For crying out loud. What was wrong with me? If the floor could open up and swallow me whole now, that would be great.
I glanced down but nothing happened.
Worth a try.
“Sorry. That sounded wrong,” I rushed to add, and was it me or did I catch Cole smirk?
It only lasted for a moment—if it was even real—but it had made his face all the brighter for it.
He really was so handsome. Impossibly so. He made it hard to stop looking at him, admiring him, but I had to if I wanted to save myself from looking like a total creep.
“Don’t you worry about that. The organizers will stop by the table to get all that sorted out. We just wanted to make sure you’ve got each other’s numbers,” Lilian said.
“Yeah. We wouldn’t want someone trying to get out of this,” Enzo said, and I bit my lip.
“Oh no. Of course I’ll honor the agreement,” I said and put my hand up in scout’s honor, though I’d never been a scout.
“I wasn’t talking about you,” Enzo muttered under his breath and cast a glance at his friend.
Then he gave me his hand, and I just stared at it.
“Give me your phone. I’ll put in his number,” Enzo said, and I dug through my pockets for my mobile.
I gave it to him.
“Perfect.” He tapped away all too excitedly and then passed the phone back to me. “I added my number in there too. In casehe’s hard to reach. You better let me know.”
The girls on either side of me chuckled.
“And you let us know if he plays hard to get, Enzo,” Zainab said, and Enzo wiggled his eyebrows at my ex.
“You bet.”
“This is so exciting,” Lilian exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear, and Cole rolled his eyes again.
Ella, who seemed to be reveling her dad’s embrace, turned to see what all the fuss was about, and I found the opportunity to run away from our meddling friends so I could greet the little girl who was innocent in all of this.
“Hi, Ella! What are you doing here so late?” I asked in my best imitation of a baby voice.
Cole readjusted the girl in his arms and came closer too.
“Ella, you remember Samir from last week? He helped us pick all your new books,” Cole cooed at his daughter, and wasn’t that the most adorable thing? How the tough, frowning man turned to goo for his kid.
“Yeah. Sami,” she said, fingers covering her mouth as if she was too embarrassed to talk, but then she did a big yawn, and both Cole and I laughed.
“Someone needs to go to sleep,” I said, pinching her cheek, and Cole nodded.
“She’s not the only one,” he said and smiled.
I smiled back.
We stood there, for who knew how long, just smiling at each other like two buffoons when Ella turned her face to her dad’s chest to shield her eyes from all the lights. I shook myself off from Cole’s disarming gray eyes.
“I’m sorry about all this,” he said after a moment.
“Oh, it’s not your fault. I’m sorry my friends made me sound desperate or something,” I said, and Cole laughed.
“They didn’t,” he said.
