Page 27 of Tides of Discovery
Jack’s laugh was strained. “Yeah, I gathered that from the constant stream of congratulations and back slaps I’ve been getting.”
“Garrett, Ethan, Landon, Declan—even Mrs. Abernathy.” I shook my head. “It’s like the whole town was just waiting for this to happen.”
“And now that it has—or they think it has—what do we do?” Jack’s fingers tapped a nervous rhythm on his coffee cup.
I took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking about that. A lot, actually.”
“Me, too.” Jack’s expression was guarded. He picked up his mug.
“And I think I have a solution.” I leaned forward, elbows on my desk. “What if we…roll with it?”
Jack’s eyebrows rose. “Roll with it?”
My heart hammered against my ribs, but I pushed on. “What if we try being a couple? Actually give ourselves a real chance to see if there’s something more between us.”
Jack froze with his coffee cup halfway to his lips, and his blue eyes widened with surprise. “Cooper, are you serious?”
“Dead serious.” Heat crept up my neck, but I didn’t back down. “Look, everyone already thinks we’re together anyway. And honestly? The idea doesn’t terrify me the way it should.”
A slow smile spread across Jack’s face, and hope bloomed in my chest. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t wondered about it myself,” he said.
“We could take it slow,” I said quickly, needing to get all my thoughts out before I lost my nerve. “Keep things casual. No pressure for anything physical. We don’t have to rush into anything that might make things uncomfortable between us.”
Jack set his cup down carefully, his expression growing thoughtful. “What if it doesn’t work out? I don’t want to lose my best friend.”
The vulnerability in his voice made my chest tighten, and I understood his fear. I didn’t want to lose my best friend either. “Then we set an end date,” I said. “Valentine’s Day.”
Four weeks. I hoped that would be enough time to sort through my true feelings, to figure out what that kiss had awakened in me. But what if things went badly? What if four weeks turned out to be an eternity of awkwardness and regret? My stomach churned at the thought, but I pushed the doubts aside and moved forward with the idea anyway.
“We give it until then and reevaluate,” I said. “If it’s not working, we go back to being friends. No hard feelings, no awkwardness. Just an honest attempt to see what we could be.”
Jack was quiet for a long moment, and his fingers drummed against the desk while I held my breath. Then, that crookedsmile I knew so well broke across his face. “Valentine’s Day, huh? Including theOcean of Lovedance?”
Relief flooded through me, and I couldn’t help but grin back. “I figured if we’re going to do this, we might as well do it right.”
“And in the meantime, we’d be…a couple,” Jack said carefully.
“Within parameters,” I nodded, on firmer ground now. “We’d set boundaries, of course. Rules for what’s acceptable and what’s not. That way, things won’t get…complicated.”
His eyes never left mine. “Boundaries like…?”
“Nothing too intimate.” The memory of last night’s kiss flickered through my mind again and sent a warmth through my veins that I firmly ignored.
I pulled a notebook from my desk drawer. “We should establish some ground rules.”
Jack’s crooked smile turned more genuine. “Of course you’d want to write this down.”
“I like clarity,” I defended myself, already jotting down notes. “And this way, there’s no confusion about what we’re agreeing to.”
For the next half hour, we hammered out what Jack teasingly dubbed “The Boyfriend Bargain.” Physical boundaries: hand-holding, arms around shoulders, and brief kisses were allowed, but no making out or anything more intimate. Our cover story: we’d secretly started dating a month ago after years of friendship. The timeline: revisiting the bargain after our appearance at the Valentine’s Day dance.
When we finished, I sat back in my chair and studied Jack. The memory hit me again: the softness of his lips, the gentle but firm pressure, the way my whole body had responded with a shock of awareness I’d never experienced before. For the first time, I let myself really look at him—the way a strand of his lightbrown hair fell across his forehead, the sparkle in his blue eyes, the curve of his mouth that I now knew the feel of.
How had I never noticed the deep rumble of his voice? Or the way his eyelashes cast shadows on his cheeks when he looked down? Or how his square shoulders filled out his simple T-shirt in a way that was undeniably attractive?
I looked back down at my notes and tried to regain my equilibrium. “So we’re agreed? We do this through the Valentine’s Day dance?”
Jack nodded, and a small smile played at the corners of his mouth. “Agreed. I’ll be the best temporary boyfriend Seacliff Cove has ever seen.”
