Page 38 of About Yesterday (Foothills #5)

He leaned back in his chair and slipped his hand under Trace’s, entwining their fingers.

He lifted a shrug. “Risk versus benefit. Honestly, now is a terrible time for… anything. Rushing something delicate, potentially explosive, like a new relationship between two people with a complicated relationship already, who have a lot going on right now?”

Pippa scrunched her mouth into a scowl, but he could see the worry.

Leaning forward, elbows on the table, she tapped her fingers together and ensnared him with a look.

“Love is risky no matter what, and there’s never a good time for it.

I knew that Asher would be unable to resist Sophie, and that she would fall for his charm.

Fool that I was, I thought that would be a terrible thing.

Heartbreak and… disaster. So I did everything I could to prevent it. ”

Cole tipped a look, daring her to admit that she shouldn’t be messing around with people’s feelings.

“But…” she continued, drawing out her words with a slow nod. “They ignored me and everything is great and, most importantly, I was right.”

Pushing his hair back, he leaned back in his seat and let her finish.

Only a hint of guilt in her expression, she seemed to enjoy indulging in the self-praise. “I have an eye for these things.”

Asher rolled his eyes and whispered something in Sophie’s ear. She laughed under her breath but patiently listened.

Pippa and Asher’s dad pointed his finger at his daughter. “Pip. Come on. You freaked out. You didn’t speak to either of them for days.”

“True,” she squeaked, enthusiasm rising. “But my instincts were right on. Nobody asked me, but I knew Freya and Zane were perfect together. And, I was right. It only took one weekend to make it permanent.”

“Sort of,” Zane corrected with a hiccup.

“And Grady for Claire? Talk about bad timing and a very complicated relationship. But they were so obvious. And, no offense, Finn…” Pippa seemed to savor her victory, but apparently didn’t know when to quit.

Finn leaned slightly forward to listen, sarcasm oozing in his smile.

At Cole’s side, Trace gripped his hand tighter, and he could see she was about to lose it. Yet she held the expression that said all this was lovely.

Pippa didn’t notice that at least four of the people at this table were tense with dread over what she was about to say.

“In high school, yeah, you and Trace were all over each other. Inspired me to, ahem, take things to the next level with Lincoln. But Trace, you were always way spicier with Cole.”

“Spicier?” Trace asked, like someone had just flicked her on the tip of the nose.

“Yes. Spicier. You and Finn were sweet and all that, like high school sweethearts should be.” Pippa lifted her orange juice.

Pointing around the tall, narrow glass, she pondered.

“You all remember, I’m sure. Trace and Finn would hold hands and always sit together and were sugary sweet together.

But when Cole walked into a room, Trace would light up. She’d do that thing she’s doing now.”

Trace froze, her eyes darting around the table, then closed her mouth and moved her tongue back in. “What?” she asked innocently.

“That thing with your tongue,” Finn said, scrunching his brow as he considered. “That you do when you’re working out a problem.”

Cole couldn’t breathe, his mind muddled as he thought back so far. Had she reacted to him differently than everyone else?

He kept one hand linked with Trace, and spun his coffee cup slowly with his other, listening.

Asher snorted a laugh and lit up, leaning in to toss in his two cents. “Okay, Pip. You might actually be onto something. Remember that all-night kegger off the old logging road my first summer back from college? Cole was making out with… who was that? I can’t remember.”

“Kendra Lomax,” Cole whispered. Fuck. He knew exactly where this was going.

“Yeah. Kendra. She was...” Asher nodded and looked into the remote distance, still impressed.

Cole twitched a smile. “She’d brought a tent and a double sleeping bag and had this whole night planned.”

Pippa gleefully stomped her feet under the table and laughed that they were with her in a moment that Cole wanted never brought up again.

Overflowing with enthusiasm, Pippa said, “Kendra was that girl we were all jealous of, but she was too nice to hate. Gorgeous, confident, and she was so smart. Everyone had a thing for her, and she did not date. Like, anyone. I’d heard she’s a fashion person, editor or stylist or something. ”

Fuck. Cole didn’t want to even say it out loud. “Model.”

Trace looked around the table, brow low and clueless bouncing over her. “I don’t remember any of this. I mean, I remember Kendra, and I remember going camping a few times that summer.”

“You probably wouldn’t remember much of that night,” Cole said, breathing a heavy sigh and squeezing her hand.

Pippa was on a roll, her hands telling the story as much as the excitement in her voice. “Trace was smashed. Hilariously so. Quite the dancer.”

Finn rubbed his hands over his face, dropping his gaze and looking over at Haley, wincing. “I don’t remember much either. We also had our own tent. I passed out. Not the romantic night I’d envisioned.”

“So…” Pippa said, loving the interruptions as much as she was eager to get to the punchline. “Finn was passed out in their tent. Cole was sitting around the fire, his date all over him, but he was watching Trace, and I knew .”

His chest rose and fell as he remembered like it was yesterday. Once he saw how much Trace was drinking, he stopped.

“Trace tripped and was about to fall into the fire that she and Sara Wachowski were dancing around. Cole moved so fast. I’m pretty sure he literally knocked Kendra over in the process.

” Pippa dramatically waved her hand in front of her chest, feigning a swoon.

It hadn’t exactly felt swoon worthy at the time.

Terrifying, might be a better word. “He caught her seconds before she fell right into the fire. Scooped her up and carried her to the back of his old Toyota pickup. He brought her orange juice and potato chips and talked to her until she sobered up enough to sleep safely, then tucked her in with Finn. Kendra fell asleep waiting.”

Trace turned to look at him, wonder sparkling in her deep blues. “I wish I remembered that.”

“You would have done the same for me,” he said, his voice filled with gravel. “I knew I couldn’t take you home. Your parents would kill us both. You were supposed to have been camping with Pippa and some of the girls.”

Pippa and Asher’s mom leaned in, her voice filled with maternal surprise and retrospective lectures. “How often did this happen? I mean, we knew Asher was pulling crap like this, but Pippa, really, honey?”

Pippa smiled with a light blush. “Honestly, I didn’t do stuff like this very often. I had a few sips of a wine cooler, but I thought it was all gross back then. Although, Trace’s parents thought she was at our house a lot.”

“I think they suspected I was at Finn’s most of those times,” Trace said, but she kept looking back at Cole.

Finn joked about how often his parents thought he was at a friend’s place when he was with Trace, and Cole could attest to that. He sometimes stayed in instead of going out just to hang out with them. Maybe a third wheel, but they never complained, and he always felt like they wanted him around.

Before Cole was safe from more stories about that bizarre night, Grady zeroed in. “Hey, Cole? They don’t know the rest, do they?”

Fuck. He chewed the corner of his tongue and lifted a flippant eyebrow at Grady. How in the hell would he know?

Grady laughed under his breath and shook his head. “I bumped into Kendra a few years later, and we reminisced.”

“Bumped into?” Cole asked, suddenly more than a little curious. “How extensive was this bumping?”

The table quickly quieted, and Grady was the one blushing this time.

Claire leaned back and teasingly savored her fiancé‘s discomfort.

“Extensive but brief,” Grady said with as vague of an answer as he could accomplish, without sounding like an ass.

“We got to talking about first times, sweethearts and all that, and she recalled how sweet you were, taking care of Trace, then coming back to join her and staying up until dawn with her.”

Cole bit his lips together and leaned back, perusing a glance outside again.

While they all began round upon round of teasing each other about the old days, advancing to more recent adventures, Trace fiddled her tongue on her teeth, more playfully than with her problem-solving gesture.

She leaned back and whispered to Cole, “How did I never realize? I like to think I’ve always known you better than most.”

Cole couldn’t resist, loving this side of her. He framed her chin in his hand and sank into a soft kiss. He kissed the corner of her jaw and whispered, “How do you think I got to be so good at my poker face?”