I sent the message with a smiley emoji and shoved my phone back in my pocket. My stomach was now turning with excitement. I wiped the grin off my face when I realized Kai was eyeing me with suspicion.
“They have batting cages,” I blurted. I needed to start some type of conversation so he wouldn’t asked about my cheesy grin.
“Oh, sweet. I supposed this place won’t be an entire waste of time.” Silas felt disappointed this wouldn’t be a party filled with booze and overflowing with available men and women. Thankfully, the mention of baseball perked him up. Most days, Silas was like a dog in a park full of squirrels.
“How many guys accepted your invite?” I pushed open the door, glancing back at Kai to make sure I didn’t miss his response.
My brother still wore a scowl on his face as he witnessed a few teenagers running out of the building, sword-fighting with golf clubs. “All of them… I think we’re too old for this.”
I frowned at his vague response to my question.
“No one’s too old for manipulating the skeeball machine,” Silas disagreed. He wrapped his arms around Kai and my necks, pulling us close against him.
“Nope.” I shoved my elbow in Silas’s side, but he didn’t loosen me from his embrace. “What we’re not going to do is put me through Armada Games 2.0.”
“Oh, come on.” Silas chuckled. “Everyone cheats in skeeball.”
“I don’t,” Kai and I said at the same time.
“Most everyone cheats at skeeball…” Silas amended, trailing off when his gaze caught on something.
“What?” I traced his line of sight. His eyes were on Yara, Ari, and two other girls from the org. They’d already claimed a booth in the dining area with their table filled with a large pizza.
“Who’s that?” Silas paused but his grip on us didn’t, so Kai and I were held in place with equal looks of displeasure.
“Who?” I frowned.
He gestured his chin to Ari. “The one with the long hair and fucking gorgeous eyes.”
Kai scoffed as his best friend stared. “I’ll be right back. I gotta piss, and I’m allergic to watching this guy attempt to flirt.”
“Same…” I sighed, disappointed I too couldn’t avoid the impending car crash that was Silas when he found someone he liked.
“So…” Silas said in a lower voice once Kai left. “Who is she? And does my breath smell okay?”
“Hey.” I shoved his face away when he opened his mouth for me to sniff. “I’m not going to smell your breath, Silas.”
“How else am I going to know?”
I sighed and rummage through my bag to grab him a stick of gum. “That’s Ari. And trust me when I say if you’re going to flirt, try to take it easy. She’s very smart and very busy and very out of your league.”
Silas nodded as he put the gum in his mouth. “Any more tips?”
I raised a brow. “When’s the last time you asked someone out? Proper asked out, not a one-night stand.”
Silas’s longest relationship was with Sam. They’d accepted Silas’s invite for a date even though the whole build-up was less than ideal. Silas always treated potential partners like one of his friends. Didn’t matter their gender or sexuality. Which made things hard because they always assumed he didn’t want more than a friendship.
“Sam,” Silas sighed.
I scratched my head. “Okay. When did you two break up?”
Silas closed an eye, doing a count. “Two years ago.”
I whistled. “Yikes. And you haven’t been on a date since?”
“I’m a very busy guy who happens to enjoy casual hookups,” he reminded me.
“Well, you’re not hooking up tonight.”
