Love on the Line (Beaumont Legacy #2)

36. Cooper

Chapter thirty-six

Cooper

M aya’s birthday evening ended with her, Cooper, Colton, Lucia, Landon, and Devi at her father’s house. Her tennis friends hadn’t been able to come, since they were all training for Wimbledon, but she’d seemed to be in good spirits throughout the night nonetheless.

The rest of their party was pretty intoxicated, so they each went to their respective rooms with Devi in the guest bedroom. Cooper’s insides knotted at the knowledge that she was about to open his presents.

Maya closed the bedroom door behind them, then turned her sweet smile on him, and the knots intensified.

“Hi,” she breathed.

“Hi, sweetheart. Did you have a good night? ”

She nodded her head aggressively, that smile widening as her eyes flitted closed. “The best. Having everyone there was perfect and I think they all had a good time.”

His hands were behind his back, holding the three gift bags, but he set them down on her desk and pulled her into his arms. She always cared what others were feeling, making sure everyone at her birthday party was having fun even when it was her night. That piece of her that’d always been the invisible child in her family showed itself in her actions every day. In every push for independence and quiet determination to work through her own issues.

He loved and hated it at once.

At least she’d been getting better about letting him take care of her.

“You want to open your presents now or wait until tomorrow?”

She hummed, thinking it through. Cooper knew she was tired, and after practice earlier that day and the time difference, he’d have been happy to sleep, but she pulled away just enough to look past him toward the desk.

“All three of those are from you?”

Cooper ran a hand through his hair before scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “I might have gone a little crazy, but I wanted to make sure you had the best birthday.”

Maya had taken her heels off, so she pushed up to her tiptoes and pecked his lips. “You being here made this the best birthday. You didn’t have to get me anything. ”

He chuckled, seeing the way her eyes kept finding the bags, clearly intrigued.

“Why don’t you open my favorite one tonight, and then if you decide you want to open the rest, you can.”

Maya nodded, and he grabbed the handles of the bigger bag. Luckily, Lucia had made them look presentable, because on his first attempt, he’d done a pretty poor job.

They sat on the bed, the bag in her lap, and she weighed it a couple of times before she slowly pulled the light blue paper from inside. The knots traveled up to Cooper’s throat until it was hard for him to swallow. He held his breath as she pulled the first part, a flash drive, from the bag.

Maya looked at him expectantly, so Cooper grabbed her laptop and began setting it up. When the video was up, he turned the laptop so she could watch.

In it, a young woman who looked a lot like Maya smiled at the camera, a very young and chubby Maya in her arms. They stood in someone’s living room, the woman leaning against a couch.

At Maya’s sharp inhale, he pulled her closer to him comfortingly.

“Ma,” Maya’s mother said, rolling her eyes at Maya’s grandmother behind the camera. There was a smile pulling at her lips.

“Kavya, show, show,” Maya’s nani urged.

Her mother set Maya down on the ground, her feet landing on the tile floor, her chubby hands still in her mother’s. Maya began trying to move her foot, like she was just learning to walk, and when she planted the first foot and started on her second, clapping could be heard in the background, others at the party cheering her on and laughing.

At the sound of her laughter, baby Maya looked up at her mother lovingly, a grin on her face like she was happy she’d made her mother smile.

“Great job, honey. Look at Nani, Maya.” Maya didn’t listen, still looking up at her mother reverently, and her mother laughed again.

Maya’s mother picked her up and placed her back on her hip. “How old are you today? Did you turn one today? Can you hold up one finger?” She used the hand not supporting Maya to pull one of Maya’s chubby fingers up, holding it up to the camera.

“Great job! Look at you.” Maya’s mother kissed her head, beaming down at the little girl in her arms. “Is it your birthday today? Happy birthday!” Another kiss.

Cooper paused the video. There were plenty more on the flash drive, but that was the part he’d wanted to show her. When he turned to the woman who’d upended his entire life so quickly, he saw the tears trailing down her cheeks.

Cooper set the laptop down and dropped to his knees in front of her, taking her head in his hands and wiping at the tears. “It’s okay, sunflower. It’s okay.”

Maya pulled him against her, her body shaking. He rubbed her back .

“Whenever you’re ready, there’s something else in the bag. I want you to have the sound of her voice near you whenever you need it. You mentioned that you stopped hearing her in your head around the time of your injury, so this is just something I hope will help.”

Maya choked on a sob, pulling more paper out of the bag. She pulled out a soft brown teddy bear, with a paw that read squeeze me!

She looked at Cooper with watery eyes, and he nodded. Maya squeezed the paw, and the sounds of her mother’s laughter and the words she’d spoken in the video could be heard.

“Great job, honey.” Then she squeezed again, and it was “Is it your birthday today? Happy birthday!” followed by more of her laughter.

A strangled sound left Maya, and she pulled the stuffed animal to her body, then Cooper, until she was clutching both of them like they were her lifelines, tears still streaming down her face. Cooper rubbed her back as she let it out, and he hoped these were good tears and not ones that meant he’d completely ruined her birthday.

After a few minutes, Maya stilled. Cooper stood and sat beside her on the bed, pulling her into his lap and dragging his knuckle under her eyes to wipe away the last stray tears. She stared lovingly at the teddy bear, and he asked softly, “Do you like it?”

Her beautiful eyes turned to him, and his heart skipped a beat or two. Even with reddened eyes and a mix of grief and happiness flickering across her face, she was the most heart-stopping sight. Cooper had never seen anyone so beautiful in his entire life.

“I love it,” she whispered, hugging it once more and setting her head on his shoulder. “It’s the best present I’ve ever gotten. This is…How? How did you do this? This is the most thoughtful present anybody has ever given me.”

He kissed her temple before pushing a few strands of her hair behind her ear. “I had Colton put me in touch with your grandparents. Hopped on a call with them to get it all figured out, and they sent me the flash drive. Then I got it specially made. Oh, and…” He turned the bear in her hands so she could see the Velcro seam in the back of it. “You can put the flash drive in here so you have all the videos in one place. If you want. You can put it wherever you want, though, if you don’t like that.”

Maya traced the seam. “It’s perfect, Coop. It’s the most perfect—”

She cut herself off with a shuddering sigh, setting the teddy bear on the bed beside them, and then she swung her leg so she was wrapped around him in the tightest of hugs. “You are perfect. Nobody has ever done something like this for me before, and I can’t even begin to thank you.”

Cooper tightened his hold on her, pressing his head into her chest. “I’m so glad you like it, sunflower. So glad.”

Maya let out a watery chuckle. “I love it. I can’t believe you were worried about that. And that you got me more presents. I’ve never…” She pulled back and looked into his eyes, placing her hands on either side of his face and tracing his jawline with her thumbs.

“This is the most loved I’ve felt since before my mom passed away. I can’t ever repay you for the feeling you’ve given me this evening.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” His eyes were watering at the words, both because he was glad he could do that for her but also because it hurt him to know that she’d felt so unloved for so long. He wanted to make her feel this way every day for as long as she’d let him. Like she put the stars in the sky. Like she was the gravity to his planet.

If she let him, he’d find a way to help her see how special she was every damn day for the rest of their lives.

Maya kissed him gently, her hands in his hair. It started sweet and slow, but then she began to move her hips against him, and he groaned into her mouth.

She pulled away and stared at him.

“Sweetheart.” He panted at the friction, resolve fraying thread by thread as she set the bear on her nightstand and began unbuttoning his shirt, pushing the material over his shoulders. “Sweetheart, you don’t have to do this. We can—”

“I want to,” she said firmly, taking the shirt and dropping it to the floor. Then she was unlacing the red leather top that’d pushed her breasts up so perfectly all night. Her fingers pulled at the strings deftly until her toned upper body was exposed and the top had followed his onto the floor .

She continued like that, slowly removing every item of their clothing, and Cooper let her take the lead, not sure what she was ready for after the turn the evening had taken. When Maya had laid him down, completely naked, poised above him, her wet, warm pussy teasing the head of his cock, he said, “I just want to make sure one more time that you’re sure.” His words came out gruffer than he’d intended, and she cocked her head, her movements so feline.

Maya slowly slid down over him, and he had to bite down on a knuckle to quiet the throaty moan that left him. “Does this answer your question?”

And then she rode him, slowly at first before he felt her clenching at the pressure, and then she picked up the pace, her tits bouncing as their bodies slammed together. When her legs tired, he flipped her onto her back, thrusting in and out of her as he whispered every thought that flitted into his head. “You are wondrous” and “I have never known anybody like you” and “I’m so glad it’s you in the end.”

When she finally came, screaming his name into his mouth as he kissed her senseless, he emptied himself inside of her.

Cooper had known after the first time with Maya that things were different with her. It was the first time he’d allowed emotion, real emotion, into the bedroom with him. Not young, idiotic love, but real, unfiltered, uninhibited love that filled his every vein and artery, pumping through every single part of his body .

As she lay panting, he kissed from the tips of her fingers, up her arms, her neck, and down her other arm to the tips of the other hand’s fingers. Cooper knew words wouldn’t do justice to what he was feeling, so he hoped the reverence with which he held and kissed her told her what he couldn’t.

When they’d cleaned up, he lay on his back, her on his chest. His fingers traced over the curves of her body, memorizing the feel of every inch of her.

“Move in with me.” He had wanted to wait to ask her until another day, but now, as he lay holding her, knowing he had to leave tomorrow with no certainty about when he’d be able to see her again, the words tumbled out of him. Cooper hardly regretted them.

Her body tensed. “Coop…”

His heart sank. “If not in with me, come with me to Charleston. Just for the season. Just so I can have you nearby. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get away to see you, and I hate doing distance.” His hand stilled as he pleaded, “Please, sunflower. Please .”

Maya’s finger began absentmindedly tracing lines through the smattering of hair on his chest. “Cooper, I want that too. I don’t like being away from you, and knowing that we may not be able to see each other as often terrifies me.” His heart soared again, even as he knew there was something else coming.

“But I can’t. You’ve already done so much for me with the charity and everything else. I’ve been saving as much as I can to repay all the starting costs, but I’m not there yet. And I certainly can’t swing rent while I’m trying to save.”

Confusion slammed into him. What did the charity have to do with anything? What he’d done for the charity had to do with his own personal issues, and now that he’d spent so much time working on it, he put in the time and effort because he believed in it.

“You don’t need to pay me back.”

Maya pulled away from him and sat up, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms. “Yes, I do. I’m not just going to accept all that money from you and not pay it back.”

“Mai, what…What are you talking about?” he asked exasperatedly.

“I’m not a child who can’t afford to pay their own way. You spent a lot of money getting the charity started and you paid for the opening gala on your own. I have to pay you back at least half of that.”

“I’m not treating you like a child. I didn’t agree to this charity because I think you’re somebody who needs to be taken care of. I did it to help myself, and then when I saw how much you started to glow and how much change we could really make, I realized I believed in it, and that’s why I’m doing all of this. And none of that has anything to do with why I want you to come with me.” Cooper looked away toward the far wall. “I just want my sunflower by my side.”

“I’m scared you’re going to leave,” Maya whispered, putting a bit more distance between them.

“I don’t know what else I can do to make it clear that I’m here for as long as you’ll have me.”

Maya placed her head in her hands, her shoulders drooping, and he felt like an asshole for doing this on her birthday. “You have shown me that, Coop. But that’s now. I don’t know what that will look like in months or even years.”

Cooper sighed, pressing his back to the wall beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her body into his. “Nobody knows what the future looks like, Mai. I don’t need you to pay me back, I just want you to…”

Maya moved her face from her hands and turned to look at him. “Want me to what?”

He’d been ready to ask her to love him, but it seemed too soon, even if he felt it vibrating inside him, between them. “I just want you, Mai.”

Her head fell back to his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to fight with you. But I’ve built my life here. I’ve got the charity and Viola and the tennis community in LA, and my grandparents and cousins. Landon’s nearby, and I’m just…I care about you so much. More than words can express. But I can’t.”

Cooper ran his hand through his hair, eyes fixed on the glow-in-the-dark stars hanging from the ceiling, trying to find his breath after the rejection. He completely understood her reasoning, but he couldn’t help but feel that it meant they might never be able to come together and end the distance .

“Of course, sunflower. Whatever you want. I, uh…I actually have an offer from LA, so I could move here instead. If you want. Something we can talk about in the next few weeks before I have to decide.” He didn’t have to give his final answers until mid-July, three weeks from now.

“ No .”

Something had constricted tight in his chest as the conversation had moved along, but it tightened to the point of pain at that word.

“I can’t ask you to move your life for me. I would never forgive myself if you left Charleston, the team, your friends, everything, for me. You can’t. I won’t be the reason you uproot yourself.”

He wanted to push, but it wasn’t the time. It was her birthday, and this conversation was clearly draining them both.

“Okay, we’ll figure it out,” he said over the tendrils of hurt that flooded his body.

They lay back down and fell asleep like that, uncertainty hanging over their heads. Long distance wasn’t the problem. Having no end in sight for the distance was.

The next morning at the airport, Maya said goodbye to everyone who’d flown out for her. She stopped at Cooper last, her eyes brimming with tears as he pulled her into his chest. They held each other tightly, refusing to be the first to let go until Lucia told them they needed to leave if they were going to make their flight.

Maya pulled away, nodding, wiping at the tears on her face .

“You’re my favorite person,” she whispered.

“And you’re mine,” he whispered back, her hair falling from his grasp as she took a step away.

Neither of them said the words he thought they were both ready to. He didn’t want the first time saying them to her to be as he said goodbye. Instead, he kissed her forehead and joined Colton and Lucia, walking like a zombie toward airport security. The claws gripping at his beating heart squeezed tight, and he gritted his teeth.

This couldn’t be the end of the line.