything would change, and Cooper wasn’t ready. Maybe he would never be ready, because at the end of the day, their situation would always be what it was – complicated. Line-crossing.Gray.

The afternoon had faded into early evening, and the sun was low in the sky. They had eaten sandwiches and fruit on the pontoon, then ran inside to shower and change. Luckily, Kate often stayed in his spare bedroom after late nights working the bar, so there were clean clothes for Abby to borrow. She was wearing a black halter dress, and one of the straps was dipping off her sunburned shoulder as she leaned into him. Cooper vaguely missed when she smelled like coconut sunscreen and lake water, the essence of summer, but he wasn’t disappointed when she’d lathered herself in her signature tangerine body lotion. The scent mingled with his own soap she’d used in the shower, and it was an alarmingly seductive combination. Abby’s hair was now loose and unbraided, still partially damp and hanging in waves around her face.

Cooper shifted his eyes to the lake because just looking at her was making his heart race.

“Cupcake.”

Abby’s voice startled him. He dared to glance back at her. “What?”

“My cat. I’m naming her Cupcake.” She smiled up at him, her face lighting up with the decision. “It’s perfect, right?”

Perfect.Wait, what was perfect? Oh, right. The cat. “Yeah,” Cooper said. “It’s cute.”

“It’s freakin’ adorable. I feel like you are majorly underreacting.”

Abby scrunched up her nose in a way that was far more adorable than the cat’s name. She rested her chin against his shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world. Andshit, it sure felt like it was.

Cooper breathed in deeply. It was a jagged, broken breath. It cracked when it reached the back of his throat.

She noticed.

Abby’s head lifted from its place against his shoulder and she looked up at him. He felt her eyes on him, curious and imploring. Her body was pressed into him like it was simply designed that way. Like it was justmadeto. Why did this feel so right?

Why was he drowning in her scent, choking on her proximity?

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Part of him wanted to laugh at her question.Okay?Oh, he could come up with a million reasons as to why he wasnotokay. The glaringly obvious one being that he was lusting after a woman who was off-limits. Abigail Stone was the victim in his active criminal investigation. It waswrong.

But then he tilted his head to meet her gaze and the simmering charge between them morphed into white-hot waves. Again, she noticed. Well, she noticed something.

Abby sat up straight, her eyes never leaving his. She twisted her body to fully face him. “What is it, Cooper? What’s wrong?”

Another ridiculously ambiguous question.

He stood up, needing to escape her presence. He needed a reprieve from her violet eyes and tangerine scent. “I’m fine,” he said. “I’m going to grab something to drink. Do you want anything?”

Abby shook her head.

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