Page 36 of Cooper & Jake
“I might not love animals as much as you do, but I still love seeing and playing with them. And seeing you happy was always one of my favorite things. Let’s go.” I put the address into my phone and then turn the volume up as loud as it goes. “Okay, wehave to go all the way down there and then turn right,” I tell him, pointing down the street.
Cooper and I take off on the scooters, making sure to weave around the few people who are walking on the sidewalk. I turn my head, smiling brightly when I see the infectious smile on Cooper’s face. He’s loving this. The scooters aren’t fast, just enough to have us zipping down the road, but not fast enough that we can’t control what we’re doing or keep us from looking at one another. Which is what we do the entire ride to the animal shelter. Every few seconds, I’ll lift my head to glance at him to realize he’s already looking at me, or he looks at me right at the very second that I’m staring at him. He’s so damn beautiful, and I’m so thankful that we’re spending the next few days with one another.
Pulling up to the animal shelter, Cooper and I both park our scooters and leave them in the bike rack. Luckily, each scooter came with its own lock, so we lock them up and walk into the animal rescue. The two glass doors slide open, and I grab Cooper’s hand, interlocking our fingers. He squeezes my hand and offers me a smile as he guides me into the building.
The first stop in the rescue is the hallway with the cats and kittens. There’s a sweet old lady named Ruth working, and she helps open the door for us. She used to work at the animal shelter by the school, but she told us that they were able to upgrade to a bigger facility, which I was excited to hear, but it also broke my heart to know that they needed a larger space.
“No one has been in today. The kitties are in for a treat,” she smiles as she leads us to them.
As soon as she opens the door to the hallway, tons of meowing hit my ears, and my heart sinks to the floor. Fuck, I wish I could take all of them with me. Cooper lets go of my hand, and I feel the loss instantly, but my frown turns to a smile when I see him walk over to an older tabby cat. The cat is lying next tothe plastic, its paw pushed up against as though it’s trying to say hi.
“Hi, sweet baby,” Cooper whispers, lightly tapping against the plastic. “Aren’t you a cutie? Someone should have snatched you up by now.” He turns to look at me, tears in his eyes. “Seeing the older ones always breaks my heart. Everyone always wants the kittens or the puppies, but it’s rare that people come to the shelters and want to adopt the older ones. Wanna know what my dream is?”
“What’s that?”
“I want to live somewhere that I can have a ton of land and have as many animals as I want. And hell, I do want a lot. Give me them all. Cats, dogs, ferrets, horses, cows, chickens, anything you can think of.”
My mind thinks back to the lot of land I bought back at Cedar Creek. The ten acres of land that we could do a lot with, such as have as many animals as his heart desires. I don’t tell him that, though; I keep it to myself. But now, that’s all I can picture: Cooper moving to my small town, helping to make a home with me. Building a ranch on my land and filling it with all the animals he could dream of. It’s something I hope I can make happen in the future. But I’m not going to say anything right now. We’ve only been around one another for a few days. I don’t want to come across as creepy or the like.
“I love that dream,” I tell him instead. “It sounds so much like you. Even back in high school, your idea of a date was heading down to the other animal shelter down by the school. We would sit and play with the animals for the longest time until you were tired, and then we would head out to whatever else we had planned for our date. It’s no surprise that you ended up being a vet, ya know. You’ve always been close to animals, and they’ve always loved you.”
“I’m the only one in my clinic who doesn’t make the animals freak out when they’re getting their shots. I’m a pretty big deal.”
“Hell yes, you are.”
Cooper walks away from the tabby cat, giving him one last look. “Okay, let’s go see what dogs they have.”
We spend the next hour at the animal shelter, Cooper taking the time to see every animal available. By the time we leave, there are tears in his eyes, and my heart is sad.
“I always forget how sad I am once I leave,” I tell him as we unlock the scooters.
“Yeah, it sucks. All I can tell myself is that I hope they’ll find good homes.”
“They will,” I tell him, standing up and squeezing his shoulder. “You can’t think negatively. I bet if we were to come back in a week, then they would all be adopted.”
“Yeah, and a bunch more would be in their place.”
A tear slips down his face, and I reach out, pulling him closer to me. “Fuck, I wish I could adopt all the animals in the world for you. I hate seeing you sad.”
“I’ll be okay. I’m always like this when I think of animals not finding a home. Give me a few seconds and I’ll be fine.”
“How about we do this? We head back to the hotel room, maybe rent a movie on demand, and then we can order in. Spend some time talking and hanging out for the rest of the day?”
“I’d really like that.”
Cooper decided to rentThe Hangoverwhen we got back to the room. He said he needed something to make him laugh, and he’s been laughing up a storm since the minute the movie started playing. Once he’s lost in it, I pull out my yarn and crochet hookand start working on the sweater I’ve been making. Cooper gives me a quick glance, then double-takes when he sees what’s in my hands.
“Are you crocheting?” he asks, scooting back to move closer to me. “How did you get into crocheting?”
“It started a long time ago. I think I was sitting at my parents’ house one day, and I was stressed about something going on at the bar, and venting to Mom. She reached into the basket next to her couch and pulled out some yarn and a hook. She told me she sits and crochets when she’s stressed out or when she wants to relax, and told me to try it. I fell in love with it. I do it all the time now.”
“Are you stressed about something?” he asks, eyeing the yarn in my lap.
“No, I’m just relaxing. Plus, I told Peyton I would make him this sweater, and it’s taking me way longer than I thought it would.”
“Would you make me something? It doesn’t have to be a sweater. Maybe a scarf? Or a hat? I could use both, honestly.”
“Hell yes, I can. I’ve made a ton of hats and scarves. That was like crocheting 101. Well, not really, but it’s not that hard to make. I could do it in no time.” I chuckle, already thinking of everything I want to make for him.
