Love on the Line (Beaumont Legacy #2)

17. Maya

Chapter seventeen

Maya

C ooper, please be serious,” Maya begged exasperatedly the next day, walking over to where her phone camera was recording them for the fourth time. They’d had a quiet evening, but this morning, he’d seemed to be in brighter spirits, which had brightened her day too.

Cooper tended to have that effect on her.

“I’m sorry, Mai. I just don’t think we should be recording this very important video on your phone. No matter how new the phone may be.”

“Jane said it would be endearing as long as we get it right ,” she responded as she looked at the video, referring to their event planner. “And I’m open to suggestions as long as they’re real ones. ”

They had finalized the agenda for the opening night gala, and since there weren't any children who could speak to how the lessons impacted them yet, they’d decided to film a video themselves. After a helpful call with Delilah, extensive outlining by Maya, and very minimal help from Cooper, they’d decided to talk about the mission, the challenges faced by underprivileged kids in accessing sports programs, and the impact of tennis lessons on an individual child and the community as a whole.

Only, it had been four takes, and they hadn’t even gotten through the first sentence.

She set it back up on the windowsill in the dining room, thankful for the great lighting. “Okay, ready? Recording.”

Maya pressed record and then ran over to where Cooper stood.

“Good evening, everyone. I’m Maya Beaumont, and this is Cooper Hayes. We want to start by giving you a heartfelt thank you for coming to our event tonight. This charity means the world to us, and we can’t wait to show you all the good we can do with it.”

Her eyes cut to his in the mirror of the phone video, waiting for his lines, but the confused look on his face had her bending over with a palm slapped over her mouth, trying not to laugh out loud.

“Cooper, please .” She laughed as he turned slowly to face her, that confused expression still on his face. When he started walking toward her like a deranged zombie from a 2000s movie, she gave up and collapsed on the ground laughing. “You’re an idiot.”

Cooper chuckled. “Okay, this time I promise. Don’t even turn it off, we’ll just roll now.” He looked at her expectantly, tapping his foot. “Tick tock, come on Maya. We’re on a timeline here with the sun,” he mimicked her from earlier.

She shot him a middle finger but got up, dusting off her jeans and white T-shirt. Maya tried not to love how much their outfits were matching. They looked like dorks in the best way.

“Alright. Take six.” She started her paragraph and thankfully got through it once more without an issue. She looked to Cooper again to start his lines.

“Hi, I’m Cooper, and I—”

“Cooper! This is starting to feel like weaponized incompetence. How you get all those commercials done is beyond me. This is atrocious.”

He raised his hands in surrender, though there was a small tilt to the corners of his lips. “Hey, what’d I do wrong that time?”

“I already introduced you! Don’t start your lines with ‘Hi, I’m Cooper,’” she said, dropping her voice down a few octaves and mocking his Southern drawl.

“I don’t even sound like that.”

“You most definitely do, cowboy.”

Cooper put his hands on his hips. “Hey, we ranchers are a hardworking people. Just because the rest of the country likes to use our culture and clothing for fashion doesn’t mean us real cowboys aren’t out working the land and taking care of the animals.”

Maya puffed out her chest, trying to stifle her laugh once more. “‘It don’t mean us real cowboys ain’t out working the land,’” she again mocked him. “You are the most white-collar man I’ve ever spent this much time with besides my brothers. You have three overpriced cars, a massive mansion, and use an app to order your food most of the time, if it’s not already made for you at the facility.”

He narrowed his eyes, moving toward her slowly with his arms outstretched like he was about to grab her. She ducked and ran across the room, giggling.

“I said ‘ doesn’t ’ and ‘ aren’t .’ Just because I like nice things doesn’t mean I’m not still a rancher.” He stopped giving chase, gesturing at his outfit. “Look at my clothes. This is all I wear.”

And she thanked every religion’s god for it, twice, because those jeans fit snug as hell, and his cowboy hat really did give him that rugged handsomeness she loved so much.

“Just because you have one cowboy hat and a few pairs of Levi’s don’t mean you’re cultured in the ways of the ranchers. If I called your family right now, they’d tell me you’re the least cultured of them all.”

Again, he moved toward her with his arms outstretched, though this time, he went for deranged zombie once more.

“I’ll do you one better. I’ll take you to Tennessee and show you my ranch and my family, and then we’ll see who’s talking. ”

Was Cooper offering to…take her home? Maya’s insides twisted at that.

Right as he reached her, she ducked before grabbing a dining chair, holding it up to protect herself. “You’d be so busy staring at my ass in those skintight jeans and cowboy boots, you wouldn’t be able to do a single second of work.”

His smirk was downright evil. “Don’t tempt me with a good time, sweetheart ,” he drawled, purposely allowing his accent through a bit more.

Maya didn’t respond, setting the chair down and positioning her hands in the sign for time out. “I’ll let you dress me up however you like if you finish this video before the sun sets. Jane’s going to kill us if we don’t send it to her today.”

Cooper rushed at her, grabbing her around the waist and setting her back on her mark, seemingly incentivized by her promise.

“ Any way I want?”

It was her turn to smirk evilly. “Let’s film this damn thing.”

Her phone was still rolling, so she did their introductions again, smiling wider because she was so proud of herself for not missing a single word despite how Cooper was now looking at her—though she did wonder if it was borderline inappropriate for him to stare at her like that for the video.

She also wondered if those were his bedroom eyes, and then she closed her eyes for a second to rein in that line of thought.

Cooper started on his lines, and it seemed like he was going to finish the second paragraph of the script, but as if she’d now been conditioned to laugh every time he took his turn, she stifled one, ended up snorting, and then was once again bent over laughing.

“Now I get why actors struggle so much in their bloopers—it’s so hard not to laugh,” she panted as her body kept shaking with mirth until her laughter became silent, and then Cooper was laughing at her.

Finally, when she wasn’t looking, he swooped her up and threw her over his shoulder.

“Coop! Put me down! What are you doing?”

“You’re trying to mess me up so that we don’t finish this video in time and then I don’t get to choose what you wear.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

He began walking around the living room, purposely jostling her, even as his hand rested on the back of her thighs. Heat speared her lower belly at the contact. “Stop laughing so we can finish.”

“You’re the one making me laugh,” she cried, hands smacking at his back so he would put her down.

“I didn’t even do anything that time. I was literally perfect.”

“Yeah, but it was residual from the last few times. Put me down ,” Maya demanded as he nearly rammed her into a doorway.

“Promise you’ll be serious.”

“ You promise!”

“Maya Beaumont, so help me God, I will keep you up there all evening. ”

She relaxed her whole body, sighing dejectedly. “I promise to be serious.”

“Good.” He tossed her onto the couch in a way that reminded her how much she liked to be thrown around, and even more so when a tall, muscular, and rugged man in jeans and a cowboy hat stood over her, looking her over eagerly.

They were not serious for the rest of the evening, and Cooper did not get to dress her, the video long abandoned for another day.

Jane could wait one more day…Maya hoped.

By the time the sun set and they’d ordered their food, her stomach ached from laughing and she’d cried the happiest of tears since beating Anya in the Wimbledon first round.