“My father is an odd man,” Trace said, taking the beers from his finger, then grabbed the crutch for him.
Cole lowered himself to the sofa and set his foot on the coffee table, cringing at the sudden adjustment. “You said it, not me.” He puffed his cheeks as he exhaled, tipping his head back and pushing his hair off his forehead.
“You must be ready to pass out, so busy today.” Trace lowered to sit next to the goodie bag on the coffee table.
“Got that right,” he said, shaking off the exhaustion. “Pick out a movie for us?”
“I haven’t chilled out with a movie in ages. I don’t even know what’s out.”
He laughed under his breath as he moved the crutch behind the couch.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“You can’t say nothing after that devious laugh. What?”
“I was just picturing what your parents had in mind, sending us up here with junk food and beer for a movie night upstairs, while the grownups are out of the house. Jeremy practically ran out the door to get the pizza, Ellen loading me up with sweets and more beer than the two of us should drink in an evening.”
If the impromptu and overly festive movie night was anything like the “go upstairs and take a shower” moment, she had her suspicions. “Sometimes I think they started taking in foster kids so I wouldn’t get so lonely. Or learn how to share, or something.”
Voice still gripped tight as he adjusted, he growled, “I fucking hope you never saw me as a brother.”
Tilting a look, she watched him as the words pinged in her brain.
He glanced over and bit down on the edge of his tongue before leaning forward to slide the six-pack closer.
Waiting, she watched as his pasty cheeks took on a rosy hue, and he kept his mouth firmly shut. Adjusting it at a funny angle, he snapped a beer out of the pack.
Finally, he mumbled, “What?”
She straightened her posture and accepted the second beer he plucked from the pack. “Nothing,” she said, then cracked open the can and drained a long, snappy gulp. “I… I’m really sorry about last weekend.”
Cole did the same, stealing glances over the can, not even coming up for air.
Worry flooded her vision as she watched him over the can. What all had she said?
Breathless as he finished his prolonged swig, he said, “I wasn’t sure you remembered.”
“What? I woke up on the sofa with a sore neck. Hard to forget.” Shit. He was probably freaking out still, at her offer to blow him, for her own practice. “I can’t believe I talked your ear off like that. After talking nonstop with Haley all night, I guess I was warmed up.”
Poker face engaging, Cole nodded vaguely and faded to polite.
“Cookie?” Trace asked, needing a rapid shift in focus.
“Yeah,” he said, watching as she pulled out a bakery box, the scent of fresh-from-the-oven cookies filled the room. “Thanks.”
“Oh hell yes,” she murmured under her breath as the fresh-baked scent of gooey chocolate chip, peanut butter chocolate chip, and walnut oatmeal coconut chocolate chip wafted over her. “I love my mother,” she whispered with her eyes closed, inhaling the scent deeply before it dissipated into the air.
Cole reached into the box, releasing a vibrating groan as he took one of whatever was on top. “Fuck I missed this,” he said before sinking his teeth into Ellen’s famous peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips and sea salt, a magical hybrid that found the perfect balance of sweet and savory, delicately crispy and gooey.
Blowjobs. Fuck. She shoved in another bite of cookie. If she hadn’t actually said what she was pretty sure she said, to bring it up now would be icing on the awkward cake. “So why didn’t you come back and visit more often?”
Great. That was much safer.
She broke off a hunk of the chocolatiest cookie in the box. Sometimes, she suspected her mom doubled the chocolate chips for the Friday take-home box, because she knew melty chocolate was a spiritual sort of thing for Trace. “I mean, that wasn’t a weird manipulative question or anything. Just curious.”
He lifted a one-armed shrug and sank his teeth in for another bite. “Why did you never come visit me?” he asked lightly, lifting a pursed-lip question mark dare of a smile at her.
