Page 39 of Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls #1)

I’m eating dinner with Sloane, Mom, and Aunt Naomi when Cooper texts.

Summer Cooper: Can you come over?

Me: now?

Summer Cooper: Or whenever.

Me: Depends. Are you going to sit me down to give me bad news?

Summer Cooper : Just come over, Mitchell.

I sigh, and all three women look at me.

“It’s the moment of truth,” I announce, setting my phone on the table.

I told them everything on our way home from the corn maze.

I hadn’t been planning on it, but I was freaking out.

So we stopped by the root beer stand, cranked the heat in the car, and drank floats while I rehashed the last two months.

Afterward, Mom and Aunt Naomi brought every blanket they could find down to the living room and the four of us had an old-fashioned slumber party, rewatching Practical Magic while we waited for Cooper’s text that never came.

Mom takes a deep breath. “Okay, go. Be back by ten. Text if you need me to come get you.”

“Good luck, honey,” Aunt Naomi says.

“If he tries to tell you Jake is more important, tell him to remember that I know how to get rid of a body,” Sloane says.

I grab a jacket and head a few blocks over to Cooper’s house. I’m about to knock on the front door when the garage door opens.

Cooper walks out and spots me. We stand there staring at each other for a moment.

“Did you talk to Jake?” I ask, like I’m tearing off a Band-Aid.

“Yeah.” He gestures to the garage. “Come.”

I huff out a breath. Not knowing where things stand between us is killing me. He grabs a bag that was sitting in the driveway, and I follow him into the garage, where his truck is parked.

He hits a button on the wall, and the garage door lowers. As soon as it’s closed, Cooper strides over, lifts my chin between his thumb and forefinger, and kisses me.

“We’ve only kissed in the dark wilderness,” he says. “I had to fix that.”

I look at him through my lashes. “No complaints here.”

He grins at me, but it’s hard to reciprocate when I don’t know what’s going on.

“Does this mean things are okay with Jake?” I ask.

He sighs. “They’re as good as can be expected, I think.” I wilt. “ But I think we’ll be okay. Eventually.”

“What’d he say?” I ask.

“Just that I should have told him I liked you, which… he’s not wrong.” He runs his hand through his hair, leaving it disheveled. “And that I should have told him when I was even considering acting on how I was feeling, which, again, he’s not wrong. I messed up.”

“It was a complicated situation.”

“All I had to do was be honest. That part wasn’t complicated.” He turns and leans against his truck. “But since you apparently had a talk with him already, it helped that he knew who you were to me years ago.”

“So… what about us?” I ask.

He draws his eyebrows together. “What about us?”

I look at the floor. “I don’t know. I mean, Jake was a big concern of yours from the start. If he’s upset…”

Cooper pushes off the truck and stands in front of me. He tucks my hair behind my ear, then gently lifts my chin so I’m looking at him. “I already told you I’m not letting you leave without trying to see what this could be.”

“Okay, but—”

He puts his finger over my lips. “Stop. Jake will be fine. Jake and I will be fine.”

I nod, and he moves his finger. “Now, I told you to come over for a reason.”

“A reason other than ending my panic attack?”

“Yes.” He points to plastic bags lining the wall. “I went to the store today and bought, well, everything.”

“For…?”

“For the parade. We’re transforming the truck, right?”

“Oh. Yeah. Okay.”

“But I have no idea what I’m doing,” he says.

I walk over to the bags and start pulling stuff out, checking what he bought.

“All right, well, I’ve never made a float, but I do like designing fun stuff,” I say.

“Exactly. I need that creative eye of yours.”

“I think our best bet is going to be to wrap the whole truck in this green floral sheeting,” I say, picking up a package from the floor. “So, let’s do that—then we can wrap the foil fringe and vinyl twist around the bottom of the frame.”

Cooper stares at me. “You lost me at ‘floral sheeting.’?”

I roll my eyes and grin at his befuddled expression. “Okay, you just stand there and hand me the tools.”

“And look pretty?”

“Exactly.”

I tear open the sheeting. “Typically, I’d say we should use a staple gun to secure this, but that won’t work on metal. Do you have any heavy-duty double-sided tape maybe?”

“I didn’t buy any, but we might have some in the house. Be right back.”

Cooper runs in to get the tape, and I lay out the silver fringe around the truck.

When he comes out with a new roll, we get the truck wrapped in the floral sheeting.

Then we wrap the base of the truck in the silver foil fringe.

Once we finish, the truck is well on its way to being transformed into a parade float.

“Now what?” Cooper asks.

“I’m not sure. I’d love to make it whimsical and fun, but…” I gasp, my eyes widening with an idea. “Oh snap. I got it.” I start tearing the fringe off the truck.

“What are you doing?” he asks. “We literally just finished that.”

“Get the brown foil fringe from over there instead.”

“Yes, boss,” he says, but he looks skeptical.

We get the brown fringe on instead. Then we stand back.

“Okay,” I say, waving my hands at the truck, “The brown is the dirt path, the green is the grass, where—drumroll, please—” Cooper grins and shakes his head but indulges me, drumming his hands on his thighs—“the gingerbread house sits, covered in baked goods. Oversized, fake, giant ones, of course.”

“What?” Cooper chortles. “You want us to build a gingerbread house?”

“Yes! Well, something like one. We’ll use painted foam blocks to build it.

We’ll get Sloane and Asher to help us make the giant desserts to stick on it.

And then,” I say, grinning, “you’ll be standing in your cookie costume behind the house, passing out your cookies, and Jake will dress like a witch, driving you around.

I mean, assuming things are okay by then. ”

Cooper laughs. “Okay, I’m sold. But even if we’re good, you know Jake is going to say he’s too good-looking to dress like a witch. I can hear him now….” He does his best Jake impression when he says, “It’ll scare off the ladies, man!”

He’s so right. “Fine. I’ll get Sloane to do it for us. It’ll be so fun,” I say. “But it is going to be a lot of work to finish in the next two weeks.”

Cooper shrugs. “I think we can do it. We’ll just meet here every day after school.”

“Except Wednesday because you work.”

An amused smile spreads over his face. “Why do you know that?”

I shrug. “Details.”

Cooper steps toward me. “I keep wondering if this is real life.”

I take the final step toward him and wrap my arms around his neck. “Same, though.”

He leans down and presses his lips to mine, but before we can get too swept away in each other, I back away.

“Can I ask you a question?” I ask.

“Anything.”

My cheeks heat before the words are even out of my mouth. “Are you, um… are you my boyfriend?”

He raises his eyebrows, then a slow, crooked grin forms. “Do you want me to be?”

“Depends. Now that the thrill of the chase is over, are you going to stop showing up places with cookies for me?”

“Um, the chase was not thrilling. Like I said, it was torture not being with you. And you told me I wasn’t allowed to bring you cookies anymore. Or make you bacon.”

“That was before. I want all the cookies and bacon now,” I tell him.

“Okay. Then consider all the cookies and bacon yours.” He rests his forehead against mine and smiles. “And consider me your boyfriend.”

My face feels like it might split in half, I’m smiling so hard. “Okay. Good.”

He leans in to kiss me.

“Cooper?” his mom calls from inside.

He pauses and makes a sound somewhere between a groan and a whine. “Doesn’t she know I’m just trying to kiss my girlfriend?”

I laugh. “I should probably go anyway.”

The door behind Cooper swings open, and I take a step away from him. His mom grins knowingly at us.

“Sorry,” she says. “I was just making sure you were alive out here.”

“Alive and well, Mom,” Cooper says. “I’m going to walk Ellis home, though.”

“Good to see you again, Amanda,” I say.

“You too, Ellis. Can’t wait to see more of you around here,” she says with a wink before retreating back inside.

“I take it you told your mom?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Yeah. My mom’s my first best friend. I tell her pretty much everything.”

Oh my god. And I thought I couldn’t possibly like him more than I already did.

“What?” he asks, confused, making me realize I’m staring at him.

“Nothing. I just think you’re the best thing to ever happen to me, Cooper Barnett.”

“Likewise, Mitchell.”

I press up on my toes and kiss him.

When we finally tear ourselves apart ten minutes later, drunk on gooey feelings and the newness of us , Cooper takes my hand in his and holds it the whole walk to Aunt Naomi’s.

I know it’s too early for the L-word, and yet it’s there, bursting from the seams, begging to be spoken. And as Cooper kisses me good night at the door, I bury the word in the depths of my stomach with the kaleidoscope of butterflies he gives me.

And I leave it there for the exact right moment, maybe after he’s been my boyfriend for longer than two hours.