Page 2 of No More Spies

Cooper’s eyes rolled. “No, it’s criminal. Kyle loves MaeBe.I think if he tried to kill this Julia person, she should want to break up. Shesounds…intense. I feel bad for your cousin.”

Something seemed to be making him anxious. “Our dads willtake care of it. I’m pretty sure Kyle’s moved Mae into the club. They’ll besafe there while the ’rents work things out.”

“Sometimes I think there’s not a lot to work out,” Coop saidenigmatically. He looked over the pool, the ghostly lights making him seemoddly distant. “Sometimes it doesn’t work and you have to make the choice tosave yourself.”

The last thing she wanted was distance between them.Distance wasn’t what tonight was about. She moved into his space the way she’dseen her mom do to her dad a million times, putting a hand on his chest.“What’s wrong? Did something happen today? We don’t have to worry about mycousin and MaeBe. Dad won’t let anything happen to them. He likes Mae and healways tells me no matter how dumbass a family member is, it’s still our dutyto ensure they don’t die.”

There was something grim about Cooper, but she could easewhatever was making him worry. She might think her parents going to a sex clubevery Saturday night was gross and unbecoming to persons of their advanced age,but they’d taught her how to take care of the people she loved.

He sighed, and his hand came up to cover hers. “Nothingreally happened. I had practice and then I went to the movies with Mom andHunter and Vivi. Dad was working on something at Sanctum. I’m pretty sure it’sthe Kyle/MaeBe problem.”

Their dads had been close since they were kids. Alex McKayhad been Ian Taggart’s best friend for the majority of their long lives. Itonly made sense she and Cooper would form an attachment—different but every bitas meaningful.

He was so gorgeous. It made it hard for her to focus. Butshe was a woman on a mission. She stepped back, sitting on the chaise loungeand leaving room for him to join her. It was a breezy night, a hint of fall inthe air. Homecoming was a couple of weeks away, and this year she wasn’t goingwith him as a friend. “I’m sure the screwed-up Kyle situation is part of it,but my dad headed out with his tool kit, so something broke down. Dad likes tomultitask when he can. I’m glad he has your dad since he’s not actually greatat fixing things.”

Killing things was an entirely different story. Her dad wasgreat at that, hence the possibility of the body under the pool.

One day she and Coop would have a place to bury their ownbodies. Not their own own. The bodies of the people they were forced to takedown in the course of their exciting careers as international superspies.

Unless, of course, Coop ended up playing pro sports, andthen she would have to figure something out because she wasn’t going to beapart from her husband for weeks at a time. He was the only person in the worldshe would give up her plans for. She’d come to accept he was the dream. Turnedout for all her smarts and surly demeanor, she was just a girl who loved a boy.

Coop sank down beside her. “You don’t want to go in?”

Usually they ended up in his room, playing video games andlistening to music or watching movies on his laptop and making out. It was howthey’d spent every Saturday night for the last three months. It had beenperfect and she cherished it, but it was time to move the relationship forward.High school would be so much easier once she and Coop settled things betweenthem. “I do, but I thought we should talk first.”

There was the grimness again, like she’d brought somethingdown on his head, something he couldn’t avoid. “Yeah, we should.”

Some of her confidence wavered, but she shoved the thoughtaside. “Good. I thought we should talk because homecoming is in a few weeks andwe haven’t made plans.”

“I think we need to talk about Jimmy Roads first.” He shookhis head. “You promised you would stop.”

She bit back a groan. She’d kind of hoped he hadn’t heardabout what had happened after the game. The fight—if one could call it afight—had taken place yesterday, and she’d thought she’d gotten away with it.After all, the asshole probably didn’t want it to get around he’d been takendown by a girl. “He hit you with an eighty-mile-an-hour fast ball.”

She always tried to attend Coop’s practices. While it wasn’tbaseball season, the team still got together to keep their skills sharp. They’dbeen playing a pick-up game Friday afternoon, and Jimmy was a dick.

Coop’s jaw tightened. “And you broke his nose. Do you knowhow fast I had to talk to make sure you didn’t get suspended? He wanted to goto the principal. Hell, they probably wouldn’t even suspend you. They wouldsend you to alternate ed or kick you out.”

She’d thought the dude would at least have some dignity.She’d been wrong. Whiny-ass boy. “I didn’t mean to break his nose. I meant tohave a talk with him. He’s the one who got handsy. I have the right to defendmyself.”

Jimmy had been condescending. He’d parroted all the thingsCoop’s other “friends” said. She brought him down. Coop was just being niceletting her hang around. Their dads were best friends so Coop felt like he hadto be friends with her. She was pathetic since she was chasing a guy who wasfar above her. Not that her patheticness had stopped the guy from putting ahand on her shoulder and offering to take her behind the bleachers and give herwhat Coop was never going to give her.

He was lucky it had been only his nose she’d broken. But shewasn’t a whiny punk who was going to cry to Coop. She’d handled it.

“You wouldn’t have to if you would just be…normal.” He tooka long breath, seeming to try to keep himself in control.

“It’s normal to not want your boyfriend to get injured by ajackass.” Maybe she’d been wrong. He’d used that word. The one she hated.Normal. She wasn’t normal. She wasn’t feminine. She wasn’t easy to get alongwith. Why couldn’t she be more like Kenzie? Or better. Why couldn’t she be asperfect as her older sister, Tasha? Kenzie was still weird. If she hadn’t hadKala around to give her cover, Kenz would have been considered super weird. ButTash was perfect.

I don’t know, Ian. I sometimes wish she was a littlemore like Tash. Life would be easier for her.

Her mom hadn’t meant the words unkindly—hadn’t meant for herto hear them at all—but Kala had taken them to heart.

Coop was the one who liked her darkness. At least he had. Hedefinitely liked it on those late nights when she would sneak from her house tohis and he would put his hands all over her and kiss her until she couldn’tbreathe.

“I’m sorry.” She needed to think about how her actionsaffected him. He probably thought she was emasculating him when she beat up thedudes who fucked with him. It had probably been pretty embarrassing, like he’dbeen the one who cried to her so she would deal with it for him. It couldn’t befurther from the truth, but she could see Jimmy throwing those accusations inhis face. “I should have let you handle it. I just got so angry with him.”

“I know. You never mean it,” he said with a sigh.

She could still save this. Guys were hard on each other. Thelocker room, she’d been told, was a dangerous jungle. Personally, she’d neverbeen much of a team player. She put a hand on his. “Let’s go upstairs. Talkingsucks. Let’s make out.” She squared her shoulders and pulled on every bit ofbravery she had. “I’ve got an even better idea. Let’s do it.”

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