Friend Zone to End Zone - Judy Corry Page 0,27

Cole to find the girl who would give him a reason to stay in Denver.

Mallory was certainly all smiles. And they would be cute together. With both of their darker features combined, their kids would be adorable.

Okay, so maybe I was getting a little ahead of myself in planning his wedding and family with Mallory already, but it could happen. All it took was one conversation to change someone’s life. And I knew how much Cole wanted to have kids.

While I was not cut out to be a mother—something I’d realized before I was twenty—Cole would be the best dad. He was fun and had lots of energy. Every time he helped me babysit my nephew and niece, he always talked about how he couldn’t wait to have his own kids.

Maybe Mallory would be the one to have that adventure with him. They could be like the new Tom and Giselle.

Just without the trading-NFL-teams part, since I needed him to stay here.

“Oh, it’s starting.” Hannah touched my arm, her excited tone breaking me from my thoughts. And when my eyes focused on the scene ahead, I saw that a preview of tonight’s episode was indeed showing on the huge flat screen TV on the wall. “Let’s grab our seats before everyone takes the good ones.”

Hannah was just ushering me toward the long white couch in the living room when I noticed Cole pull out his phone from his back pocket.

Was he getting her number?

Already?

And I didn’t know why but seeing him put her number into his phone sent a strange sense of dread through me.

Which was weird. Because this was what I wanted.

Right?

12

Arianna

“I saw you got Mallory’s number,” I told Cole when we were back in his SUV after the party. “What did you think of her?”

He glanced away from the road as he turned onto I-70, driving from Sutton Creek to Denver. “She was nice.” He shrugged.

“Nice?”

“Yeah.” He glanced sideways at me as he drove.

“And?” I asked, wanting more clarification than he was giving me.

“And I guess we’ll see what happens.”

“But you got her number, didn’t you?” I asked. “I know you hired me to be your dating coach, but you do know she’ll be expecting a call or text from you soon, right?”

“Oh, is that how it works?” He shot me a smirk.

“Yes,” I said. Sure, I hadn’t exactly given a guy my number in a few years, but I was pretty sure it still worked like that. “So what did you and Mallory talk about?”

“She asked me a few questions about football. And then I did this weird thing where I asked her about her interests.” He gave me a wry grin as if to show that he wasn’t completely inept. “But aside from her asking about my new haircut and tattoos, we didn’t really talk about anything too personal.”

I glanced at the wide, black tattoo wrapped around his left forearm that represented his family’s ‘aumakuea. His ‘aumakeua was a shark, and the pattern of repeating rows of triangles on his arm represented shark teeth.

I had never been a huge fan of tattoos before meeting him, but his were strangely attractive to me. They were tribal and masculine, and when he’d first told me his ‘aumakuea was supposed to take the darkness out of his heart and bring the light in, I’d immediately fallen in love with the concept.

Because we all could use a reminder to bring in the light and let go of the dark.

“I noticed you and Hannah were whispering about me and Mallory, though,” he said. “Were you critiquing my every move? Do you have any amazing coaching tips for me?”

“Nah.” I waved the thought away. “But Hannah was telling me all her theories about why you don’t date.”

“Hannah has theories?” Cole drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “I bet those were interesting.”

A grin slipped up my lips. “Actually, they were.”

“And what were they?”

I had to stifle a giggle as I thought about Hannah’s most ridiculous theory. Because I knew exactly how Cole would react to hearing it.

“That good?” He raised an eyebrow, noticing the look on my face.

“It was entertaining to hear, at least.”

“So?”

I waited a moment before answering, letting the anticipation build a little, and then said, “She thinks the reason you never date is because you’re secretly gay.”

“What?” The car jolted forward as his foot suddenly put too much pressure on the gas pedal.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said that when we were traveling at seventy miles per hour on a