The Very Naughty List

9. Hailey

9

HAILEY

Waking up in my rented room at Ted’s place is completely underwhelming. At least he wasn’t up all night “jamming” on his guitar again. I managed to get some much-needed sleep after the plunge and my day with Sebastian.

On today’s agenda is my next fake date with Reid. As I get ready to go out, I take a minute to text Lorelai, filling her in on the events of yesterday and telling her a bit about my plans for the day.

LORELAI: It’s too bad you don’t have “dating three guys at once” on your naughty list.

I’m glad she can’t see my face when I read her text. She may be my best friend, and literally the only other person in the world who knows about my naughty bucket list, but it’s still enough to make me blush.

ME: It’s all just fake anyway, remember? So even if it was on my list, I couldn’t check it off. That’s for real experiences only.

LORELAI: I dunno, girl. It seems close enough to me.

I look at the screen on my phone for a long moment. Is it close enough? Nah, I can’t start thinking about things that way. I’ll only wind up getting hurt again.

I let Lorelai know that I need to get going and then set my phone down while I finish dabbing a bit of mascara on my eyelashes. I’ve never been one for a lot of makeup. Besides, I doubt I could cover all my freckles anyway. They punctuate the bridge of my nose and the tops of my cheekbones like the stars scattered across the night sky.

When I was little, I once took a black marker and drew lines between them, thinking that maybe they would form one of those dot-to-dot pictures. I remember being so upset when I tried to wash it off and found out it was permanent marker. But the next day at school, Lucas and the Cooper triplets stuck close by my side all day so that I wouldn’t get teased, and Lucas told me that it looked like I had constellations on my face—which he said meant that I was as beautiful as a galaxy.

I smile at myself in the mirror as the memory washes over me. My older brother has always been there to protect me and pick me up when I’ve needed him. Which is why I should really stop thinking about his three best friends in the way I have been.

I’m sure he would be scandalized if he could see inside my head right now.

Thank god no one but Lorelai knows about my naughty list.

My mind flits back to my text conversation with her. The list was something I wrote after leaving Dylan, right around when I got to LA. It’s mainly a bucket list of all the things I want to try in bed someday that I was too embarrassed to ask him to do with me—although some of them don’t even require a bed.

I sigh as I tuck in my shirt and get ready to leave my room. Unfortunately, I’ve been in a bit of a dry spell ever since leaving my shitty fiancé, so the list has been rendered pretty much irrelevant.

I was too busy trying to get by in LA to have time to date, much less worry about my poor neglected pussy. It goes without saying that none of the items on my naughty list have been checked off. Not even one.

“And we won’t be checking anything off the list in Chestnut Hill either,” I mutter, glancing down at my crotch. “So don’t get any big ideas.”

I wonder if it’s normal to talk to your own vagina. Probably not, but she needs a good talking to right now. The past couple of days have been wreaking havoc on my nervous system, and all the attention from the Cooper triplets is definitely confusing my body. I feel like every little touch from any of them is enough to have sparks flying through my veins, lighting me up inside like the Fourth of July. I’m in a constant state of semi-arousal, and clearly some parts of my body haven’t gotten the message that there will be no follow through since it’s all just an act.

I tell my naughty bits to calm the fuck down one more time, then head out and make my way toward Chestnut Hill’s small downtown area. I’m not feeling very confident that my pussy pep talk is going to do much good though, especially when I arrive and see Reid standing outside the door of the town bistro to meet me for our “date.”

It’s his turn now, and I feel as if I’ve barely even recovered from my day with Sebastian.

Seeing him outside the restaurant makes my heart skip a beat, even from a distance. The way the sun hits the copper strands in his hair and the way his steely blue eyes cut across the street toward me are nothing short of breathtaking. Who knew that such a ruggedly masculine man could be so beautiful ?

But the best part about Reid isn’t his intense good looks, as hard as that is to believe. It’s how warm and kind and charming he is. He’s such a down-home sort of guy that everyone in the entire town wants to be friends with him. Out of all three of the Cooper brothers, Reid reminds me the most of his dad. He seems like such a family guy, with love overflowing from his heart toward anyone that he cares about.

When I reach the door, he smiles and holds it open for me. And when we get to our table, he pulls out my chair and holds it as he waits for me to sit down before pushing it back in again. He makes this little local bistro feel like a five-star restaurant simply by the way he treats me, and I can’t help but grin as he takes the seat opposite me.

“You’re quite the gentleman.”

He shrugs at my compliment as the waitress comes and drops off some menus, and I chuckle when I think about yesterday.

“Sebastian seems to take pride in not being a gentleman,” I say jokingly.

Reid rolls his eyes, clearly unsurprised that his brother said that. “There’s nothing wrong with treating a lady right.”

I nod at that, remembering vividly how I used to sometimes notice Reid with his ex—Sutton, a girl he dated semi-seriously for a couple of years. She was gorgeous, of course, and it always made me a little jealous to see how Reid treated her like a queen.

“Are you always a gentleman?”

I blurt the question out with genuine curiosity, but I’m not prepared for the heated look he gives me in return.

“Well now, not so fast, trouble. I didn’t say all that.”

His eyes blaze with a cold blue-gray flame as he speaks, and my body reacts to the implication in his words.

Shit . Yeah, that heart to heart I had with my pussy earlier definitely didn’t work. I need to remind myself all over again to calm down. None of this is real. This is all just a fake game that the four of us are playing in order to gain the upper hand on the town gossips. Once we get through the holidays, none of this will even matter or exist anymore.

My brain tries desperately to convince my body of that fact, but neither my body nor my heart are listening to it. It feels like there’s a war raging inside of me, with conflicting emotions jostling for dominance. Currently, level-headed rationalization is on the losing end of things.

“Do you know what you want to order?” Reid sets his menu down on the table as if he’s ready, but I haven’t even really looked at the choices yet. Sure, I’ve been holding the menu up to my face, but my eyes may as well have been staring right through it.

“I’m not really sure. I can’t decide what I want.”

The waitress walks back over at that exact moment. She plucks the pencil from behind her ear as she tells us about a few specials, then she pauses and looks at us expectantly. Reid glances my way, probably seeing the panicked look on my face as I try to make a last-minute decision, then turns back to the waitress.

“Can you bring us one of each of those specials that you described, please?”

The waitress gives him almost the exact same look that the server at The Old Oak gave Nick the other night—although thankfully, Reid restrained himself a bit and didn’t order the entire menu like Nick did.

“That’s like five different dishes,” she points out. “Are you sure?”

Reid nods. “And two sets of plates and silverware. We’ll share everything.”

After she turns to leave, he smiles across the table at me. “There, that ought to take care of it.”

I pretend to mull it over. “Yeah, probably. If we’re still hungry afterward, we can always get more.”

He bursts into laughter, the sound warm and low.

“Seriously,” I add in a quiet voice, shaking my head. “You and your brothers have to stop spoiling me like this. It’s going to make my expectations way too high when I actually get back into the dating pool.”

The smile on Reid’s face slips a little, but he doesn’t respond to that and I can’t quite tell what he’s thinking.

The food arrives pretty quickly, and we dig in, sharing all the dishes between the two of us. It’s so much food that I’m floored not only by the spread but also by the gesture. I meant what I told Reid. I haven’t been treated like this on a date before, not even when I was with Dylan. He would never spring for more than a burger and fries, even though he has more money than most of the town put together.

“My brother would be in hog heaven right now with all this food,” I say, covering my mouth as I take a bite.

Reid laughs and nods. “Yeah, Lucas could always pack it away, that’s for sure. But now that he’s coaching the Chestnut Hill High football team, I’ll bet those kids have him running around burning calories right and left. Hell, he’s probably in better shape than any of us, thanks to them.”

“I don’t know about that. You guys are in good shape too. You were always working out at our house, remember?”

A flush heats my cheeks as I realize what I just said. I have more vivid memories than I’d care to admit about all the times I ran into a half-naked Cooper brother in the hallway after they came out of Lucas’s small home gym following a good workout. Sometimes they had a shirt on, sometimes not. And once, Sebastian even came out wearing nothing but a towel on his way to shower after a particularly intense leg day.

I have a vague memory of Reid having a tattoo on his chest, although I think my brother might have mentioned at one point that he had more ink done since high school.

“I mean, you were over at our house doing a lot of things,” I correct quickly, hoping my face isn’t as red as it feels. Thinking about whatever ink Nick might’ve gotten in the years since I left town isn’t doing anything to lower my internal temperature. “I know my parents were always happy to have you over.”

Reid grins, a warm look passing over his face. “Yeah, they’ve always been super welcoming. It means a lot.” He nudges my foot with his. “I’m sure they’re on cloud nine about having you back in town.”

I nod, trying not to pay attention to the way his foot keeps touching mine even as he leans back in his seat a little. It’s just a tiny bit of contact, probably accidental, but I’m so aware of it that my heart beats a little faster.

“I think they are. It’s been nice being home and getting to see everyone.”

“It’s been good seeing you too.” He flashes me a crooked smile that disrupts the quickening rhythm of my heart, making it trip over itself for a beat. “I have to admit, I was surprised as hell when I ran into you at Gus’s. I didn’t expect you back in town, at least not for a long while. I figured you’d be too enamored with LA to want to come back to a place like Chestnut Hill.”

A little twinge of nostalgia rises up in my chest as I glance out the window at the town beyond. It’s weird. I didn’t think I would miss this place, especially not after everything that happened with Dylan and the ruined wedding. But being back has made me realize how much of my heart stayed here when I left. In some ways, this will always feel like my home.

“No, not too enamored with LA to come back, at least not for a short visit like this. Honestly, I thought about Chestnut Hill a lot when I was in California. Little things that I missed would pop into my head all the time.”

“Oh? Did you think about me at all while you were gone?”

My heart stutters at his question, and I take another bite and carefully swallow to give myself a moment before answering.

“Sure, of course I did. I missed everyone here. Well, maybe not the Divas or my backstabbing bitch of an ex-best friend. But I did think about all of you guys. And Lucas, of course.”

There. That sounded good, right?

I hope I played it off well enough not to give away how much I actually did think about the Cooper brothers while I was away. I did my best to keep my tone light, but Reid still has a somewhat serious expression on his face. Silence falls across the table for a few heartbeats as he gazes at me, and I clear my throat and ask, “What about you? Did you think about me at all while I was gone?”

“Yes, I did. Every day.”

The simple truth in his voice hits me like a ton of bricks. He’s not joking. He’s serious.

I don’t know what that means, but my stomach flutters wildly anyway. The table gets quiet again, and I don’t know whether I should look at Reid or look away.

Never in a million years would I have ever guessed that Reid Cooper would be thinking about me. My high school self is doing cartwheels in my head while my common sense is running around inside my brain telling her to stop before this gets out of hand.

It can’t get out of hand, can it? It’s all only a game. None of this is real.

But the way Reid is looking at me right now, the way his voice dropped a little when he told me that he’s thought of me—none of it seems like something he’s doing for public display. Besides, the bistro is mostly empty, so no one can even hear us talking or hear the questions being asked.

His answer was the truth, and it was meant only for me.

Before I can figure out what to do with that or what the hell to say in response, the moment is broken by Reid’s two brothers walking up to our table.

“Damn.” Sebastian eyes the array of dishes, which almost completely cover the table top. “How many people are you trying to feed?”

“Nick started it,” Reid replies with a shrug, as if the oldest Cooper triplet threw down some kind of gauntlet at The Old Oak. Then he glances at the two of them. “What are you guys doing here? This is my date with Hailey.”

Sebastian sits down at the table and helps himself to some food off one of the plates. “Sure, but we’re supposed to be fighting over her, remember? And if I were really trying to win Hailey’s affections, I wouldn’t just be letting her date my brothers without showing up to stake my own claim too.”

Nick nods in agreement and nabs some food for himself as well. “True. But you already had your own date with her. I’m the only one that hasn’t yet.”

“Okay, but you’re both intruding on mine.” Even though Reid’s tone is joking, the look in his eyes has a bit of a jealous edge to it.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think there are some actual competitive feelings between the Cooper brothers.

“It’s okay with me if they stay,” I offer, unsure if the moment needs smoothing over or not. But the last thing I want to do is cause any kind of real strife between the triplets, who’ve been inseparable for as long as I’ve known them. “We really can’t finish all this food on our own.”

Sebastian and Nick end up sticking around for a bit to help us finish off all the food Reid ordered as we all talk and laugh over some of the small-town drama that the guys fill me in on. Things go back to being lighthearted and fun, but there is still a small undercurrent hinting at a brotherly competition between the three of them, with me at the center of it.

When we all get up to leave together, Reid makes a point of wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me in for a kiss just after we walk out the door of the bistro.

The first thought racing through my head is that he’s making a show of it for the townspeople who are walking by. But when the kiss turns from a simple peck to something a little more breath-stealing, with his mouth firm against mine and his tongue moving demandingly against my own, I start to wonder if this isn’t as much a show for his brothers as it is for everyone else.

Is he trying to lay some sort of claim on me in front of them?

But why would he need to do that when they’re only pretending to fight over me? They don’t actually have to vie for my affections, since this is all fake.

And in all honesty, if any of this were real, I wouldn’t know how to choose between them. I’ve had crushes on all three of these men for as long as I can remember.

As if he can sense that my thoughts have wandered a little, Reid growls softly against my lips. One of his hands slides through my hair, but instead of just running his fingers through the strands, he grips my hair tightly, tugging just hard enough to send a little sting shooting through my scalp.

I suck in a breath as a jolt of sensation rushes through me, the zap of pain turning into pure heat as it races down to my clit. My knees wobble, and I lean into our kiss as if it’s the only thing keeping me upright, my lips moving hungrily against his.

We just ate, but I suddenly feel fucking ravenous .

It’s not food I’m craving right now though.

Reid gives one more tug on my hair, sharply enough to send another bolt of pleasure and pain right to my clit. I swear I can feel wetness soaking the crotch of my panties, and my stomach flutters. God, if he keeps touching me this roughly and possessively, like he fucking owns my body and wants the entire world to know it, I might just come right here on the sidewalk.

When he finally breaks the kiss and pulls away, his fingers sliding out of my hair, I find myself dazed and a little giddy.

“That was… a great date,” I whisper, trying not to sound too breathless. “Thank you, Reid.”

A sinful smirk curves his lips, as if he can read every thought I just had on my face. “I’m glad you enjoyed it, trouble. So did I.”

He brushes his thumb over my bottom lip before dropping his hand, and I will my legs to support me as I give a little nod and turn to head toward my car.

I’m debating whether to call Pippa and see what she’s up to or head back to my rented room at Ted’s crappy house, trying to figure out what to do with myself for the rest of the night that doesn’t involve spending every minute fantasizing about that kiss.

But before I make it more than two steps away, Nick reaches out to stop me, tugging me in close to his side. The motion is so swift that it startles me, and I look up at him in surprise.

“It’s not even seven o’clock yet.” His face is as stoic and set as ever, but I swear I almost see his lips twitch into a smile. “It’s my turn now.”