“Beg.”
“I’m begging you,” Cooper pleaded, placing his hands together as if he was praying to a god he didn’t believe in. “Choose to stay. Choose me. It doesn’t have to be forever. Just for now. Stay. Talk.”
“You want to talk? Let’s talk.” Nico stepped forward, grabbed his suit jacket off the counter, and slung it over his shoulders. “I used to think I was in love with you.”
Nico’s words stabbed Cooper in the heart.
Nico continued, “But this thing we’ve been chasing forso long… maybe we’re just two friends trying to put broken puzzle pieces together because nobody else in the world would understand.” Nico stared into Cooper’s eyes, and his own eyes were a familiar storm. “And somewhere along the way, I got so lost. I was twenty-two then. I’m almost twenty-eight now and I don’t know who the fuck I am. I’ve been in this cage with you for the entirety of my twenties.”
Nico caressed Cooper’s cheek softly. It was a tender moment in the raging storm. The kind of stolen moments Cooper feared he’d never feel again. Nico pulled his hand back and retreated. And as he continued, his voice broke. “I spent my whole life being someone else, living other people’s dreams. But I’m on top now, and I’m not going to sink my own ship for something that will only drown me in the end anyway.”
All Cooper could see was red—a potent combination of sadness and anger. “Do you have any idea how hard this has been for me?”
“You’ve reminded me every step of the way that you’d always choose your dead boyfriend over me. Do you know what that does to someone? And I get it, I don’t blame you for still loving him. That’s not the problem here.”
Cooper shouted, “Then what the fuck is the problem?”
“That you can’t love anyone else. Six years is a long-ass time, Coop.”
“You’re being intentionally obtuse because what the fuck do you think I’m doing right now? I’m literally about to jump out of the closet. Surprise, world! And I’m doing that for you.” Cooper launched his water bottle across the room, landing with a thud against the wall and leaving a crack. “But maybe you’re still that same fuckingbrat who walked into my training facility all those years ago.”
“Fuck you, Callahan,” Nico screamed with a rage typically reserved for the field in a divisional matchup. Guess they were really enemies now. “You built this goddamn cage and imprisoned me in it with you and now, maybe I have Stockholm syndrome.” His eyes cinched, fighting back tears. “Do you know how many times I wished we—” He stopped himself. “How many times my heart stopped? Every fucking time, because with you, it was always the last time. You’d give me the rope, just a little bit of slack and then you’d rip it right on back. And now you’re begging me to not let go?”
Nico backed up slowly, backed to the door.
Cooper realized this wasn’t like every other time.
This was the final last time.
“I hope you get everything you want in this life,” Nico cried. “I hope those things make you happy.”
“I want you,” Cooper whispered, the words barely escaping his lips. He’d gone from one extreme to the next like he was having a full-on breakdown. Still, no tears came. “I’ve always wanted you.”
“I hope you find someone else you want.” Nico’s eyes sank. “I hope you treat him better than you treated me.”
Nico stepped past Cooper, and the whiff of his cologne sent Cooper reeling. Oak and amber, a scent he could never forget.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Cooper latched onto Nico’s wrist. “Please stop.”
Nico cocked his head over his shoulder but said nothing.
A thunder roared deep within Cooper, and the words that came fumbling out of his mouth surprised even him. “I love you.”
Nico blinked away the tears once, and then twice. “Those are the words I needed to hear a long time ago.”
Nico left in a hurry, and when the door slammed shut behind him, the glass cage completely shattered.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
june 2026 - columbus
The rooftopof the Renaissance served as the backdrop to the hottest ticket in town on the second weekend of July. On each side of the shimmering pool, chairs were filled with butts in seats. The guest list was as intimate as Elsa would allow. Though it was supposed to be family and friends only, Cooper’s mother ensured the most powerful people in the city were in attendance, including the mayor and the president of the university.
Cooper stood at the front of the pool underneath a white arch with fake black cobras wrapped around red and white roses. That was another idea of his mother’s: to theme the wedding after the team. The entire affair was put together on short notice. The faster Cooper got this over with, the easier it’d be to forget Nico fucking Fallon.
As he waited for his bride-to-be, he leaned slightly backward and glanced over the ledge of the building. It wasn’t too late to jump.
Together, Cooper and Stassi chose to keep the ceremony as traditional as possible, and that meant she walked out to the crowd to the melody of “Here Comes the Bride.” Her father guided her, his elbow locked with hers. She looked as stunning as Cooper ever could have imagined, wearing a tight-fitting dress with sparkling red rubies embedded into the fabric. She wore a familiar smile, the kind that pulled at her cinched eyes.
