Page 31 of Chasing Elliott
“I still can’t believe you fought Laura,” Benjamin said with a laugh as he rested back on the couch and slung an arm around Kara’s shoulders. She snuggled up into his side and released a contented sigh.
“I’m surprised you know how to fight,” Cooper pitched in which caused my head to snap over to him.
I raised a brow, crossing my arms over my chest in an offended manner. “Not surewhether or not I should feel insulted, but you can thank my brothers.”
“You have brothers?” Benjamin asked, surprised and I nodded.
I caught Kara staring at me with a raised brow as if she were waiting to see how I was going to answer. Cooper already knew Nicholas, hell, they’ve gone out drinking a few times together, but he didn’t know about Alex and Everett.
“Three of them,” I informed them, my eyes still on Kara’s and I saw the sad smile shegave me.
“She had to learn to stand up for them when they were young,” she piped up with sad eyes.
Cooper glanced between the two of us, furrowed brows and narrowed eyes as if he weretrying to read the silent conversation that was being had between her and I. “What do you mean?”
I sighed and bit my lip, memories from my childhood rushing back to me but for oncethey didn’t rattle me like they normally did.
“Well, Nicholas was scrawny and nerdy when he was young, Alex loved wearing my clothes and got beat up in school all the time because of it, and Everett tried so hard to protect me thatI ended up having to protect him instead. I’d be damned if I let anyone mess with my family.”
Cooper’s smile grew as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me more firmly into his side. He kissed my temple and started placing kisses all over the side of my face and Isquealed in response as I tried to get away.
“You’re amazing, you know that?” Cooper told me once he finally stopped attacking mewith kisses.
“I do,” I responded with a wink as Kara and Benjamin laughed. “You tell me that often, Benny.”
“So, I vote we order pizza for dinner and binge watch a movie series. Are you guys down?” Kara asked as she climbed off the couch to head into the kitchen, presumably to find the paper menu with the phone number on it.
After everyone gave their approval, I tilted my head up towards Cooper and waited as heleaned down and pressed a kiss to my lips. I heard Kara’s soft voice reach us from the kitchen as she placed our order over the phone. I could feel Benjamin watching us as Cooper slid in beside me, maneuvering me so I was in his lap, his arms wrapping around my midsection as he buried
his head in my shoulder. I smiled despite the aching feeling; I was starting to realize this was going to be a lot harder than I originally thought.
“It’s one of the few red foods I like,” I rushed out as I heard the beeper begin to pick up its speed.
“Apples,” Kara yelled in response. I roughly smacked the button on the side of the catchphrase card holder and tossed it to Cooper.
“Okay,” Cooper said quickly with a nod as he started to gesture wildly with his right hand. “It’s a thing that you use to paint on.”
“An easel,” Benjamin responded in haste as Kara groaned and ripped the machine out ofCooper’s hand.
“It’s a thing that happens when a fish dies,” Kara spat out as she looked at me with frantic eyes.
I shook my head as I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to think as fast as possible. “It goes belly up?”
Kara threw it towards Benjamin and he tried to flip it over after hitting the button but thebuzzer sounded. Kara and I leapt out of our seats and slammed into each other as we celebrated our win, jumping around and squealing.
Turning to the boys, we each put a hand on our hip as we smiled triumphantly but theyweren’t so pleased. I laughed as I fell back down on the seat next to Cooper and laid my head on his shoulder.
“Sorry, Benny, but maybe this will teach you not to challenge us next time,” I teased, which caused him to try and shrug me off. I chuckled softly as I wrapped my arms around his torso and looked up at him through my lashes, trying to look innocent but he just rolled his eyes as a smile stayed on his lips.
“I have another game we could play,” Kara said as she made her way into the kitchen to grab a bowl of popcorn out of the microwave that we had made about half an hour ago.
“No more games where we’re on the clock,” Benjamin groaned as he threw his head back against the cushions of the couch.
Kara came strolling back into the living room with a large bowl in her hand, setting it down on the coffee table before sitting next to Benjamin. “It’s not. We’ve all been together for afew months now so things would be fair. Why not see which couple knows each other the best? And then we can see which friendship pair knows the most.”
“We heard you two arguing about who knew their girl better so we figured we could help you boys settle the score,” I told them with a shrug. Cooper and Benjamin exchanged a look, their eyes narrowed on one another daringly.
“Bring it,” Benjamin said with a cockiness evident in his voice.
