“No, I mean…I have a mom body. Seriously. It’s not the same as the twenty-somethings you’re probably used to.”
“You’re twenty-something,” he says as a counterpoint.
I’m not deterred from trying to talk him out of this, though. “My stomach has this squishiness to it that I can never ever get rid of no matter how many sit-ups I do, and my chest is definitely not perky like it used to be—” My voice is shaking, chin wobbling. I’m completely ruining this romantic moment, but I can’t help it. The words are pouring out, and I can’t stop them. “I feel like nothing about me is the same as it used to be before I had him. I have stretch marks all over my stomach and—”
Cooper cuts me off with a simple yet forceful kiss. “Lucy.” He says my name but nothing else. Instead, his hand moves slowly from my face to my navel, where he tenderly rolls up the bottom hem of my t-shirt to expose just my stomach. My breath is frozen in my lungs as I watch Cooper lay his warm palm flat across my abdomen and spread his fingers from farthest rib to farthest rib. Even in the dark, I can make out the way his eyes are staring down at me, and I want so badly to hide, to pretend none of what I said is true and just keep my clothes on for the rest of my life. But when his thumb runs delicately across my deepest stretch mark and he smiles, I relax—I rest.
He rolls my shirt back down before hovering over me again, pinning me in so he can look me right in the eyes. “You are beautiful, Lucy. Everything about you.” He gives me a slow, lingering kiss. “Sexy.” Kiss. “Feminine.” Kiss. “Strong.” Kiss. “Everything I could ever want in a woman.”
Tears are rolling down my cheeks, and Cooper kisses them. I bury my head in his neck and let his weight and words soothe me, not realizing until tonight just how insecure I really am. He rolls over to his back and pulls me onto his chest. His hand strokes my hair, and another tear rolls down my face. For the last four years, I have been soothing Levi, tending to his needs, sacrificing my own desires and comforts so I can make sure his are met. But tonight…I am the one who is comforted.
He doesn’t say anything else, and I don’t either, because I’m not even sure what to say. Everything feels too weak, and I’m afraid if I say what my heart is really feeling, I’ll scare him away. Instead, I run my hand slowly up Cooper’s chest until my hand settles on his jaw. I play with my favorite lock of hair that flips up at the nape of his neck and smile before settling my head in the crook of his shoulder. I close my eyes, feeling the warmth of his skin against my face and listening to his quiet steady breaths. He’s good for me, and I think I’m good for him.
I don’t know how long we lie here together, my arm wrapped tightly around Cooper’s chest and his hand gently stroking my hair away from my face, but it’s bliss. Eventually, as I’m drifting off to sleep, I think, I’m never letting him go.
The sun wakes me early the next morning, and I squint my eyes open, taking in the large man-arm draped over my shoulder. I kiss it and smile against his tan skin, the hairs of his arm tickling my lips.
Cooper takes in a stirring deep breath as I roll over to look at him. Because everyone knows morning breath is a beast, I bunch up the sheets and pull them over my mouth before saying good morning.
He gives me the most adorable scrunched-nose smile and cracks an eye open. His hair is sticking up in all directions, and his bare chest is on display for all to see. Well, not all—just me. Only I get to see it, because even though we don’t have an official title yet, Cooper is mine—all mine—and I refuse to share. “Morning, beautiful.”
My smile beams because it’s cheesy lines like this that get me. I want to gather up as many as I can and dress myself in them each day, strolling all over town and flaunting them so everyone can see. Flowery words are wonderful when they’re genuine.
“Is this real?” I ask Cooper, snuggling into his chest and feeling heat radiating off his skin like he’s made of the earth’s core. My shirt is all twisted around me uncomfortably, and I don’t know how Cooper senses it, but he does. His hand reaches behind me and tugs it down so it’s sitting correctly again. It’s the little things like this he does that turn me inside out.
“I hope so,” he says in a sleepy, gravelly voice. I can’t help but smile and kiss his chest.
“You’ve got to climb out of this tower soon, Rapunzel,” I say, snuggling deeper into him.
His chuckle rumbles in his chest, and he kisses my hair before resting his chin on my head. “You’re not making a very compelling case for me leaving.”
“I know.” I wrap my arms around him and bear-hug him. “But you really do have to go. Levi will be up soon, and he does not knock before he busts in here.”
He groans and rolls over onto me playfully so he can bury his face in my neck. I can barely breathe with his weight on me like this, but to say I love it would be an understatement.
“So tired,” he grumbles. “Just want to sleep here with you all day.”
I intertwine my hands in his hair. “You. Have. To. Go,” I say between wheezing breaths. “And I have to go to work.”
He half growls, half grunts then moves back over onto his back, popping his hands behind his head and letting his smile slant as he stares at me. With my room full of wonderful, wonderful light, I’m able to see every defined, ab, oblique, pectoral, and bicep. I’m staring like muscle inspecting is my new full-time job, and my voice takes on a zombie-like quality. “Oh good gracious, you need to put on a shirt.”
His pearly white smile turns cocky. “Yeah? You like what you’re seeing?”
I poke him in the side. “Why do you always take on an Italian accent when you’re trying to come on to me?”
“Don’t act like you don’t like it.” He reaches for me and tugs me up to him so he can try to convince me to let him stay with neck kisses. It would probably be highly seductive if he wasn’t saying the only Italian words he knows in between kisses. Spaghetti. Fettuccini. Parmesan.
I’m laughing and trying to push away from him half-heartedly. “Stop it—you’re just making me hungry.”
“Lasagna,” he says in his deepest bedroom voice.
I can’t stop laughing. “You are so stupid, but I love you anyway.” No sooner do the words leave my mouth than I realize what I’ve just said.
I freeze.
Cooper freezes.
His grip on my wrist loosens, and his eyes slowly cut down to me. “What did you just say?”