Page 88 of Relief Pitcher

Danita grabbed a donut. “Nice touch, by the way. I’ll have to thank Cooper for this. You made a compelling pitch. I’ll carry your beers if you fix shit with Coop.”

“Are you trying to extort me?”

“Do I need to?”

I deflated. “No, but before we talk about him, can we finish the business part? I don’t want my personal stuff affecting our business,” I said with conviction.

Dom clapped me on the shoulder.

Danita nodded. “You’re right. No matter what happens between you and my favorite person in the world, who’s the absolute best man I know, and any man would be lucky—”

“Danita.”I had to laugh at her audacity. Coop lucked out having her as a best friend.

“I’ll happily carry your beers. You guys have quite the reputation already, and it would be ridiculous not to. I would’ve started carrying them months ago, but timing is everything.” She sported an angelic smile.

“And you needed a boy toy for your best friend.”

“I like her.” Dom grinned, then took over the conversation as we worked out the money stuff and came to an agreement where she would carry two of our most popular regular beers for a three-month trial.

I’d wanted our beers and reputation to stand for themselves to land us the deal. Not my thing—relationship?—with Cooper.

“Right. Deal done. I’ll sign the paperwork. Yadda yadda.” She shook our hands, then turned to me with a calculating expression. “Why did Cooper call me on Saturday sounding like a kicked puppy?”

I grimaced. I could’ve handled things better than blurting out the stream of consciousness of my worries when he’d harmlessly asked me if I was okay. I’d felt like shit the rest of the night and all day yesterday and had wanted to go see him, but between catching up with Gavin, finalizing the presentation for today since we had a bye week for the league, and our weekly team meeting last night, I hadn’t had the time. Whatever conversation we needed to have deserved my full attention and more than a quick chat.

If I thought I could get away with keeping things going as they’d been with him, I was naïve. Coop wasn’t the guy I fucked around with after practice any longer. He’d become an important part of my life, an important person in my life, and deserved to be treated as such. I might not know dick about relationships, but I could figure out that a conversation needed to happen. As far as he knew, based on what I’d told him before, I was Mr. Casual and had no interest in anything serious with him. I hadn’t even told him about the whole demiromantic thing. But Ididwant something serious with him, and it was up to me to tell him that.

The only thing I could do was believe Coop when he said he’d be there. If he ran the first time I fumbled, then we didn’t have a chance, anyway.

“Because I probably scared him with my bullshit.” I deflated into the uncomfortable chair.

“He’s not scared. He’s worried. You need to talk to him about it though, not me.”

“I know. I told him I’m worried I’m going to hurt him, and I need to figure out how not to.”

“Pretty sure that’s something you work with him on. Cooper is a grown-ass man who can make his own decisions about whether he thinks you’re a worthy bet. The only way you’d hurt him was if you didn’t give him or yourself a chance. You two are good together.” She paused and tilted her head as an unusually soft smile curved her lips. “His relationship with my brother was different, but Coop is as happy now as he was with Aleck. I’ve known him for over twenty years. I can tell when he’s head over heels for someone.”

I studied every inch of her face to find the truth in her words. I wanted to believe her.

“Damn,” Dom said under his breath.

Danita sat back and looked like she’d just pulled an ace from her sleeve.

“I don’t want to lose him, but I feel so fucking out of sorts. Is this what relationships are like? Why do people do this?” I looked at Dom.

“Fuck if I know. I sure as hell don’t mess with them, but you’ve been happy. Figure it out.”

Dom could say a lot with few words.

I wanted Cooper to know that even though I was scared and didn’t know what the hell I was doing, I would try. I hadn’t known how to run a brewery before I’d jumped into that, but I had figured it out. I could do the same with a relationship.

“I need a romantic gesture worthy of a Hallmark movie.”

“A what?” Dom frowned.

Danita stood and high-fived me. “Damn right you do. I’m gonna go grab us some snacks from the floor because it’s time for a brainstorm session. My ideas are always better when there’s food involved.”

Dom followed her out. “Can we have some of those Sriracha chips? I’ve been wanting to try those.”

---