Page 4 of After All This Time (A Time For Love #2)

Cooper

L iam yelps as I kick his shin.

“Fuck!” he exclaims, shooting up from my bed where he’d been lounging, to grab onto his leg. “Why the hell did you do that for?!”

He’s rubbing the muscle and I bite my cheek in order not to crack up at the expression on his face.

“I called your name three times,” I shrug. “I had to take extreme measures.”

Liam grunts as he rolls once more onto his back next to me.

“So, your solution was to kick me? What’s next? Smothering me with your pillow?”

I turn on my side and scoot closer, nudging him on his ribs where I know he’s ticklish.

He yelps for a second time in as many minutes, and this time I can’t help the chuckle that escapes me.

“It’s not my fault, Li,” I mutter as my head plops down on his shoulder.

It’s the middle of the afternoon and we’re hanging out in my room, sprawled on my bed after playing on my PlayStation for the past hour. My window is open but all it has been letting in is a breeze rife with humidity.

“I was talking to you and you weren’t paying attention. You really left me no choice.” He turns to look at me, his sandy-blonde hair falling haphazardly on his forehead, his mossy green eyes taking in my wide-eyed, extremely innocent gaze, and he snorts, right into my face.

“You’re unbelievable, I swear.”

“Thanks,” I beam.

“You wanna tell me now what was so important to warrant a bruise on my leg?”

He hasn’t dislodged me off his shoulder, so his breath fans my face.

“It was very important, I’ll have you know. Summer is just wasting away and we’re not doing anything about it. Before we know it, it will be September again and we’ll be gone.”

I can’t help the pang in my chest at the thought.

“Summer is not wasting away, we’re relaxing before we have to actually start taking things seriously,” he grumbles.

“You mean, when you will be off to become a hotshot sports physiotherapist?” I ask, letting out a forced chuckle that hopefully convinces him. I would hate to bum him out just because our career paths are about to split us apart for the first time in more than a decade.

His gaze is unwavering on my face, and for a moment I think he can tell what’s going through my mind. But then he breaks into a warm smile and jiggles my head on his shoulder, which immediately makes me grin.

“Well, a hotshot physiotherapist will need a hotshot business owner as a best friend, don’t you think?”

I can’t help but smile at the sincerity of his words and the belief he has in me, even as a whole bag of mixed feelings rattles inside me.

Yes, it’s always been my dream to open a business of my own, though I’m still figuring out what that would look like.

And yes, I really want Liam to achieve all his goals.

It’s just that there is always this small part of me that wishes there was a way we didn’t have to move away from each other to do all this.

I shake my head, trying to make these thoughts disappear. I don’t want to spoil the time we still have together.

“Okay fine. We can relax before we’re too busy becoming hotshots, but I want us to do something, you know?” I pull myself up on my forearm, looking him straight in the eye. “It’s our last summer together. Don’t you care about that?”

Am I the only one who hates the very thought of our impending future?

His eyes grow hard and his jaw seems to clench.

I frown at it. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s angry. But Liam is hardly ever angry. He’s always been controlled, calm, and laid-back.

His expression melts into something relaxed I’m familiar with and I’m sure I imagined the previous tension.

He clasps my nape with his hand and pulls me down back on his shoulder. A small sigh escapes me at the familiar touch. Physical touch in general, has always been something I love. It settles me.

“Of course I care about it, Coop. All I meant was that I don’t mind if all we do is what we’ve been doing. I’m happy either way.” He trails off, like he was going to say more but then stopped.

“Are you saying you’re happy to go along with anything I come up with?” I smile evilly up at him.

“God, no. I’ve learned my lesson the hard way. You need to be kept on a leash.”

My jaw falls open and I gasp in outrage. I use my hand to turn his head fully towards me.

“I can’t believe you would say that.”

His green irises look like the innermost part of a forest from this close. We’re locked in a stare-down for a few seconds before he breaks first, chuckling softly and gently pulling his arm and shoulder from under my head, rising to sit cross-legged.

I lie back down on my back, with my hands behind my head.

“I can’t help if it’s true, Coop,” he grins, flicking my calf. Hard.

“Ouch! Is that payback?”

He shrugs, still grinning. “You were wide open, man.”

“You’re so mean to me. And here I was, preparing to suggest something cool.”

“Oh?” he raises one eyebrow, looking part-intrigued, part-terrified.

“Yeah, but if you’re gonna be mean, I won’t.”

“Okay, that’s fine.”

I jack-knife to a sitting position so fast I get slightly dizzy.

“What is wrong with you? Why aren’t you more interested?”

He’s already laughing before I even finish my question.

“I’m sorry, I’m all ears I swear.” He would sound more convincing if there weren’t tears in his eyes.

“Fine,” I pout. “I was thinking we could go on some sort of trip maybe. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or too complicated.

We could even try camping, or head down to the coast.” Excitement starts to ooze from my words, and as much as I would like to hold onto my pout it’s impossible.

I can feel my face already splitting into a smile.

“Think about it, we can take the car, pack it up with everything we’re going to need and just ride off to an adventure.

It doesn’t even have to be too long, a few days, a week tops,” I finish.

Liam says nothing for a few moments and I can feel my smile starting to slip. I’m on the verge of fidgeting when he aims one of his own, familiar, soft smiles at me and I know that he’s going to agree before he even says anything.

“That is so awesome! Oh, we’re gonna have so much fun!”

He chuckles at my enthusiasm, shaking his head at my behavior. But his eyes are sparkling in the afternoon sun that is slowly dying outside my window, so I know that on some level, he’s excited too. He’s just better at hiding it.

“On one condition,” he says, my runaway thoughts screeching to a halt.

“Whaat?” I whine.

“We have to do at least some planning because I can guarantee you that ending up stranded and helpless somewhere won’t be fun at all.”

“Well, duh. I’m not that wild.”

Liam’s blank look speaks volumes.

“Oh, shut up.”