Page 28 of About Yesterday (Foothills #5)

Drink held in front of his mouth, he stole a glance in her direction.

In one glance, he told her everything. A hint of wicked humor in his smile, that he knew he had ruined her brief flirty meet-and-greet with the nice guy.

A smattering of lust in the intensity of his gray eyes holding her in suspension.

Trust that he knew she would come rescue him.

Trace melted to a gooey puddle on the sticky floor. Well shit. She wasn’t used to being anyone’s favorite anything.

Okay, she was probably her parents’ favorite in many things, but that was different.

The rest of the room blurred out of her attention, and Trace was drawn in, for better or worse.

Tuning out any distractions, she crossed through the crowd and rounded the edge of the pushed-together high-top tables, sliding onto the stool next to Cole.

“Thanks for saving me a seat,” she said, eyeing him over her drink. “I think.”

One side of his mouth lifted into a smartass grin. “I was trying to give you space, but, you know, also let him know that you had backup. You can never be too careful. I mean, he looked like a nice guy, but looks can be deceiving.”

“Huh,” she mumbled, watching as his smartass grin faded to a shrug and deeper into an almost apologetic wince.

“Sorry,” he said, his look darkening and he looked away.

Both watched the morphology of the crowd bending and rotating as people chatted, the town small enough that you couldn’t walk into a haunt like this without running into someone you either had to or wanted to catch up with.

At the end of the table, Asher and Sophie whispered close, the entire idea of a party for them useless as they didn’t seem to notice anyone else around.

Claire came up behind Grady and wrapped her arms around him, staying standing for the moment. She looked across the table and landed on Cole. “There’s the new guy. Hi. I’m Claire.”

Cole stood from his stool and reached across the table, comfortably shaking her hand over the top of Grady.

Grady tipped his head to the side while they shook, and then leaned back into Claire when Cole sat down.

“It’s so nice to meet you. I confess, I have already heard a lot about you from Grady,” Claire said, pinching her fiancé before finally sitting down next to him.

He slid the second plate out from under his and moved two of the wings to her plate.

She turned and smacked a kiss before turning back to Cole.

“Not too much, I hope,” Cole answered naturally, a genuine smile with only a subtle nag of nerves that Trace suspected no one else could see.

From the end of the table, hooking a mischievous grin, Asher raised his voice over the crowd and said, “You breathe a word about any of the shit we used to do together, you risk my job, so trap shut, got it?”

He laughed under his breath. “You’re the dumbass who became a cop.”

Grady settled comfortably in his stool, resting his hand on Claire’s thigh under the table. “Asher likes to pretend he has always been a law-abiding citizen, but he hasn’t figured out that his past makes him a better cop.”

With an open friendliness that Trace was glad to see had only warmed, Cole said to Grady, “So how’ve you been? We drove past Black Op Brewing on the way over. Hell of a place you’ve got.”

“Zane’s brainchild, I’m just the pencil pusher,” Grady admitted with a shrug toward Zane.

Cole nodded a broad grin at Zane. “Jeremy keeps the fridge stocked with Black Op brews. Good stuff.”

“Thanks,” Zane said as he plucked a popper off the appetizer tray with his bearpaw of a hand. “Hear you were in the army.”

“That all you hear?” Cole asked.

Trace still couldn’t get used to it, Cole’s comfort in the crowd when he’d been so nervous earlier.

Zane lightly shrugged. “Asher may have mentioned you did some mercenary work. Trace has never mentioned you—“

“Ouch,” Cole hissed dramatically, turning to fire a playful glare at Trace.

After finishing their series of social stops, Haley and Finn wound their way toward the table. Finn had overheard and quickly interjected, “Not like that.” Finn smacked Zane on the shoulder before rounding the table and sat on the open seat next to Trace, Haley taking the last seat next to Finn.

Trace shot a look at Finn, futzing her tongue in her teeth as she tried to guess what he was getting at.

He shrugged and reached across to the appetizer tray and stuffed a handful of fries in his mouth before he could answer.

At her other side, Cole nudged her knee.

She rolled her eyes and held his look long enough to let him know there was nothing to know.

Not that he needed to know there was nothing to know, but…

shit. She turned to Zane and said, “Cole cannot be explained with the words available to we mere mortals.” Back to Cole, she flicked her tongue over the tip of a canine tooth. “Better?”

He rolled his eyes and was about to dish a tease, but the moment was quickly interrupted.

Lincoln came dashing over toward the empty stools at the end opposite the bride and groom, leaving Pippa chatting with some of her coworkers, then did a double take.

“Whoa. Shit. Cole.” He jumped up and steadied his hand on Grady as he reached across to shake Cole’s hand, his smile curiously lifted like he was looking at a ghost. “When Asher said you were coming, I thought he was pulling my leg.”

“Nope. I’m… here,” he answered, maintaining the confident expression, when she knew he was becoming more overwhelmed with each familiar face.

Conversations narrowed as everyone chattered and munched. Cole studied the interactions, quietly reading everyone and putting the pieces together.

Trace leaned in and whispered, “Doing okay?”

“Yeah. It’s just… weird. Everyone has changed, but not.”

“How so?”

“I left the day after Finn did, so the last time I’d seen you guys together, you were both all weepy and making out like there was no tomorrow, but now…

well, you know. Anyway, he still has that football player walk, even though I can see his knee nags at him.

Grady is still the spoiled rich kid who looks like a surfer model. ”

Trace snorted and tried to see her friends through fresh eyes. “He’s mellowed so much. You probably didn’t know Freya very well?”

“No, but she still looks like an Amazonian goddess.”

Trace grinned and leaned into him. “She’d love that description.”

“Lincoln is still the good boy next door who’s got the exploded bottle of champagne all over him, who he seems to adore. Does Pippa ever run out of steam?”

“No,” Trace said, flashing Pippa a grin over the rim of her glass, even though she didn’t know they were talking about her. “And Asher?”

He lifted his beer and nodded to the end of the table. “Asher looks exactly the same. For the most part. Even a gorgeous woman on his lap, as usual.”

From across the table, Asher tweaked a look that said he’d overheard.

Cole winked back.

“True. What about me?” she asked softly, daring him to be honest with a shrug of an eyebrow raise.

He stared at her a minute, then took a long pull on his beer. Turning closer, he kept his voice quiet so only she would hear. “You had great cheeks before, but now you’ve got some killer cheekbones.”

She rolled her eyes, but kept listening and tilted her head so he knew she wanted him to keep going.

“Your hair isn’t as frizzy.”

“Ah. I discovered hair products.”

He smiled and chewed his cheek as he studied her.

She relented to a blush and debated making him stop, but she didn’t mind being on display for once.

He searched for more details. “Not quite as many freckles. Your eyes are sharper, but I suppose wallflowers are observant.”

She elbowed him in the side.

“Hey, I thought you were looking for honesty?”

“Damn right. Come on. What else?” She shouldn’t rush him, but she was finding herself in more and more of a hurry for him to get to know her outside of his imagination.

“You say ‘fuck’ more, so that’s promising.” He winked and chewed on the edge of his tongue.

Unable to resist, she rolled her eyes and leaned her knee against his. “More.”

“I’ve got loads that I’m not going to say in public,” he said, upgrading the knee-snuggle to a full thigh. “Do me.”

She tongued the edge of her teeth as she focused on him. “Hmm. You talk more.”

“Do not.”

“Hey. These are my observations. Shut up,” she teased.

He snorted a laugh and relaxed his expression, exuding approachable, flirty confidence instead of the badass don’t-talk-to-me he’d walked in as.

“You smile more. Especially that smile where you lift one side higher.”

“It’s effective.”

“Ha. I won’t argue with that,” she admitted, that damn blush heating her cheeks again.

Eyes locked on hers, confusion and hope tweaking in a subtle crook of his brow, he seemed to search to see if she was still messing around.

Before awkward could take over, in front of all of her friends when she wasn’t sure herself, she lifted her expression into her winningest smile.

Cole bit the edge of his tongue, smiling uncertainly, and she knew he saw right through it.

He cleared his throat and looked away. “So. Asher. ‘Sort of’ eloping?” he asked, voice bright and playful, no trace of the heat from a moment ago.

“That’s the plan,” Asher said, grinning smittenly, then leaned in for a kiss on Sophie’s temple. “Sophie hates big parties as much as I do.”

Cole shook his head, laughing and appearing relaxed. “She must be someone special, to put up with you?”

Asher shrugged sheepishly. “She is very aware of my… history. I may have informed her that you were involved in many of those escapades.”

“You can’t prove a thing,” he teased, tipping back his beer.

Finn lifted a pitcher and was about to refill Cole’s glass, but he waved it away.

Trace whispered in his ear, “I don’t mind driving home.”