“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 Iknew.”
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?”
14
Calm before the storm
Thestoresgraduallyopened,tourists filtering in, cozy and romantic with that lazy weekend getaway sort of feel. Trace couldn’t remember the last time she’d stolen away on a getaway of any sort. That would definitely have to change.
Hand linked with Cole’s, they wandered through town. Freya and Haley waved to Trace from up the street, about to head into the clothing shop she’d had her eye on.
Trace held her hand up with all five fingers out in the universal symbol for “be there in five minutes.”
Cole turned and tugged her hips against his, one side of his grin lifting higher than the other, a subtle but irresistible expression that she’d finally realized meant that he was scheming something he knew she wouldn’t be able to resist. Instead of a quick kiss and running off to join the others, she was gripped by that weird clingy thing couples got, and she needed just a few more moments with him. Melting into him, she thumbed his bottom lip and settled in for a delicious goodbye. Even if it was only for half an hour or so.
Just ahead of them, Asher playfully whined about just getting it over with, but his parents said he needed to wait until this afternoon and make some sort of ceremony of it, no matter how simple, because it was a big deal. Sophie rolled with it, and Trace could see the anticipation was probably a good thing. Sophie distracted her fiancé by leaping on his back for a piggy back ride, legs ahead and arms wrapped around his shoulders, and they were laughing and being absolutely goofy.
Even an inch away suddenly seemed too far, and Trace tucked her pelvis tighter against Cole’s, shifting and entwining her hands around his waist, under his fleece quarter-zip sweatshirt. Tipping a look so she could savor a shared moment, her gaze didn’t quite make it to his eyes, distracted by lips she knew kissed with patience and hunger and drove her to distraction. Damn, that man had some nice lips. Where the rest of him held so many dark memories, his mouth was always curious, showing the playful side of him.
“What?” he asked, watching her watching him.
“I agree with Asher. Let’s get the wedding over with. So you and I can sneak back to the hotel,” she murmured.
Grinning and shaking his head at her, he relented to a laugh and looked beyond her at the goofy bride and groom. “I’ve waited a damn long time for you. What’s a few more hours?”
