Page 24 of Catching My Dreams

“Just your habit of ditching your friends,” he replied with a glare.

He couldn’t possibly be talking about how she’d stopped hanging out with him and Chris when they were kids. He was the one who hadn’t wanted her following them around everywhere. He was the one who’d told Asher and Chris that she was nothing more than a nuisance.

“Don’t play the victim, Warner,” she said with a scoff. “This act where you pretend like I’m the bad guy has gotten really old.”

His eyes became dark blue slits, and he would have looked menacing were he not kneeling among multi-colored cardboard rubble. “I could say the same to you.”

“Whatever,” she muttered, turning on her heel and leaving him to sort out his games. The jerk could stay out there the whole night for all she cared.

“Where’s Noah?” Asher asked when she got back to the living room and had picked up Archie.

“He dropped the games he brought.”

Chris made a huffing sound. “And you’re not helping him because?”

Ella sat down in her armchair with the Yorkie in her lap and sent him a glare. “I tried. The asshole didn’t appreciate my help, so I left him to it.”

Riley sighed, looking disappointed that her game night was already off to a bad start. “I’ll go help him.”

“You sure know how to make a guy feel welcome,” Chris drawled, his amused gaze pinned on Ella.

“It’s not my fault Noah’s an ass.”

He grinned and shook his head. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. The man is a saint when it comes to everyone but you.”

Ella’s teeth ground together. “I’m well aware.”

“You know what I think?”

“That Noah can go to hell?” she guessed.

“No. I think what the two of you feel for each other isn’t actually hate.”

Her neck clicked as her head snapped toward him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what I said.” And after that illuminating response, he rubbed his palms together and asked, “So what game are we going to play first?”

8

Riley was competitive, and Asher was an asshole when he won, but Ella was in a league of her own. Though Noah was one to talk. He was giving her a run for her money as the one in their group with the worst sportsmanship and the most ruthless attitude.

“I believe that means you owe me two thousand, Montgomery,” he said with a grin that even he knew was far too smug. “How much do you have there?”

Ella looked like she was about to punch him, and he wasn’t sure he’d blame her. Landing on a property with a hotel was frustrating enough, and she hadn’t just landed on any property. She’d landed on the most expensive one on the board.

“Doesn’t look like enough,” he continued with a feigned pitying shake of his head. “I guess that means you’re bankrupt like the others. What a shame.”

“Yeah, I can see you’re feeling really guilty about it,” she said through gritted teeth before throwing her minuscule pile of Monopoly money at him. They didn’t even reach him, floating pathetically to the board between them instead.

Asher sighed. “I knew we shouldn’t have played Monopoly.”

“You don’t have to be such a dick about it,” Ella hissed at Noah.

His grin stretched wider as he slowly collected the notes she’d hurled at him, relishing the feeling of picking up each and every one of them.

“Says the one who called me a loser and started dancing when she beat me at Risk.”

The muscle in her jaw worked as she swallowed that hard pill of truth. He’d actually wanted to laugh when she’d flung her arms in the air and twirled her hips in a ridiculous and oddly sexy dance of triumph, but she didn’t need to know that.

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