Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Cheers to that.”
I took a healthy swig from my glass, swirling it as I set it down. I reached for a warm piece of bread as Colton sorted out his thoughts.
“Where should I even start? My family’s complicated, like most of them. We’ve had some major blowouts, but we’ve also had some of the best moments of my life together. Like when my sister Jen came out as trans at our Christmas party and everyone rushed to the tree to throw out the old gift labels and replace them with her new name. Or the time me and all—well, most—of my siblings went on a family trip to Bali. It was wild and spiritual and so fucking fun. My family has moments like those that give me a lot of pride to be a Cooper.
“But there’s also a lot of skeletons in the Cooper closet. My brother’s drug addiction and gambling problem nearly tore us all apart, and that’s only scratching the surface, really.”
“This is Archie?” I asked, recalling his brother’s name from all those nights we had stayed up talking. He was having issues even back then. Colton had been so worried about him he couldn’t sleep one night, not until he got the call that his brother was at home and okay.
“Yup,” he said. “He’s turned everything around, though. Dropped the drugs and the gambling. He picked up coding. Now he’s got a steady and really well-paying job with a wife who seems to really love him, so I’m happy for him.”
I set a little mental sticky note next to Archie. I’d have to look into him a little deeper.
“Speaking of relationships, do you think anyone is going to question if you show up with a new guy to the South of France?”
Colton shook his head and waved off my concern. “My family is pretty nosy and interconnected, but I’ve been keeping to myself lately, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if I showed up with a guy. We’ll say we’ve been together for two months. That sound okay?”
I nodded, taking a bite of the buttery bread, following it with a sip of my red wine before a counterthought hit me. “Although, I wonder if two months is a little too soon to be taking me on a family trip? That might seem fishy.”
“Hmm, you’re right. Let’s settle on six months, then. That’s half a year. I’ve done crazier things.”
“I feel like we’re haggling here. Two months, no four, alright six, and we’ve got a deal.”
Colton chuckled, his lips curling into a smile as he drank his bright pink concoction. “Okay, so six months. And where’d we meet?” he asked.
“Let’s keep it simple: online.”
Colton cocked his head. “I think we can get a little more creative than that.”
“Listen, the more creative we get, the more chances we have at messing up. We want everyone on this trip to feel completely at ease, with as little of their guards up as possible. No one can suspect something’s up with me being there, so our story has to stay consistent.”
“Okay, okay. Online it is. But Tinder, not Grindr. We have to class it up a bit.”
I scrunched my brows at that. “There’s plenty of strong relationships that come out of Grindr. My last long-term relationship was from there.”
“And where are they now?”
I went to debate Colton but realized it was a moot point. He shot me that casual wink of his that instantly lit my core on fire. “I’m joking,” he said. “I know Grindr is more than just anonymous cruising, but still, my experiences haven’t been all that great. Like, there was this one time—nah, forget it.”
“What? What were you about to say? I think fake boyfriends need to know everything about each other, even hookup nightmare stories.”
Colton laughed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I showed up and he was wearing a furry suit, which, fine, I’m not yucking anyone’s yum, but he gave me no heads-up—or paws up? Whatever, you get what I mean.”
The conversation veered off track after that as we discussed our worst Grindr hookups, commiserating over some wild experiences and enjoying our time together, this fake date feeling awfully real by the end of it.
10
COLTON COOPER
God damn it.
This was a date.
Realization dawned on me sometime between my fourth and fifth Juniper Junebug drink. Those damn pink love potions were doing a number on my inhibitions, and I found myself leaning forward and staring wistfully into Eric’s eyes on one too many occasions. He had a way of wrapping me into his storytelling that was effortless. It didn’t hurt that the man was a walking Renaissance painting. All bold lines and color and raw emotion. I could look at him for hours and still keep finding something new to appreciate about him.
And then I remembered the heartbreak I’d just been through, along with the heartbreak the man sitting across from me had put me through, and my walls instinctively shot back up. I couldn’t let myself catch feelings all over again. I wasn’t ready for that yet, and besides, there was plenty of other fish in the sea that didn’t have the title of “original heartbreaker” next to their name.