Page 79 of Sneak Attack

“Yep.” Davis nodded resolutely.

Cole shoved him into the living room off the entryway and guided me toward the kitchen. “Don’t listen to him. Pretty sure he got a concussion last week.”

“Not true!” Davis called and lumbered after us. “So, Eden. You’ve known Cole a long time, right?”

“Um. Yeah?”

He brushed the palms of his hands together. “Tell me all his deepest, darkest secrets.”

Cole and I both froze. Our deepest darkest secret? He’d hit too close to home with that request.

“Um…I’m not sure…”

“Oh come on,” Davis pleaded and his large, pale green puppy dog eyes and his hair that flopped over them almost made me laugh, and would have, had it been a different topic. “He has to havesomeskeleton in his closet.”

“Leave it alone, Hall.”

Davis shook off Cole, but he’d touched on a word. I didn’t have to tell him thedarkestsecret, but I could give him the most embarrassing.

“All right. Hey Mama B?”

“Yes, dear?” A flush of happiness flooded through me. It’d been a long time since I’d been called that.

“You clean out Cole’s bedroom?”

“All but the closet. Why?”

Bingo. “No reason!” I called back and Cole caught on because he stepped into my path.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Oh…all the good things are kept in the closet!” Hall took off, running around Cole and me, and thundered up the stairs.

“You’re going to pay for this,” Cole warned before turning and taking off after him.

“Wrong room!” I shouted, laughter bubbling from me in a free way it hadn’t inyears.

I chased after them and caught up to them, but it wasn’t hard. Cole had Davis pinned against the hallway wall, Davis smirking, Cole looking murderous. “These are real pretty family pictures you have here. Almost forgot how goofy you were before the braces,” Davis taunted, lifting the arm he could to point at a picture of Cole when he was thirteen. He hadn’t yet hit a growth spurt, and Davis was right. In the picture, Cole’s teeth were a bit too large for his mouth.

“This way,” I called, and ran around both of them to Cole’s old bedroom. I’d only spent time in here when it was him and Hilary, sometimes Selma too and other football-playing friends of his, but I still remembered the first time I stepped into his room, saw the posters all over his walls and busted out laughing.

“Don’t, Eden.”

“Cole, Cole, Cole. What kind of friend would I be to my new bestie if I didn’t spill your secrets?”

“I’m gonna get you back for this.” He said it as a threat, but there was humor in his tone that halted me.

He’d stopped at the doorway to his room that had been changed and updated over the years with a smile on his face, simply watching me.

He was going to let me do this. Happily.

It hit me.

I was being silly.Free.I was acting just like I had all those years ago and he was loving it.

“Come on,” Davis groaned. “Show me. Show me.”

I winked at Cole, letting him know I understood.

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