“So, where are you taking me?” I asked as we stepped into the street, close enough that our shoulders brushed as we started to walk together.
Part of me expected Cooper to take my hand. Part of me wanted him to.
MaybeIcould takehishand?
My fingers twitched, but then a memory of Piotr snatching his hand away from mine and looking at me in disgust hit me sohard I could almost feel the slap of his fingers against mine. It was a mistake I’d only made once.
Cooper wouldn’t slap my hand away. He’d let me hold it last time, when I’d invited him upstairs. That wasn’t the same as wanting to hold it in public, though. We’d only known each other a little over a week. This was our first date.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Cooper responded, a knowing little smile playing around his lips.
“Nearby, then?” I asked.
Cooper turned his head to look at me, his smile widening.
Something warm brushed against my fingers.
I looked down and saw that it washisfingers.
He curled them around mine, loose but deliberate, warm and dry and gentle. “C’mon,” he said. “You’ll see.”
12
COOPER
Melting was absolutelypackedwhen we got there, the huge windows glowing against the backdrop of the sky, cliffs, and water behind it. It was another clear night, the reflection of the stars twinkling on the moonlit bay, like something out of a Van Gogh painting. Not the Starry Night everyone thought of, but the other one, with the river in it.
Felix’s fingers flexed in mine as we approached. I hesitated. When Benji’s did that, it meant he was worried about something.
“Little crowded in there,” I commented, keeping it light but giving him the opportunity to let me know if that bothered him.
Felix looked at me, his face doing something I couldn’t read. Not quite gratitude, not quite anxiety. Something related, though.
“That must be half the town,” he said.
That was only a slight exaggeration. Even from a dozen yards away, the sounds of conversation, laughter, and music reached us. I’d been told this was one ofthesocial events of the year,but hadn’t really believed that the seasonal reopening of an ice cream parlor would exactly be a party.
The last party I’d been to was Benji’s sixth birthday, and it’d just been the four of us. Quiet.
This wasn’t a nightclub at midnight, but itwasa cocktail bar at eight. Only Otter Bay didn’t have cocktail bars.
It had ice cream parlors.
I took a breath to ask if it was too many people for him, then paused. Felix was from New York. He’d crossed the street with more people at once. There was no way the number of people was the problem.
“Is that…?” I asked, trailing off. I could see therewasa problem, but couldn’t figure out what it could possibly be.
“Are you sure about this?” Felix asked.
When I looked at him, my fingers twitched automatically, holding his tighter. I’d never seen him look unsure about anything.
“I’m sure,” I said, still not understanding. “Are you not? Is this… am I pushing you…?”
“You’re not worried about what they’ll say?” Felix asked, nodding to the parlor and the crowd inside.
I raised an eyebrow. “Like, they’ll tease me about you?”
They definitely would. I’d hear about it from just about everyone in town, no doubt. Just like I’d heard from all of them when I first moved back.
