“Who won?” Sloan asked, tweaking Conall’s earlobe.
Conall glanced around and gave me a sly look. “Me, Boss. Who else?”
“Hey! I scored one more goal than you!” I raised my hands, looking around. None of the guards would come to my defense. I rolled my eyes at them.
“I’m counting Vail’s goal as mine,” Conall said with a dainty sniff. “Just because you’re sleeping with him doesn’t automatically make it your goal.”
Crossing my arms, I shook my head. “I can tell you grew up with a brother. You’re as bad as Grady. It’s still only a tie, then.”
Rowen’s breath caught and he widened his eyes in my direction. “Fallon,” he said sharply.
Irritation wormed through me. I hated that we weren’t supposed to treat Conall like an actual fucking person, and besides, I couldn’t stand it when anyone cheated at a game.
Sloan chuckled, a deep pleasant sound, and spun Conall around. Conall gasped as the boss landed a hard slap on his ass that had Conall biting his lip.
“Go settle this, pet.”
Conall wrinkled his nose at me, but he was smiling as we raced out into the middle of our makeshift soccer field. One of the guards tossed the ball toward us as we faced off. I grabbed the ball with my left foot and took off, but I wasn’t as graceful as I’d hoped and almost slipped onto my ass between putting some weight I shouldn’t have on the ball and the mud. Conall and I somehow ended up going around in a circle as he tried to steal the ball from me, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get past him. Next thing I knew, Sloan rushed in and stole the ball from us. The boss slapped Conall’s ass as he headed toward the goal that Rowen rushed over to defend.
“Hey!” Conall shouted. He stuck his hands on his hips and glared after Sloan, and all I could do was laugh.
Sloan kicked the ball at Rowen, who knocked it away, but the ball went directly to Vail, who sent it sailing into the net behind Rowen. Sloan’s laughter was a bright burst of sound that had me grinning harder.
“Ha! I win!” Conall said, slapping my shoulder.
Groaning, I nodded. “Rematch some other day this week?”
“Sure,” Conall said with a shrug.
Rowen came toward us, and we hadn’t exactly been whispering, so I knew he’d heard what I’d said to Conall. He was giving me one of those looks—like a lecture was shortly going to be dumped onto my head about not letting Conall win. On the other hand, Rowen also had that look in his eyes that had been there since I’d gone to the hospital, and my belly warmed. If he said something too sweet, I might just die on the spot. I was having a lot of trouble learning how to deal with him. Vail said nice, sweet, supportive things, but Rowen bombarded me withromanticthings.
It was bizarre.
Aspen did the same thing to mesometimes. I should be better at this.
“Vail’s going to spend the evening with Lor,” Conall said, snagging my attention. I frowned as Sloan nodded.
“We can send him home later tonight in one of the cars.” Sloan glanced at Vail, who was paying zero attention to him and messing around with the tie on his shorts, so Conall nodded instead while rubbing a hand on Sloan’s abs.
“Why is Vail staying?” I asked, but Conall smirked at me, and Rowen snagged my hand, dragging me away from the yard at the side of the mansion toward the front where the Lexus was parked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Rowen said, and at first, I was concerned something bad was happening, but then Rowen gave me a friendly smile and swung my hand back and forth.
On the ride home we barely talked, and when we got to the house, the only thing Rowen said was, “Shower and get dressed. Wear something nice, aye?” Then he disappeared upstairs to his room.
Who was I to argue about soap and water after I’d spent part of the afternoon getting filthy and sweaty while playing a game with Conall?
It was starting to seem as if I was getting paid to be Conall’s friend, not his bodyguard, because I hadn’t even had a gun on me most of the day, but I didn’t want to say anything about it in case someone noticed and put me somewhere less fun. Smiling, I danced my way up the stairs and through my bedroom to the bathroom to get ready for whatever Rowen had in mind.
While I showered and then dressed, I got stuck on the fact that we were probably going to have a date, and Vail and Rowen both knew it before I did. I started thinking about our last date and how nervous I’d been, which only made me worry about this one in a way that didn’t normally happen to me.
Rowen wasn’t Vail.
I hadn’t dated in the past, simply met a few people I’d messed around with, so this was completely new territory for me.
When I stepped out of my bedroom in a pink button-down shirt and a pair of white jeans Vail had sworn made my ass look like it was worth a million bucks, I ran my hands along my sides, then up to my hair. I hadn’t pulled the strands back, only ran some product through it, and it swung around my face, curlier than usual. I let out a long breath and touched my insulin pump, but I’d checked everything this morning, so I knew it was good. I thought about grabbing another shirt so I could hide the pump, but Rowen already knew it was there, and I’d been layering my clothes less often these days.
None of the guys made me feel self-conscious about being diabetic.
