Page 6 of I’m Fine Save Me (The Spiral Duet #1)

Chapter three

Tegan

Five Months Later

F ive months of newlywed bliss. Cooper spent every minute of every night of our honeymoon making sure I was satisfied.

He doesn’t always hit the mark, but I know real life can’t be like the relationships in my favorite books.

Those are called fiction for a reason, and I’m a realist. At least I’ve always considered myself such.

Tonight, we’re going out to the bar with some friends for my birthday. With my birthday falling on a weekday, Cooper wanted to take me out so I could get officially carded. “Coop, I’ve been drinking well before the legal age.” I laugh at him even though we’re already on our way.

“Yea, but it’s some right of passage that you have to go out and get carded once you’re legal.

It’s a thing.” He pauses for a minute, his hand holding mine around the gear shift of his truck.

His thumb taps against my knuckles like he’s thinking to the beat of the music that’s playing at a low volume.

“At least I think it’s a thing. We’re making it a thing either way,” he says, coming to his final decision on the matter, making me chuckle.

We arrive at a local spot off the beaten path that has a Jimmy Buffet tribute feel to it.

We’ve come here to hang out with friends several times before.

I’ve just always been the DD while Cooper orders a couple of drinks.

We play pool and listen to cover bands play.

Sometimes familiar faces show up and join our table.

Tonight my college roommate, Ada, and her sister, Dana, are coming, but she told me her little sister is planning on meeting with someone she isn’t dating but is ‘talking’ to.

Whatever that means.

I didn’t get carded at all and Cooper got asked for his ID at the door to ask if he was even old enough to be let in. Baby faced asshole that he is doesn’t look a day over eighteen on his worst day even though he’s almost three years older than me.

We’re sitting at a hightop near the pool tables, but still close enough to see the band getting everything ready for their set tonight.

I’m sipping my strawberry margarita while Cooper and Ada catch up.

He hasn’t seen her much since we transferred out of Wesleyan to go to tech school and commute.

It was just easier on our wallets. After my Papa passed away, Mom and Wayne got divorced; and I wanted to be there to help her with anything she or my sisters needed.

Once the two of them get to talking about Ada’s little sister Dana, Cooper gets that look on his face.

The look that means he’s got some evil plan to make me and everyone else laugh. One of his goals in life is to get a rise out of absolutely everyone and their mama.

Another goal is to one up every prank done on him, except instead of one up, it’s more like ten up. Unfortunately, Dana forgot that little detail about my husband while decorating for our wedding reception five months ago.

She waited until Cooper was distracted with the sound system set up, and walked up behind him to smack his ass hard .

Then, as if that wasn’t enough, she made sure to give him a good grope.

I’m talking a full ten finger flex, and told him how nice his ass was.

She’d all but sang, “ Damn, Tegs wasn’t lying! It’s a nice taut hand full!”

All the while, I was helping my mom to finish icing the wedding cake and laughing at just how freaked out Cooper was at the whole thing.

“Oh my god! That hurt! Shit, did Tegan see? She’s gonna—” then he’d seen me laughing right along with Dana and everyone else.

I’m sipping my second margarita when he steps up beside me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He presses his lips against my ear so I can hear him over the music, but no one else can hear what he’s saying.

“Ada says Dana will be here in just a minute. The last time we were all together, you remember how she smacked my ass and made me fucking panic?”

I nod and giggle at the memory. Coop had completely freaked out thinking I was going to be jealous or mad at him for someone literally grab-assing him. When he saw me laughing so hard I could hardly breathe, he realized the joke was on him and I was thoroughly amused.

“Well, I want to just lay a big ass kiss on her lips when she walks in and see how much she freaks out. Will you be mad?” I’ve told him before that I’m not the jealous type, that I’d be open to dating other people as long as we talk it out and agree.

So a kiss is nothing. Plus, part of me thinks Dana will call him on it being bullshit and turn the joke around on him.

“If she punches you, I won’t defend you.” I tell him and take another sip of my drink while grinning at him.

“She won’t punch me.” He almost sounds like he believes himself. It’s adorable.

“Okay.” My smile grows wider when I hear Ada tell us that Dana is coming from the parking lot. “Pretty sure she’ll punch you in the dick.”

“Now you’re just being mean.” Coop plants a kiss on my lips and smiles deviously before rounding the table to go meet Dana at the door.

I have a front row seat to her crying out in excitement to see him. “Cooper! You’re here! Where’s Tegan?” her arms are wide open as she goes to embrace him.

Cooper grabs her, placing a hand on each side of her face before pulling her in to plant a big wet one on her lips then pulls back with a dramatic “Muah!”

Dana’s reaction is not at all what I thought it would be.

She goes from amused to sheer panic in less than a nanosecond.

Her bright green eyes are wide and darting all over the bar to find me before her panic increases.

“Tegs! Did you see that!? That was all him. I had nothing to do with it. Tegs! I didn’t… that was all Cooper!”

I nearly fall off my barstool. I'm laughing so hard. I’m trying to wave at her to tell her it’s okay, that I saw it, that she’s okay…

but the words cannot push past the laughter that’s stealing my breath.

It is one of those laughs that makes you feel like it’s going to be the one to kill you if your body doesn’t remember how to breathe soon.

Finally– finally I’m able to take in a gulp of air, then another, and another. “Dana… I know… I saw.” Fuck it’s hard to breathe and laugh.

Tears are slipping free from the corners of my eyes and I know I’m ugly laughing right now.

“It’s okay. It’s fine. It's fine . He said— fuck I can’t—” I take in another desperate breath to feel my aching lungs.

“You will learn not to grab his ass next time.” When I finally get that out, she turns on Cooper and starts swatting at him with her clutch purse.

“Ow!” Thwack. “Hey!” Smack. “Violent!” Swat.

Ada leans over to me while I’m watching Dana beat my husband with a wallet sized purse. “You gonna help him?” Her tone is just as amused as I feel.

“Not even a little bit.” I smile and bump my shoulder against hers before we both tap our glasses together and take a nice long drink.

“I’m gonna dance.” I take her hand and pull her out onto the dance floor while the bump and grind stuff is playing.

Since we’re still waiting for show time from the cover band, we might as well have some fun.

I lose count of how many songs we dance to before the lead singer steps up to the mic to introduce their little crew. A familiar body slides up behind me, hands resting on my hips. His lips press softly to my temple, but he’s paying attention to the drummer as he warms up.

Coop has always loved playing any instrument he could get his hands on, but drums were where his soul settled.

I’ve seen him get lost in guitar, piano, tambourine, and even a xylophone; but there’s nothing like watching him on the drums. Music speaks to his soul and there’s rarely a time when there’s music that he’s not using something like straws, pens, or chopsticks to tap out the beat he’s hearing.

He loves live bands, which is usually what gets him to come out with me to places like this.

“She forgive you?” I ask with a smirk over my shoulder.

“I’m pretty sure I have the Coach logo imprinted on several places of my body. She’s dangerous with that thing,” he laughs against my ear. “But yea. She introduced me to Brent when he got here. Seems like a douche, but she’ll learn that in time.”

I nod and lean back into him as a tall, dark haired guy in a beanie cap steps up to the mic.

“We’re gonna start it off slow for you folks tonight,” the lead singer promises before the drummer beats out the count on his drumsticks.

Soon they’re sliding into a smooth rendition of Tennessee Whiskey by George Jones, but the beat is a little different.

I can already tell that Cooper isn’t familiar with the song. Country music was never in his wheelhouse, but this group makes it sound less country and more slow rock. With a smile on my face, I turn in his arms and drape my arms over his shoulders. Instantly he smiles.

We don’t dance together often. The last time we danced together was on our wedding night in our living room.

One of my hands slides up to the back of his neck, and I rest my temple against his so he can hear me softly murmuring the lyrics.

I can’t sing to save my life and he makes sure that I know that when I try, so I’m not trying.

I’m just reciting the lyrics so he can hear the words and not just feel the music.

He’s swaying with me while tapping the drum beat with his fingers against my hips while he hums the harmony to my spoken lyrics. I can feel the lift of his cheek telling me he’s smiling to match my own while the song goes on. It’s not our song, but it works.

It’s relaxing and the band puts just enough of their own flair on it that it’s far enough away from country to make Cooper avoid cringing.

I just enjoy the moment of being in his arms with us both completely relaxed.

I have a couple of drinks in me, and he has music.

The final course plays and the song fades out with the band rolling into a more upbeat song that gets the crowd riled up.

A typical dive bar hit but I grin when those first chords play and Cooper shakes his head at me.

“Tegs… don’t…” but he’s grinning because he knows I’m about to make a fool of myself.

My hips sway and the band doesn’t even try to make Hank Williams Jr.’s Keep Your Hands To Yourself sound anything less than country.

He stays on the dance floor with me while I dance like an idiot and sing the words to him.

It’s loud enough on the dancefloor that no one can hear me over the music, but my husband is smiling at my antics, which is totally worth the looks I’m getting. They can all blame it on me being drunk even though I’m not.

I don’t really care.

The same smile he gave me when my engagement ring was delivered on top of a piece of chocolate cake I never ordered. The same smile he gave me when I made it down the aisle as his bride.

That smile? I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make that appear.