“It was really nice meeting you, too. I’ll see you around,” she said, holding her smile, but she knew her posture said she was eager to follow the inexplicable whatever-he-was she came here with.
As Eli walked away, Trace stood in the middle of the chaotic, unusual bar and took a long sip of wine.
At their table, Sophie wore her white “bride” tank top, but now Asher wore the penis crown, and the ribbon was pinned in Sophie’s hair like a tacky bow, and they whispered lovingly in the corner, while everyone else carried on.
Trace sipped more on her wine, her feet adhered to the ground, and not just because of the stickiness brought on by years of spilled cocktails. Confidence engaged, Cole grinned as he said hellos on reaching the table, shaking hands with the ones he hadn’t met yet. Of course, she hadn’t expected anything less, but still, it was nice to see.
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.
