[Backdated to the Flynn-Cabot Ball; closed for Coop]

April would say the past few weeks have been a strange series of events, but she'd be lying. The truth is that her life has been one long strange series of events ever since arriving in Siren Cove and in any other town, in any other situation, she knows she'd be long gone. She hasn't stayed anywhere for longer than a year since she was eighteen years old and free to get out of the foster care system and while she hasn't been in town quite that long, it's long enough that she's beginning to get nervous. She's here and she isn't working anyone. She's here and she isn't making any money except the income she's making legally working for Coop.

There are a few things keeping her here. Les, of course. Caden, certainly. Her father, though she will never admit that to anyone.

And the ridiculously handsome man currently crossing the room toward her.

The amount of affection she feels for Coop is a bit surprising from time to time. She hasn't slept with him, she hasn't even kissed him, and while that's certainly not required for her to form an attachment to someone, she's formed so few over the past ten years, that any kind of attachment comes as a bit of a surprise. But she can't pretend he doesn't make her feel lighter simply by being there.

"We probably shouldn't have come," she tells him when he's close enough to hear her. She knows she looks stunning in her long silver dress and he looks incredible as well. "We're just putting everyone else here to shame."