Page 8 of Cooper & Jake (Gomillion High Reunion #2)

COOPER

Last night was like a dream. I never expected to see Jake again, let alone spend the evening with him.

When I got back to my hotel room, I quickly showered and spent a god-awful amount of time lying in the bed thinking of him.

My mind kept replaying all the small interactions we had that night, as well as the deeper conversations.

There’s still so much I want to know about him.

I want him to fill in all the gaps from the past twenty years.

I slide into one side of the black booth while Jake slides into the other. Our server, Sonny, comes up to take our order. I ask for tea and pancakes while Jake asks for a cup of coffee and eggs with bacon.

“Tea? Why tea? You used to drink coffee before.”

“Once I started consuming it daily, it made me really jittery, so I stopped drinking it. I was switched onto tea, and I’ve been addicted to it ever since.”

“Ew.” He wrinkles his nose and it’s the cutest thing I’ve seen. “I only drink tea when I’m sick. Tea and honey, that’s it.”

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” I tell him, giving him a soft smile.

“So, I gotta be completely honest with you. The next time you see Peyton, he will one hundred percent attempt to talk about what happened between us last night. You don’t have to say anything to him, but just know he is pushy.”

“That’s okay. Taylor will be the same way—guaranteed. She’s already texted me a million times this morning. I know that as soon as I get back to the hotel, she’ll be in my room.

“So, apparently, our best friends are the same person.”

“Apparently,” I chuckle.

Jake smiles at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling. This is exactly what I was hoping for when I drove down here for the reunion. For a chance to hangout and talk with Jake. To become his friend again. Maybe even to be in one another’s lives once more.

“Okay, tell me more about you,” I say, taking a sip of my tea, forgetting to blow on it because I’m too preoccupied with staring at Jake. My body jumps when it burns my tongue. “Shit, shit, ow,” I whine, opening my mouth wide as though that will help the burn stop.

“Are you okay?” Jake asks, reaching his arm across the table to grab my hand.

“I’m okay. Embarrassed but okay.”

“Maybe next time you should blow on it,” he snickers, moving my cup away from me. “Do you want me to get you some ice? A cold drink? Anything?”

“No, I’ll be okay.” Taking a deep breath, I shake out my body, the pain on my tongue slowly ebbing away. “Okay, let’s try that again. Tell me more about Jake nowadays. Do you have any pets?”

“I do, actually. A border collie named Bailey. She’s adorable, she has black-and-white fur, and she’s rowdy as hell. Keeps me on my toes and always needs to go to the bathroom at four in the morning. What about you? Do you have any pets?”

“I have a tuxedo cat. He’s feisty as can be, but he’s also very cuddly.

Loves to take over my bed any chance he gets.

Do you only have the one dog?” I ask, loving that Jake has a pet of his own.

He always wanted one growing up, but his parents were worried that moving too often with an animal would be hard, so they never got a pet.

“Yeah, for now. I’m thinking of getting another one. There’s this tremendous lot of land in my town that I’m having a house built on, and I know Bailey is going to love it when she’s allowed to run around wildly.”

“Wow! You’re building your own house?”

I am nowhere near that point in my life. Hell, I don’t even think I want to live in Connecticut for the rest of my life. Yeah, I love it there, but it’s never truly felt like home. More of a stopover place that I’m just staying at right now.

“Yeah, I’ve been working on the plans for a few years. I saved up, and once I was finally able, I hired a contractor, and we finally broke ground a while ago. It’ll be done soon, though. Probably in the next couple weeks, actually. Maybe you can stop by and see it once it’s finished?”

I glance up to see he’s looking at me openly and warmly. “I’d love that.” And I really would. Plus, it gives me an excuse to reach out again once the weekend is over.

“Do you have a house?”

I shake my head, and, risking the chance of burning myself again, grab hold of my cup to take another sip. “Nah, I’m still living in an apartment. I’ve never needed anything bigger than that. And it’s allowed me to save for retirement, so that’s been nice as well.”

“What hobbies do you have these days?”

“Don’t laugh, but I recently started playing pickleball. It became like this big trend in our area, so I tried it one day and fell in love. Taylor refuses to play it with me, but sometimes I’ll drag her husband with me to play. Same question: do you have any hobbies?”

“I crochet,” he replies easily.

“You… crochet? Like with the needles and yarn?”

“Well, it’s one hook and yarn, but yeah. I started it a long time ago. Hell, years ago. I began by making a simple blanket, and now I’m crafting sweaters, hats, anything. You name it, I’ll make it.”

“Wow, please say you brought some with you. I’d love to see it.”

“I did, actually. Maybe I can show you after the reunion prom tonight?”

“Yes,” I say a little too excitedly. I’m trying not to get ahead of myself, but I also want to spend every extra moment with Jake that I can.

Sonny drops off our food, and we eat in companionable silence, just enjoying being in one another’s space again.

I see Jake eyeing my pancakes, so I cut off a bite and set it on his plate.

In return, he scoops up some eggs and a piece of bacon and plops them down onto my dish.

We give each other a smile and then dig into the meal again.

It doesn’t take us long to clean our plates, and Jake sneaks off to the bathroom right as we finish.

When he comes out of the restroom, he stops next to me.

“Do you have any plans right now? I thought maybe we could walk down Main Street in the daylight?”

“No plans. Let me pay real quick, and we can go.”

“Oh, I already paid.” My eyes bug out of my head, and Jake chuckles, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the booth. “I might have made a little detour on my way to the bathroom.”

“Thank you,” I tell him, swallowing roughly. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“It was no problem.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“Don’t worry about it, Cooper. Now come on, let’s see what else this tiny town has to offer.”

We spend the next hour walking up and down Main Street before heading over to the school. There’s a tour going on, where they’re showing the alumni, and anyone else who wants to see, the new school. We stay there for a little bit, following the crowd of people strolling around.

“So, uh—how do you feel about arcades?”

“Hmm?” I ask, turning my head to look at Jake. Our arms barely touch, but the spark is still there. It hasn’t diminished at all; if anything, each touch has gotten stronger.

“Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love seeing the school and what’s new about it. But I also don’t care about it as much as I thought I did. So, I might have looked up other things to do here and found a pizza tavern and arcade, if you’re down?”

“Oh god, yes please,” I breathe, my body swaying into his. “I didn’t want to say anything because you seemed so into it, but these are things I can see when we come back tonight.”

“So, arcade?”

I nod my head, bouncing on the balls of my feet. “Let’s do it.”

It doesn’t take us long to get to the arcade, and right away, I can tell I’m going to love this place.

The overhead lights are dim, but there are flashing lights from all the games throughout the room.

On one side, there’s a kitchen with a huge menu displayed on the wall.

Next to the kitchen is a wood-topped bar with a few beer taps on the bar.

“Drink then play or play then drink?” Jake asks, looking around the space.

“How about drink and play?” I counter, walking past him and making my way to the counter. “You get the tokens, I’ll grab two beers,” I toss over my shoulder as I walk away.

After the bartender hands me the beer, I find Jake at the kiosk, a tub in his hand, gathering up the tokens that are shooting out of the machine.

“I might have gotten a few too many tokens. But whatever, it just means we’ll have to play all the games in here.

” The machine finally comes to a stop, and Jake shakes the tub in front of my face. “What should we play first?”

I look around, knowing without a doubt which game I want to play first. “Air hockey!” I exclaim, dashing away to the machine. Jake follows behind me, and I hand him his beer after he puts in a few tokens. “Just so you know, I’ve gotten so damn good at this game. I don’t think you’re gonna beat me.”

“We’ll see about that. Don’t get too cocky, Cooper.”

My brain short-circuits on the word cock, my body getting way too excited when he’s not even talking about his cock or, hell, even mine.

“I am very cock-y,” I tell him, drawing out the word.

Jake’s eyes darken, and he licks his lips, his eyes flicking down to my jeans. “Show me.”

“This isn’t the spot to show you,” I reply huskily, leaning forward against the machine.

“If only we weren’t in a public place,” he says, his eyes darting around us.

“And what would happen if we weren’t?”

Jake shakes his head, coming out of his stupor. “Oh, I see what you’re doing. Trying to get me all riled up, so I play like shit. Nope, not gonna work. Buckle up, Dalton. You’re in for a ride.”

Fuck, I wish he would take me for a ride.

I don’t say that, though. I raise an eyebrow in his direction, then get into my ready stance. “Let’s play.”