Page 116 of His Secret

“All right, man. You can do it,” Adrian says, touching his arm before snatching his hand back.

I aim and get it in one of the last two remaining cups.

“Yeah!” Adrian and I yell.

“Okay, okay. Just don’t take your eye off the bucket,” I tell him. “You got it.”

“Booo!” Carl says from the other side.

The game quickly became competitive, and there’s been a lot of friendly trash talk, but we have to win this.

“Keep our streak alive,” I tell him.

“No pressure then,” he says with a laugh, looking at me briefly.

I grin.

Adrian holds the ball, ready to throw it, and I hold my breath and watch as it leaves his hand, hits the edge, rolls along the side then falls inside.

“Fuck yeah!” Adrian yells, arms in the air. We do a double high five before he turns back to our opponents. “You can’t beat us. Nobody can.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Carl says, waving his hand in the air. “We’ll have a rematch soon.”

Diane and Greg end up leaving first, then Leslie and Charlotte go inside, leaving me, Adrian, Carl, and Martin out here.

Martin’s talking Carl’s ear off about some car, so Adrian and I sit in the chairs that surround the fire pit.

“I guess tonight wasn’t too bad,” I say.

“Nah,” he replies, shaking his head. “Less people than those college parties.”

“Thank god.”

He smiles. “This was fun. All things considered.”

“Hmm.” I lift my chin. “Yeah, something seems up.”

He shrugs, but doesn’t go into detail. Not sure I want details, so I leave it alone.

“I’ll probably head out soon. I don’t wanna be the last person here.”

“Makes sense.”

“How did you enjoy the show last night?” I ask, standing up.

He peers up at me. “Quite a lot. More than I thought I would.”

“Did you make a mess in my backyard?”

Adrian bites his lip, a smile forming. “Maybe.”

“Such a dirty boy.”

His lips part as he sucks in a breath, then he lets out a throaty moan.

“I thought I heard something similar to that last night.”

He stands up, putting his hands in his pockets. I glance around and notice the girls are still inside, and the guys are sitting at the table, their backs to us.

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