Page 20 of Catching Coy
“I’m starting to regret it too,” she whispered back, leaning into him. “Now I can’t tell you to stop your flirting and making me melt all over the place.”
“Do you mind if we join you?” Lucy’s voice snapped Bellamy away from Coy, but he gripped her hand even as she tried to pull it back.
He turned to Lucy, who had her arm linked with Charlotte’s, standing above them. Charlotte pressed a smile to her lips, her cheeks deep pink and her gaze darting between him and Bellamy and then around the room. Lucy’s actions had embarrassed her.
“Of course,” Bellamy said, scooting away from Coy. He still held her hand in his, refusing to let go, even though she tugged again.
“Yeah, please do,” he said, scooting back closer to Bellamy and patting the spot on the other side of him. Lucy dropped down onto it, letting go of Charlotte’s arm. She slipped onto the corner of the sectional on the other side of Bellamy. Within a few seconds, the other two women, probably encouraged by Lucy and Charlotte’s success, were making their way over.
“So,” Lucy leaned into Coy, draping herself against his side and forcing him to lift his arm to put it on the back of the couch to avoid any discomfort from the, well, placement of his arm now against Lucy. “This is crazy! How did it happen?” She pulled back to snuggle into Coy’s side, putting a hand on his knee.
“Well, Coy kept flirting with me and we all figured if that was going to continue, I had better join this whole thing officially.” Bellamy leaned back against the couch, projecting confidence, though he noticed her tapping her finger against her other leg.
Lucy, as well as Willa and Gillian as they took seats on the couch, laughed. Every single one sounded forced. The other thing he’d noticed after dozens of Catch episodes was the increased tension between the women as the weeks advanced. None of them likely wanted Bellamy here. She was competition, competition they were bound to notice already had a leg up in the game. He and Bellamy’s interactions had been off camera and more real than anything else here.
“Well,” Bellamy stood, still trying to tug free her hand. He finally let go. “I’m starving. I didn’t eat all day thanks to the nerves.” She waved at the women and hurried off across the gym to the tables set up. Coy couldn’t help watching her shoulders move up and down a few times, like she was trying to force calm over herself.
He drew in a deep breath himself. Things were going to be very interesting this week.
Chapter Twelve
Gillian, 29
Salt Lake City, Utah
CEO, Girls Play
“Yeah, I’m worried that we have more competition this week, instead of less. But I’m going to focus on my relationship with Coy. I know we’ve got something good.”
* * *
Bellamy had helpedRoxy buy the beds in the rooms at the Ranch House, and she’d always thought they were comfortable, but it wasn’t her bed. After entering the competition, she had to join the women on the second floor of the Ranch House. At least she didn’t have to share a room. With Stella and Bristol both leaving, Lucy and Willa had become roommates, though Lucy had tried to convince Bellamy to be her roommate. She was grateful, at least for tonight, for her odd-woman-out status. She could lay in Roxy’s old bedroom, staring at the ceiling and wondering what in the world she’d done. She couldn’t even call Roxy. Agnes had taken away her phone.
Focus on you and Coy. That’s what Roxy would tell her. She’d make Bellamy banish the fears that she’d done all of this for nothing, risked her heart to have Coy cut her in a couple of weeks. His decision to take someone else on the one-on-one the next week had startled her. Even though she told Roxy that she understood that Coy might fall for one of the other women, in her heart of hearts, she hadn’t believed it. And still, the way he’d wanted to take it back reassured her. But here in the dark, she was thinking again. Thinking about how his hands had automatically slid to Lucy’s waist when she kissed him after he’d given her a jacket. How his arms had tightened around Charlotte—sweet, lovable Charlotte—when she hugged him in surprise. If Bellamy was watching this season from home, Charlotte would be her pick.
“We can’t discount Lucy,” Bellamy whispered into the darkness. Lucy’s smirk as she sat down after being picked, and that same smirk when she wrapped herself up in Coy during the celebration, gnawed at Bellamy’s nerves. Lucy would be the woman Bellamy would rail against to Roxy, asking how Coy couldn’t see that it was all physical and no heart. But in hockey player, Holt Stone’s season, he had ended up choosing Corin, the woman Bellamy, Roxy, and everyone on social media had dubbed that season’s dose of crazy.
The phone next to the bed rang, making Bellamy jump. She snatched it up. Roxy had known she was coming in, but how would she have guessed which room Bellamy would put herself in? Truthfully, her old bedroom, the room Bellamy considered the best in the house, was a good guess. And only she would have known how to bypass the phone system to get straight to Bellamy’s room.
“Rox. Thank heavens, I’m freaking out.”
“Just take a deep breath.” Coy’s voice made Bellamy cry out. He chuckled. “Let me guess. Good gravy? Or is this a cheese curds situation?”
Bellamy slid off the bed, sitting down on the floor on the side away from the door, just in case someone came to investigate the phone noises and Bellamy yelling. “Coy Jones!” she said sternly.
“I told you I missed you.”
Bellamy smiled at the sound of his voice. “How in the world did you get this number?”
“Zane got a hold of Roxy. Told Agnes we broke something.” He laughed and Bellamy could picture the mischievous expression he must be wearing. “She said to tell you that this was a good decision. Coy Jones is worth it no matter what happens.”
Bellamy snorted. “She said that, huh?”
“I added the last.”
“This is crazy, Coy. What if you break my heart?”
He didn’t answer for a long time. “I worry about that every time I cut someone. And every time I keep someone.”
