The Rivals of Copper County (Copper County #2)

Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

JASPER

I had a surprisingly good evening at the Hive, during which I didn’t talk about Watt or worry about my friendship with Watt or even think about Watt at all .

When Delaney pulled into the campground’s driveway and helped me out of his car a couple of hours and several stiff drinks later, I felt compelled to share my appreciation.

“You’re a delight, Delaney.” I slung my arm over his shoulder and nearly tripped over my own feet in the process. “Thank you for inviting me to that… to that…” I couldn’t quite find the words to describe the Hive, with its diverse crowd of old ladies and bikers playing pool, soccer moms and twinks with sparkly lip gloss losing their shit to Chappell Roan on the dance floor, and quiet farmer-types holding up the bar while chatting with the tattooed ’40s-pinup-girl bartender. “To that glorious, neon-lit utopia. To that… United Nations of questionable life choices. It was so much fun.”

Delaney laughed and kept us both mostly upright. “It really was… until I noticed that it was barely 9:30 and you we re already toasted. I’m thinking we should have gotten you something to eat.”

“Me? Nah. I’m fine. I have baked goods in there.” I gestured toward Mabel’s house, which glowed like a beacon in the moonlight. “Enough for, like…” I counted on my fingers. “A year? Longer than I’ll be in Copper County, anyway.”

The thought made me sigh, and the sigh made my feet drift onto the grass.

“Whoa. Path’s over here, Jasper.” Delaney steered me back on course. “You don’t sound too excited about going back to LA.”

“Hmm? Oh, no, I am. Definitely. Or, like, mostly definitely,” I corrected, thinking about the texts I’d received while at the Hive. One had been from Martin, beseeching me yet again to call him, and the other from my mother, demanding to know why I hadn’t called Martin yet. This second one, at least, was not unexpected since my mother—and her husband—were huge fans of all things Martin. “Things will be different when I go back this time,” I told Delaney. “They totally will, even if Watt and I aren’t friends. I’m a determined person. Sometimes too determined.” I snorted. “Ask Watt.”

“Yeah, you told me about losing your friendship bet. I still don’t get it, but… Oops, nope, this way! We’re heading for the house, Jasper, not the lake.”

“No,” I agreed, nodding. “No lake. Watt won’t be there. Anyway, this time, when I’m in LA, I won’t listen to Martin . I definitely won’t take his word about anything.”

“Martin’s your ex?”

“Mmm. My agent first. I won’t be that naive next time.”

“Of course you won’t. Everything will be very different,” he agreed in the placating voice people sometimes used when dealing with the inebriated… which was weird since I totally wasn’t.

“Hey, Delaney?” I stopped walking, forcing him to stop walking, too. “Do you think when I’m in LA this time, I’ll miss Copper County as much as I did before?”

Delaney was silent for a beat, looking at me with warm, sympathetic eyes. “I don’t know, Jasper. I don’t know if location matters so much.” He sighed and looked around at the open campground, at the rustling trees, at the clouds scattering across the moon, like he was seeing a different place and time. “Wherever you go, there you are, you know?”

“Whoa.” I blinked up at him. “ Wherever you go, there you are. That’s, like, deep . Super deep. You must be a brilliant writer.”

He snorted. “That’s actually a quote from?—”

“ Brilliant ,” I repeated.

Delaney laughed, and the sound made me happy… but not the belly-swooping, heart-pounding sort of happy I felt when Watt did the same. Which was too bad, really.

“Okay,” Delaney said. “Just a couple more steps and we’ll be at the porch… oh, no gardening tonight, Jasper,” he said as I headed for one of Mabel’s flower beds.

During my summers here, the beds had been filled with hydrangeas and snapdragons. All of the blooms were gone now, and a brisk October wind blew off the lake, but someone had covered the beds with straw and mulch, preparing them for next year.

It didn’t take a genius to guess who that had been.

“Watt,” I sighed.

“You’re gonna ruin those boots,” Delaney said as he steered me back toward the path to the porch. “I’d think that was against some kind of modeling code, but you’re not very model-like. ”

“Not anymore, nope.” I patted my stomach, which was still flat but where nary an ab could be seen anymore.

Delaney stopped me this time. “I wasn’t talking about your appearance, Jasper. I think you’re very attractive, and your physical appearance is the least of your appeal.”

“Aww.” This was so touching I blinked up at him for a long moment. “Thank you, Delaney. I think you’re great, too. And I’m glad you decided to buy a house in Copper County. I will totally come back and visit you.” I patted his shoulder. “And I’m sorry Watt was so cranky to you earlier. He’s usually much nicer.” I sighed. “Like, so nice. But… not too nice. You know?”

He bit his lip like he was fighting laughter. “Yeah,” he said ruefully. “I think I’m getting a pretty clear picture.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Sorry, what were we talking about?”

“Long-lost loves… or possibly boots? One or the other.”

“Huh. I don’t know anything about either of those. I actually hate fashion.” I whispered this like a confession, but it was probably pretty obvious since I was still wearing the same running tights and Patagonia fleece I’d worn to practice. Not exactly catwalk-ready. “But my mother said I couldn’t waste these cheekbones, and modeling paid the bills.” I shrugged. “I liked history better. When Martin said I should get a degree for business reasons, I was like, yes. Boom. History. Did you know those who study history are doomed to repeat it?”

“I think it’s those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.”

“Huh. You sure?”

“Very. Okay, lift your leg onto the step. There you go.”

“I thought it was funny, ’cause I like history a lot and I’m terrible at teaching it, which is a sitch… sitch… sitc heation I’ve repeated a lot. But Kayla says… whoa .” I caught myself against the railing as an earthquake rolled over us… though Delaney didn’t seem to be affected. “Oh no. Delaney,” I whispered, “I think I might have had too much to drink.”

“Uh-huh. You’ll be okay.” He paused beside me while I waited for things to stop spinning. “So… what did Kayla say?”

“Oh, that.” I waved a hand. “She said I need to focus more and stop distracting Watt at hockey practice with my arguing and stuff.”

“Ha. I’ll just bet she did,” Delaney said darkly.

“I keep trying—you know I do—to fake it ’til I make it…” I sighed again. “But some things are harder to fake than they look.”

“You talking about ice-skating?” he wondered. “Or being friends with Watt?”

I whirled my head to look at him and nearly lost my balance. “Watt? Who brought him up?”

“You did,” he said dryly. “At least forty times tonight.”

“No.” I frowned. “Forty?”

“And counting. And given the way he was looking at you earlier… maybe don’t listen to Kayla so much, huh?” He grinned and propped me against the wall beside the door. “Where are your house keys?”

“Hmm.” I closed my eyes because this made it easier to pat my pockets. “You know, though, what if Kayla’s right? About…”

“Watt?” Delaney said, sounding surprised.

“Exactly. I mean, she’s right about him being steady and kind. He really is. And I didn’t know I had a competence kink until this week?— ”

“No, Jasper.” Delaney pushed urgently at my shoulder. “I meant Watt?—”

“And when he’s around, even when we’re teasing each other, I feel… good. Light. Like a part of myself I don’t remember is?—”

“Jasper,” he hissed. “ Shut up . Watt is?—”

“Strong,” I sighed. “Yeah. And sexy. And he looks so nice in flannel?—”

“ Here ,” Delaney bit out. He gripped my chin hard. “Open your fucking eyes, man.”

I blinked my eyes open, and the first thing I saw was not Delaney but a vision of a broad-shouldered, dark-haired man wearing a fierce scowl while carrying a balloon… and a tray of crackers?

“Watt!” I grinned at this apparition. Those drinks had to have been killer strong if I was hallucinating something so impossible, but I was too happy to see him to care. “You’re here! Damn, you look nice. Delaney, if you could see Watt like I do right now, you’d agree with me about the flannel.”

My dream-Watt, who’d been giving Delaney a glower hot enough to peel paint, turned his gaze toward me, and his whole expression softened. “You okay, Jasper?”

“Me? Fuck yeah! I’m great.” I started to pitch forward and ended up leaning back against the siding with a bang . “I may have had a couple whiskey things. Two? Or… seven?”

“Seven,” Delaney said wryly. “Definitely seven.”

“They tasted like apples.” I smacked my lips. “Kinda like you do.”

Watt’s nostrils flared, and he growled at Delaney. “What the fuck?”

“Don’t look at me.” Delaney held up both hands. “He had a bad week, and he made lots of new friends at the bar. A bunch of people wanted to buy Coach Lancaster a drink?—”

“ Seven people,” I repeated happily.

“Uh-huh. And I think he’s been eating nothing but his own baked goods for a week,” Delaney said. “I’m gonna get him into bed.”

“The hell you are.” Dream-Watt walked to the far side of the porch where Mabel’s (and my) favorite porch swing hung and set down the crackers on Mabel’s dainty wicker table. The helium balloon that seemed to be attached to the tray swayed back and forth… or possibly I was swaying? Either way, it made me laugh.

“Oh, fuck off. I meant alone , Watt,” Delaney scoffed. “Jesus, the man’s so drunk he thinks he’s hallucinating you. He can’t consent to anything.”

I blinked. Wasn’t I hallucinating him?

Then again, if I was hallucinating him, why was Delaney playing along?

“I’m confused,” I said. I made my way over to the swing, paused for a second to steady myself, then sank back into the freshly washed cushions—the first task I’d completed when I arrived—and pulled Mabel’s thick porch blanket over me.

“You can go. I’ll take care of him now,” Watt said in a low voice.

“The way you took care of him earlier?” Delaney demanded.

I wasn’t sure exactly what he and Watt said after that, though I heard them speaking in low voices.

“Delaney?” I called a moment later. “I’m okay. I’m just gonna lay down out here for a minute. It’s a nice night.”

Delaney—I was pretty sure it was Delaney—sighed heavily. “Call me tomorrow, okay? And come by Tam’s this weekend. Bring chocolate.”

“M’kay,” I agreed. I couldn’t bring myself to sit up when every motion of the swing made the world whirl madly. “Drive safe.”

A moment later, a finger prodded my hip. “Push over,” Watt said. “Make room.”

I blinked my eyes open blearily. “Watt? You’re here? For real?”

He snorted. “You want me to prove it? I know you had a stuffed whale named Captain Bubbles. You once told me you slept with him until you were thirteen.”

“How does that prove you’re real?” I demanded, even as I moved over to make room for him.

“Because I know that you slept with him until you were fifteen.”

I gasped and tried to lift my head. “You knew?”

“Yep. I thought it was cute.”

“Oh.” I let my head flop down, and when it happened to flop onto Watt’s broad, flanneled shoulder, I left it there… and possibly even burrowed further into him, closing my eyes and inhaling his cinnamon-and-coffee scent. “You’re warm.”

“Funny, I was thinking that about you.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me against his chest. “But you always did run hot. Remember how you’d jump on my back and hug me when you were all sweaty, just to piss me off?”

I chuckled low. “It wasn’t just to piss you off, Watt.”

He laughed, too, and his big legs set the swing in motion.

This time, though, the movement didn’t make me nauseous. With Watt beside me, the way the world swung finally began to make sense.

After a long time in the fresh cold air—five minutes or five hours, who knew?—my head was a little bit clearer, and Watt spoke again.

“You want to talk about what happened in practice today?” he asked.

“No?” I sighed. “But we probably should. I’m sorry.”

“No,” he insisted. “I’m sorry because?—”

I turned my head and opened my eyes a crack. “Because you were cranky at practice earlier.”

He blew out a breath. “Yeah. Essentially.”

“And I’m sorry because I was distracting you. Kayla explained at practice that I’ve been distracting my student athletes with my history assignments and distracting the team with my stretching and distracting you with our fighting?—”

Watt scowled. “We weren’t fighting. We were joking around.”

I sat up further. “That’s what I said! But then…” With a sigh, I sank back down against his chest. “I remembered you saying focus on your job and not on distractions , Jasper . And I wasn’t sure if she was right. I don’t want that to fuck things up for the team or for you.”

“Okay, so let me be clear. Really clear. Are you listening?”

I nodded, his flannel rubbing against my cheek.

“First, you’ve been out there every day, in your skates, doing a thing that doesn’t come easily to you. I know you’ve been tired but putting in the work anyway. That’s mental toughness, Jasper. That’s a thing those boys are learning because they see an adult they like doing it. You with me?”

I swallowed hard. “I’m with you,” I whispered .

“And second, Kayla’s single-mindedly focused on getting Zach a hockey scholarship right now. It comes from a place of love—when you’re a parent, you’ll do anything to make sure your kid gets what they need—so I’m not going to criticize. But she’s sure as fuck not being objective, so take what she says about your teaching and your coaching with a grain of salt. Yeah?”

“Y-yeah,” I said softly. That was exactly what Delaney had said, but hearing it from Watt was different somehow.

“And third… Kayla has no clue what I like or don’t like, or what upsets me or doesn’t. So when it comes to you and me, don’t listen to a damn word she says. Okay?”

I braced a hand on his stomach and pushed myself up far enough to look into his eyes. Every feature on his handsome face looked… sincere. “Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated, pushing my head back down onto his chest. But my eyes were open now, and when I wasn’t looking at Watt, I saw…

“Um, Watt? Is that a cracker basket… with a balloon on it?”

He laughed, and the sound was like a force field, pushing away the chill of the night air. “That’s an emergency charcuterie board—if you stick around Copper County, you’ll learn that those are a thing here—using the Taleggio cheese you accidentally brought me a couple weeks ago. More specifically… that’s a Mature Friendship Peace Offering.”

It took me a second to figure out what he was saying and another to flop-scoot myself off the swing and onto my knees on the porch floor so I could look at the charcuterie more closely.

“Oh my God! There’s a piece of cheese in the middle shaped like… Italy? ”

“I told him it looked like Italy,” Watt muttered. He scratched his head the way he used to when he was feeling unsure. “It’s an ice skate. Because symbolism.”

“Oh!” I twisted my head this way and that. “Yeah. No, I totally see it,” I lied.

“And the balloon is… well, technically, it’s a groundhog, but we were working with what Chris had leftover at his catering business, and Oliver said it was close enough to a fighting marmot because… symbolism again.”

“You brought me a cheese skate and a flying groundhog?” I demanded. “As a Mature Friendship Peace Offering?”

“When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound quite as mature.” Watt cleared his throat. “It was the best I could do on short notice. The idea is that I… I’d like to teach you how to skate. If you want.”

“Oh,” I breathed.

Before my marriage, I’d made a decent living. I’d had a house and a car, a closet with some designer pieces I’d been gifted, and money left over for nice extras.

Later, Martin and I had poured money into an even nicer house, a professional chef, a personal trainer, and closets full of designer clothing because he’d said looking like successful modeling agents was the first step to being successful, and I’d believed it. If there’d been a tangible thing I’d wanted during those years, I’d probably gotten it.

And yet I couldn’t think of a single one of those things—not one—that knocked the air out of my lungs like this had.

“What I really wanted to say is that I’m sorry I let you down.” Watt gave me a half smile that said he remembered the first time he’d said those words to me, more than twenty years ago. “I want us to talk to each other. To get to know each other again. To… to stop making assumptions about each other. I want us to be frien— ooof .”

Before he finished speaking, I’d launched myself at him. Watt clearly hadn’t expected a person packing seven apple cider old-fashioneds to move that fast or squeeze him quite so hard, and since it was impossible to hug a seated person in a graceful way (especially while packing those old-fashioneds), I ended up sprawled against his chest with one knee on either side of his thighs and my arms holding him in a headlock.

“Does this mean yes?” His words were muffled against the chest of my fleece jacket.

“Totally. Yes. Wait, does this mean I win the friendship bet?” I demanded.

Watt dug his fingers into my armpits, probably in an effort to breathe, and when I twisted away, he caught me around the waist so I wouldn’t fall off the swing. “Nope. Because you canceled the bet.” He shook his head with mock sympathy. “Which was really a stupid move on your part, man, but here we are.”

“I un-cancel it!” I cried. “I hereby un-cancel it!”

“No can do— hey ,” he said when I tried to tickle him back. “That’s not fair! Not the ribs! We had a rule?—”

“The rule applies to bets. No bet, no rules.”

He took both of my hands in his, pushing me onto my back on the swing. Before I could react, he followed, lying on top of me until our chests were pressed together, with both of us laughing wildly.

Our faces were suddenly inches apart, his breath warm against my lips, and the air between us felt charged. For a heartbeat, our eyes locked, and neither of us moved.

I licked my lips. “W-when you say friends, do you mean… just friends? Like, the Rules of Engagement According to Watt and Jasper, Circa…”

Watt’s lips brushed mine with a softness that made my breath catch—a hesitant, barely there touch that felt like a question. Slowly, the kiss deepened, achingly gentle, as if both of us were afraid that too much pressure might break whatever fragile thing was blooming between us.

When he pulled back, we were both breathless.

“Maybe we can figure out some new rules for as long as you’re in town,” he suggested softly. “Friends with benefits is a thing, right? I’m not entirely sure what that should look like or if it’s even a good idea…”

“I think it’s the best idea ever!”

Watt raised one eyebrow. “I’m going to need to hear it from you when you haven’t had seven drinks. Right now, you need to get some sleep.”

He had a point. I’d almost fallen asleep on his chest, and I’d hate to pass out midway through… whatever might happen… and drool on his delicious flannel.

“Tomorrow morning, then,” I said, grinning. “Come over early. I’ll make you breakfast.”

Watt looked surprised but pleased. “You will?”

“Totally.” I brushed his hair back from his face with one hand. “I’ll be the best friend with benefits you’ve ever had, Watt. You’ll see. I bet you anything.”

It was a bet I was determined to win.