Love on the Line (Beaumont Legacy #2)

15. Cooper

Chapter fifteen

Cooper

B y the end of March, the Sabers were starting some light practices on the field, which Cooper was excited about, even if he was looking a little rustier than usual. While he liked lifting, he’d missed being on the field, turf under his cleats and grass ahead of him as he dodged defensive backs.

Cooper headed straight home after he showered. He’d been up far later than he’d planned thanks to a call with the event planner and Maya the night before. He hadn’t realized he’d fallen asleep on the call until he’d looked through the five messages from Maya telling him to open his eyes and making fun of him for being an old man.

He missed her. The last time he’d seen her was two weeks ago at Colton’s birthday dinner. She’d had to leave for LA for a couple of tennis lessons and to work with Viola on charity logistics. Preparations were really beginning to ramp up, and Cooper cursed the distance, because he truly wanted to be there to help.

It was an odd feeling, missing her, because he was sure he’d never missed a woman in his life besides his mom and sisters. Yet, over the evenings of event planning and the excited phone calls in the middle of the night when she’d figured something out that would make the charity run smoother, they’d slowly unearthed the little things about each other most people wouldn’t ever get to know.

She liked gummy bears, but only the red, yellow, and white ones. The green and orange ones ended up in a plastic baggie somewhere in her room, deemed unfit to be eaten unless she were in a pinch and couldn’t get her fix. In elementary school, she put gum in Kayla James’ hair after Kayla bullied another girl reading in the cafeteria—something she was not proud of, even if she had been smiling as she said it. She had wanted to be a swimmer like her mom, only when she’d tried, she’d nearly drowned, and no amount of coaching seemed to help.

Losing tennis was like losing her mom all over again because she’d spent so many years playing for her mom, and it’d become her safe space when her mother had passed away. She hated telling her brothers how she felt, even though she went out of her way to ask them about themselves, because she hated the idea of worrying them at all.

Though that last one was something he’d gathered from her actions, not really her words .

He’d told her about his older brother and three younger sisters. About how he’d climbed a tree chasing his brother and had broken his arm in four places. That his favorite way to spend an evening was on the beach, watching the tide come in and out peacefully. She’d been surprised by that but had said it only made her like him more.

Cooper had stuttered over his words after she’d said that, like a high schooler who couldn’t get his bearings after his crush spoke to him.

He’d never expected to hate the distance so much, but while Colton might’ve been his best friend, Maya had slowly been worming herself into that spot too. In a completely different way, Maya was becoming one of his closest friends. Someone who he felt comfortable telling anything, even the things he might not talk so much to Colton about, like his family life, and why Oakridge Springs was such a sore spot for him.

He hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed someone like that, and now that he had her, he didn’t know how he’d gone so long without her.

Despite the fact they spent nearly every night on the phone and that he’d grown to crave her voice being the last he heard before he slept, they hadn’t talked about the kiss at Colton’s house. It was clear they were both avoiding it, though he didn’t know her reasoning.

Cooper hadn’t brought it up because he shouldn’t have done it. He’d decided that if Maya was who he wanted, which he was growing surer of by the day, he needed to prove to the world—and especially to Colton, Maya, and himself—that he was worthy of her. And right now, that wasn’t the case.

He went through the rest of the evening like a zombie, responding to George’s many emails with signed contracts. Cooper ignored the other email from George that included a list of women Cooper could take out since he hadn’t been photographed with anyone recently.

His agent was apparently quite worried about the “rampant speculation” around Cooper’s love life.

After falling asleep at his dining table, he got up and readied himself for the evening, chugging two protein shakes before brushing his teeth and falling into the king-sized bed he’d spent an entirely unnecessary amount of money on when he’d first purchased the house.

Just as he set his phone down for the evening, a call came through. At first, he was sure it was his mother, calling for the second time today to ask him if he’d given more thought to retiring since there still hadn’t been any movement on an extension on his contract, despite George’s promise that things were in the works. But when he grabbed his phone, he saw it was a video call from Maya.

His heartbeat rocketed like it always did when she called so late, forever worried about what harm might befall her while she lived alone so many miles away. Cooper couldn’t stand the thought, swiping his finger across the screen, only breathing a sigh of relief when he saw her unharmed.

“Mai? Are you okay? ”

“Hi, I’m so sorry to bother you. I keep hearing creaking in the house, and I know it’s just settling, but I’m about to die of thirst and I need to get water, but I didn’t want to do it alone. I call you at this time sometimes so I thought it might be okay…” She looked more and more embarrassed the longer she rambled.

“You could never be a bother. Go grab some water, I’ll stay on.”

Once again, the urge to ask her to spend more time in Charleston shoved its way down his throat, but he closed his lips over the words that attempted to escape. Even if he hadn’t been asking for selfish reasons, either to spend more time with her or to know she was safe in Colton’s house rather than alone across the country, it wasn’t his place to ask that of her, especially when she was just beginning to establish herself in Los Angeles with the charity, Viola, and the tennis community.

It was dark, but she kept the phone close to her face, her brow furrowed.

“Turn on the lights. And can you do me a favor?”

“So bossy.” Light flooded the room around her, and she looked down at him, then pulled the phone away from her. “That was a horrible angle. But yes, what can I do for you?”

“Can you check all the windows and doors and make sure they’re locked properly?”

She let out a light laugh. “I’m the only person living here and would know if any of the windows or doors weren’t locked, Coop. Such a worrywart. ”

“Sweetheart, please,” he pleaded, not even realizing his mistake until the words had been out of his mouth for seconds. That was now the second time he’d slipped up and called her that, though this time was far more meaningful than when he’d teased her about how memorable of a time he could be.

She blinked down at him once, twice, then let out a chuckle that sounded a little more forced than the last. “Oh, uh, okay. Yes, sure.” She began the process, slowly making her way through every room in the house, flicking on the light before checking the windows and even balcony doors, just to assuage his fears.

“Oh! I came up with a name for the charity. Let me know your thoughts.” She paused. “On the Line.” Maya was beaming at him as she waited for his reaction.

“I like it. Give me the backstory.”

Maya continued checking windows and doors as she spoke. “It’s perfect for a tennis charity because it’s a very common tennis term, whether you’re lined up on the line or hit a great shot on the line. Or you have everything on the line.”

“Oh, see, I thought maybe it was because we’re always on the phone,” he teased.

She paused, looking down at him in confusion. “What does On the Line have to do with a phone?”

Cooper was really about to date himself with this one. “You know. The landline phones where you have to stay close because it’s attached to the line. And people would always say ‘get off the line.’”

Maya shook her head.

“Oh, so you’re a baby . How can you not know about landline phones?”

A smirk grew on her pretty face, and Cooper knew what was coming. “No, you’re just an old man.”

“Again, only four years older than you.”

“Did you ever have to hang the phone up on the wall?” she asked, like she already knew the answer.

Cooper had, of course, but only when he’d been younger. To be fair, he’d lived in a little town, nothing big like Los Angeles.

“Yes,” he answered resignedly.

“Old.”

He rolled his eyes as she checked the last room of the house, still giggling. “ Anyway , I like On the Line. I think it’s perfect,” he said, hoping to move past the teasing.

“Thank you! It just hit me and I thought so too.” Maya paused, squinting at him, though a smile still played on her lips.

“Also, don’t think checking all the windows and doors is an every-night thing. I’m a little too lonely and sad to add much more than washing my face and brushing my teeth to my nightly routine.” She smiled like it was a joke, but he knew the words were true, and his chest ached at the thought of that. That in a world full of people Maya could easily make friends with, in a world where she already had so many friends, she’d been so alone .

She’d mentioned something about it a couple of nights ago but hadn’t explained further than that, much to his dismay. He’d very nearly booked a flight then and there so she wouldn’t feel so alone, but at least he would be there in a few days for their press conference.

“If you’re thinking of telling me to move to Charleston or spend more time at Colton and Lucia’s house, don’t even say it. The charity is in LA, and the last thing I want is to be putting Colt and Luc out.”

Now, that was uncanny . Either she could read his face like a book, or she’d just gotten to know him so well that she could read his mind. He liked the idea of both of those a bit too much, so to cover that up, he grinned. “Who said anything about Colton and Lucia’s? I have four perfectly good guest bedrooms.” After flicking on the light switch beside him and sitting up, he held his phone out to show off how little of his own bed he took up. “And a very large bed.”

She stopped moving, her mouth in an ‘O’ of shock. When she collected herself a few seconds later to the sounds of his laughter, she said, “Cooper Hayes!” Maya finally cracked, a hint of a smile trying to come out, and then she rolled her eyes. She flipped the camera and panned around the open floorplan of the house. “Everything’s locked, cowboy. Now am I allowed to get water?”

When she flipped the camera back, he saw the little tank top and even tinier shorts she was wearing before she pulled the phone closer to her. Filthy thoughts flooded his mind, but he once again tried to push them down, even as he felt blood rushing down below the waistband of his shorts.

“Am I giving the orders?” he drawled.

“You told me to lock the windows and doors and I listened, so apparently.”

“I can tell you to do anything?” His dick was fully at attention now, his voice lower than a few moments ago.

The look in Maya’s eyes seemed to mirror his. “Depends on what it is.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear that’d loosed itself from her ponytail, and if Cooper hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought she was angling her camera just a little bit lower, her chest just slightly more visible. He’d never been so attracted to someone’s collarbone before, but he was quickly learning there was nothing about Maya that wasn’t attractive—and he’d certainly tried his hardest to find something when his thoughts were too much.

Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip, and the feeling that ripped through him at the sight also wiggled loose the thought he’d had since this whole ill-advised flirtation had started: he needed to find a way to prove he was good enough for her.

He cleared his throat, adjusting his shorts to accommodate himself a little better. “Why don’t you get that water now?”

Disappointment clear as day flashed across her beautiful face. In a moment, he’d made her, his sunflower, wilt, something he’d promised himself he’d never do. Frustrated with the situation and even more so with himself, he rolled his shoulders, keeping his eyes on Maya as she filled up her bottle, turned off all the lights, and walked up the stairs to her bedroom.

Yeah, he was five-finger-punch-from-Colton fucked, and he was starting to care less and less.