My stomach twisted. I didn’t want to hurt him, too. Whatever else had happened, I wanted him to know that he had me. That if he wanted to pursue ballet, I’d be there to help him however I could.
“Gotta go,” I said, hanging up on Avery and setting my phone face-down on the table.
“Coo—uh, no one’s come to pick you up, yet?”
Benji bit his lip and shook his head.
I glanced at the clock over the sink. Whoever was meant to be picking Benji up was already five minutes late.
So much for avoiding an awkward encounter.
“You wanna sit with me?” I asked, pushing the other chair out with my foot in invitation.
Benji hesitated a heartbeat, then shuffled over and perched himself on the edge of the chair. He was so small.
I was going to miss him. I’d never even considered the possibility of kids before—I’d never thought there’d be room in my life forthem—but knowing Benji and the rest of his class had made me wish I thought there would be.
“Do you really have to leave?” he asked, his tiny voice slipping between my ribs and piercing me right through the heart.
What was I meant to say to that?
“I…” I began, grasping for an explanation that wouldn’t upset him. I wasn’t sure there was one.
However Cooper felt, Benji loved me. I couldn’t tell myself otherwise.
“The thing is…” I tried again, slamming straight into a wall markedbreaking Benji’s little heart. “Sometimes…”
For a second, the sound of approaching footsteps made me want to thank whatever powers were watching over me.
Then I saw who they belonged to.
There were dark circles under Cooper’s eyes. I’d noticed them when we first met, and then I’d stopped noticing them. Now, they were unmissable again.
“Hey,” he said to Benji, gaze flicking to my face before turning away again.
“Felix is leaving!” Benji said, gripping the edge of the table as though he wasn’t about to go without a fight.
Cooper looked at me again, lingering this time. I swallowed, throat tight and dry.
“I know,” he said, eyes still on me.
Right. Of course he did. Small town.
“But he can’t! You love him.”
“Benji—”
“I saw you kissing,” Benji insisted, and my already knotted stomach twisted another half turn. It’d been him at the window.Dammit. “And you said that didn’t necess… nessery…,” he stumbled, “it didn’thave tomean you loved him but then you said you did.”
My gaze shot back to Cooper’s face at the same time as my heart leapt into my throat. His eyes were wide, brows halfway to his hairline.
He’d said that? To Benji?
“Benji,” Cooper repeated, firmer this time, holding out his hand. “Let’s leave Felix alone. I’m sure he has packing to do.”
The tips of Cooper’s ears were flushed darker than I’d ever seen them, streaks of color rising on his cheeks.
He’d said that. He’d told Benji he loved me.
