One more minute.
I’d give myself just a handful of seconds to restrengthen my walls. Then I’d be ready to face whatever battle lay ahead.
Cope’s hand slipped under my hair, and his fingers dug into the muscles of my neck and shoulder.
I couldn’t help the tiny sound that slipped from my lips. I told myself it wasn’t a moan, but I knew I was a dirty liar.
Cope’s voice came out in a low, rumbling growl. Like a bear who’d just awoken from hibernation. “Your shoulders are like cement.”
“Thank you?” I mumbled in a hazy stupor.
“You need a massage. And maybe a muscle relaxer,” he grumbled.
“What I’d really kill for is a bath. An hour of steaming-hot, no-one-bugging-me-with-a-single-problem bath time.”
Cope’s fingers stilled their ministrations. “You don’t have a tub in your apartment?”
Just the wordapartmenthad reality sweeping in again. I forced myself to push back, out of Cope’s hold and away from his strong warmth. The act was pure torture, but I’d been through worse.
I shook my head. “No tub, but it’s all good. I’ll use a heating pad tonight.”
I shifted from foot to foot, feeling eyes on us. A handful of moms looked on with curiosity, a couple with disdain, and a few with outright jealousy. A figure skater who didn’t look old enough to drink glared in my direction. And Coach Kenner had hurt in his eyes.
Hell.
These were all reminders of why I needed to stay far away from Cope Colson.
He frowned down at me, clearly displeased by the distance I’dput between us, and maybe my lack of bathtub, as if both were a personal affront. “Heard your landlord’s being a dick.”
I stiffened. Had Trace texted him? Or had Thea let something slip? I guessed it didn’t matter in the long run. Word would get around eventually. “He’s not my favorite person at the moment.”
“You can stay at my place.” Cope said it so easily, as if it was no big thing to offer refuge to someone who was practically a strangerandher son.
“You don’t know me,” I blurted out.
He lifted one shoulder and then dropped it carelessly. “Know what I need to. You do everything you can to give that kid the best life imaginable. You work harder than anyone I know. And you cut to the heart of things. Don’t waste time with bullshit and pretty lies. You’re a good woman, Sutton, and you deserve someone to cut you a break.”
My eyes were burning again. “Thank you,” I whispered.
A grin played at Cope’s beautiful mouth. “No big thing. My house is so big I probably wouldn’t even see you.”
I barked out a laugh. “Why am I not surprised?”
Cope was silent for a moment, waiting for my answer.
“I can’t. It doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it. I just—I can’t.” How could I explain the need to stand on my own two feet without telling him everything? How I’d nearly lost it all the last time I let someonetake care of me? I needed to make it on my own.
Annoyance flickered in Cope’s dark-blue eyes, but he quickly shoved it down. “All right. Then at least let me be Speedy’s ride. There’s no need for you to waste time shuttling him back and forth from the bakery when I drive right by there.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“Iwantto,” he argued.
“You’d need a booster seat and?—”
“I got one.”
I blinked up at Cope, my jaw going slack. “You got a booster seat?” I said the words slowly as if trying to master a foreign language.
