Chapter 21. Sweet Smoke

Tessa’s POV

For one long second, nobody moves.

Then the girl in the white dress shoves Cole’s chest, says something I can’t hear over the bass, and storms off toward the stairs with beer dripping down her legs. Two of Cole’s baseball friends start laughing. Cole doesn’t. He’s still staring at me.

Wyatt’s thumb moves once against my back. A slow circle.

“Don’t look at him,” he murmurs. “Look at me.”

I look at him.

He’s smiling down at me like there’s nobody else in the room. It’s the camera smile, I know it’s the camera smile, but his eyes aren’t playing along. His eyes are watching Cole in the reflection of the dark window behind me, steady and cold.

“Drink your water,” he says.

I look down at the red cup. Clear liquid. I sniff it, and he huffs out a laugh.

“It’s water, Lucky. I watched Chase fill it from the tap. Twice. I told him if he put so much as a lemon in it I’d shave his head.”

“You don’t trust your own teammates?”