Inside Out (18 page)

“How you gonna get better if you don’t play?” Adrian asked with a grin.

“Who’s to say I want to get better at pool? Hmm? What if I just want to watch all you guys bend over so I can ogle your butts?”

Elise laughed. “Put that way, I can truly see the appeal.”

Ella was just content to just sit and chat, taking one long look at Andrew Copeland’s ass and then back to their group at the table.

“So how have you been?” Adrian asked, sliding a huge slice of fully loaded pie onto his plate.

“Since you saw me last this afternoon?” she teased.

“Yeah, but Cope came in, and I didn’t get much of a chance to talk with you. He’s an Ella hog.” He took a measuring look at her. “How’s life?”

“Um. I don’t know. Mainly the same as it was last week, or even last year. But totally different. Which makes no sense, but that’s the only way I can describe it.”

“No, I get it. And good. I imagine if it wasn’t a good thing, you wouldn’t look so happy. When you first started at the café you were like this. And then it faded. Slowly so that I didn’t really see it until I’d come back from a tour and you were not the same.”

“Something like that.”

“No, I mean it. But you’ve been coming into focus over the last year especially. You’re blooming, and it’s beautiful.”

She blinked back tears. “Thank you for that. It feels like each day I have that’s just normal is a win. And then I add in the other stuff. Good friends. Family. A good job.” She looked over to the pool table where Cope had just bent to take his shot. A lock of hair had fallen over his forehead, his biceps gloriously bulgy against the wool of his sweater. She smiled at him as he noticed her. He blew her a kiss and took the shot, making it.

“That’s part of the way you glow.” Adrian spoke softly. “The two of you light up when you’re together.”

“As I told Elise as she eagerly planned the wedding earlier tonight, it’s our first date. I like him. He likes me. I don’t know what else it is past that.”

“Little liar.” Adrian smirked as he took a big bite of pizza. “You and Cope have been having foreplay for years now. More for him than you, at first anyway.”

“Ew. Well, okay not ew, but what the heck did I miss?” Elise slid into the booth. “Foreplay for years?”

Adrian laughed. “I was disagreeing with Ella that this was her first date with Cope.”

“Oh that. Yes, I agree that they’ve been dancing around each other for years. Though Ella didn’t know it for some reason.”

“Okay, hello, I am right here.” She took a bite of her pizza and looked back at Andrew, catching his gaze immediately because he’d been looking at her too.

Cope moved to her, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “What’s that smile for?”

“Just looking at you makes a girl happy, Andrew.”

He grinned, a dimple showing just to the right of his mouth. “I’m at your service.”

“Stop flirting and take your turn,” Ben called to his brother.

“Hush, you. I’ve got something more important to do first.” He kissed her again, this time on the lips, and went back to the game.

“Anyway,” she said, blushing madly as she returned her attention to Adrian, “it’s different. We know each other, yes, and there’s a level of trust between us that I don’t share with too many people. I haven’t dated someone in years.
Years
. Believe me when I say this is new.”

“But good, right? ’Cause, honey, you’re giving off loopy happy like mad. There’s something major between you and Cope.” Adrian filled her glass as he spoke.

“I don’t really know what it is beyond good, but yes, it feels major. Maybe just to me. But really good in any case.”

Elise raised her glass, Adrian and Ella doing the same. “To really good. Also, dude, we’ve gone over this; it’s not just you.”

That was something Ella could wholeheartedly endorse.

Todd won, and Elise went over to take Ben’s place. Erin managed to con Adrian into letting her play another round in his place. Todd only rolled his eyes, standing behind Erin, his hands on her belly.

Cope slid in beside her, closer than he had to, not that she was complaining.

“Hey there.”

“Hi. Sorry you didn’t win.”

“Not a chance with Todd playing. He’s good. The only person nearly as good is Erin. Anyway, I’d rather be right here.”

She poured him a beer, sliding it and a plate his way. “Plenty of pizza left. I saved you three slices of the everything.”

“You’re pretty perfect. Thanks.” He dug in, totally satisfied with his life at that moment.

“You’re welcome.” She wore her joy on her skin, in her features, making the smile she gave him utterly infectious. Fuck, he was happy to be there with her. It did something to him, to watch her there with his friends, with those people he loved, and to know she felt the same about them. To a guy like him, a guy who put a lot of importance on connection to family and community, that she did too was simply a sign of how perfect she was for him.

“Are you free next weekend?” He needed to get that established right off. She wasn’t just some woman he dated, they had more, and he wanted everyone to understand that. Especially Ella. The challenge would be to let her see his intentions without making her feel hemmed in or controlled.

“Sure. Wait.” She eyed him carefully. “For what? My answer depends on yours. Ice camping? I’m busy. Other things that won’t get me killed or give me frostbite? I’m available.”

He laughed. “I was thinking of going to the ocean. No hiking or anything. One of my friends owns a house out there and offered it to me for the weekend. If it wasn’t so damned cold already, I’d suggest a trip out on the bike. But we can save that until the spring since we know how you feel about ice camping.”

She looked at him seriously without speaking, and he got nervous. “I mean, obviously he’s got more than one bedroom. It’s not . . . that’s up to you. God, I’m fucking this up.” He actually fumbled; he never fumbled. Good god.

Laughing, she hugged him briefly. “Yes, I’m free.” She leaned a little closer. “It sounds like fun.”

Her voice rose in a delightfully squeaky way at the end.

“All right. We can leave Friday night and get back Sunday after breakfast? Does that work?”

She nodded slowly, and he went back to his pizza.

The group hung on for another two hours until Cope was just about ready to text his brother to get the hell out of there so he could leave with Ella. Finally Erin stood and stretched her back.

“I gotta call it a night, boys and girls.”

Everyone got up and tossed money down, put coats and hats on and headed toward the sidewalk just out front.

“You ready to go?” Cope said it quietly, his lips close to her ear. “Care to come back to my house for a while? I’ve got some ice cream to go with the cake you have left over.”

“Mmm, cake.” She actually giggled, and his cock hardened. What the hell else was she going to do that would turn him on so unintentionally? “Your house? Or the condo? I mean, yes to either. But I’d love to see the house.”

He smiled at how easily flustered she got. “My house. I’ve finished enough that I’ve decided to live there. At least on the weekends. It’s got a well-stocked fridge, my couch and electronics in the bedroom.” And a bed. He shivered a moment at the thought of her in it, at the very real tension between them that could lead them there. But he didn’t want to rush her.

“Are you cold?” She angled her head to see his face.

“Nope. I’m ...” He broke off to return Brody and Elise’s good-byes.

“I expect to hear every last filthy detail,” Elise whispered to Ella, though not quietly enough.

Ella’s laugh resurrected the shiver.

“Have her home by midnight, son,” Ben called to him.

“Ha. Take care of your pregnant wife. Ella is in good hands.”

There was much hooting and laughter at that. Ella waved at them all with both hands. “Moving right along. Jeez. See you all later. Don’t forget about me now that I’m not going to be pulling your coffee every day.”

“Oh my silly, sweet Ella.” Erin hugged her. “
This
is what we do. Every Friday night we come here, eat pizza, drink some beer or water, and we play pool while we catch up. Every. Friday. You are one of us, and you will have more time to do such things now that you have no more school and only one job. So there. There’s no forgetting, dumb ass.”

“We’re like the Mafia. Once you’re in, you’re in for life.” Cope hugged her to him. As if he had any intention of not seeing her every chance he got.
Pfft
.

“See you all next week. Erin, get some sleep!” Ella let him open her door before she turned to him, her breath white in the air. “Take me wherever you want me to go.”

His heart stuttered as they stood there in the cold; snow fell but melted before it hit the ground.

“All right. Do you trust me?”

Again that slow, measured nod.

“Good.”

11

Her heart beat so fast it would have been easy to blame her breathless state on that. But she knew that was a lie. It was him. One hundred percent the way Andrew Copeland waltzed his way right into her body and played her like an instrument.

Other than those few delicious kisses, he hadn’t even touched her yet, but she found herself so turned on that even shifting in her seat was enough to send a ripple of pleasure through her from her pussy outward. They drove toward Ballard with an easy silence. Tom Waits whispered and howled quietly over the speakers.

“I had a good time tonight.”

She winced inwardly at how lame that must have sounded. Instead, he reached and took her hand, squeezing it gently. “Me too, Red.” He took a right onto a cul-de-sac. “Ah, here we are.”

She looked down the street and knew without having to be told which house was his. He pulled into the narrow driveway, and she tried not to gape.

He must have spent a lot of time on this house. The others on the street were of like architecture, but his had been lovingly restored to its faux Northwest Tudor-type beauty. “I love the brick. You did some major restoration out there, didn’t you?”

He turned and smiled. “Yeah. I do too. I worked out a barter, partially anyway, with a friend who knew how to be sure the brick met code and all that stuff.” He hopped out and ran to her side to get her door. He seemed to like doing it and it didn’t bother her one way or the other so why not?

“Come on in. It’s going to be cold. At least the part I’m not living in yet. Have faith, Ella Tipton. I will build a fire and get us nice and cozy.”

She smiled and let him help her out.

“I have a great deal of faith in you, Andrew. Show me the outside too. I can’t see it all really well now, but I still want to see.”

His smile was altogether new, something she hadn’t seen from him yet. Pride, yes, but something more. She knew she liked it and wanted to see it again, knew without a doubt it was something he showed few.

The backyard was partially done from what she could see by muted moonlight and the back porch light.

“I’d like to put a water feature out there. Some benches. The trees provide great shade, and it’s really a nice place to sit in the evenings. Brody and I put a small pond and rock waterfall in at Elise’s parents’ place a few months ago. It kicked my ass, but now I know how to do it.”

“I like it out here. Lots of trees. A water feature would be lovely out there, especially if you had comfortable benches or a glider swing or something. Are you going to do some outdoor lighting too?” Her teeth chattered, and he laughed, putting an arm around her and sweeping her up to the back door.

He had two locks and, as she discovered when they got inside, a good security system. It didn’t surprise her; the man did this for a living and all. But she relaxed more.

“Do you want some tea? I have some good whiskey to go in it. That’ll warm you up.” He grinned.

“I’ll make us hot chocolate if you have the fixings. But only after I get the tour of the inside.”

“You don’t have to.” He lost his confident stance, just for a moment, recovering quickly, but not so fast a girl with the same problem couldn’t catch it.

She took his hand. “I know I don’t. But I want to. You created this with your hands and labor. It’s special. I want to see it.”

He blushed. That touched her enough to tip more than halfway into love with Andrew Copeland. The man, she suspected, didn’t show all of himself to many. So when he opened that part of himself to her, it shook her to her core. Cocky was charming and sexy, but it wasn’t devastating. Humble, pleased by compliments on his work, the kind of man who read poetry and created the beauty she stood in right then, well, that was another thing entirely, and she had no defenses against that.

He led her through the parts of the house he’d finished, avoiding the bedroom for the moment. She asked questions that showed him she was truly interested and not just entertaining him.

That she found something he’d loved doing so much so beautiful turned him inside out. Exposed.

“I love it. The attention to the detail and design really takes it to a whole different level.” She walked around, looking closely. “Did you study design at school?”