Snowed Under (Aspen Peaks #2)

29. Cooper

M agazine interviews were more extravagant than I’d expected.

Madeline and I had walked into the Family Matters magazine’s facility only ten minutes ago, and we were already drinking costly champagne out of flutes and had a cheese and meat tray with arranged fruits, jams, spreads, and wheat crackers on a golden coffee table in front of us.

“Do you think this came from Meat and Cheese?” she whispered, popping cubed cheddar into her mouth.

“Do you think they have the homegrown potatoes?”

“I still feel like we should check in with that lady. Make sure she’s still in one piece.”

I shrugged. “I still feel like it was her attempt at poisoning me.”

“Best not-date ever.”

“I’m gonna miss the not-dates,” I admitted. “I like surprising you.”

“We could keep doing them, you know? Hear me out…we’ll call them dates.”

“That, my dear, is revolutionary.” I took a strawberry and bit off the end before turning it around and lifting it to her open mouth. The tip of the strawberry painted her lip slightly red. Those big doe eyes peered up at me through long lashes, and I felt a shiver up my spine when she took a bite. “You must’ve been inspired,” I teased, and she flushed under my gaze, the prettiest shade of pink.

Admittedly, we were the most annoying couple to probably exist in Aspen right now. Besides Olive and Finn. I stood by that. But still, I couldn’t get enough of her. My fingers in her hair, my hand on her back, a kiss here, a back-seat make-out there. We were the literal definition of PDA. I felt like I’d been given permission to enter a cave made of gold. Or like I’d been stuck on the hardest level of a video game, and then the coder themselves sent me a compiled cheat code and said, “have at it.” We were hungry, frenzied. She’d pinched my butt on the way in here, and I’d had to visibly shift in my chair fifteen times since I’d sat down just from looking at her.

It felt like everything added up now. Like I had an answer for my past mistakes. Because if I hadn’t made those mistakes, hadn’t found out what it cost to make a real friend, then there was no way I would’ve nailed Madeline. I needed growth, and a little heartbreak. She needed to find her own way. And now we were here, just the two of us, feeding each other strawberries and laughing under golden light fixtures.

Madeline and I decided to stop our “practice” meetings after our talk last week and figured we would take a fresh start on things. I still took the time every morning she was working to bring her a caramel macchiato and a bacon cheddar scone. She still sat with me for twenty minutes while we played our regular game, plus a couple of new ones. But now, instead of feeling like I had to take every second in while we talked, I could relax, knowing I knew exactly who Madeline was. No need to memorize favorite colors or cereal brands. No faking our affection toward each other. It was a weight lifted off.

Plus, she really was a terrible liar. I was comforted knowing we would be going into this interview with nothing but 100 percent truth. Something we were entirely ready for.

Unless they asked us how long we’d been together. We agreed that I would answer that one, and I could push the numbers a little, for the sake of the lodge, anyway.

Neither of us tried to define everything between us right away, and I was grateful for that. I had a girlfriend. A real one, the best one, and maybe our situations were more complicated than most, but we could make it work. I distinctly told her I wasn’t a great fit for fatherhood, or uncle-hood, I should say. But she brushed it off, kissed the corner of my mouth, and let me know we didn’t have to have it all figured out right away.

Good thing too, because I couldn’t look Charlie in the face at practice the next day. I was making some attempt at warm-up drills consisting of knee raises and toe touches, and the whole time, I tried to turn away from him so I didn’t have this entirely guilty I was with your aunt last night and I’m the worst friend ever look on my face. Somehow I think he knew anyway, though, because after practice was over and I was sitting on the bench, watching parents pick up kids, Mini Coop came right up to me.

He sat next to me on the bench, same as before, and said, “Remember how I told you May would cry at night when she thought I couldn’t hear?”

I hesitated a nod.

“Well, she hasn’t…in a while. Since she started going out, I think. It’s been nice.”

I knew what he meant. I also knew that, for a nine-year-old, this kid was all too perceptive, and I wasn’t convinced he wasn’t some undercover CIA agent.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” I said. “You were my friend first. I meant that.” I waved to a dad in the distance who was picking up one of the students.

“Yeah…I know.” Mini Coop gave me the smallest, crooked-teeth grin. “I’m glad May is your good friend too.”

I smiled back and split my Clif Bar with him, and we left it at that. Every lesson since had been normal, and I thought maybe this was possible.

The tiny one was still unsure of me. She didn’t hate me, but she definitely hadn’t let me into the circle yet. But that was going to change next week. I was confident that princesses on ice and giant popcorn buckets would allow me in. I was all done buying my friends. But this kid was my only exception.

“They’re ready for you, Mr. and Mrs. Graves,” the receptionist that had guided us to this black leather couch announced. I did tell Chase that we were just kidding about Madeline being my wife, but that I was going to rectify that eventually. It wasn’t far from the truth. But when we came in for our appointment, and the receptionist with short black curly hair looked at us and said “oh yes, the ski couple, you two have a seat. I’ll be right with you, Mr. and Mrs. Graves,” I didn’t have it in me to correct her.

I stood and held a hand out for Madeline. She took it and brushed past me, the side of her hip grazing mine.

“After you, Mrs. Graves.” I said it teasingly, but the words felt so warm on my tongue that if I thought Madeline alone tasted good in my mouth, Mrs. Graves felt ten times better.

She looked back, sporting a blush and a smile as always, and walked right in front of me as I trailed behind her.

We followed the short woman down the hall, passing areas scattered throughout the office furnished with whiteboards, hand-shaped lounge chairs, and colorful bean bags. The walls were painted in vibrant waves and adorned with inspiring quotes and past magazine covers. Families on farms, at sporting events, and a few famous faces.

We stopped at the end of the hall, and a door labeled the heart room opened to show a spacious room with stand-up light equipment surrounding a conference table in the middle. A large window in the back lit up the entire space.

Behind the camera setup, next to a guy with multiple lenses, there were Chase and Brandy in their matching pantsuits. This time they wore light blue, and somehow, it worked.

“Cooper! Madeline! There are our star guests.” Chase did a little jog to us and shook both of our hands before guiding us to sit at the conference table.

“So nice to see you again, Coop. Madeline, you are nothing short of what Cooper said you would be.”

She blushed at that. “I hope it was nothing bad.”

“Nothing but the truth.” I winked, and when she smiled at me, all warm and soft, I felt like melting right into this chair.

Brandy turned from the camera guy standing to the side. “Phew. Sorry, guys. Crazy day. Okay, let’s get through some quick questions, and we can do pictures after.”

They sat across from us, a laptop in front of Chase while Brandy interviewed.

“So, how did you two meet?” she asked, and without skipping a beat, Madeline cackled. Literally guffawed right next to me.

Brandy’s lips quirked. “Please, tell us your side, Madeline.”

I turned to face her. “Yes, Madeline. Tell us your side.”

She smiled and dipped her chin a little. “It was cute. He was teaching my nephew, and we hadn’t met yet. Well, we kind of had, but he didn’t remember it—”

I tapped twice on the top of Chase’s laptop as he was typing. “Redact that, please.”

Madeline giggled and pulled my arm back. “No. It was perfect. He didn’t remember me, but I remembered him. So when I passed by, and he didn’t realize I was picking a kid up, Cooper decided to pretend like he was Charlie’s dad. He did this whole ‘poor me, a lost single father in need of a female presence’ act, and I swear it took everything in me not to laugh.” Only I thought she did laugh a little that day, a small chuckle that sometimes she didn’t even realize when she did it.

“Hold on, wait a second.” I held up a hand, and Chase stopped typing, looking over the screen. “She’s making it sound worse than it was.”

“Mmm, nope. It was pretty bad. He had his hand resting on Charlie’s head, and my sweet boy, he never wants to bother anyone, so he just went along with every word Cooper said. Until I finally announced that I was there to pick up Charlie.”

I tsked and shook my head. “Not my finest moment. But I’d just seen the most beautiful woman I’d laid eyes on, and my wits weren’t about me.” Madeline’s lips quirked up, and we looked like two love-drunk idiots on their honeymoon. Like we’d both gotten shot in the butt by Cupid’s bow twenty minutes ago, and the effects still hadn’t worn off.

I kept my eyes right on Madeline as I talked, every word coming out true. “My God, though. You should’ve seen that smile. She was all bundled up in this big purple sweater, and her hair was down and messy. Freckles sprinkled all over her. She looked at me with this grin that said, “I know more than you,” and I think I knew I was gone for her then.”

We smiled at each other, and she shook her head. “He got me pretty quickly. Too quickly.”

“Nah, you made me wait plenty.”

“It was worth it.”

“Yeah.” I bumped our elbows together. “It was.”

The rest of the interview seemed to fly by. Questions like “what can we expect from the younger divisions in this year’s ski competition?” to more personal “tell us more about your future plans as a family” popped up left and right. I answered most, but Madeline stepped in occasionally when she felt it was more so directed her way. No one had yet to ask us if we liked the Shrek 2 soundtrack or how we felt about dark restaurants, but still, I was glad we’d spent all that time preparing. It wasn’t the interview we were preparing for. It was our future. One with each other in tow, whatever that was going to look like.

At the end of their list of questions, they stood and directed us to the man with a camera in the far corner, a simple green backdrop in front of it. “We just need a couple quick pictures for the column. We can send them to you once they’re finalized and let you pick your top three favorites.”

Chase walked us over, and just before we reached the camera, I pulled at the hoodie I was wearing. “I’m sweating. Let me take this off.”

I reached behind my shoulders and peeled my hoodie off, revealing my long-sleeve white T-shirt that said I LOVE MY GIRLFRIEND in bright red letters. I turned to Madeline and wiggled my eyebrows, hoping she would pick up on exactly what I was telling her.

I’d bought it a little over two weeks ago, after I’d seen an ad on my Amazon account. I bought three variations. The basic I love my girlfriend, the more unique Don’t look at me, I have a girlfriend, and the classic My girlfriend will kill you. It was originally my plan to wear this shirt into the interview, and as we left, I was going to show Madeline that the shirt was my way of asking her out for real this time. Only time beat me to it, and last week at the office in the lodge felt more right than now would have. But I did want to tell her I loved her. And I couldn’t let a good shirt go to waste.

“Oh my God,” Madeline guffawed. “Your shirt!” She pointed at it with pure delight, and the smile that grew under her nose was everything to me. Playful and sweet, a touch of flirtation. A real Madeline smile.

“You like it?” I pulled the bottom of it to stretch out the words for her.

“I love it.”

“It’s true,” I winked at her. “I do love my girlfriend.”

She smiled and shook her head. “I’m gonna have to get these framed, you know?”