Page 7 of Chasing Elliott
Kara laughed and rolled her eyes as I looped my arm through her free one and allowed Benjamin to lead us towards his car. He hit the button on his remote to unlock it before tossing the keys to Cooper. I couldn’t stop the grin from growing on my face when I saw Kara blushing profusely as Benjamin opened the door for her so she could slide in.
“Where are we going?” Cooper asked as he mimicked Benjamin and opened the passenger side door for me.
“You pick,” I told him after glancing back at Kara and receiving a shrug from her in response. “I’m not that hard to please, I promise. I trust your judgement.”
Cooper nodded as he walked around the car and opened the driver’s side door, climbing in. Just as I was about to slide in myself, I felt a hand on my shoulder and noticed Benjamin looking at me with an intense expression covering his handsome features.
“Can you and I talk later?” He asked which caused my eyebrows to furrow as he glanced down at Kara through the window. “Privately?”
“I mean, I suppose, but why?” I retorted as I placed my arms to rest on the roof of the car. But instead of responding, he walked around the back of the car and opened the door, sliding in next to Kara and effectively ending our conversation. I rolled my eyes at his antics as I pulled open the door and slipped in next to Cooper.
I controlled the radio, finding Kara and I’s favorite country station and she and I sang along to every song at the top of our lungs. The boys laughed and even sang along some, but mostly they were making fun of the two of us. About half an hour had passed before I started growing hungry, irritated with the pointless driving around.
“My god, just pick a place,” I groaned from the passenger seat as I slammed my head against the headrest in frustration. “I’m fucking starving.”
“Okay, okay,” Kara giggled from the backseat which caused me to whip my head aroundand narrow my eyes at her, daring her to push me. “I’m sorry, I should’ve known better. Let’s go to the Tavern.”
“What do you mean, you should know better?” Cooper asked as we rolled to a stop at ared light, and he typed the restaurant into his GPS on his phone; we had definitely gotten ourselves lost during all the singing and bickering.
“Meaning once she gets hungry you have about ten minutes to get her something or else she turns into quite the bitch, no offense, El. That’s why I usually always carry a granola bar in my purse.” Both of the boys burst out laughing and I folded my arms over my chest in irritation.
“Good to know,” Cooper said as he flipped on his blinker and turned left once the lightwas green. “I’ll have to remember that.”
I glanced over at him with a raised brow, but he kept his eyes on the road. Suddenly, my cell went off in my lap and I looked down to see a text from Kara. I bit my lip to stop the laugh from escaping as I unlocked my phone and rolled my eyes at her message.
Kara: He likes you.
Elliott: He’s just being nice.
Kara: Nope, he’s going to ask you out. I can sense these things.
Elliott: Well, even if you’re right, I don’t date so the answer would be no.Kara: But he’s hot!!! Plus, he seems like a great guy.
Kara: Please consider it…
I didn’t bother to reply as we finally pulled up to the restaurant. I quickly undid my seatbelt and climbed out of the car, not waiting for the other three as I made a beeline for thefront doors. I heard a collective laughter behind me, but I ignored them as my stomach growled and I pulled open the large set of double doors.
I approached the hostess stand and internally groaned. Laura narrowed her eyes at me and flipped her long, blonde extension filled hair over her shoulder and obnoxiously smacked the gum she had in her mouth.She must have gotten fired from her other job, I thought.No surprise there.
“I need a booth,” I told her dryly as I folded my arms over my chest, hoping she’d just shut up and do her job.
“All the guys are at the bar,” she spat out distastefully as she mocked my posture. “You’llhave better luck finding something to fuck in there.”
Before I could fire back a response, I heard a pair of heels hitting the floor and knew Kara and the guys had just entered. Laura immediately perked up and unfolded her arms, resting them instead on the hostess stand which caused her breasts to push together. I rolled my eyes at her lame attempt at coming off as attractive as they approached.
“We’ll take a booth,” Kara said happily, ignoring the obvious tension between Laura and I. Kara always wanted to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible; she did it to try and keep me out of trouble.
“Hey, Coop,” Laura practically purred as she very noticeably scanned him up and down. “What have you been up to, stranger? You haven’t returned any of my calls or texts.”
I glanced over my shoulder and noticed the tension riddling Cooper’s entire body. Hestarted to shift slightly between the balls of his feet and his thumbs found their way to his beltloops. Acting on the spot, wanting to not only ease his discomfort but piss off Laura, I held outmy hand and grabbed his arm, pulling him into my side. Cooper wasted no time in wrapping his arm around my shoulders, holding me firmly against him.
Laura’s face fell instantly as she pushed herself away from the hostess stand, narrowing her eyes on me as a cocky smile came to my lips. I glanced up at Cooper to see him already smiling down at me and I could see the silent thank you behind his eyes.
“He’s been a little,” I paused as I scrunched my eyebrows and slowly turned to look at her once more. “Busy.”
“You’re going to regret this one, Elliott,” she hissed as she spun on her heels and stormed away from us, refusing to show us to a booth.
Once she was out of my sight, I stepped out from Cooper’s arm and went straight into the bar, looking for a very familiar face. Spotting him behind the bar, I smiled and pulled down my bralette slightly before walking over.
