Page 75 of The Operators

“Sure, I’ll update you tomorrow. Night.”

“Later.”

I set my phone down right as Thea walks back up. “Hey,” I say.

She gives me a funny look. “What are you doing over here? Buy me a fucking drink.”

I laugh, following her to the bar. “Yes, ma’am.”

She leans on the little bowling alley bar, ass propped out. I walk up behind her to shield the rest of these fuckers from looking at what’s mine. “What do you want?”

“Scotch.”

I laugh, wrapping my arm around her waist from behind. “This is a fucking bowling alley, dork.”

She peeks up over her shoulder and smiles at me. “Fine. Frozen strawberry margarita.”

I nod at the bartender. “One beer and one of those,” I say, motioning toward the frozen slushie machine.

“You want the souvenir cup?”

“Yes!” Thea answers for me.

“Guess so,” I confirm.

Three drinks later, and Thea has entered her giggly stage. “No!” She covers her face with her hands as she does the walk of shame back to the seats after her fourth gutter ball in a row.

“Why did you want to go bowling again?” I ask, teasing her.

She pushes my shoulder. “Shut up.”

She falls down onto my lap, giggling and wrapping her arms around my neck. My heart beats twice as fast. Having her this close…Fuck.

It’s strange because on one hand, it feels so natural. This is exactly where she belongs. But on the other hand, it doesn’t feel real. Like she’s a dream. Not something that I can have in the real world. And fuck, I don’t want to wake up from this dream.

She smiles at me, brushing her fingers through my hair. Fuck, that feels good. Blood rushes to my dick, and I try to control myself. How can I when she’s looking at me like that?

My eyes fall down to her lips. God, I want to kiss her, so I do. I lean forward, grabbing the back of her head and pressing my lips against hers. She opens her mouth for me, so I deepen the kiss.

Just as I’m about to lose myself, she pulls back, pushing off of me. “Careful, Carver. You’re just trying to distract me so I lose this game.”

“You’d have to strike every frame to beat me,” I say, biting my lip to hide my laugh.

She purses her lips to the side, narrowing her eyes at me. “Well then, what the fuck are we still doing here?”

I raise my eyebrows. “You’re trying to get out of here?” Any attempt to sound smooth with that goes out the window since I sound desperate as fuck. Am I panting? I’m panting.

“Take me to Bear Creek’s peak.”

I’m smiling like a fucking preteen getting ready to go to first base. “How do you know about Bear Creek’s peak, Thea Marie?” I scold.

She smirks. “What? You think I never parked?”

“Thea! With who? It better not have been Tyler Miller! I swear to God, I told Trevor not to trust that fucker taking you out.”

“You boys thought you were so smart, but there was so much I got away with. You never even found out about me and Noah.”

“Noah? As in Noah from our baseball team?” I stand, getting in her face. “Tell me you’re lying before I murder that prick.”

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