Less than ten minutes later, Theo sent the black eight ball into a corner pocket.
“You need to practice more.” He leaned his pool cue against the wall and walked over to the table where they’d placed the food. “Are you up for another game?”
“Nah, I want to finish eating first, but Liv might be interested.”
Although equally as handsome as Matt, her heart rate didn’t spike when Theo turned his full attention her way.
“What do you say? Are you up for a game?”
As he passed by her to return his pool cue to the rack, Matt winked at her. She didn’t need any additional hints.
“I might be a little rusty.”
“Don’t worry about it. You can’t play any worse than my brother.”
“Trust me, our skill levels are not even close.” Somehow, Matt managed not only to keep a straight face, but he also kept any trace of humor from his voice.
“Wow.” Genuine surprise appeared on Theo’s face. “You’re going to let him get away with saying that?”
Biting down on the inside of her cheek, Liv shrugged. “He’s not lying.”
“It wouldn’t matter. If I said something similar about Brianna, she’d still skin me alive.”
Theo’s comment didn’t surprise her. Brianna seemed like the type who disliked being criticized. Of course, in this instance, Matt was doing the exact opposite despite the way he made it seem.
Selecting her personal pool cue from the rack, where she’d been keeping it, she joined Theo near the table. “Do you want to break?”
“Doesn’t matter to me,” he answered around a mouthful of food.
“Why don’t you do it, then. It’s my weakest area.”
Behind her, Matt coughed, and she glanced over her shoulder in time to catch his grin.
Theo shook his head as he watched the eight ball glide across the table and into a side pocket. “I can’t believe you made that shot.”
Matt had spent enough time with Liv to know she made even the most difficult shots look easy.
“I got lucky tonight.” Liv kept her face down as she removed the balls from the corner pocket.
“I would’ve bought that after our first game, but not after this one. No one is that lucky. You lied when you said it had been a while since you played.”
As Matt expected, his brother sounded more annoyed than angry.
Liv moved on to the next pocket and removed the solid purple ball. “I didn’t lie.”
He’d never seen a more innocent-looking expression on someone’s face, and he cleared his throat to keep from laughing.
“But I guess my definition of ‘a while’ is different than yours.” A smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
Theo followed Liv’s lead and emptied the pocket closest to him. “And when was the last time you played?”
If Matt didn’t know better, he’d believe she was actually trying to remember when they last played. Maybe Liv should consider an acting career.
“Probably sometime last week or the week before.” She looked at Matt. “Does that sound right?”
“Last Tuesday, I think.”
“That explains why my brother played so much better than usual. You’ve been helping him.”
