Page 92 of The Offside Rule
Holland’s smile turned innocent, which meant she was not innocent at all. “She wanted information.”
“About?” Cole asked.
“Hunter,” she continued.
My spine locked. Catherine stopped moving and stared at her lap.
Holland leaned back. “Apparently Quinn heard you might be dating someone.”
There it was. A grenade. Right in the bread basket. Cole looked at me with a half smile. “You dating someone?”
It was a simple question. A question I could have answered easily twenty-four hours ago. Now the woman I wanted was sitting beside me with her parents across the table.
I cleared my throat. “Not officially.”
Catherine’s knee hit mine under the table. I deserved it.
Holland’s eyes narrowed. “Not officially?”
Cole hid a smile behind his glass.
“I mean,” I said, trying to recover and immediately making it worse, “I’m not currently bringing anyone to family functions.”
Catherine choked on air.
Jaden pointed. “Now Catherine is dying.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
Holland’s gaze moved from Catherine to me and back again. Too slowly and carefully. My pulse climbed. Cole shrugged, apparently less interested in murdering me than I deserved.
“Well, if you are seeing someone, good for you. It’s been a long time.”
That hit differently.
I looked down at the table. “Yeah,” I said. “It has.”
The air softened for one dangerous second. Then Holland went right back to being Holland. “Quinn wanted to know if she was nice, if she understood Isla comes first, and if Sloane knew.”
“Damn,” Cole muttered.
Catherine muttered, “Sloane is the final boss.”
I almost smiled. Our food arrived, which should have saved me. It didn’t. Because the booth was small, the waiter set Catherine’s plate down close to me, and she shifted to make room. Her thigh brushed mine. A tiny contact. Except my body was a traitor and apparently had no interest in context.
I reached for my napkin and somehow, because my brain had taken a leave of absence, my hand landed on Catherine’s thigh instead. Bare skin through the rip in her jeans. She sucked in a sharp breath. I pulled my hand back like the table had caught fire.
“Sorry,” I said. Too loud.
Cole looked up. “For what?”
My brain went blank.
Catherine grabbed her fork. “He bumped me.”
“With his hand?” Jaden asked.
I wanted to slide under the table and live there.
