“Come on, Guardrail. Just one more game.”
“Can’t do it. I’m already late.”
“What about you, Chains?” Hayes asked. “You in?”
“Sorry, boys. I think I’m gonna head out, too.” Chains motioned his head over to Caroline and me as he told him, “Give these two a go.”
“Oh, no. That’s okay,” Caroline stammered. “We’re just watching.”
“Why watch when you can play?”
“You don’t want us to play. I’m awful,” Caroline admitted. “I can’t even remember the last time I played.”
“That’s okay.” A smirk crept across his face as Hayes handed her a pool stick. “We’ll take it easy on ya.”
“Okay... What do you think, Jules?”
I glanced over at Q, and like before, his face was void of expression. Normally, that would’ve been enough to shut me down and have me running for the door, but tonight, it had the opposite effect and I got angry.
I was practically fuming as I walked over to the wall and picked up one of the pool cues. I twirled it in my hand, checking the weight and length. It felt pretty good, so I turned to Caroline and said, “I’m game if you are.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” After saying goodbye to his brothers, Hayes sauntered over and grabbed a pool cue of his own. “How do you wanna pair up?”
“Girls against the guys, of course.” Caroline’s smile grew wider as she looked over to me and teased, “That is if you can handle a little competition.”
“Oh, we can handle it. Don’t you worry about that.” He started racking the balls as he continued, “In fact, why don’t we make this interesting and put a little wager on the table?”
“Oh, I like the sound of that. What kind of wager did you have in mind?”
“How ‘bout a Tequila shot for every miss?”
“Sounds like a fair wager. What do you think, Jules?”
I hadn’t played pool in years, and even when I did, I wasn’t all that good. I had a feeling Caroline wasn’t much better, but that didn’t stop me from saying, “Sure. Sounds good to me.”
“Umm, no.” Q sounded angry as he told us, “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Not a good idea.”
“Sure it is,” Hayes argued. “We're just gonna have a little fun. No big deal.”
“And when things get out of hand?”
“We’ll be fine,” I pushed. “Besides, a few shots never hurt anyone.”
Q glared at me for a moment, then said, “We’ll see about that.”
Before Q could protest any further, Hayes headed over to the bar to get our shots. Q didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. I knew he wasn’t happy about our little wager, but he played along and so did I.
Moments later, Hayes returned with a bottle of Tequila, limes and salt, and four shot glasses. He placed them down on the table, then opened the bottle and filled each of the glasses. As he passed them out, he smiled and said, “Just a little something to get us warmed up.”
We all took a lick of salt and a squeeze of lime, then lifted our glasses and tipped them back. I felt the sting of the liquor as it hit the back of my throat, but I did my best to pretend I was unfazed as I placed the shot glass back on the tray. I had a feeling I was going to be in trouble when Q motioned his hand toward the pool table and announced, “Ladies first.”
“You want us to break?”
“Yeah.” A mischievous smirk swept across Q’s face as he said, “Unless you don’t think you can.”