Page 28 of The Road Ahead
What can I say? It worked.
Chapter 13
Rio
Shortly after lunch, Cooper and I were outside by Brad’s SUV—a red Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross—waiting for the others to join us so we could head out for the day. The sun was shining, and the crystal-blue water of the lake was sparkling beneath it. Cooper came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me, leaning his chin on the top of my head.
“The lake is so beautiful,” I murmured, relaxing back into Cooper’s hold. “I’ve missed coming here.”
“Now that you’ll be staying in Stony Creek, we can come here more often,” Cooper told me. “We don’t use the cabin nearly as much as we used to. Mom and Dad will be glad to see it being used more.” He kissed my temple. “We can plan regular weekends away if you’d like.”
I smiled. “I like the sound of that. Though you might get sick of me until I get my own place. Staying up here on weekends with me might be too much.”
Cooper scoffed. “I’m not going to get sick of you, Rio.” He paused, then added almost tentatively, “I know it’s too early to make these sorts of decisions, and you might want your own place anyway, but maybe we could look at the next couple of months as a kind of trial? If it works out, for both of us, maybe you wouldn’t have to get your own place.”
I considered this, and found I wasn’t opposed to the idea. “As much as I enjoyed living by myself in Georgia, it did get lonely sometimes. I’m happy to see how we go, and if we’re in a good place in a couple of months, we can look at making it permanent.”
Cooper spun me around in his arms, then ducked down so he could kiss me. I pushed up onto my tippy toes, meeting him halfway. The kiss was relatively chaste, and we didn’t deepen it, we simply enjoyed being close.
Someone cleared their throat behind us and we pulled apart to find Brad standing there, fiddling with his keys and looking uncomfortable. “Teresa will just be a minute,” he said, then gave us a wide berth as he skirted around us to get into the car.
“I’m guessing he’s not as cool with this as Teresa is,” Cooper muttered.
I shrugged. “It’s not really any of his business anyway.”
“I know. I just hope he doesn’t make a big deal about it.”
Teresa came outside then, and after she locked the cabin door, came and joined us. “I can’t believe it’s almost over for another year,” she said with a pout. “I feel like I’ll blink and I’ll suddenly be back at Knit Happens.”
“I know. It goes by so quickly,” Cooper agreed. “But I’m sure we’ll have a blast today.”
We got into the car, with Teresa in the front passenger seat and Cooper and me in the back. Cooper reached his hand out across the center seat, and I smiled as I tangled my fingers in his.
We’d made it to the end of the dirt track and were turning onto the sealed road when Brad spoke up. “So, Cooper. I thought you told me you were gay?”
Cooper’s grip on my hand tightened and I heard him sigh. “I did.”
“So you lied, huh?”
“Brad!” Teresa snapped. “What the hell?”
“I never lied to you,” Cooper said, his voice calm but I heard an edge to it.
“I’m just trying to understand,” Brad protested, mostly to Teresa. “Your brother told me he was gay, which means he likes dudes. He’s obviously with Rio now, and leaving aside the whole cousin thing—gross, by the way—you bit my head off when I called Rio a dude. So which is it? Did Cooper lie to me? Or is Rio a man?”
“Neither,” Cooper said.
And at the same time Teresa said, “Oh my god, you are so ignorant!”
“How the fuck am I ignorant?” Brad demanded, completely ignoring Cooper.
“Don’t speak to Teresa like that!” Cooper barked. I had to reach over and pry his hand away from mine since he was gripping it so tightly it had started to hurt.
Teresa was fuming. “You have no concept of how sexuality works. It’sfluid, Brad. Cooper used to only like men, but that’s no longer the case.”
“I’m pretty sure I identify as pansexual now,” Cooper told them.
Brad snorted. “It’s funny how you can just change your mind whenever it suits you. Why not just say you like dicks, since Rio clearly still has his boy parts.” Teresa gasped, and I could tell Brad immediately recognized he’d crossed a line. “Look, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” he said quickly.
