Page 27 of Zero Chance

“Hopefully,” she mumbled and kept her arm latched around mine as she tried to lead us that way.

As soon as she opened the door, we both gulped in a lungful of fresh January seaside air.Someone had lifted both garage bay doors and the party had spilled out in the night so people could spread out more freely.

“Oh my God, much better,” Xander said as she found an open place to plant us and glance around the area.

They had beer pong, cornhole, bocce ball, ladder golf, darts, and an oversized Jenga game set up, but all the stations had already been claimed.

“Well, damn,” Xander mumbled from beside me.“I rule at Jenga, too.”

Cheering at the beer pong table had me glancing over and forgetting to breathe.

With his back to us, Keene shot his arms in the air victoriously before turning to Alec, who seemed to be his partner in the game, and offering him a chest bump.

Then, he goaded the other teams as they were forced to chug a cup of beer.

“Gah, he is such a show-off,” Xander said, leaning close to grumble in my ear.

He was magnificent.I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

Across the table, his opponent stopped drinking and stumbled drunkenly to the side as he focused on me and Xander watching the game.“Whoa,” he slurred.“Who’rethey?”

Keene turned, and I panicked, not ready to be seen by him yet.Ducking behind Xander just as he glanced our way, I found the perfect place to hide because she was tall enough to conceal all of me.

Peeking over her shoulder, I watched him snort and turn back to the drunk.

“That’s Foster Union’s cousin, dumbass.He’ll rip your nuts off and feed them to you for breakfast for evenlookingat her.”Clapping his hands, he ordered, “Now keep drinking.You’re not getting out of this that easily.”But as soon as he said that, he noticed another girl strolling by, and he flashed her a flirty grin.

“Tish,” he greeted with a smooth head bob, backing up to walk with her for a few steps.“Looking good tonight.You dump that loser boyfriend of yours yet?”

“Nope.He’s right there.”When Tish pointed toward some guy playing one of the cornhole games, her boyfriend scowled at him and pointed in warning.

“What?”Keene called back, laughing and lifting both hands in a helpless gesture.“I was just checking.”

I rolled my eyes as Alec shifted in reverse from the table until he was standing next to Xander.“Beware,” he told her from the side of his mouth.“He’s in rare form tonight.”

Xander only scoffed.“When is he not?”

“Good point.”

“Hey!”Keene called to them, finally noticing Alec had left his side.“Will you stop flirting around already and take your damn turn?”

“Yeah,” Alec answered dryly as he returned to the table.“I’mthe one who was flirting.”

Ignoring him, Keene winked at Xander.“Yo, if he’s giving you a hard time, you just crawl into bed with me tonight, darlin’.I’ll keep you safe.”

“Oh, brother,” Xander groaned in front of me while Keene made eye contact with the one eye I had peeking over her shoulder at him.

His brow furrowed as he lifted his chin at me in question.“Who’s your friend you’re hiding back there?’

“What?”Xander turned to finally realize I’d been hovering behind her just as Alec slugged Keene in the shoulder.

“Bro, it’s stillyourturn, not mine.”

“Huh?”Keene frowned at him, only to remember the game.“Oh yeah.Shit.”

As he picked up a new ping pong ball and took aim, Xander lifted her eyebrows at me in question.“Are you freaking hiding behind me?”

“Yes,” I admitted baldly and grabbed her arm.“Let’s go back inside.”

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