Page 109 of Betting on You

I got up and followed him, since Eli was so into trash-talking with Dana.

I made sure neither of them was looking before I said, “Eli has zero interest in me, by the way.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” he said. “I wouldn’t take it personally, though; your little buddy didn’t even laugh when I told her about the butter.”

“What?” He’d dropped butter on the floor that morning, and then stepped on it, slipped and fell, and somehow ended up with butter in his eye. I’d cried actual tears when he’d told me the hilarious story. “I think these two are wanks for not being into us.”

“Same.”

“Still try, though,” I said, watching Dana throw her head back and laugh at Eli. “She’s really great, and I think you’d hit it off. Y’know… if Eli weren’t here.”

He looked at me like I was deranged, but said, “I’ll try. And E loves the Chicago Cubs. Maybe talk about that and lure him in.”

“You think I need baseball to get a guy?”

He just gave me a look.

“That’s insulting,” I whined, elbowing him in the ribs ever so lightly. “Maybe I should give him a taste of the Bailey Special.”

That made his eyes smile, even though his mouth didn’t move. “Cow tongue on toasted bread?”

I lowered my voice, leaned a little closer, and said, “No. It’s Moldova but with my hands on his chest.”

I expected him to laugh.

Instead, he leaned even closer—or maybe I imagined it—and his eyes were on my mouth when he said, “Don’t you fucking dare.”

My heart fluttered in my chest at the intensity of his gaze as he towered over me.

“You don’t want me to kiss him?” I asked in a near whisper, my breath stuck in my lungs.

“Your call on that.” His jaw clenched—flex, unflex—and then he said, “But Moldova is mine.”

“You’re up, Charlie,” Eli yelled.

I blinked fast as we stepped apart and the sounds of the bowling alley returned to my ears.

What the hell was that?

Charlie’s face changed then, the intensity sliding into a measured smirk, and he said, “Time to go bowl some strikes and strike out at love.”

He walked over to the ball return, leaving me and my entire body thrumming with energy.

After the game, the four of us went into the snack bar for dinner. Charlie and Eli were laughing about some guy they knew as we waited for our baskets of bowling alley food when Dana pulled me aside.

“So… do you like Eli?” She looked toward the guys, then back at me. “He is so funny and cute—you’re lucky Charlie set you up with him.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I honestly haven’t really talked to him much so far.”

She nodded and glanced—yet again—at Eli and Charlie.

“So what do you think of Charlie?” I asked. “Cute, right?”

“Yeah,” she said, shrugging. “I mean, he’s cool, but I don’t really feel like there’s a spark.”

I looked over at Charlie and remembered his face when he’d been gazing at Becca at that party, the sad smile, and I didn’t want him to get rejected his first time back out there. Especially when his friends acted like he’d been a hermit since getting dumped.

“He’s so hilarious when you get to know him—give him a chance.”

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