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.
