Running at full speed,I kicked the soccer ball, and a cool breeze snagged it, spinning it in a wide arc while wind blasted my damp face. Rowen had insisted this was a real sport, but I wasn’t that great at making the orange-and-white ball go where I wanted it. Luckily for me, Conall wasn’t a good player, either. Sweat streamed down my temples as I kicked the ball away from Conall and ran with it, but he chased me, huffing and puffing while also cursing a blue streak under his breath. His cheeks were red, and half of his brown hair swung free around his face while the rest was still caught in a bun at the back of his head.
“Careful, don’t want Sloan to hear,” I called over my shoulder. “You’ll be in trouble!”
Glancing back, I laughed at the middle finger he flashed me. The late afternoon sun glinted on the buckle of the red collar peeking over his sweatshirt, and I stumbled because I was watching him instead of paying attention, which let him catch up.
“Put it in the goal,” Vail called. “That goal, Fallon! I want the ball in the hole.” He busted up cackling, and I stopped to laugh along with him.
Conall slipped on some mud—we were both covered, since the yard was still a mess from all the freeze and thaw going on lately—and I was able to shoot the ball toward the small goal that had been brought out of storage earlier. Conall had sworn we were bored and needed something new to do while Ronan, one of the other bodyguards, grumbled and did exactly what he’d been told to do bythe boss’s pet. I was starting to think that Conall was the next best thing to having Sloan tell someone to do something.
An evil part of me wanted to test that theory out, but so far, I’d been good and hadn’t made any suggestions that would get us on anyone’s shit list.
Rowen whooped like a kid and lost his mind when the ball smacked against the back of the net, picking Vail up to swing him around, even though Vail was covered in mud, too, and Rowen was wearing a nice blue suit. I stopped, dropping my hands to my thighs so I could recover—or try.
Conall rested beside me and grinned, batting my hair into my face. I spit out a few strands that had gone into my mouth while he laughed. “You didn’t go easy on me.”
“Hell no. What’s the point of that?” I asked, shaking my head.
Conall grinned and crossed his arms over his stomach. “Most people would because of Sloan.” He widened his eyes.
Shrugging, I stood up and smirked. “It’s not like that was the winning goal anyway. We’re still playing.”
He nodded and glanced toward the sidelines, where a few of the bodyguards and Vail and Rowen were still standing, and I stared at the way Rowen intently watched Vail, who talked a mile a minute, emphasizing something with his hands while Rowen nodded along.
“Are you all right?” Conall asked softly. He shot a quick glance at my crotch and winked.
I groaned. “How did you find out?”
He snorted and covered his mouth with his hand, but when he dropped it the only evidence that he was amused was the sparkle in his deep blue eyes. I appreciated the attempt not to be a dick; although, now that a day had gone by and my junk didn’t feel any worse for wear, I was starting to find it a little funny, too.
“Well?” I stuck out my tongue at him.
“Sloan paid the hospital bill.”
Sighing, I crossed my arms and nodded. “Yeah, Fallon Maher is ready to be of service.” I grinned and turned to watch Rowen and Vail, mostly because I loved looking at them. The grass beneath my feet squished in an unpleasant way, and I moved over a few feet, so I didn’t slip and land ass first like I already had a few times.
“Um, are you all right all around?” Conall asked, surprising me. He hooked his thumb toward the guys.
Sloan walked out from the direction of the mansion, not dressed for the cool weather, in a long-sleeved black shirt that he had rolled to his elbows and gray pants, with white suspenders emphasizing his muscled shoulders. I snickered as he waggled his eyebrows at Conall, who smiled in his direction and waved. Whatever Vail was saying got blasted toward Sloan, and he turned to face Vail, nodding along, the same as Rowen. Vail was good at commanding attention, even if he wasn’t scary.
Conall chuckled and elbowed me, and I shared a smirk with him while we both watched Vail work his magic from a distance.
“So, Rowen started being a lot nicer to me,” I said, then cleared my throat.
Conall tilted his head and frowned. “That’s good, isn’t it?”
Biting my lip for a second, I shrugged. “Yes?”
Conall laughed and shook his head at me. “You’re so strange. Let him be nice! Especially if it’s the kind ofniceI suspect it might be.” With a wink, he jogged over to Sloan.
My insides quivered and I felt good, mostly, but I was apprehensive as I walked over to Vail. He stopped talking as I approached and met me to throw his arms around my waist and give me a playful squeeze.
“Good job, Fallon! You’re fantastic at anything you try.” His huge, sweet smile chased away some of the weirdness that had been hanging over me. Yesterday Rowen had asked me all day long what I preferred to do, while also including Vail, and it had been strange to have everything I said or thought actually be considered so completely by another person. It wasn’t that Vail didn’t care about me and what I wanted—because he did—but he was so caught up in everything in his head that he didn’t focus on me the same way Rowen had.
I still wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
And it wasn’t like when Aspen spent time with me. Aspen usually had an idea about how things should go in most situations. And Cillian just wanted to throw me down and fuck me all around the house.
I was having trouble figuring Rowen out.
