“Do you like banana pudding, Waverly?” Mrs. Rock asks me.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever had it.”
Annika gasps.
Grady gasps.
Mr. Rock gasps.
“Nice knowing you,” Cooper jokes. “I thought we had a chance there, but now my whole family’s horrified. Did you know that ten out of ten of my ex-girlfriends have left me for my sister’s banana pudding? Pretty much means—”
“The next time you’re in Shipwreck, we are treating youright,” Mrs. Rock interrupts. “And don’t listen to him. None of his girlfriends ever left him for banana pudding. Mostly, they left him because he wasn’t ready to be the man he’s grown into today.”
“Libby. Gross,” Annika says.
Sarah cracks up.
Cooper does too.
“Ah, Waverly, you showed up,” a cringe-inducing voice says behind me. “I’m honestly surprised.”
Cooper’s grip tightens on mine. Seven people around us pause and watch. I spot Aunt Zinnia noticing and making a beeline for us.
And I sigh.
For the first time in forever, I really don’t care that Geofferson is here. I don’t care that he wants to make a scene.
He can’t hurt me.
Not if I don’t let him.
And the rest of these people, all turning to stare?
Who arethey?
Why do I letthemhurt me?
So I turn, not at all certain what I’m about to say, but knowing that Idon’t carewhat anyone thinks of me being here with Cooper, of me seeing Geofferson, oranything, because these people around me?
Theycare in thegoodway.
But I’ve only half-turned when I feel something snap under my heel, and then I’m lurching on my broken shoe, and then—
And then I’m being swept off my feet by two strong arms draped in fabric covered in little baby dragons before I fall.
I squeak and wrap my arms tight around Cooper’s neck, his earthy, warm, pine-and-butterscotch scent grounding me even as I realize I’ve spilled my drink all down his back.
“You okay?” he murmurs.
“My heel broke.”
“Not your foot?”
I shake my head. “My foot’s fine.” And then I squeeze him tighter as that once-everything, now-annoying voice speaks again.
“Dramatics, Waverly?” Geofferson says.
I’m debating which version ofget the fuck away from meI want to go with first when Cooper turns us to face my ex.
