Page 60 of Fatal Betrayal

She stared at him in astonishment. "It never crossed my mind that you wanted to kiss me or that your mom was worried about that happening."

"You were great at observing everyone else but yourself and your best friend."

"Apparently, so. But the whole boy-girl thing also made me nervous. I tried not to think about it much. I'd pretend to have crushes on someone just to be in the conversation, but most of the crushes weren't even true."

"I didn't know that." He gave her a thoughtful look. "What would you have done if I had suddenly made a move on you?" he asked curiously, moving closer to her. "Do you think you would have slugged me or kissed me back?"

The air was suddenly charged between them. They weren't kids anymore. And she was definitely not oblivious to how attractive he was. Her palms started to sweat unexpectedly.

What would it be like to kiss Cooper?

It suddenly seemed like a very tantalizing question.

His gaze darkened as the silence between them grew tense.

She could feel the pull between them. Her gaze came to rest on his full, sexy lips.

And then the door swung open, and they both jumped.

Joanne appeared, giving them a questioning look.

"Everything all right in here?" she asked.

She smiled to herself as the tension between them vanished with that question. Cooper rolled his eyes, then said, "It's fine, Mom. We were just coming down."

"Well, hurry up," she returned, heading back into the hall.

"See. Every single time," he said with a sigh.

She laughed. "You move too slow, Cooper." She ran down the stairs, giving him time to think about that. She didn't know what she would have done if he'd tried to kiss her when they were fourteen. She also wasn't sure what she would have done thirty seconds ago.

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

Lunch was bittersweet.Joanne and Doug were as nice to her as they'd always been, especially Joanne, who kept up a steady stream of conversation, asking her about her mom and stepfather, and then talking about the trip to Rome she and Doug had taken a few months earlier. Joanne urged Doug to join in with his favorite memories, which he did with slightly less enthusiasm than his wife. It felt like there was a weight on Doug's shoulders, probably because of Kyle and the impending anniversary of his death.

Monica seemed quieter than she used to be, her gaze speculative as it moved between her and Cooper, clearly trying to figure out what their relationship was now. She silently wished Monica good luck on that, because she couldn't figure out what they were to each other.

Sometimes, it felt like they could be friends, but then the past always came back—the pain, the betrayal, and so much anger…

She couldn't imagine that they could ever get beyond all that.

As they finished with lunch, the topic came back around to her and her work as an FBI agent.

"I know you can't tell us anything, but are you hopeful that you can find Neil's little girl?" Joanne asked.

"I try to never lose hope." It wasn't a very good answer, but it was all she had.

"I don't know how anyone can be hopeful," Monica said. "So many people never come home, like Hannah Montgomery." Her words brought the mood down even lower. "I can't help thinking about her with another little girl missing from her bedroom. Every kid should be safe in their house. I remember how scared I felt going to sleep after Hannah was kidnapped. I was terrified someone was going to sneak into my room and steal me, too."

She could relate to that. She'd checked her windows every night after Hannah was taken. "Fortunately, it doesn't happen that often, that a child is taken from her home," she said. "It's shocking and terrifying when it does. But I'm doing everything I can to find Elisa."

"There's just not much to go on," Cooper put in. "We need something to break, someone to have seen something."

His frustration matched her own. "There's someone out there who knows something," she said. "We just have to find that person."

Doug cleared his throat. "I'm going to see what happened with the end of my ballgame." He got to his feet. "It was nice to catch up, Andi. Glad you're doing well. Say hello to your mom, won't you?"

"Of course. It was good to see you, too."