“Because I might think dancing is for girls?” Cooper asked, so clearly offended that I couldn’t help smiling wryly. At least Benji didn’t have to worry aboutthat.
“Well, you might have,” I said. “But there’s more than that. It’s not cheap,” I continued, ticking that off on one of my fingers. “It’ll change his body forever if he keeps it up. You’d know better than I do if he can handle pressure, and it’s only gonna get worse from here on out.”
“The worst has already happened to him,” Cooper said softly, looking down at the coffee in his hand. “I think that kid could handle anything. I wish I was half as brave as he is.”
Cooper didn’t strike me as a coward or anything like it, but then I hardly knew him. Maybe there was more going on there.
“I wish I knewSwan Lakeas well as he does,” I said. “Hetoldmethings I’d never noticed before.”
Cooper chuckled. “He loves it. He thinks you’re the coolest person in the world for having been in it.”
I sipped my coffee to hide just how wide that thought made me smile. “Six-year-olds are the best judges of coolness,” I said. “But you’re his hero. He told me all about you.”
Cooper sucked in a breath. “Probably all true,” he said, looking up at the sky and wrinkling his nose again. “They don’t pull their punches, either.”
“He told me you said odd socks were good luck and you make the best spaghetti sauce in the world.” I took the tiniest possible bite of my third of the blondie, still kidding myself that I was capable of savoring one of them. Despite thinking I was prepared this time, I couldn’t stop a happy sound escaping as the scent and taste filled my mouth.
Cooper glanced sideways at me, sipping his own coffee. “Odd socksaregood luck,” he said. “It means you’ve got at least two pairs of socks. Somewhere.”
I snorted involuntarily. Not the most elegant sound I’d ever made, and I was short enough on elegance these days that I might have wished I hadn’t made it.
Except that I saw Cooper’s lips twitch out of the corner of my eye, and the glitter of laughter in his eyes. So maybe it wasn’t an unforgivable lapse.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I shoved the remainder of my blondie in my mouth, determined to savor the last bite this time.
Silence fell between us as Cooper finished his, as well, but there was nothing uncomfortable about it. We’d just met, and every interaction we’d had up to this point had been awkward, so I had no right to feel at peace right now, sitting close enough to him to feel the warmth radiating off his body, listening to the birds singing and the distant lap of the waves on the shore.
I did, though. Peace fell over me like a warm blanket being tucked around my shoulders by someone who didn’t want me to be cold. I couldn’t remember the last time my mind had stopped racing with fears andwhat ifsand questions about the future.
Benji had good taste in favorite adults.
“Do you mean it?” Cooper spoke up, turning his coffee cup around in his hands. His voice was rough and small, like a little kid who wasn’t sure he could trust a promise someone was making to him. “About Benji, I mean?”
“The lead role? I mean it,” I said. “He’s already a leader with those kids. His forms aren’t perfect yet, but he’s got the drive to learn, and they’ll all follow him. He’s like a tiny pied piper.”
Cooper laughed. “His mom was like that,” he said, looking up at the few perfect cotton wool clouds hanging in the sky. “I mean, she was my big sister, so of course I followed her around everywhere. But other people did, too. She was dancing to her own song, but everyone else wanted to learn the steps. Guess that’s where he got it.”
“Sounds like a woman I would have liked to meet.”
It was the kind of thing people said without really meaning it—it was the kind of thingIwould have said without really meaning it, under other circumstances—but I would really have liked to meet Benji’s mom. I’d enjoyed meeting every other member of his family so far.
It’d been a long,longtime since I’d really met anyone new. Longer since I’d enjoyed it. Mostly, I was introduced to assorted company patrons or potential patrons to smile and laugh at their jokes and let them leer and paw at me. As though what they were about to spend their money on wasme.
In a way, it had been. In a way, buried under all the uncertainty and grief and the urge to scream until my throat bled, I was glad I wasn’t for sale anymore.
I just didn’t know what Iwas, if not for sale.
Cooper drew an intent-laden breath beside me, but before he could say anything, something made a buzzing sound in his overalls. He frowned and pulled his phone out.
“And that’s my cue to leave,” he said, tipping his head back to drink the remainder of his coffee. “Thank you for… all of this. Benji won’t let you down,” he added, standing. “If you decide to go that way. I won’t say anything to him until you do.”
I nodded, missing the warmth of his body. Avery reallywasright. Dammit.
“Works for me. I guess, uh, I’ll see you around?”
I guess I’ll see you around?
I’d forgotten how to flirt. Was I flirting? Not with a line likethatI wasn’t.
