“Good,” I said, perching on the edge of the bar stool and crossing my legs just so.

Again, his eyes did the thing I’d been waiting for them to do since I was twelve years old—see me.

And only me.

Eleven

Cole

I cornered Moretti at the bar after dinner. “Help.”

“With what?” He looked confused.

“I did what you said to do, and now I need help.”

“What did I say to do?”

“You said to have a little fun, and I did. I said things.”

“So?”

“So now she’s wearing that dress and I’m about to lose my mind!” I tossed back the rest of my bourbon and ordered another, although I knew I should slow down.

Moretti laughed. “Yeah, you’re toast, dude. I saw the way you were looking at her during dinner.”

Groaning, I glanced over to where she stood talking to Griffin and the wedding planner, and the wedding planner’s husband, who happened to be Tyler fucking Shaw. As a pitcher, I should have been over there too—I was a baseball fanatic and I’d followed Tyler’s career from the time he was a first-round draft pick right out of high school. But I couldn’t think about baseball. I couldn’t think about anything except Cheyenne in that dress and how badly I wanted to get my hands on her. At dinner she’d been seated right across from me, and I couldn’t even tell you what I’d eaten—in fact, I wasn’t even sure I had eaten—because I was so preoccupied with the tilt of her head and the curve of her shoulder and the glow of her skin.

“I’m a mess, Moretti. I fucking told her that we had to slow down, if not stop altogether, and now I’m a mess. I haven’t been able to think about anything but her for a week.”

“Jesus Christ, Cole. Relax.” Moretti sipped his whiskey. “If you get too worked up ahead of time, you’re gonna go off like a rocket, especially if it’s been a while.”

“Oh, it’s been a while.”

“Like how long?”

I had to think about it. “A few years.”

Moretti almost choked. “Years? Damn, that’s even worse than I thought. How do you live, man?”

“Look, it’s not easy for me, okay? I’m a cop in a small town, and everyone knows me or knows my kid or knows my mom. I don’t fuck around.”

Moretti shook his head. “You must have willpower of steel.”

I grabbed my new drink off the bar. “It’s never been this difficult to control myself.”

“I say go for it. All she can do is say no.”

“You think she’ll say no?” Panicking, I swallowed some more bourbon.

He shrugged. “Depends. I don’t think you should lie to her and tell her you’re in love with her just so she’ll sleep with you, but if you invite her back to your room and she says yes, I’d say that’s a pretty good indication she’s up for a good time tonight.”

“Is that what you’d do? Invite her to your room?”

“Definitely.” He looked around. “But where’s Mariah? Is she staying with you?”

I shook my head. “No. She’s with my mom, and she already went to bed.”

“Okay, good. So here’s what you do. Find out what she’s drinking, order her another one, and then say something like, ‘It’s so crowded in here, maybe we—oh, fuck no.’”

“Huh?” I frowned at him. “You lost me there at the end.”

“This cannot be happening.”

“What?”

“It’s her.”

I followed his line of sight and saw that Bianca DeRossi had entered the bar and was giving Blair a big hug. “Oh.”

“What the hell is she doing, following me?” He tipped up his drink again.

“I don’t know. Looks like she’s friends with Blair.”

He grimaced as Bianca made her way toward us. “Gentlemen,” she said smoothly, giving us a smile. “Nice to see you again. You’re quite the most dashing couple in the room, all due respect to the bride and groom.”

“Knock it off, Bianca. You know we’re not a couple.” Moretti glared at her.

She laughed and held up both hands. “Fair enough, I surrender. Way to ruin a girl’s fantasy.” Turning to me, she said, “I hear you made an offer on the house by the creek.”

“And it was accepted,” Moretti said with smug triumph, as if it had been a competition between them.

“Congratulations.” She gave me a genuine smile. “It’s a great house. You and your daughter will love it, I’m sure. If you need any help with the interior, just let me know.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Moretti demanded, like this was his turf and she was trespassing on it.

“I’m a friend of Blair’s.”

“Since when?”

She gave him an odd look. “Since I moved back and we met at book club and hit it off.”

“Book club?” Moretti looked like he wasn’t sure he believed her. Either that or he’d never heard of a book club.

“Yes.” She put a hand up to her mouth and stage whispered, “We both love teenage vampires, but don’t tell anyone.” Then she dropped her arm, her voice returning to normal. “Now if you’ll excuse me, that drive was harrowing and I could really use a drink. Enjoy your evening.” With one final smile—and a glitter of mischief in her eye when she looked at Moretti, she melted into the crowd by the bar.

“That woman,” he said through gritted teeth, his eyes still on her. “I don’t know what it is about her, but she drives me crazy.”

I tossed back some more bourbon. “Okay, but we were talking about me. My problem. So you think just go over and say, ‘Hey, want to go up to my room?’”

Moretti made a face like he’d sniffed something bad. “Is that how you’re going to do it?”

“What was wrong with that?”

“You need more subtlety, more smolder. You can’t just proposition her like that.”

“Well then, show me how to do it,” I said impatiently, eyeing her across the room. She was laughing at some other guy’s joke and touching his arm. He was alarmingly buff and good-looking too. A stab of jealousy pierced my gut.

“Okay, try it like this.” Moretti lowered his chin for a second, and when he raised it again, his eyes were hooded and seductive, and he spoke in a low, sultry voice. “Hey. What do you say we ditch this crowd and go someplace quieter?”

I blinked. “Wow.”

Moretti dropped the act. “Okay, now you try it.”

I took a deep breath and tried to arrange my face the way he had. I leaned toward him and repeated his words.

He frowned. “It’s not quite right. Maybe try it like this.” His face went from critical to come hither, and he swayed toward me again. “Hey. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had about enough of this crowd. You want to get out of here?”

“Oh, now see? That’s more like it.” Bianca had snuck up on us, catching Moretti pretending to seduce me. She sighed and sipped her wine. “I gotta say, real couple or not, you two are sexy as hell. Do you have a YouTube channel? I’d like to subscribe.”