Page 17 of You Can Make Me

He huffed out a breath. This was the most we’d talked since coming to this place. I hung on his every word.

“I don’t…I don’t feel likeIsurvived.Me. Cooper Harris. I don’t feel like myself anymore. I sure as hell don’tlooklike Cooper Harris.”

I pushed up onto my knees so I was closer to his face.

“You look like the Cooper Harris who made it through a brutal attack, a harrowing ordeal. You look like a damn fighter to me.”

His lip quivered, and he sniffled.

“I wish I could see what you do.” The breath that left him was so harsh, my chest tightened.

“I do too.”

He looked at me, and I took a chance. I pressed our foreheads together, and he leaned into me, blowing out a long breath. I brought up a wet hand to cup his jaw, and he let out a sob.

“Baby,” I murmured, and pulled him into an embrace, to hell with giving him space.

His body spasmed from the force of his cries, and he didn’t try to smother them, like the previous times when I’d heard muffled sounds from his room. I’d wanted to bust in and hold him just like this.

“I don’t know how to live like this, Den. I can’t think. I can’t feel. I’m awful to you. I can’t do this anymore!”

I slid my arms under his legs and around his back, then stood.

He startled. “What are you doing?”

“Trust me,” I said, as I stepped deeper into the water. He sucked in a breath, and then he slumped against my chest as I lowered us to a rock that stuck out like a bench and sat with him on my lap. Cooper was taller than me, but he’d lost so much weight it took no effort to lift him. He had to be down to one fifty, one fifty-five. At six-three, that was unacceptable. I needed to force the issue and insist he drink protein shakes and serve him more meals that would pack the weight back on him, whether he liked it or not.

He huffed out a breath with so much drama, I chuckled.“What?”

“I hate it when you’re right.”

I smoothed down his hair and rested my cheek against his head. “I know. It happens a lot. Feels good, huh? The water?”

“Yes,” he sneered, with extra emphasis on thes. I knew I shouldn’t laugh but my relief was so visceral, I had to let it out.

Cooper poked me in the ribs and I shifted, which brought him even closer. It felt so good to hold him. It made him real, and it let me know that I actuallyhadmanaged to save him that horrific night. There had been plenty of nights when I woke damp with sweat, panting…

“Where’s that fucking helicopter?”

“Denny.”

So cold, the light gone from his eyes, his lips blue, the gash in his cheek so deep the bone was visible in the lights.

“His blood type is A negative. It’s rare. Call ahead to make sure they have enough.”

Please, baby.

“You gotta let them take over, Den. Come on.” Walter’s worried voice.

“I can’t leave him.”

“We’re gonna figure it out,” I whispered, kissing his hair though I had no right to do so. But he nuzzled in closer. His nose brushed the skin under my jaw and he sighed.

“I never thanked you,” he said quietly, after a long pause.

“Not necessary.”

He began to trace shapes on my chest, and his touch ignited a yearning in me, one I’d buried after he’d shown up at my apartment, shouted at me, and stormed off into the night.