Page 14 of Unspoken Hearts
“Whatever. Where’s my drink?” Cole mutters as Paisley appears with our tray of drinks.
Dressed in a dark denim dress, sleeves cut off at the shoulders, with metal buttons running all the way down the front, her deep skin sparkles underneath the amber lights. Curly black hair, tall and curvy, she sets the tray down on the table, her dark eyes scanning ours before narrowing at Cole’s unamused ones.
“I should have known you’d be here with your brothers.” Setting his beer down last, she pops her hip and fists her hand on it. “Are you going to apologise now?”
Cole just grins up at her, eyelids shuttering as he teases, “You’re going to have to beg me for that.”
“How about a spit in your drink?” Paisley quips, cocking a dark brow up. “Oh, wait, I already did that.” and she flounces off happily as Cole’s jaw tenses.
Before any of us can stop chuckling, he pushes our glasses into the middle and mixes them as we start protesting.
“It’s only fair!” Cole shouts before grabbing one from the bunch and sipping.
The rest of us grimace and pray that Paisley was lying about spluttering saliva into one of them.
“You’re gross, you know that?” Grayson grumbles out. “And you say that you’re mature…” shaking his head before sliding a beer his way.
Cole snickers at that, but doesn’t deny anything.
“What did you do to her?” Macie questions, focusing on her water—the only drink I have ever seen herorder here.
I’ve never seen her touch alcohol, which is understandable with how her family seemed to abuse it, but I also think it’s because water is the only drink that’s free here.
“She seems annoyed, and you didn’t even apologise.”
“It’s not my fault—”
“I beg to differ.” Holden murmurs gruffly.
Cole punches Holden’s arm before straightening in his seat. “It’s only over a game, all right.”
“A video game?” Laynie questions warily, and Cole nods his head.
“That’s what this is about?” Grayson says, rubbing at his clean-shaven jaw. “I thought it was a real issue.”
Laynie and Macie exchange a look as I quietly sip on my drink.
Eyes flicking onto hers, the corner of Macie’s mouth curls for a beat, and I don’t miss it.
“I mean, I might have not invited her to the release night ofSpeed Demon 5, but she beat me in our last competition. I didn’t want her there.” Cole explains in a frustrated tone.
We all look at each other questioningly before I ask slowly, “Why is her beating you something to be sour about?”
Cole glares my way, lips forming a tight straight line. “I’m a Supercars driver. Do you know how bad it looks if I lose at a car racing game? Something I dofor a living? And not only that, but she’s a girl. I lost to agirl.”
He has a point, but my baby brother can also be a bit of a moron sometimes, so I just chuckle at him as Paisley returns with a plate of potato wedges and chicken wings.
“Here you go.” She places them down amongst the glasses.
She moves to leave when Cole grabs onto her arm, forcing her to look down at his pestering smirk. “We also ordered pizza bites.”
“No, you didn’t.” shaking her head at him, clearly still irritated with him, although she seems to always have a vexed expression.
Cole’s eyes narrow a fraction, and Paisley’s mouth purses even tighter. “I believe that the customer is always right.”
“And I believe that this customer is an absolute jerk.” she bites back, pulling her arm out of his grip and storming off behind the busy bar.
Grayson just gives him a tight smile and shrugs. “Tough, but she’s right. You should just apologise.”
