Page 61 of Flirty Thirty

Happy Family

Tap, tap, tap.

I whine in my sleep, slapping the side of the bed. “Kat, knock it off.” Little kitty is probably playing with the blinds cord again. One day I’m going to put in some nice wooden blinds so my fur babies can’t destroy them.

Tap, tap.

“Seriously, Kat!” I growl, and I fling myself over. My stomach jumps straight into my throat as I topple to the floor with a thud.

“I know karate!” Holland shouts as she sits up, her arms out and her eyes covered by a fuzzy blue night mask. I rub out the pain in my elbow from where I hit the ground and stifle my laughter at the both of us.

“Sorry,” I say, turning on the light as Holland slowly lifts her mask. “I thought I heard—”

Tap, tap.

A wrinkle appears above Holland’s nose. “Is someone knocking?”

I stare at the door, fumbling for the remote, the only weapon in my arsenal. “Grab your phone. Have 911 at the ready.”

“Maya…”

My toes creep across the run-down carpet, past the bathroom and the small closet. There’s an iron in there, I think. I can use that if the remote proves useless.

“Hello?” I test, pressing my eye up to the peephole. Blond hair is all I see, the man’s head dipped as he leans against the wall, his back moving up and down with what looks like labored breathing. The remote falls clean out of my hand, thudding against the floor as a gasp sucks into my throat.

“Who is it?” Holland hisses, her eyes wide, maybe a little hopeful even, but I’m too stunned to think straight.

“It’s… it’s my… Cooper.”

She blinks fast, then her mouth splits into a grin. “Answer it.”

“What?”

She chucks a pillow at me, and it somewhat jerks me out of my shock. “Open the door.”

My fingers pull at the handle, but the door only gets about an inch open as the chain catches it.

“Oh!” I squeal and slam the door closed to fix it and by the time I actually get it open, my face is a ripe tomato.

Cooper’s eyes meet mine, his hand slowly dropping from its place on the wall.

We don’t say anything for a good ten seconds.

“How…” I start. “How did you know I was—?”

“I can’t,” he says on an exhale. “I can’t do it, Maya. I can’t be without you.”

My heart stutters in my chest. “Cooper…”

“No,” he says. He stands to his full height. “I’m not going to let you talk me out of it. I’m not going to let you push me away this time.”

I shake my head. “Nothing’s changed.”

“Yes,” he argues, stepping into me, stepping inside and allowing me to shut the door behind him. “Ihave. I’ve changed and I want whatever you want because I wantyou.” His fingers grasp mine, his skin warm and rough and so familiar, like I’ve come home after a long day at work. “I want these hands, these arms, this smile, this heart. All of these, everything that makes up the person you are. That’s where my family is.”

I lose my breath… gone is it from my lungs, and my brain is somewhere in a cloud and my feet are somehow still keeping me upright. Why does he have to make it so hard? Why does he have to be the man who wears his heart there on his sleeve, profess his love only for me to have to reject him yet again.

But his eyes… they’re saying everything he isn’t—words that I know that will eventually fall off his lips, but they are staying inside at the moment. He really means it. He really believes that he could give up a life with a family for one without.

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