Page 6 of Cooper & Jake (Gomillion High Reunion #2)

COOPER

“You’re going where?” Taylor asks after I pull her to the side to tell her I’m leaving with Jake. “Cooper, it’s fucking late and dark as hell out. You are not going up to Yellow Branch Falls.”

“I’ll bring a flashlight.” Her eyes widen, and I quickly rush out, “Fine, I’ll bring two.”

“Cooper,” she hisses. “When I brought you here, I didn’t think you were going to go sneaking off into the dark with the man. Oh my god, what if he kidnaps you or chops up your body and leaves you in the forest?”

“Jesus, Taylor,” I huff. “He’s not going to kill me in the woods.”

“You guys barely talked for like three minutes. I was watching Coop. You said like five words to the man before bouncing over here, telling me you’re leaving with him. And not just leaving with him, but going to the secluded woods.”

“You’re being dramatic. I’ll share my location with you. Would that help?”

“You’re already sharing your location with me, you ass. Here, take this.” She opens the small black bag that’s wrapped around her waist, pulling out her plethora of keychains. She shifts a few before undoing one of the metal pieces.

“Taylor, I don’t need pepper spray.”

“Humor me. I might have planned for us to come here, but it’ll make me feel a little bit more at ease.”

“Fine. Give me the damn pepper spray.” I put my hand out, quickly shoving it into my pocket when she places it in my palm.

“Now, have a blast. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Actually, no, I’m lying. Do a lot and then come tell me in the morning so I can live vicariously through you.”

“It’s not like that,” I mutter.

“Not like what? You’re about to go off into the dark with your ex-boyfriend.

Your sexy-as-hell, thick-as-fuck ex-boyfriend who I bet could make you forget your own damn name.

” Taylor drags on explaining, in detail, just how good she expects Jake can fuck, and my eyes widen when he walks up behind her, hearing every word she’s saying.

“Uh, Taylor?” I try to cut her off, but my best friend is on a roll.

“Those muscles, ugh, I bet he could easily toss someone in the air, maybe shove them up against a wall.”

“Only if they really wanted it,” he cuts in, letting her know he’s heard all of it.

Taylor spins around, her hand flying to her chest. “Damn, I didn’t know you were there.

What I said still stands, though. I’m married, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a little freaky.

My husband loves that side of me.” She winks at Jake, then her face gets serious.

“Don’t make me call the cops on you. I expect him back in his room in the morning. ”

“Yes, ma’am,” he salutes, tossing a wink my way. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah.” We head toward the exit, waving goodbye to Taylor and Peyton, who are staring at us as we leave. “Do you happen to know where we can find some flashlights this late at night?”

“Uh, no. But we’ll figure it out.”

We step out onto the main road, which is illuminated by streetlamps all up and down the road.

Jake pulls out his phone, fist-bumping the air.

“Ah-ha! There’s a hardware store nearby that’s still open.

At least for the next…” He squints at the screen, then jerks his head up at me.

“Ten minutes. And it’s an eight-minute walk, so we need to hustle. ”

“Wait, what?” I ask, my body being pulled roughly as Jake bolts down the street.

“Come on. If you want flashlights, we need to run.” Jake takes off, his hand grabbing hold of mine as we rush down the street.

“Slow down,” I tell him, trying to keep up.

“Put those legs to work, Cooper.” He laughs, turning his head to look at me. Fuck, he’s breathtaking. Even in the dark of night, under the lights of the barely lit street, he’s gorgeous. I’d follow him anywhere, just like fifteen-year-old Cooper.

We hurry down the street, making it to the store with a few minutes to spare.

The doors slide open as we reach the entrance, and Jake runs up to the young person working the register.

“How can I help you?” The cashier is one hundred percent annoyed we just barged in here at the last possible second.

“Flashlights, where are they?”

“Aisle seven,” he replies, not giving us another look.

We locate aisle seven and grab two huge flashlights that will illuminate the entire space around us. We also end up grabbing two shovels, and Jake finds a small blanket we can use to sit on when we’re there. Once we pay for them, we stand on the street while Jake looks left and right.

“So, uh, I didn’t think this through. I don’t have my car,” he chuckles, flipping the flashlight around in his hand. “I left it at the hotel. We walked to the school.”

“I do. Taylor and I drove here. Come on, I’m parked at the school.”

We walk back down the street, toward the school, making small talk about the changes in the different shops we’re passing.

A lot of things have changed since either of us was here, and talking about what we’re seeing is helping make things not turn awkward.

We reach my jeep when Jake chuckles loudly.

“Ah, a red jeep? How did I know you would have a jeep?”

“I’ve never not had a jeep since my first vehicle. Different colors each time, though.”

“You were always obsessed with jeeps.” I unlock the doors, and we slide into the seats when Jake laughs again. “Ah, yes. The signature ducks.”

“Hey, stop hating on both my ducks and my jeep. What do you drive?”

“A Chevy pickup. Pretty much everyone in Cedar Creek owns a pickup truck. It’s kinda hard to drive around on dirt roads in a small car.”

“Tell me more about where you live,” I ask him.

“It’s a small city, a few hours away from Austin.

Sometimes I’ll take the drive to out there just to remember why I don’t want to live in the city.

My parents are still there, as well as my grandparents.

I didn’t expect to go back, but once I finished school, I didn’t know what else to do or where to go. So, I went where my parents were.”

“How is your dad enjoying retirement?” I ask, remembering how excited his parents were when his dad finally decided to retire. He was over being in the military and wanted to live a quiet life with his wife.

“Ah, well, even though he retired from the military right after we graduated, he didn’t fully retire.

Once we moved to Texas, he started working on a ranch with some of his brothers.

My grandpa put him to work right away. He’s finally done now and is enjoying life with Mom.

My sister has given them four grandkids, and my brother gave them three, so they’re content for now.

Doesn’t stop them from asking when I’m giving them some, though. ”

My palms sweat, and I take a second to take a hand off the steering wheel to wipe it on my jeans. “Do you, uh, do you have someone back home?”

“No. I don’t. Do you?”

My heart beats wildly as I glance at him in the dim light of the jeep’s dashboard. “No, I don’t.”

“That’s good,” he murmurs, smiling at me.

We continue the rest of the drive in silence, and in no time, I’m pulling into the parking lot of the hiking trail. We both get out of the jeep and turn on our flashlights.

“Somehow, this seems a lot scarier than it did when we were kids,” I tell him, flashing the light all over the darkened area in front of me.

“That’s because we didn’t care back then. As long as we were together.”

“Well, yes, but still, we were little shitheads if you think about it. Going off into the forest all alone in the middle of the night. And now here I am again. Oh god, I hope there are no animals out here.” My heart speeds up as I continue looking around the dark forest. When we were younger, I didn’t care about what I might run into out here, but now that I’m older and wiser, I’m panicking slightly.

“Chill, Cooper. There’s nothing out here that will hurt you.

And if something pops up, I’ll protect you,” he tells me, turning to face me.

His hands rub up and down my arms, my body slowly relaxing, as he murmurs, “You’re okay.

I’m here. I’ve got you.” My heart rate slows down, almost completely stopping when he whispers, “Good boy.”

Fuck, I love being told I’m a good boy. There’s just something so damn sexy and exhilarating about being praised. And hearing those words coming out of Jake’s sexy mouth? Fuck, that makes me so damn horny.

“Okay, come on. Let’s get to the waterfall,” I tell him, trying not to draw any attention to how turned on I am.

I keep one side of the trail illuminated while Jake does the other side. It shouldn’t take us too long to reach the waterfall, but I’m walking extra slowly, my head constantly looking out into the pitch black, my ears straining from every little sound I hear.

“Okay, so tell me more about you. What are you doing?” Jake asks, cutting through the silence.

“So, I’m a veterinarian, and I started my practice a few years ago.

When I was in school, I was working as a vet tech, which is how I met Taylor.

Once I finished, I opened my place and stole Taylor, so now she works with me.

I love it. Being able to work with different animals.

There are, of course, days when it’s hard as hell, but most days are so rewarding. ”

Jake reaches his arm over, grabbing hold of my hand and squeezing it. “You’ve always loved animals. I’m not surprised you ended up working with them.”

“Yep, predictable Cooper.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that. There’s nothing wrong with knowing your desires and going for it.

Why would you want to do something that didn’t make you happy?

That’s not a life to live. Trust me, I tried the college thing, getting a degree and everything, but in the end, I went back to my family.

To the small town where my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins live.

I own a bar, and I love every minute of it. ”

The sound of rushing water hits my ears, and I run forward. “We’re here,” I say as I leave him behind.

“Wait up,” he chuckles, following after me.

Entering the clearing, I flash my light around the area. Jake grimaces when the light shines in his eyes, and I smile brightly. “Oops. My bad. Okay, so do you remember where exactly we buried it?”

“Yeah. It should be…” he trails off, walking over to the huge boulder that’s by the edge of the water.

“So, we were sitting here when we were stuffing it full of items. We got up and walked over to the largest tree on the left side…so, this one. But then we said, ‘ No, don’t dig it by the biggest tree because that’s where everyone will look ,’ so we did it two trees over. ”

“So right here?” I ask, sticking my shovel into the ground.

“Yeah, let’s dig.”

We start digging up the spot next to the tree when the movie Holes pops into my head. I laugh loudly, remembering how I forced Jake to watch that film over and over. Despite not being a big reader then, the book was a favorite, so I was hooked on the movie version. “‘ I’m tired of this, Grandpa .’”

Jake’s head snaps up, and he grins at me. “‘ Well, that’s too damn bad .’”

“You remember that?”

“You only made us watch it every other weekend,” he jokes. It wasn’t every other weekend, but it was pretty damn close.

We spend the next couple of minutes digging when my shovel finally hits metal.

“I think I got it,” I tell him excitedly.

When I first brought up the water bottle, I thought he would have just been like, ‘ oh, okay, ’ so I was shocked when he suggested we go dig it up.

And now that we’re here, I’m nervous because I honestly don’t remember what I packed away.

Jake gets the water bottle dug up and takes it over to the boulder, where I sit down beside him.

I flash my light onto it, noting how dirty it is.

Which, duh, it’s been underground for twenty years.

“Do you remember when we buried this and why?” he asks, and my heart falls to the floor.

“Yeah,” I answer quietly. “We knew you were leaving the next day, and we didn’t know when we would see each other again, so we came up here for one last night.

We were talking about the future, and you said something about preserving a memory, so we emptied my water bottle and filled it up with an item we had on us. ”

“It feels like so long ago.”

“Twenty years.”

“Well, duh, smartass. But I mean, we’ve both lived so much life since then. We’re completely different people. Hell, I have so many damn wrinkles and my hair is graying,” he tells me, running his fingers through his hair.

Reaching over, I grab a lock, twirling it around my fingertips. “It makes you look sophisticated. Which is a nice way of saying old.”

Jake drops the water bottle and lunges toward me, tickling my side. “You’re the same age, old man.”

“Tonight is making me feel young,” I say, still laughing when he finally lets me go.

“Same. Now let’s see what we’ve got stored in here.”