Page 42 of Cooper & Jake
My eyes meet Jake’s over Peyton’s head, and he shakes his head slowly, smiling. I know how important Peyton is to Jake and how inseparable they are. Their friendship reminds me ofmine and Taylor’s. We barely go anywhere without one another. Even her husband got used to my tagging along with everything. Luckily, he had no problem with me, and we became great friends as well.
I want to do the same with Peyton. I want to become good friends with him, since I’m hoping I’ll be around him more, if I get my way. Which is why I reached out to him this morning, already inviting him to the lake. I told him I need a couple hours to plan something for Jake, so I need him to distract him once we’re done on the water. He easily agreed and was over here in less than an hour.
I want to create an at-home date for Jake, and I’m hoping to ask him how he feels about me moving here. It might seem fast to others, but we were together for years before, and we’ve spoken all day, every day since we reconnected. I don’t want to be away from him much longer. We’re both getting older, and at this stage in my life, I know what I want, and I know I want to be with him. It’s easier for me to pack up my life and come here than it would be for him to leave everything he’s built here.
I set my sandwich down when the nerves start taking over. I know it’s going to be a lot, asking him if he’d be okay with me moving here. But I want to take the leap. I can only hope he wants to take the leap with me.
I’m putting the final touches on the table when the front door swings open and clicks shut. Wiping my sweaty hands on my shorts, I take a deep breath and then walk toward the front of the house.
“How was beer with Peyton?” I ask, walking up to Jake and wrapping my arms around his waist.
“It was fine. I feel bad that I left you alone for a couple hours,” he tells me, leaning down to kiss my lips.
We get lost in one another for a few moments, our tongues tangling together, my grip making a fist in the back of his shirt. Kissing him always feels like this: as though my body will float away, but his lips are grounding me to him. I pull away first, wanting to show him the dinner I made for us.
“I might have had an ulterior motive for having Peyton take you away.” Jake looks at me quizzically, and I grin brightly. “We planned for him to sweep you away for a couple of hours so that I could do this. Come on.”
I grab his hand, interlocking our fingers as I drag him down the hallway to the kitchen. All the lights in the area are dimmed, and candles are lit and flickering on the table in front of us. In the middle of the surface is a bowl of Caesar salad, and next to it are a couple steaks I seared, along with some baked potatoes and different toppings laid about.
“You did all this?”
“I did. I wanted to have a nice date night at home. So I might have gotten Peyton to help me,” I tell him sheepishly as he stares at the table.
“Thank you,” he says, still staring at the table. “No one has ever done something like this for me.” He turns around and pulls me into his embrace. “This is amazing and perfect. I love it. God, you’re so damn perfect for me.”
My body tingles at his praise, my body falling into him. Fuck, I’m a slut for his praise. Any time he tells me how good I am or how perfect, I feel warm all over, and my dick gets instantly hard. He wraps his arms around me tightly, then pulls me in for a long kiss. I pull out one of the chairs, waiting for Jake to take a seat. He pauses for a minute, then gives me another quick kiss before sitting down.
“Come on, let’s eat,” I tell him.
“God, this smells so good. You can never go wrong with steak.”
“I figured you would like that.” I take the seat across from him, and we start digging into the food. I pile my potato high with toppings and laugh when Jake does the same. “How was hanging out with Peyton?”
“Good. I missed you, though. Wanted to get back here as soon as I could.”
“I missed you, too, but um, I was hoping to talk to you about something important. I thought I could wait until we finished eating, but I can’t.”
“This sounds serious,” he says, putting his fork down on his plate.
“It kind of is? Like it’s important to me, and I’m hoping it’s important to you.”
“Hit me.”
“So, over the past couple weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot lately. And I completely get it if you say no or if you think it’s too soon. But I can’t stop pondering about it, and I wanted to bring it up with you. But please remember you can always tell me no or not now or even a ‘hell no, that will never happen.’”
“Cooper, calm down and talk to me.”
“Okay.” I take a deep breath and then blurt out, “I want to move here. I don’t have to move in with you, not right away. But I want to be here with you. I want to spend as much time with you as I can. I’m tired of only seeing you behind a screen. Yes, it’s really soon, but I know what I want.”
Wordlessly, Jake stands up and walks around the table to my side. He kneels in front of my chair, rubbing his hands on my thighs. “I spent the whole day trying to stop myself from asking if you would move here. I didn’t want you to have to give up your life for me.”
“I wouldn’t be giving up my whole life. I’ll be starting my life. With you. And yeah, I have my own practice there, but for the past few days I thought about how easy it would be to start one here.”
“You’d really do that? Wait, no, what am I saying? I can’t ask you to do that, Cooper.”
“You’re not asking.” I shrug my shoulders, smiling. Grabbing both sides of his face, I hold him in place as I say clearly, “This is what I want. I want to be with you. For the rest of our lives. We’ve already missed out on so much time together, and I don’t want to waste any more. I know what I want; I’m just asking if that’s something that you would want, too. For us to be together. I don’t have to move in or anything, not until you’re ready, but I don’t want to be apart from you anymore.”
“I want that too. The not being apart anymore part.” He laughs loudly, his face still squished between my hands. “I feel like the past month has been a whirlwind. From us reconnecting, to your deciding to move here. We’ve gone from zero to sixty in no time at all. Is it weird that we’re considering this?”
