Page 66 of Mr. Broody

“You game?” I ask her.

She scoffs. “Bring it, Hensley.”

I grab the darts and hand her three. “I plan to.”

“I’m on your side, Jade. Take him down.” Tweetie gets comfortable in a chair to watch us.

“Nice teammate.” I pour us each a beer and wave my hand to Jade. “Ladies first.”

She throws her first dart and gets triple twenty.

Tweetie hoots and hollers.

Yeah, this might be embarrassing.

Twenty-Nine

Jade

Reed taught Henry and I how to play darts when we were young. We spent so many nights with the music on and playing darts, obsessed with getting better.

“This is going to be fun to watch,” Tweetie says, rubbing his palms together.

I grab my beer and wait as Henry practices with his dart a few times.

“I assume he always beats you?” I ask Tweetie before sipping my beer.

“Damn, I like you talking like he’s the shit.”

I glance at Henry, and he throws his first dart and gets a bull’s-eye. Smirking over his shoulder, he winks at me and throws the next one, getting a double fifteen.

“But yeah, he’s good,” Tweetie says.

Henry throws his last one and gets nothing.

“I’m better though.” I sip my beer again and walk over to my place at the line. “Good job on the bull’s-eye. Too bad you couldn’t bring it home at the end there.”

“Playing mind games?” he asks, heading up to the board to pull his darts. I try not to notice his ass in his jeans, but it’s hard to keep my eyes up.

“You two are fun,” Conor says, joining us.

I see Rowan and Kyleigh are now deep into Lego, pieces spread across the table.

“We should do a team competition after this. I get Jade on my team,” Conor says.

Henry circles around from marking his board. “Yeah, that’s a no.”

Conor laughs and pats Henry on the back as they head over to the table with the beer. “I like this side of you. It’s like a ‘me Henry, you stay away from Jade’ vibe.” He deepens his voice.

Conor’s funny. Well, they all are. It’s a nice thing Henry’s got here with them. I sense that they’re all kind of welcoming me into the fold but still kind of watching me too.

“Shut up, Pinkie.” Henry downs a gulp of his beer.

“Tell me about these nicknames.” I throw three darts, getting a triple nineteen, one eighteen, and a double sixteen. The real fun will come when we have less to get on the board. “Why do you call Henry Daddy?” I ask, pulling my darts from the board.

The two of them laugh.

“Because he’s the responsible one. Case in point.” Tweetie nods toward Bodhi. “And he’s always the one to make sure we get our asses home after a night at the club.”

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