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I can’t help but giggle, turn, and head back to Cole. He stands and wraps me in a loser’s embrace, and his chest vibrates against my cheek as he tries to reign it all back in.
When his laughter subsides, I tip my head back and rest my chin against his sternum. “Another round?”
Tenderly, he draws circles at the small of my back. Heat flickers in his eyes, and it’s then that I know his mind has wandered somewhere else. “I have other ideas.”
“Oh?”
He bends and whispers huskily in my ear, “And it doesn’t involve the public eye.”
A shiver starts from my head and ends at my toes. He lets me go, crouches before me, and starts to remove my rented bowling shoes. His face is so damn close to my core that I’m positive he’s doing that to tease me. It’s working. A tingle spreads from my clit to my nipples, a promise of what might come.
As soon as my shoes are off, he slides off his own, picksup our shoes, and passes them to me. “Return these? I’ll put back the balls.”
I nod, take them, and we each briefly head our separate ways. A hum works its way up my throat, a happy tune on my way to the counter. I set them down on the surface, and the person who’s manning the shoes turns and does a double glance at me.
A smile spreads across his sickly-looking face. “Tegan,” Derek greets hoarsely. It’s as if he’d spent the majority of the night screaming at a rock concert and now has a raw throat.
“Mr. Wordon,” I say in surprise, and then it hits me. He owns this bowling alley. Sort of. Well, he wouldn’t at all if he knew about the living will.
“It’s Derek,” he corrects, his smile fading a little.
“Right. Sorry.” I shift awkwardly because, the more the seconds tick by, the more he studies me.
“Did you come with your friend? Tori, right?” he asks, searching the space behind me.
I shake my head. “Cole and I came together.”
He raises his eyebrows above the rim of his glasses. Deep wrinkles stretch across his forehead, loose skin from all the weight he’s lost. “Cole?”
I nod while frowning because I don’t like his tone.
“I see. Did you two have a good time?” For some odd reason, he doesn’t seem too happy that I’m here with his handyman. I have no idea why, and I don’t care to ask. It’s none of his business anyway.
“We did. But we’re headed out now. I just came to return our shoes.” I point at them to redirect his attention.
He only glances at them. After a small bout of coughs, he asks, “You two getting close?”
I shift uncomfortably. “Yeah, yeah we are.”
He nods after a moment’s pause. “That explains why he knows what you found.”
My brows pinch together. “I’m sorry?”
Splaying both hands on the counter, he leans toward me. “A folder or binder or something of my brother’s. He said you found it.”
I don’t correct him and tell him that it was actually Cole who found it. Instead, the cheeseballs in my stomach roll with nervous energy. Do I lie? No. I can’t lie. I won’t make Cole out to be the bad guy. Cole may not know the significance of what I found because I haven’t told him yet, but I certainly do.
So instead of denying it, because I’ve never been a big fat liar, I just nod.
His eyes narrow as he looks down at me. “I’d like for you to hand that over to me.”
“Why?” is my immediate question.
“Because it belonged to my brother. Therefore, it belongs to me.”
My scowl is deep. “I thought you wanted anything we found in the house to be thrown away.”
He tips his chin in a scolding sort of way, but I don’t cower as he says, “That binder probably has important information in it.”
