In the sparse light, his eyes looked like midnight. “So is she acting?”
“That’s a three-point question.”
“Gonna be like that, is it?” He rubbed his chin. “All right then.”
The grin he gave her made her nether regions quiver.
They were practicing being on a date too.
Kaci’s last bola, thrown with Lance’s assistance, neatly wrapped the two-point rung. Lance stepped up for his turn. “No cheating,” Anna called.
Lance gave her a mock salute.
Then he hooked the top rung.
“Three points,” Jackson said. “So is she acting?”
Anna shook her head. “She understands the principles, but she’s the reason people talk about throwing like a girl. She can’t quantify the force in her arms.”
“You might could think about taking statistics instead of thermo. Your odds here ain’t looking good.”
It was Anna’s turn to grin at him.
After Lance’s last toss, the guys were up four to two. She scampered around the yard grabbing her bolas while Jackson unwrapped two of his and snagged the third one at his feet. When she stepped back into the game, he gestured for her to go. “Ladies first.”
“Nuh-uh. Whoever’s partner scored most last round goes first. You’re up.”
“House rules?” Jackson called to Lance.
Lance hid a laugh behind a cough. “Go on and let her go last.”
Jackson tested the weight of his bola. “You play dirty?”
“Three-point question.”
It took him all three tosses, but he draped a bola over the three-point rung. Anna stepped up and stared down the target.
“You gonna tell me if you play dirty?” he said.
“Maybe.” She lined up, gave her bola a tentative swing, and let it fly.
It wrapped around Jackson’s bola and pulled it off the ladder.
She flashed a triumphant grin. “Don’t think I need to answer that now, do I?”
“That’s just one kind of dirty.”
“You go, sugar,” Kaci called. “How about you rustle us up some points now?”
At the end of Anna’s turn, the guys were still ahead, four to three. Anna scooted close to the pool again when Lance handed Kaci her bolas. Jackson stepped up next to her. “So how’s a Yankee girl get to be a redneck golf shark?”
“Raw talent combined with a little bit of a buzz.” Once themargarita wore off all the way, she’d probably get so tense from being this close to him that she’d start throwing worse than Kaci usually did.
Kaci’s first toss sailed clear over the ladder and hit the fence. Jackson chuckled. “Sure hope she ain’t planning on tossing her bouquet.”
She scored two points on her next toss, but her last throw went wild. Anna tried to skitter out of the way. Jackson ducked the same way, and they bumped shoulders. The bola plopped into the pool beside them. He reached a steadying hand to her, and a shiver slinked down her arm and straight to a couple of other parts that hadn’t had any attention in a long while. “Okay?” he asked.
Anna sprung away and brushed her hair out of her face. “Oh, sure. You betcha. Just peachy. At least I’m not wet.”
