“Ooh, big words.”
Which were backed up by big play.The guy was a shark, only Roxie had spent half her life in bars.She’d been known to run a table or two in her day.They were evenly matched, and once they realized that, the level of play went up even higher.
The knots that had been kinking up her shoulders loosened.Her mind, which had been going in a million different directions, focused.Her problems and pressures remained, but for the first time in weeks, she let them go and just had fun.
“Oh, no.That looks like an error in judgment,” she teased as the cue ball traveled past a ball with an orange stripe.
“Does it?”Roux asked, standing his stick on end as he watched that same white ball bounce off the side cushion and tap the blue-striped ball into the pocket.
“Damn,” Roxie hissed.Leaning over the table, she tried to judge how that whole trajectory had worked.“What was it you said you were studying at that community college of yours?”
“I didn’t.”He chalked his tip and lined up for his last shot.“But it’s graphic design.”
She pouted when the last ball went into the pocket and the cue ball spun back to the middle of the table.
“I believe that’s one order of teeny weenies for me,” he said with a grin on his face.
“Rematch?”she asked.
He took a pull on his beer.“Potato wedges?”
“Rack ’em up.”
Roxie leaned her hip against the table as he took the responsibility.“So, do you have a girlfriend, Kanga?”
“It’s Roux, and no.”When he shook his head, his hair mussed even more.
“Hmm,” she hummed, the gears in her brain turning.“Do you do drugs?”
“What?No!”
“Are you kind to animals?”
“Of course.”
“Do you shower regularly?Do you pay for a date’s meal without expecting her to put out?Are you—”
“Whoa, whoa.What is this?”
“You seem like a nice guy.”Roxie leaned over the table and lined up her shot.She gave the cue ball a firm smack that had balls bouncing all over the table.“I thought maybe I’d set you up with my sister.”
“You have sisters?”
She had sisters coming out of her ears.“She’s blonde, spunky, and about your age.”
Lexie’s little sister, Blaire, got all pissed off when she didn’t claim her as her own.
Roux looked as if he didn’t know what to say, but then his eyes widened.He held up his hands, palms outward, and took a step back.
Roxie frowned.Her break hadn’t been that impressive.Was he not interested in girls?
“Hey, man,” he said in a rush.“We’re just playing pool.”
Roxie felt Billy’s presence before she heard him.That electric shiver in the air had started.It tingled along her skin and the roots of her hair.His heavy footsteps came next.Big, solid, and sexy.
Her stomach squeezed.Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him entering the room.He smelled like the outdoors, his hair was ruffled from the wind, and he had a beer in his hand.
Her rescuer.
