Page 13 of Thunderstruck
Ah, so he’s going to play it that way? I fold my arms to match him, though I know I don’t look nearly as impressive as he does. “My sister wanted to see Bonnie again and called her up. Bonnie invited us to brunch, and I didn’t know this was Derek’s house until we got here.”
He grunts, eyes darting over to Bonnie as if he’s hoping to get confirmation of my story. “Regardless of how you ended up here, I’m very protective of my friends.”
“Okay.”
He doesn’t like that response, his eyebrows pulling low. “And if I hear a single word out of Tamlin Park’s mouth about me or any of them, I’ll—”
“She’s not like that,” I argue.
He lets out a single laugh. “If you think that, you clearly don’t know her.”
Looking over at Darcy, who is watching us with interest, I have to fight to keep my laughter in. “I know her better than you think.”
Cole’s eyes jump to Darcy as well, and I realize my mistake.
“I mean, my sister lives in St. Louis like Tamlin,” I say quickly, trying to backtrack. “And Houston has done some interviews with her, so they’ve kind of become friends.”
“No sane athlete would be friends with a woman like that.”
“Houston isn’t an athlete anymore. He retired a year and a half ago.” Ugh, I feel like I’m still digging a hole for myself, so I fight for a different topic. Really, I should just go back to my seat next to Darcy and soak in the reality that my sister can claimDerek Rileyas a friend, but the look in Cole’s eyes has me worried for Darcy’s secret. “I’m excited to learn more about rugby. Do you like playing?”
The question seems to catch Cole off guard as he turns his attention back to me, his eyebrows even lower than before. “Do I like playing?”
“Yeah. I mean, I guess you probably don’t do it for the money, huh?”
He laughs, but it sounds forced. “No. And yes, I like playing.”
“Why?”
“You’re not secretly a sports reporter working for Tamlin, are you?”
It’s my turn to laugh. Mine, at least, is real humor, and it helps me relax. “Oh, I know next to nothing about sports. Give me back pain or a knee replacement, and I’m your gal, but I have the coordination of a toddler, so I never followed in my sister’s footsteps.” I cringe. “Like playing baseball, I mean. Anyway, was there something else you needed, or did you just want to threaten me?”
Oof, that’s not what I wanted to say, and I almost clap a hand to my face.
The only thing that stops me is Cole’s smile, which is so unexpected that it literally takes my breath away. It’s only there for half a second, but boy, does the man have asmile. “Threatening was the main goal,” he says and stalks across the patio to sit next to Freya, leaving me entirely off balance. I definitely don’t have a clue how to interact with this man, and I don’t anticipate that changing.
That’s going to make things interesting.
Chapter Five
Cole
“I’m going to regretasking this,” Derek says.
When he doesn’t continue, I look up from the book I’ve been pretending to read. “What?”
He smirks and shakes his head, sinking deeper into his chair until he looks like he might slide out of it. It’s unusual for him to slouch, and he only ever does it when the two of us are alone. I’ve never figured out why he doesn’t relax with anyone else. “What has you in such a bad mood?”
I knew I shouldn’t have stayed as long as I have, but for some reason I didn’t want Carissa to think she scared me off. She and her sister were here for hours, both of them charming the pants off my friends, and now I’m missing practice because the Paxton sisters only left an hour ago. I could have left much sooner, but Freya is flying back to Candora tonight so I wanted to soak up as much of her time as I could.
The sun is still high, bathing the two of us on the back patio with more heat than I’d like, but Derek’s view can’t be beat. And it’s kind of nice to take a moment to breathe.
“I’m not in a bad mood,” I say.
“Sure you’re not.”
“I just don’t think you should be okay with Bonnie inviting randos to your house.”
