But this wasn’t the time for fucking, not when calabrian spices were filtering through his system.
“I’m just curious.” Nico shrugged. “Maybe I should find a beard of my own.”
Cooper laughed and shook his head. “I don’t think you need one with how many women you take home.”
“How do you know how many women I’ve been with?”
“Because you’re always taking them home from Pink Lotus.” Cooper shoved the last fry into his mouth and pushed his plate to the side. “I didn’t think Stassi knew about you, not until she mentioned she saw you leaving our house on the ring cam that night we don’t talk about.”Cooper puckered his lips and exhaled. “When she’s out here in LA., she keeps an eye on you.”
Nico frowned. “So not only do I have to worry about you, I have to worry about your girlfriend too?”
“She’s protective over me.”
“We’re not together, though,” Nico pointed out. “Not officially and certainly not exclusively, so I don’t think she needs to be watching me.”
Cooper pushed himself back in his chair, straightening himself out as the fingers of one hand rolled across the surface of the table. “I have a question for you.”
“I might have an answer.”
Cooper looked away, his throat tensing. “Why do you think I put this evening together for us?”
“Because I’m a good fuck and you finally realized you should be paying for my services.”
“Correction, you’re a great fuck. Don’t sell yourself short.” Cooper stood up and circled the table. He placed a hand on each of Nico’s shoulders and leaned over him. “All of this? It’s because I’m trying to…”
Nico cocked his gaze to meet Cooper’s.
Cooper ran a finger over the side of Nico’s face. “Can we just enjoy the night and see where it goes?”
After finishing a plate of gold-plated chocolate-covered strawberries, Cooper stepped away to the bar to grab another round of drinks. While the other man was gone, Nico’s eyes never left the kitchen door as if he was waiting for the bubble to burst at any moment.
Nico jerked in place as a shadow fell over him.
“Here, jumpy boy,” Cooper said, sliding a drink onto the table in front of NIco. It wasn’t another gross-ass kiwi cucumber mule. Instead, it appeared to be the drink Nico wanted from the jump but was too stubborn to admit as such. “A spiced pear mojito, which I hope you actually enjoy because I spent a week learning how to make it.”
Cooper sat back down across from him with a fresh bottle of beer. “Are you excited about being reunited with Reyes?”
“Someone should tell Coach White he’s an idiot for letting him go.”
Of course, Nico understood it wasn’t that simple. Whatever the case, he was happy that Matteo would be joining him in Hollywood.
“He was a free agent and he was asking too much,” Cooper said. “You should offer your condolences to your team ownership because they’re playing a very dangerous game being that close to the cap.” He held his beer against his lips and studied Nico’s face. “I’m glad you’ll be playing with an old friend, though.”
“Yeah, I don’t have the best chemistry with half of the pass-catchers here. It’ll be nice having someone I know I can depend on. Someone I can trust on the field.”
Cooper pulled his thumb to his mouth and chewed at the fingernail. “You need to be careful about Matteo. He knows.”
“Knows what?” Nico asked, but he couldn’t hide his inner panic as he tasted a hint of vomit in the back of his throat.
“Not about you.”
Nico breathed a sigh of relief, but it still tasted like throw up.
Cooper continued, “He knows about Luke and I.”
Nico leaned in and whispered, “Since when?”
“I’m not sure when he started piecing it all together, but he knows.” He palmed his beer up and down as if he was torn between finishing the bottle and not drinking it at all. “He’s a good guy, and I have no reason to believe he’s going to tell anyone but it scared the shit out of me when he told me. I saw my career going up in flames and losing everything I have in this life. And then when I saw him again, it was like we’d never talked about it.’
