Page 96 of The Love Lie
“Because.” She leans in close and stretches onto her tippy toes, pressing completely against him as her lips brush his ear, sending a spike of heat deep into his lower abs. “No matter how much they look, or how much they pine, or how much they try, I’ll be coming home with you, Cooper. Only you.”
She pushes past him while he melts into a goddamn puddle on the floor.
This is a really bad idea.
Her.
Him.
Them.
The bar.
Everything.
And yet, he follows her out the door like the sad little puppy he’s somehow become, trailing at her heels. Wes already has the truck fired up when he hops in.
“To the Barn?” his friend asks.
Cooper slips his arm around Sam’s shoulders and pulls her into his side. She curls easily into the spot and settles her headagainst his chest. He lifts one foot onto the dash, drops his head back, and surrenders to just how right this feels. “To the Barn.”
They peel off down the gravel road.
For the first half of the drive, Wes peppers them with an endless stream of questions about everything that happened on the show and in the Maldives to get them to this point. He’s half superfan and half needling-best-friend. By the time he’s done, Cooper is exhausted. But Sam is apparently just getting started because she then spends the second half of the ride demanding to hear every embarrassing story of his youth, starting with,Okay, I’ve been thinking about this all day. What’s the Peak? And who the hell is Caroline?He grins at that one, noting the jealousy in her tone. But the smug attitude is quickly wiped away when Wes abandons all loyalty and tells her everything she wants to hear—that the Peak is a well-known makeout spot at the top of a bluff about forty-five minutes outside of town, that Caroline is the daughter of his father’s best friend, and that a thousand-watt spotlight hit them right about the same time his zipper came undone. Apparently, history means nothing in the face of Sam’s mischievous eyes. By the time they pull into a parking spot, all his dirty laundry from age five to now has been aired.
But he doesn’t mind.
He likes that she keeps asking for more. He wants her to know everything about him.
He wants to know everything about her, too.
“Is that Cooper Fucking Kelley?” a voice shouts the second he steps out of the truck.
“TheCooper Kelley?” another taunts.
“The six-pack savior?”
He lifts his middle finger high into the air and turns to offer Sam his hand. The moment her auburn hair slips into view, a true murmur rises.
“Is that her?”
“Is that Emily?”
“Why is she here?”
“Do you see that ring?”
“Are they engaged?”
So much for keeping a low profile.Sam looks up at him and grins, the same thought clearly running through her mind.I should have told her to take off the ring.
Except he didn’t want to.
If he’s being honest, he likes seeing it there. He likes knowing there’s some little piece of her that belongs to him, even if it’s fake.
Because he wants it to be real.
Besides, this is a small town with small-town loyalties. No one will blab to the press. He’s more worried about being indoctrinated into the local lore for the rest of his goddamn life. Though, really, it’s already too late for that.
