Page 44 of Always You

“Yeah. Same dad. Another mother.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“How about I get us something to drink, and you set up the lane?”

“Sure.”

“What do you want?” His eyes are beaming at me, his lips forming a grin on his handsome face, and I smile in response.

He’s cute.

Cute enough to not be against it if he’d try to kiss me tonight, though the thought alone makes me break out in a sweat.

“Anything with rum is good.”

“You got it.” He heads over to the bar, and I go to the computer to put in our names. When he gets back, handing me a rum and Coke, and I take a sip to calm my nerves. He’s up first, so he grabs one of the balls out of the return and throws it down the lane in a perfect line.

Strike.

I take a few gulps from my drink, incredulously shaking my head, looking at him with wide eyes.

“What?” I blink, unable to hide my shock. “What are you, a pro? You’re intimidating me with your bowling skills.” I lift my brow to match my flirty tone, and he huffs a laugh in response.

“You can do this.” He grabs my drink out of my hands, putting it back up on the table, getting awfully close. His warm breath flies over my face while he rubs my upper arms, and I swallow hard before my lips part. “Don’t worry, we’re just having fun.”

“Right.” Breaking our connection, I move toward the return to grab a ball. I awkwardly feel the weight of a few of them, making sure I don’t pick one that I can hardly carry, and I settle for a nice pink one that perfectly fits my hand.

Without looking back, I take a deep breath, then I throw the ball onto the lane in a perfect line, surprising myself. I wait anxiously as it rolls with a modest velocity until the ball crashes into the pins, knocking all of them out.

No shit.

“Yes! I did it!” I turn around, throwing my hands in the air. My eyes collide with Dylan’s, who’s grinning from ear to ear, clapping his hands, until my eye catches someone approaching behind him.

You have got to be kidding me.

With one of his boyish, yet devastating grins, Hunter walks up behind Dylan.

“Oh yeah, Charls definitely knows how to play with balls.” Hunter’s gaze quickly finds my glare, hoping he can take a hint, but all I get is a fucking wink.

Asshole.

Dylan rears his head over his shoulder with his brows knitted together until he’s met by the smug grin on Hunter’s face.

“Hunter,” Dylan grates out, barely being able to muster out a curl of his lips.

“What a coincidence!” Hunter beams as if he’s completely oblivious to the tension becoming more palpable by the second. “I didn’t know the two of you went bowling.”

A girl with long brown hair moves to his side, and he throws his arm around her shoulder. She gives me a sweet smile that doesn’t meet her big blue eyes, and I mirror it with one of my own, because my mother raised me well, then snap my narrowing eyes back to my best friend.

I can’t believe he’s here.

“Kylie and I were going to play a game ourselves.”

“Oh my god! We should totally double!” Kylie claps next to him like a seal.

I put my hands against my sides, shooting daggers as Dylan moves his head back and forth between Hunter and me in question. My date seems conflicted, like he’s not sure if he should tell Hunter to fuck off or be a good sport and show he’s not intimidated by my best friend.

“I’m cool with that, if you are?” He shoots me a questioning look, and I give him a tight smile that I can barely hold up. Of course I’m not fucking cool with that! How the hell am I ever going to stick to my plan if the whole reason I have a plan in the first place makes it his fucking mission to distract me every ten seconds.

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