My heart leapt into my throat.Baby.She just called mebaby. I couldn’t help the grin on my face as I squeezed her thigh. I liked that. I liked that a lot. It felt like she was finally accepting that I was hers, that this was real.
Jae left to take his turn and Mason stood, sliding Lottie off his lap and onto the bench.
“So, it was love at first sight?” I turned my head to face Lottie who had asked the question.
“Uh,” I cleared my throat, and Shiloh wrapped her arm around my own. “No. I wouldn’t say that. We were friends before anything, and it just kind of blossomed into a relationship. I was afraid I’d freak her out and she’d run away if I asked her out any sooner than I did.”
I glanced at Shiloh, and she rolled her eyes, a smile still on her face. Jae spun around with a hoot, hollering out that he’d gotten a spare. Hannah passed him on the way to the ball return table.
“So, Jae, are you in the military too, or are you just in town visiting?”
“No, no. I live here, too.”
Hannah hummed, nodding in understanding. “So, what do you do for work if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I’m in a similar line of business as your sister and brother-in-law. I’m about to open an MMA gym,” Jae explained, tucking his hands into his back pockets.
“Really?” Hannah’s brows rose in surprise, before she chuckled, her eyes drifting down Jae’s body. “Well, that would explain the physique. Are you, like, a professional boxer or something like that?”
Jae shook his head. “Nah, I like to fight, sure. But, not as a professional. My family runs an MMA gym back home and I’m just kind of carrying on the legacy I guess you could say.”
“And it’s opening soon you said?”
“Yeah. Yeah. If all goes to plan, it should be open first of the month.”
“I’d lo—”
Hannah was cut off by Mason returning to our lane. “Alright. Who wants beer?”
My eyes got stuck on the pitcher of bubbly amber. I could smell it from where I sat, and I realized it was the first time since I got sober that I’d been in a social setting where there was alcohol. I didn’t even need to taste it. The orange wedge on the rim and the smell alone were enough for me to identify it as Blue Moon. Something that shouldn’t have had me salivating.
“Me!” Lottie said, reaching towards the low table that stretched between the two benches we occupied.
Mason pointed a finger in our direction. “I know you don’t drink, Emory. What about you guys?”
I blinked, my mind frozen for a moment. The words were stuck in my throat. I knew the answer was no. I knew that’s what I wanted to say, but for some reason I couldn’t get my damn tongue to work.
“We’re good,” Jae supplied as he walked in front of me to take his seat. I caught his stare as he studied my face, and I flashed him a quick, grateful smile, embarrassment making my face hot.
Shiloh sprung up to take her turn, but I couldn’t stop staring at that damn pitcher of beer. I didn’t even fucking want to drink it. Okay, maybe a little. Maybe a small, tiny, sliver of myself was thinking about how just one drink would help me loosen up. Help me to stop caring so damn much about how shit I was at bowling, at how anxious I was to be liked by Shiloh’s friends.
A hand on my neck had me jerking myself from my thoughts. I turned to face Shiloh, and she bent down to press her mouth to mine. I’ll admit, it was a pretty damn good distraction. Especially when her nails scratched the nape of my neck. The sounds around us faded out to white noise and I was fully prepared to take her home right then and there just so we didn’t have to stop kissing.
But then she pulled back. I let my eyes open, immediately finding her gaze as she stared at me with those damn hazel eyes that always held me captive. The question was there. In her eyes. And I nodded.I’m okay.
“Thank you,” I mouthed.
She smiled softly before nodding her head behind her to the alley.
“Wanna help me?”
I snorted, “I think I’ll just make you worse.”
Shiloh scrunched her nose and shook her head, “You never know. You might be my good luck charm.”
I nodded, letting her pull me up and away from the table with beer.
Fuck alcohol. I’ve got Shiloh.
