Cooper points to us, and mouths “callme,” pretending his fingers are a phone and then he disappears.
Cole’s head pops up through the windowand then his torso. He’s holding a drink and has the Elvis glasses on. “Who’sthat hottie driving that super fine blue whip?”
Laura whistles again.
The light turns green and we startmoving.
Cole yells, “that’s my girl and I’m goingto marry her. Love you, baby.” And then he disappears.
“I think they’re all drunk.” I laugh aswe move along with traffic. The limo pulls into our lane a couple of cars aheadof us. “I’m starving. I think I’m going to order one of everything on the menu.That way, I won’t have to eat anything in Crystal Falls, and I won’t get thosedisapproving looks from my mother.”
“I just want some food in my belly, sothe alcohol absorption is slower and I can drink more.”
“Way to be practical, Laura.”
“I know, right?”
Traffic is slow, but we finally turn intothe Peppermill. I flag down Keaton.
“Hey you can take the Ferrari back to theUpper House.” I can’t handle worrying about driving tonight. I give him asheepish smile before handing him the sensor. He smiles at me, trying to holdin his laugh, taking the key. “What’s so funny?”
“We had a bet to see how long you’d keepdriving it.”
What? He can’t be serious, but then weare talking about a bunch of alpha men. I shouldn’t be surprised. “Oh yeah, whowon?”
“Who do you think? Cole did.”
“Oh gosh, and where were you in on thisbet?”
“I thought you’d drive it at least untilyou got done shopping. I did better than Luke, who said you wouldn’t even makeit to the Peppermill.”
“Oh, good grief. Maybe I better keep ituntil then.”
“Oh no, I don’t want to be called acheater.” He pockets the sensor. “We’ll be back by the time you are ready togo.”
I shoot Luke a text as we walk into therestaurant:Thanks for thinking I wouldn’t make it out of the parking lotwith my new car.
And then one to Cole: I get yourwinnings from the car bet.
Please make them all ones. I’ll need themfor The Thunder Down Under show.
The atmosphere in the Peppermill isamazing. With bright blue and pink neon lights and a cool fifties feel to it.“Wow, this place is awesome.”
“Hi ladies.” A woman behind a smallpodium smiles at us. “Do you have a reservation?” Oh shoot no, I leave all thatkind of stuff to Cole. I didn’t even think that we would need a reservation. Ilook at Laura.
“It’s under Kate Holt,” Laura says.
“What? How did you do that? I thought weonly planned this today.”
“Oh, I have connections.”
“You have connections and his name iseither Race Everett or Coulter Holt.”
“And yet you’ll never know which one.”Laura gives me a devious smile, walking past me.
“Right this way, ladies. Having a littlebachelorette party?” the Hostess asks.
“Hey yeah, how did you know?” I ask,surprised. She glances first at my head and then at my chest. “Oh…” I feel thetiara on my head and then adjust the sash. “Yeah, duh.” I try to take the tiaraoff, but Laura slaps my hand.
