Page 11 of Chasing Elliott
“Okay, Cooper,” she started to say as she rested her hands on my knees. “I want you to tell us how many women you’ve slept with or take a drink.”
I looked at her with furrowed brows, wondering why on earth she wanted to know theanswer to that question. She must have felt my eyes burning a hole into the side of her head because she turned to me and mouthed,later.
“Well,” Cooper began to say slowly, either trying to search his brain for the answer or think on whether or not he should answer. “If we’re being honest, I don’t know for sure. I never cared to keep count.”
His answer shocked me as I turned to him with a slightly cocked brow. I knew that Ihardly knew the guy, but I thought I was always a good judge of character: he didn’t peg me as the kind of guy to sleep around but rather like the type who wanted someone to call his own. Maybe that’s why Benjamin was so protective; if Cooper was finally ready to put that part ofhimself in the past and I wasn’t, I would only drag him down with me.
“Alright, Ben,” Cooper said as he turned to his best friend before his eyes drifted over to Kara for a moment. “I’m going to give you the most basic task I can think of. Kiss Kara or take adrink.”
“This is giving me flashbacks to middle school,” I mumbled as a chuckle ripped through me.
Benjamin wasted no time in climbing off his seat and walking over to us, stopping in front of Kara. I swung my legs off her lap and moved to sit on a different log when he held ahand toward her and she took it, using his help to guide her up to her feet.
“We don’t have to,” Benjamin whispered as he stared down at Kara. She smiled and tilted her head back in response and his smile grew wider. He bent down and captured her lips in his, embracing in a slow, sensual kiss.
Their kiss started to grow a little more passionate which resulted in me coughing loudly to try and break them up. Instead, Kara somehow managed to kick my shin, all the while never breaking away from Benjamin. Laughing loudly, I got up and walked around the fire, sitting where Benjamin previously had next to Cooper.
“My bad,” Cooper said with a low, throaty chuckle. “I didn’t realize that would open acan of worms.”
I shook my head and laughed along, trying not to watch as Benjamin and Kara continued to make out. Turning to the left, I focused on the moon bouncing off the water which sent a senseof calm over me, a lazy smile coming to my lips.
“Hey, want to maybe go for a walk?” Cooper suddenly asked, snapping me out of my trance.
I nodded and smiled at him, pushing myself up and walking over to where my jeans sat. Throwing them back on now that I was completely dry, ignoring the sand that was still stuck to me, I grabbed my shoes and realized that Cooper did the same, but he didn’t bother to button up his shirt.
We walked down the beach along the water in silence, the light of the bonfiredisappearing until we were just illuminated by the moon’s reflection. Squinting into the distance, I noticed a free-standing hammock and a smile instantly came to my face as I ran over to it, leaving Cooper behind.
I quickly climbed up and released a content sigh as I sunk in, feeling extremely comfortable. I heard a laugh and looked up to see Cooper smiling down at me, a twinkle in his eye.
“I see how it is,” he teased as he made a move to sit down on the sand. I quickly sat up and moved over, motioning to the empty spot beside me.
“You can lay here,” I told him with a shy smile as I fell back. “I promise I won’t bite. Unless you ask me to, of course.”
Cooper chuckled as he slipped in beside me and laid down, our shoulders pressed up against one another. I hummed quietly as I stared up at the stars littering the sky when he finally broke the comfortable silence that had engulfed us.
“So, Elliott, tell me something that no one knows about you.” He paused for a moment before a laugh escaped him which caused my eyes to trail overto his face. “I mean, besides Karaof course, since there’s no doubt in my mind that girl knows everything there is to know about you.”
I chuckled and nodded, confirming his statement. At this point, I think I would actually be disappointed if she couldn’t answer any question about me accurately. “Okay, but don’t makefun of me.”
“Never,” he responded as he made a motion of crossing his heart.
“I have a secret obsession with eighties movies.”
Cooper turned his head so he could look at me and I felt a blush raise to my cheeks as I avoided eye contact. “Like, good eighties movies at least, right?”
“PlayWhamoutside my window and you got me, baby.” I laughed as a smile graced my face. “I also seem to have a soft spot for movies with singing and dancing in them, believe it or not.”
“LikeGrease?” He asked in disbelief, and I tilted my head slightly to see him looking at me with a surprised expression, but he was biting his lip to hide a smile.
I smiled coyly as I raised a teasing brow in his direction. “Didn’t realize you would even know what that movie was.”
“And why’s that?” Cooper pondered, rolling on his side. The motion caused me to slide slightly into him, the hammock reshaping with the movement of his weight.
“Cause you’re a guy,” I told him with a laugh that caused one of his own to fill the air between us. “But yes. AndFootloose,Dirty Dancing, shit like that.”
Cooper continued to laugh softly as he shook his head, flipping back over so he could look up at the sky. I moved over slightly, not wanting to be trapped under his arm, as I mimicked his posture to stare up at the moon. I heard him sigh but I didn’t say anything until he finally spoke.
“You’re amazing,” he whispered so softly that I almost didn’t hear him. I turned to look at him in shock, my eyebrows raising slightly with the emotion. I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth, and I watched as he looked at me in curiosity.
