Page 45 of Here and Now
Everett sighs heavily. “Fine. I’ll take it up with Hazel tonight.”
“She’s coming to the game?” Miles questions, leaning against the counter.
“She is. Apparently now that we suck, we’re drawing a crowd. The only thing this town loves more than a winner are terrible losers. I’m sure we’re going to be featured in some ridiculous article that Ainsley will no doubt be behind,” Everett notes.
I’m glad my back is turned to them so they can’t see my smile. Ainsley was in earlier, working on an article for her paper that was about elder men who still like to play sports as though they’re in their twenties.
I laughed. A lot.
It was very clear that Lachlan was on her shit list and this is some sort of retribution.
“I wouldn’t doubt it. She loves to find ways to make me look stupid,” Lachlan says with a laugh.
“There are so many options. How does she choose?”
“Fuck off, Everett.”
“No, boys, let’s not fight. We have a game in an hour, we needto be prepared,” Miles says, stepping in with all the pragmatism of a principal.
There’s a short silence, and I use this as my chance to hand the coffee over. “Here you go.”
“Thank you, sweet Penny. You’re my favorite woman in this town,” Everett says with a wink.
“I appreciate that.”
“Miles here feels the same,” Everett says, leaning his elbow on the counter. “He was telling us today in a group chat how he asked you out and you shot him down.”
There’s a low grumbling noise from where Miles is standing.
“I didn’t shoot him down.”
“Did you say yes?” Everett sips his espresso and raises one brow.
“I didn’t, but I didn’t say no either.”
“So it’s a maybe?”
“That’s enough.” Miles steps in, pushing Everett to the side. “Ignore him. He’s mad about the lack of free coffee.”
“Dude! I was helping. You have no game. I was letting you borrow some of mine!” Everett comes back closer. “One date with Miles, Penny. If it sucks, I’ll take you out and show you a good time.”
I laugh and feel the heat flaming my cheeks.
“I’ll kill him,” Miles warns.
“Come on before he actually does it,” Lachlan says as he’s pulling Everett from the coffeehouse.
“I’m sorry about that,” Miles apologizes.
“Don’t be. Remember, I have a brother, and he would do the same for his best friend.” Honestly, I’m pretty sure Quinn has done far worse to Liam. Any chance he has to mortify him, he takes it and vice versa.
Miles gives me a half smile. “Yeah, friends are great like that. Where’s Kai? I’d love to say hi. Is he in the back?”
“Actually, he’s with Eloise. He’s going to your game tonight.”
“Really?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m going to take the boys from there back home, and Ethan is spending the night. It’ll give Eloise some time to just sleep.”
