“Come on.” He tugs on my arm, and I flinch as he walks me over to Dell, Quinn, and Cole. I scan the room for York.
Cole looks tired, but when he catches sight of me, the smile that runs across his face makes my stomach warm. “Hey.” His eyes dance over me.
“Welcome back.”
“As promised,” he whispers so only I can hear him. I can’t help the smile that sneaks out as I take a drink.
“You.” Keith points at me, rushing up to our group. “You want to explain how you dropped off the radar this morning?”
Fuck! I shake my head and look around. Luckily, no one is paying attention. Abigail has turned some music on, and it drowns out his voice.
Cole looks at me then Keith.
“I-I got up early and went for a walk by the lake.”
“You’re a shitty liar, Savi.”
“Look, can we not do this now?” My eyes plead with him to drop it. I feel my goddamn eyes starting to water. Really, can someone throw me a fucking bone, here?
“Just be thankful Dell said he saw you, or there would have been a search party looking for your ass.” He suddenly steps forward, giving me an unexpected hug.
“Don’t do that again, or I’ll put a tracking chip in your arm.” I let out a long breath, and he pulls away, eyeing me, then huffs and walks off.
“Seems we missed some action while we were away,” Mark chimes in.
I look up at Cole, who is watching me carefully.
“You don’t even know the half of it,” Quinn mutters. I shake my head at him. God, why won’t people talk about something else?
“Hey, boys,” Abigail calls out, “could you help me?”
Cole doesn’t leave. Instead, he moves a little closer. He bends down, and his mouth hovers at my ear.
His hot breath makes me shiver.
“There wasn’t a moment when I was gone that I didn’t think of you, Savannah. You’re like a goddamn drug that’s making me weak in the knees.” My breathing catches as my heart beats away, doing a happy strum. “It’s taking every ounce of my self-control not to kiss you right now.”
“I wouldn’t stop you,” I say before I can even think about it.
He steps away, shaking his head and smiling.
“Umm, Cole, I need to—”
“Heard you were MIA, Savi,” York’s voice makes my blood run cold. “You want to explain where you were?” My entire body is locked in place. All I can do is stare at my drink.
“What happened to you?” Cole asks, moving the attention off me.
“Tripped. Fucking cat.”
Ha! I want to knee him again for blaming poor Scoot, but my body betrays me and I stand immobile, listening to his lies.
“How’d everything go while we were away?”
“Same shit, different day, right, Savi?” He wraps his arm around me and tugs me painfully to his side, grinning. “We had one of our little spats, but we made up. Didn’t we, pretty lady?” He makes my skin crawl.
“Well, good.” Cole takes a drink of his brandy, but I see him look at York strangely. “Glad to hear it.”
I try to move away, but York’s fingers dig into my hip.