He chuckles into my neck, but it’s not all laughter.
There’s some sniffling too. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
Hashtag hops onto the bed and yowls that he loves us, and also air, and also occasionally falling in the swimming pool, which he doesn’t really, but he’s still high.
“Oh! He’s right,” I say to Cooper. “We should watch the game.”
He winces.
I point at him. “That? That right there? Yes. You’re going back, and you’re finishing this series.”
He snags my finger and presses a kiss to the tip as he stares straight into my eyes. “I love you more than baseball.”
“I know,” I whisper. “And I love you more than music.”
“You might get tired of me. I’m a lot.”
“Cooper Rock.Iam a lot. We’re a lottogether. And we’re going to change the world.”
“We are, aren’t we?”
Gah, that dimpled grin. I grab him by the face and kiss them both. “I love you.”
“Even when I’m too much?”
“You arenevertoo much.”
“Ask you a question?”
“Always.”
“You gonna be okay with Zinnia?”
I sigh as I lean into him and let him wrap me tight again. “Remember you told me how you met your family all over again as adult people instead of authority figures?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I think I need to do that with Aunt Zinnia. Eventually. When I’m not so hurt and angry.”
“Do youwantto?”
“Doyouwant me to?”
He strokes my back and presses a kiss into my hair. “People are complicated. She’s your aunt. She raised you. She’s fucked up here and there. She hurt you. She probably regrets it. That’s how relationships go. Hell, Waverly, I’m gonna hurt you sometimes too, and when I do, I’m gonna make it right.”
“I know you will. And I will too.”
“What I want is for you to be happy, however you find that happiness. If you set your ground rules and get to know her and like her and want her in your life, I trust your judgement. Same goes if you set your ground rules and get to know her and find out you don’t like her and don’t want her in your life. Or if it lands somewhere in between. Whatever you want. However long it takes you to figure it out.”
I breathe a slow sigh of relief. He’s right. I don’t have to rush solving my relationship with Aunt Zinnia, and it makes me feel better knowing the only pressure he’ll put on me is the question of whatIwant, not what everyone else wants for me.
That’s a new kind of support for me.
I like it. “You’re very wise.”
“Nah, I’m just really good at knowing people are complicated.”
