Love on the Line (Beaumont Legacy #2)

35. Cooper

Chapter thirty-five

Cooper

I t had been two weeks without seeing Maya, and missing her today had pulled his focus all practice. Not even the news that he’d gotten both an extension on his Sabertooths contract and an offer from both the Los Angeles teams had made him feel better. After an ice bath and a lengthy shower to scrub off the grass stains that somehow painted his body, Cooper tossed on his change of clothes to grab dinner with the guys and joined them outside the locker room.

It wasn’t a team dinner tonight, just a few teammates who didn’t have plans and wanted to have a chill evening before preseason really began to pick up. Plus, it was a good way to show the rookies some of the best places in town.

They’d chosen one of Cooper’s favorite seaside restaurants and were led to the waterfront patio, the umbrellas already closed for the night as the sun began to set, a light breeze cooling them from the hot Southern summer air.

Ordering only took a few minutes, and then the table grew loud with chatter.

“Did you see the Palmettos last night?” Chris asked.

“Man, I was so pissed there at the end. Kelly told me to be quiet when I started yelling at the screen, but they were so damn close.” Sam, an offensive lineman, slapped the table.

“At least they have another chance tomorrow.”

“Yeah, but it’s way more pressure this time.”

TJ, their running back, groaned. “Baseball has to be the most boring sport known to man. You old geezers need to get into MMA.”

TJ was a third year, only twenty-four, but most of the guys listening were in their late twenties or early thirties, and many of them rolled their eyes at him.

“What would you like to talk about, little guy?” Sam asked jokingly.

Devin planted his hands on the table, a wide grin on his face. “I know what we can talk about. My party next week.”

“Devin, that’s hardly news—you always have a party. Especially during offseason. If I drive by your house, I can almost guarantee something is going on,” Chris, their center, retorted.

“Alright, then we can talk about Cooper. Who was the hot girl you were kissing a few weeks ago at the Honky Tonk?” a rookie called from down the table .

There were a few hoots from other rookies who hadn’t yet met Maya, but most of the rest of the team, who knew exactly who she was, went quiet, looking to Colton like he would explode.

Colton’s jaw was clenched. Cooper was on the same side of the table as him, so he could see his balled fist. Unfortunately, this talk wasn’t unusual, and Cooper hated to admit he’d once been a part of it.

Never about Maya though.

Colton gave him the subtlest of nods, and Cooper knew that was Colton passing the baton, telling him it was okay to let the cat out of the bag to the few who didn’t know.

“Colton’s sister.”

The rookies who’d hooted got loud, banging on the table and cheering before they saw Colton’s glare and shut the hell up.

“Yeah, actually, I was gonna ask about that. No offense, but what the hell are you doing?” Devin asked. “I thought you were my fellow can’t be tied down man.”

Cooper ran a hand through his hair a couple of times. He couldn’t tell a table full of his teammates that he’d run from the possibility of Maya since he’d met her, trying to keep his distance. But like they were destined, they kept getting pushed together until Cooper had been forced to admit what he’d known that whole time: he’d been running from the one woman he knew had the ability to change everything for him .

When Cooper didn’t answer, TJ asked, “Or are you still like that and this is a casual thing? Are we all allowed to hook up with Colton’s sister?”

Across the table, Chris shook his head like he knew Colton was about to snap. Instead, Cooper was the one who said, “ Don’t . Don’t talk about her like that. It is not casual.”

TJ held up his hands, almost hanging his head like he knew he’d fucked up. “Sorry, man. I was just messing around. Didn’t mean anything by it.”

Dinner conversation remained harmless from there, though the interest in women didn’t fade. Devin spoke at length about all the things his waitress from a few nights ago knew how to do with her tongue. TJ joined with talk about the woman he’d hooked up with at a bar a few nights ago.

Cooper tuned them out for the most part, and when it was finally time to go home, he couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Since his minor outburst at the table, his thoughts had remained glued to Maya. He was going to change into some sweatpants, turn on the TV to get some white noise going in his very quiet house, and video call the woman who’d taken up residence inside of his head and his veins.

Now that he had more clarity about his options, he was finally going to ask the question he’d been wanting to ask for weeks. They’d skirted around the topic a few times, and he was afraid he knew her answer, but he was finally going to come out and ask her to move in with him, even if only for the season. It was the only logical way for them to see each other often while he was playing. And if she didn’t see herself being able to do that, he now had the choice to move to an LA team.

It only rang a couple of times before her beautiful face popped onto the screen.

“Hiii,” she said, drawing out the i, a huge smile on her face. “Devi’s here. We made margaritas, and I’m a teeny tiny bit drunk.” She chuckled, and he heard a snort from somewhere behind her.

His spirits simultaneously fell and soared, sad not to be able to voice his question but overjoyed she was making friends with her cousin. He knew how much she’d wished her mom’s family had been more present in her life growing up and after her passing, so the fact that they’d become such fast friends was heartwarming.

“I’m so glad, sunflower.”

“I miss you,” she whispered.

“I can hear you! Do you want me to go upstairs so you guys can have phone sex?” her cousin called from behind her.

More giggles, but Maya shushed her. “Don’t listen to her. She’s just jealous.”

Cooper grinned at the state she was in, flushed cheeks, eyes half-glazed from the alcohol. “You’re adorable. And I miss you too, sweetheart. You think you can swing a visit this week?”

Maya blew a raspberry, her features flattening a bit like the question saddened her. “I can’t this week. We have new kids coming in for the charity and I have an event I’m going to with Devi. And I have to plan my birthday party. ”

“You’re not planning anything. I’m already working with Lucia on it. You just have to tell me what your favorite bar is and we’ll handle the rest,” Devi yelled.

Cooper smiled even as his heart sank. Logically, he knew this was just how things were going to be. If they were going to do distance, he had to be okay with weeks like these, where the need to hold her squeezed his chest so painfully, he thought he’d stop breathing. It wasn’t a feeling he wanted to get used to, but if it meant getting her, touching her, holding her, tasting her, laughing with her on the good days, he’d deal with it as long as she wanted him.

Just because she was building up her social life again didn’t mean she was leaving him in the dust—something he’d had to remind himself every once in a while. She was nothing like Gabi, and he knew how much she cared for him. Cooper had seen it first-hand every time she’d stood up for him. In every smile and laugh and kiss.

“I understand. Are you still being bothered by reporters?”

Maya shrugged. “Less, but they’re still outside the house or the tennis center sometimes.”

Cooper remembered the conversation he’d had a couple of days ago with the paper where the man who’d been bothering Maya worked. He’d called the guy’s superior the first time to report his behavior, but this time, Cooper had threatened a libel suit for what he’d been saying to Maya in an effort to run a lie of a story. If the guy hadn’t been in serious trouble the first time, Cooper hoped he would be now. At this point, the only news he was checking anymore was about her, making sure no one was saying anything untoward.

If he weren’t so upset about it, he might’ve been proud of himself.

“Have you seen that specific guy we talked about? With the long hair?”

Maya thought for a moment, looking above him before shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so. Not the last couple of days.”

“Good.” Wanting to take the conversation away from something they were both unhappy about, he winked at her and said, “I can’t wait for you to see your birthday presents.”

He’d come up with a few ideas, all of which he’d purchased for her already. There were two wrapped, exquisite, and expensive gifts waiting to be packed for when he flew to LA next week. His mother and sisters had helped him with those and provided him with feedback on the third—and his personal favorite—gift.

Cooper had worked with her grandparents to get it for Maya, and he had tracked it every step of the way until it was on his doorstep. Now it stared back at him, unwrapped.

“Presents plural?” She narrowed her eyes playfully, barely able to contain the smile that quirked her lips. “You got a crush on me or something, Hayes?”

“Or something.”

A big grin spread across her face like she couldn’t contain it any longer, and Cooper knew in that moment that no matter how he and Maya ended, there was never going to be anyone else for him. Not from the moment he’d met her and had watched her tuck her hair behind both ears so he knew she was listening to him, hanging onto his every word in a way no one else had, like they were meaningful. Like his thoughts mattered. She saw the real him, the one so many others refused to see.

There would be nobody who could so perfectly make him laugh until his sides hurt, who listened to him even when he was being an idiot, and who made him feel simultaneously so human and yet so invincible. Nobody in this world could smile at him and make his chest tighten like this, his whole body tensing with the knowledge that her attention was wholly on him. Nobody in this world could brighten his entire evening, even the worst ones, just by giggling like he was the funniest person she’d ever met.

There would be no “after Maya.”