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Cooper drew to a halt and turned to face me He licked his ice crea his ice crea my blood
I could feel the heat in my cheeks and hoped to God he couldn’t see it
I wrenched aze from his mouth to his eyes and found that thankfully he was too busy with his own thoughts to recognize mine had taken a wander down “dirty sexy alley”
“You’re not happy”
I frowned at his words “I’reat time,” I insisted truthfully
Cooper’s eyes war about now I’eneral”
Uncomfortable with his observation, I turned away and started walking toward the pendulum ride
“Jess?”
It was the first time he’d ever said my actual nauilty about ignoring his probing coupon me “I don’t know”
And I didn’t anymore
He was looking atat the thought of being psychoanalyzed and questioned more, he said, “This is a shit ride, Doc”—he nodded to the pendulum ride—“let’s try Wipeout next”
I sratefully
“I should warn you, us being here together for dinner, there will be speculation,” Cooper murmured in my ear as Iris led us to a booth in the back of Antonio’s
By the way Iris grinned at us and said, “Well, well, well,” as andered in together I was already getting that I gave him a look to tell him so and I saw the humor in his eyes
“Here you go,” Iris said as she laid down our menus
We slid into opposite sides of the booth and looked up at her She was grinning at us Her eyes landed on Cooper “Moving on andup, son”
Cooper didn’t say anything to correct her I didn’t say anything to correct her because what she said was so nice I was internally a-ing too much to do so
“Drinks?”
“Water,” Cooper said
“Same”
“Okay I’ll be back to get your orders in a bit”
Cooper recoot
“They should na a mouthful of deliciousness
Cooper shook with laughter as he ate He sed and said, “Ira will love that You should suggest it for real”
I chuckled “Will do Once I eat this oodness”
“Mother-effing?” He grinned
I shrugged “It would be inappropriate to use the actual word in a family place”
He shook withwarh
“So did you enjoy returning to the fun park?” I said
“Yeah” He wiped hiscontent in a way a person does when he’s just eaten really good food “Because I ith you It loses soet older”
“I don’t think it loses anything It’s us that lose so” I wondered what it was that he had lost that htin my stomach turn to ash?
Cooper nodded “You’re right”
When he didn’t elaborate I felt a surge of disappoint about his ex
“So tellthe subject
“What do you want to know?”
“How did you come to be the owner of a bar on the boardwalk? Frorinned cheekily
He chuckled “You been talking to the Devlins?”
“No Bailey”
“But she’s been talking about the Devlins Everything she said is true They’re a pain in the ass”
“Have they been bothering you about the bar?”
He shrugged “Nothing I can’t handle, Doc”
I frowned at that because I hated the idea of anyone trying to disrupt the contentment Cooper seemed to have
“The bar used to be called the Boardwalk and it ned by randparents owned it and it’s been passed down since My uncle died in a car crash when I was just a boy and he left the bar to ement on to run the place for her and then when I enty-one she gave it totired, needed a face-lift I did all that and renamed it Cooper’s I added awell”
“It’s hard work owning a bar”
“It’s hard work owning any establish out with people I like every night”
I grinned at the way he looked at it “So no downsides?”
“Oh, there are a few”
“Such as”
He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly looking uneasy, and he leaned in closer, his voice quieter as he said, “I currently have a waitress who is constantly late for work She’s a good girl, though, just a bit of a flake I don’t want to fire her, but ht I’m stuck on what to do I’ve fired waitstaff before if they weren’t keeping up, but Lil is different She’s a good worker when she is there, and she gets great tips I keep going back and forth on it because I hate the thought of taking away anyone’s livelihood—especially a kid who does do a good job when she actually makes it in on time” r drew to a halt and turned to face me He licked his ice crea his ice crea my blood