Page 121 of Wild Love
The loud thump of balls hitting the lanes and thecrashing sound of pins falling a few seconds later tell me West has been staring at me for far too long.
My stomach sinks, and my cheeks heat. I finally turn my head, and I can’t quite read his expression. It’s hard to say with West. I’ve seen him smile and crack a joke before driving his fist into someone’s face.
“Listen—”
He cuts me off, and I don’t know what I was expecting him to say, but it definitely wasn’t, “Yeah, I know. I’ve met you before.”
I rear back as my brows knit together. “What?”
“Like I just said, you’re a huge dork. And Rosie is an oblivious hurricane. You might be the only two people in the world who didn’t already know this.”
If I weren’t focusing on keeping my jaw clamped shut, it would hang open.
I prepared myself for him to say a lot of things, but this… this was not one of them.
“I think we might be a thing.” Wow, that sounds really dumb.
West snorts a laugh, and I feel like he’s laughingatme more thanwithme.
“Dude, if you don’t get off your ass and properly date her, I’m going to pitch you toForbesas the World’s Dumbest Billionaire. After everything you’ve gone and done for that girl? Comeon.”
I blink. And I blink again. I thought I was going to be the one blindsiding him. “You really flipped this shit around.”
West gives me his best unhinged smile, thumping a fistagainst his cupped palm. “Did you think I was going to break your pretty face, Ford?”
“I…” I scrub my hands through my hair, my elevated heart rate slowing now that I’ve gotten this off my chest and cleared the air. “Honestly, man, I didn’t know. You’re kind of unpredictable.”
He sips. He nods. I can see the wheels turning in his head.
“Nah. The only person more protective of her than me might be you. However, I have a couple of requirements.”
My head falls back, and I look up at the ceiling, ready to get the third degree. Which is why I laugh when he says, “First, you’re going to stay on the bowling team. And when I get team shirts made, you will wear yours with a smile.”
I chuckle. “Fine. But not the smiling part.”
West waves me off. “Second, you will help me come up with a sweet name for the team so we can start kicking Stretch’s ass.”
I groan and laugh into my palm. The relief of getting this over with has me feeling borderline giddy. “Fine. All you had to do was bring up kicking that guy’s ass, and you’d have had me.”
“Okay, so I’m just going to toss some ideas and you can say yes or no.”
“You already have ideas?”
West stands and paces. He never was a sit-still kind of guy. “Dude, I’m a lonely bachelor. I have to do something after the kids go to bed.”
“Looks like you used up all your game when you were younger.”
His mouth pops open. “Okay.NowI’ll hit you.”
I make a rolling motion with my hand, thrilled that there’s no awkwardness between us. No damage to our friendship.
He bounces on the balls of his feet, a little too excited to be having this conversation with me. “The Bowling Stones,” he spits out, followed by a dramatic pause.
“No.”
“What! Really? I thought you’d love that one.”
“Yeah, no.”
