Love on the Line (Beaumont Legacy #2)

11. Cooper

Chapter eleven

Cooper

S tepping out into the March evening sun, Cooper swiped away from the texts with his mother, hoping he’d remember to respond when he was less annoyed with his parents. He noticed the woman leaving the facility at the same time as him, and he made an effort to step away from her, trying to put some distance between them in case there were any paparazzi outside the building. It was something he’d noticed he’d been doing more and more.

No need to be linked to someone he’d never even spoken to.

His phone vibrated, and when he realized it was Maya calling, he answered immediately.

“Maya? What’s wrong?” They’d still been texting a few times a day, but the last time they’d spoken on the phone was a week ago, when Cooper had called and offered to pay the upfront costs of the charity.

“Oh, uh, sorry. Nothing’s wrong. I probably should’ve texted you, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. Well, actually, I was looking at every single foundation and nonprofit that might help fund the charity and kind of came up empty, so I’m agreeing to your offer. With some conditions.”

Cooper felt his heart rate pick up a hair as he made it across the expansive Sabertooths stadium parking lot toward the restaurant where he was meeting the guys, a grin on his face. “Shoot.”

“The first is that I will be paying you back. I’ve charted how much this will all cost over the coming months. The price of courts and transportation is uncharacteristically low because the facility is being kind, so operating this charity shouldn’t be too expensive. If I’m taking money from you, it’ll only be enough to pay for a small fundraising gala, as well as the startup costs. Once we get donations, I’ll be set for a while and then can hope for rolling contributions as we show how important our work is.” There was a noise like she was shifting the phone. “I hope. And I’m going to coach on the side, so it may take a while, but I’ll pay back every last penny.”

“Maya, I—”

“Non-negotiable, Coop. I can’t accept your help unless I find a way to pay you back eventually.”

Cooper decided not to fight her on it now, though he knew he’d never accept the money. He was doing this because he wanted to, not because he felt obligated to. For once, he was doing something for someone because he wished to.

“Fine. What’s your next condition?” He jogged across the street before turning down a wide alley with little shops.

“If we do this, I want you to be a cofounder. All the stuff you’ve sent me from the philanthropy department has helped me immensely, and especially since you’re funding the first bit, I’d love for you to be my copilot.”

“Maya, that’s okay. All I’m really good for is the money anyway,” he joked. “I’d be of no help to you.”

Maya was silent for a moment. “What the hell are you talking about? Why do you put yourself down like that?”

Cooper almost ran into a telephone pole at the change in her voice. She sounded legitimately upset.

Before he could respond, Maya continued, “You’re intelligent as hell, and you’d be a great cofounder.” His cheeks heated at the praise. “If we’re doing this, you’re my partner. You don’t even have to do any of the work if you don’t want to or don’t have time.”

He knew he’d have some time to help her, even if it wasn’t always in person, especially since offseason camps didn’t start for over a month. But if she said she trusted him, once again, he wasn’t going to fight her.

“I’d like to help, then.”

“Great! Later this week, I’m going to go talk to Viola at the tennis center I was telling you about to get the ball rolling on a schedule and advertising. ”

“When do you think you’ll be doing that?” Cooper asked, pulling his phone away from his ear to look for flights to Los Angeles.

“Probably Friday? Viola said she’d be available then.”

“Perfect, I’ll be there.”

“What? Cooper, you don’t have to fly here for this. I can talk to her on my own.”

He chose a flight and booked it. “Cofounder, remember?”

“Yeah, but when I said that, it was because of what you’ve already done and like…your ideas on things. Not so that you’d come here when you’re busy with football.”

“Maya?”

“Yes?”

“I’ll see you Thursday night.”

Maya laughed and then sighed. “Okay, Coop. See you Thursday.”

Thursday night had rolled around, and with practice earlier in the day, the long flight, and the dullness of having to go through George’s “to-do” emails, Cooper must have fallen asleep on the couch. The lamps in the living room were dimmed, and the back porch light was on. He couldn’t see much past the pool, but he thought there was movement in the hot tub, the lights inside the stone area on .

“Maya?” he called into the darkness. “Are you upstairs?”

Silence said she wasn’t, so he stepped out onto the porch, enjoying the cool breeze that kissed his cheeks and arms. Cooper approached the hot tub slowly, and when he was a few feet away, he saw Maya almost entirely submerged, her head resting against the stone of the hot tub, eyes closed.

She looked relaxed, far more so than the last couple of times he’d seen her. He liked it. After everything she’d been dealing with recently, she deserved it.

Maya cracked an eye when he got close. “The old man rises from his slumber.”

His lips parted. She stood, and he forced himself to look away from the swell of her breasts in the flimsy bathing suit she wore, but it was too late. When he closed his eyes, he saw the drops of water as they fell down her body steadily, already ingrained in his mind. He heard movement in the water, and when he opened his eyes, she sat on the bench behind her, as if giving him room to join her. He closed his lips when he could hardly find words to respond.

Maya smirked. “It’s okay if you can’t hang,” she challenged him. “If I were old, I’d be tired at eight too.”

He cleared his throat. “I’d hardly call someone four years older than you old .”

She looked at a spot across from her, goading Cooper to prove himself by getting in. After a moment of thought, he ripped his shirt and jeans off, leaving him in boxers, and slipped in, keeping a healthy distance from the leg she swirled. He prayed she hadn’t seen the way his dick strained at the cloth, still trying to push the image of her out of his head.

He had to stop thinking about her.

Maya was so far off-limits that it was unreal. She was Colton’s little sister, and more than that, he wasn’t sure he was a good fit for her. While he was done with the “girl in every port” lifestyle, he hadn’t been in a serious relationship since college. And even that had only ended in hurt for him. He didn’t have much to give her, and Maya Beaumont deserved everything with someone who was absolutely crazy for her, ready to yell it from rooftops.

It had been a bad idea when they’d almost kissed a year and a half ago, and it was a bad idea now.

“How are you feeling?”

Maya brought her foot back toward her body. “A little better. Definitely not perfect, but the work I’ve been doing has been a great distraction. And going to physical therapy helped. I think being cooped up inside was making things worse.”

“I can imagine.”

“How’s Colton doing? I haven’t talked to him much since mini golf.”

“He’s doing really well, honestly. I’m glad he and Lucia finally moved in together because he was becoming such a whiny bastard the nights she slept apart from him.”

Maya watched her hand rise through the water, then flipped it palm down. “They seem really happy. She’s good for him. He set boundaries with Dad for the first time ever, and I know it was because of her.”

“Yeah, your dad’s a real…character.”

“No need to filter yourself. He sucks. I know he was hard on them long before, but things got so much worse when Mom died. Colton’s entire life was micromanaged, and Landon barely fared better.”

“And yours?”

“Hmm?”

“What was your life like with him?” Cooper had heard a lot about Troy Beaumont from Colton’s perspective, but whenever he and Maya had talked, it had mostly been about her life on tour and the countries she’d enjoyed visiting.

She shrugged. “Oh, you know. He wasn’t around much. Always at their practices or games. I barely had to see him, luckily.”

Maya must have seen the angry look on Cooper’s face, the hard set of his jaw, so she continued, “Colton tried his best to be there, but I was taking too much attention away from his football. And by the time Dad moved to Charleston to be with Colton my senior year, I could take care of myself.”

Cooper’s brows furrowed. “Colton told you that you were taking too much attention away from his football?” That didn’t sound like him at all.

She shook her head. “Oh, no. He would never. My dad heard him helping me get to sleep after a particularly bad panic attack one night after Mom died. I was struggling pretty badly, even four months later, and he always helped me get them under control. But when Dad found out, he told me I was screwing with Colton’s sleep schedule and I needed to deal with my problems on my own like everybody else.” She shrugged again. “So I did.”

The willpower it took for Cooper not to get Troy Beaumont’s phone number and rip him a new one was honestly worthy of applause. He clenched his jaw more, if that was even possible, gripping the concrete bench he sat on to stop him from reaching toward her and comforting her.

Cooper couldn’t imagine treating his daughter like trash because she wouldn’t be a great football player like his sons, and then when she needed him most, telling her to deal with her pain on her own because she was impacting her brother’s football.

How fucking disgusting. A disgrace of a human being.

And after all of that, forcing her to grow up on her own, believing her feelings and experiences weren’t as important as other people’s, and leaving her in this house alone at seventeen years old.

The baby of the family who had to grow up quickly because her father hadn’t stepped up the way he should’ve.

Cooper inhaled a calming breath, knowing his anger would do nothing to help. Her dad was a piece of shit. Cooper had learned that in his few interactions with him and after hearing all the shit he used to say to Colton before Colton had finally put his foot down and all but kicked him out of his life. But now, hearing how he’d treated Maya as well, her father would be lucky if he didn’t get socked the next time he showed up at a Sabertooths game.

“Where were your grandparents?”

“Dad’s parents died when I was younger. Mom’s parents were in Michigan last I heard. They were always away when I was growing up, which was fortuitous for Dad, since he didn’t like us seeing them.”

“I’m surprised they weren’t here more after your mom…” Cooper tried to find a word that wasn’t as harsh as died .

“You can say she died. It’s what happened. And yeah, I don’t know.” Maya looked up at the sky, her head resting on the outside of the hot tub. “It was almost like they disappeared from our lives after Mom. Never could figure out why. Though maybe it was because we weren’t as Indian as the rest of our cousins. Or maybe it was just too hard to see us when Mom was gone. Who knows.”

Cooper hoped neither of those were the case. They would be doing themselves a disservice in not getting to know their grandchildren, especially Maya. He knew they would have been proud of her if they had the opportunity to be.

“Have you thought about reaching out?”

Maya picked her head back up and began playing with the water again, studying her hand as the water forced resistance in her movement. Cooper would have given anything and everything to know what she was thinking .

“Sure, some. Especially after Mom died. But now I figure if they’d wanted to talk to us, they’d have reached out, right? Is it my responsibility?”

“I’m honestly not sure.”

Her leg brushed his, and he nearly jumped. He did not appreciate the way his body seemed on edge around Maya. He didn’t remember it always being like this, but it would certainly be a hindrance moving forward.

This situation needed a sticky note slapped onto it that read this can only end poorly .

“Were you able to see your family?” Maya asked. “I know you were annoyed when you missed your flight to see them last month.”

Cooper grimaced, looking toward the shed behind the hot tub. He still hadn’t planned a trip home, not ready to explain to his parents, once again, that what he was doing was important to him, whether or not it was important to them.

“No, not yet.”

Maya cocked her head. He marveled at how near predatory she looked. “Scared of seeing an old flame?”

“An old flame? Now who sounds like an old geezer?”

She splashed at him.

“Nice deflecting, cowboy.”

“Things are strained with my parents right now. Or at least they will be once I go home. And Oakridge Springs has always been the town I left behind for a reason. It’s a very small town, and I’ve just built up a bit of a reputation. ”

“A reputation.”

“Yeah. You know, you do something enough, it stops becoming surprising and it starts becoming…expected. And sometimes, I just want to go home, see my family, and be done with it. I don’t want all the rest of it that comes with living in Oakridge Springs.”

“Clearly, nobody in the town knows you well enough to recognize you’re not your reputation. Which means they don’t deserve any better than a cold shoulder from you.”

Cooper marveled at her willingness to support him, despite not knowing how he’d gotten the reputation in the first place. Something knocked in his chest at the resolute set of her beautiful features, like nothing would change her mind about him.

“Unless I deserve the reputation I have because it’s based entirely in fact.”

Her lips thinned, and he thought she leaned closer, just a hair.

“If I ever go to Oakridge Springs, Tennessee, they better watch out, because I’m going out swinging if I hear anybody say anything about your reputation .”

Cooper’s mouth twitched up into a smile. Did she want to come with him to Tennessee?

“I have the same reputation in Charleston—there are just more people there so it’s less in my face. It’s not a big deal.”

He regretted bringing it up at all. He wasn’t interested in talking to Maya about his time with other women, even if he and Maya could never be more than friends .

“I know you mentioned something going on with your family too, but this feeling is a big deal if it makes you not want to go home.” Her voice dropped. “It’s a big deal if it makes you feel like you’re lesser because of it. Don’t let anyone make you feel inferior because of the choices you make about your own body.”

Maya was staring at him with the fierceness of the sun. Cooper couldn’t hold eye contact, his body made nervous by her sincerity, so he looked up at the sky, trying to count the few stars that survived the LA light pollution. “It’s one of the reasons I want to help with the charity. I’d like to think maybe I could be known for something good. Something better than this .” He gestured at himself, though he didn’t really know what he meant by the word.

“I know the charity will be yours, but I’m hoping that with me helping…I don’t know.” He blew out a breath before convincing himself to look back at her. “I want people to see me as more than that. I don’t want to be that guy anymore.” Even if it would piss George off to lose the money that reputation made “them.”

“It’s just as much yours as it is mine, Cooper.”

He smiled at her softly. “Yeah, okay.”

She looked pensive but didn’t say anything else.

“Should we discuss what we're going to say to Viola tomorrow? Or plan the fundraising gala?” Cooper wondered.

“Tomorrow morning. It’s much too late for shop talk now. ”

Maya pushed herself up so she sat on the brick wall of the hot tub, most of her body out of the water. This time, it was clear she was doing it on purpose. He felt her watching him, watching as his eyes traveled the length of her body, taking in her peaked nipples and the goose bumps cropping up on her arms, slipping down to the toes that still circled in the water below her. Alarm bells rang in his mind as his eyes met hers once more, and there was that predatory look in her gaze again.

“Good night, Coop,” she whispered.

“Good night, Mai.” It came out gruffer than he’d intended, and he stuck his nails into his leg to jolt him from the thoughts he absolutely should not be having.

He closed his eyes as she got out of the hot tub, trying so hard to push away the image that now seemed to be burned in his brain, not ready to see what she looked like as she walked away.

How much trouble was he about to get himself into with this charity?