Page 91 of The Love Lie
“Honest mistake.”
“Or telling everyone that Haddie was knocked up after we heard she and Caleb ran off to Vegas?”
“It was obvious!”
“Or that time you told my dad I took Caroline to the Peak? He showed up in the chopper!”
“Okay.” Wes winces. “That was bad.”
“I can keep going.”
“What’s the Peak?” Sam interrupts, unable to stop herself.And who the hell is Caroline?
They both look at her.
Then at each other.
Then at her again.
Then—
“Cooper! Wesley! Why’d you—” The new voice stops short.
Sam snaps her head up.
An older man fills the doorway, tall and broad. His jawline is surprisingly chiseled for his age, and there appears to be a permanent furrow etched into his brow. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who he is, especially when those hard green eyes, so like his son’s, yet so different, zero in on her.
Sam sighs.
Ass-up in worn leggings is definitely not how she planned to meet Cooper’s father, but there’s no hiding now. She waves once from her perch over Wes’s shoulder, completely forgetting about the ring she casually slipped back onto her finger before leaving for the airport the day before—to keep up appearances, obviously. Not because she’d missed it. Or because her finger felt oddly bare without it. Or because it meant anything.
Because it doesn’t.
Except it must, because the second Frank Kelley sets eyes on it, he goes stiff.
“What the hell is going on here, boys?” he bellows as his gaze darts between the three of them. “And who does she belong to?”
“Excuse me?” Indignation burns like a stick of dynamite up Sam’s chest. “My own damn self, thank you very much.”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist.”
“My panties are just fine. Ask your son.”
His eyes narrow as his gaze flicks toward Cooper. “So she’s yours then?”
“Dad.” Cooper pinches the bridge of his nose. “You can’t—”
“Then what’s she doing with him?”
“I’m stealing her away,” Wes says with a grin, seemingly amused by the entire exchange.
Well, that makes one of us.
“No, you’re not,” Cooper interjects. “Put her down, Wes.”
“I have questions.”
“What questions could you possibly have? You’re the number-one fan of the show. You won’t shut up about it.”
