Page 45 of The Matchmaker Club
“Let me guess, a drinking game?”
“Yup. Have you played any before?”
“Not really, my friends and I usually played poker. Which game did you have in mind?”
“I was thinking, Never Have I Ever.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, basically someone makes a statement, and if it’s a lie for you, you drink. If not, you don’t drink.”
“Example?”
I thought for a moment. “Never have I ever gone skinny dipping.”
I sipped my beer. Lucas didn’t.
“You’ve been skinny dipping before?”
“Well, yeah. In high school. You wanna play?”
He looked out over the others and shook his head. “Not that one.”
“Why?”
“I know they’re your friends, but I don’t know them.”
“That’s the point of the game. You get to know each other that way.”
He looked my way with a sorry look. “I can’t. I’m not saying your friends can’t be trusted, but I don’t share personal things with too many people for a reason.”
“What’s your reason?”
“If I’m not careful about who I trust and what I reveal, it’s either used against me in business or splattered all over tabloids. They pay a decent amount to get some juicy gossip about my family.”
The gravity of his world began to sink in. I couldn’t imagine having to grow up like that. “How did your brother get around that?”
Lucas set his eyes on the fire, the shadow of the flames flickering across his face. “He didn’t. Which is why I was expected to take the responsible path. As an heir to a major corporation, investors and board members need to feel secure that Freeman Foxx would be in good hands when my father retired or passed away.”
I slipped my hand over his. “Well, for the time you’re here, you’re allowed to let loose with me. I won’t tell anyone.”
“That’s one thing I admire about the women in your family.”
“Our discretion?”
“No, it’s more than that. Any one of you could have received plenty of money to reveal some major secrets, but you didn’t.”
“They’re our secrets too.”
A half-smile spread across his lips. “That’s true.”
After a couple more beers, Lucas loosened up a bit. He even joined the conversation and laughed a few times. Ben, Ed, and Rod took him to check out his ATV in the shed.
Thelma took the seat next to me when Rod’s girlfriend, Jo-Jo, headed inside to use the bathroom. “Soooo, it looks like you and Lucas are getting on well.”
“We’re just friends.”
She snorted. “I saw the way you were looking at him, and I haven’t seen you look at a man like that in five years.”
