Page 13 of Cooper & Jake
“Ah, well, even though he retired from the military right after we graduated, he didn’t fully retire. Once we moved to Texas, he started working on a ranch with some of his brothers. My grandpa put him to work right away. He’s finally done now and is enjoying life with Mom. My sister has given them four grandkids, and my brother gave them three, so they’re content for now. Doesn’t stop them from asking when I’m giving them some, though.”
My palms sweat, and I take a second to take a hand off the steering wheel to wipe it on my jeans. “Do you, uh, do you have someone back home?”
“No. I don’t. Do you?”
My heart beats wildly as I glance at him in the dim light of the jeep’s dashboard. “No, I don’t.”
“That’s good,” he murmurs, smiling at me.
We continue the rest of the drive in silence, and in no time, I’m pulling into the parking lot of the hiking trail. We both get out of the jeep and turn on our flashlights.
“Somehow, this seems a lot scarier than it did when we were kids,” I tell him, flashing the light all over the darkened area in front of me.
“That’s because we didn’t care back then. As long as we were together.”
“Well, yes, but still, we were little shitheads if you think about it. Going off into the forest all alone in the middle of the night. And now here I am again. Oh god, I hope there are no animals out here.” My heart speeds up as I continue looking around the dark forest. When we were younger, I didn’t care about what I might run into out here, but now that I’m older and wiser, I’m panicking slightly.
“Chill, Cooper. There’s nothing out here that will hurt you. And if something pops up, I’ll protect you,” he tells me, turning to face me. His hands rub up and down my arms, my body slowlyrelaxing, as he murmurs, “You’re okay. I’m here. I’ve got you.” My heart rate slows down, almost completely stopping when he whispers, “Good boy.”
Fuck, I love being told I’m a good boy. There’s just something so damn sexy and exhilarating about being praised. And hearing those words coming out of Jake’s sexy mouth? Fuck, that makes me so damn horny.
“Okay, come on. Let’s get to the waterfall,” I tell him, trying not to draw any attention to how turned on I am.
I keep one side of the trail illuminated while Jake does the other side. It shouldn’t take us too long to reach the waterfall, but I’m walking extra slowly, my head constantly looking out into the pitch black, my ears straining from every little sound I hear.
“Okay, so tell me more about you. What are you doing?” Jake asks, cutting through the silence.
“So, I’m a veterinarian, and I started my practice a few years ago. When I was in school, I was working as a vet tech, which is how I met Taylor. Once I finished, I opened my place and stole Taylor, so now she works with me. I love it. Being able to work with different animals. There are, of course, days when it’s hard as hell, but most days are so rewarding.”
Jake reaches his arm over, grabbing hold of my hand and squeezing it. “You’ve always loved animals. I’m not surprised you ended up working with them.”
“Yep, predictable Cooper.”
“Hey, I didn’t say that. There’s nothing wrong with knowing your desires and going for it. Why would you want to do something that didn’t make you happy? That’s not a life to live. Trust me, I tried the college thing, getting a degree and everything, but in the end, I went back to my family. To the small town where my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins live. I own a bar, and I love every minute of it.”
The sound of rushing water hits my ears, and I run forward. “We’re here,” I say as I leave him behind.
“Wait up,” he chuckles, following after me.
Entering the clearing, I flash my light around the area. Jake grimaces when the light shines in his eyes, and I smile brightly. “Oops. My bad. Okay, so do you remember where exactly we buried it?”
“Yeah. It should be…” he trails off, walking over to the huge boulder that’s by the edge of the water. “So, we were sitting here when we were stuffing it full of items. We got up and walked over to the largest tree on the left side…so, this one. But then we said, ‘No, don’t dig it by the biggest tree because that’s where everyone will look,’ so we did it two trees over.”
“So right here?” I ask, sticking my shovel into the ground.
“Yeah, let’s dig.”
We start digging up the spot next to the tree when the movieHolespops into my head. I laugh loudly, remembering how I forced Jake to watch that film over and over. Despite not being a big reader then, the book was a favorite, so I was hooked on the movie version. “‘I’m tired of this, Grandpa.’”
Jake’s head snaps up, and he grins at me. “‘Well, that’s too damn bad.’”
“You remember that?”
“You only made us watch it every other weekend,” he jokes. It wasn’t every other weekend, but it was pretty damn close.
We spend the next couple of minutes digging when my shovel finally hits metal. “I think I got it,” I tell him excitedly. When I first brought up the water bottle, I thought he would have just been like, ‘oh, okay,’ so I was shocked when he suggested we go dig it up. And now that we’re here, I’m nervous because I honestly don’t remember what I packed away. Jake gets the water bottle dug up and takes it over to the boulder,where I sit down beside him. I flash my light onto it, noting how dirty it is. Which, duh, it’s been underground for twenty years.
“Do you remember when we buried this and why?” he asks, and my heart falls to the floor.
