“I thought maybe—”
Someone obnoxiously clears their throat, and Millie jumps from the noise. She instinctively takes a step back, effectively putting space between the two of us. I look over to find the culprit and find none other than Luka with his eyebrows raised expectantly.
I mouth,what?Confused as to why the hell he’s looking at me like that.
His eyes widen and he shakes his head before mumbling, “Already done lost and you have no idea.” Then he chuckles softly before putting his arm around Lily and pulling her into his chest.
“What?” I say, louder.
“Nothing, brother. Just here to enjoy the show.” He nods towards the beer pong table but I have a feeling that’s not at all what he’s referring to.
“You aren’t going to play?” I ask my best friend.
“No, I’m sitting this round out. I have a feeling watching is going to be a lot more fun.” There he goes being cryptic as shit again.
I shrug it off and say, “We need two people to play against.” I pull Millie over to my favorite side, on the left towards the back door. Hockey players are a superstitious bunch and I’m no different. This side used to be my lucky side before the accidentand everything changed. I’m hoping tonight’s the night I find that luck again.
I see Lennon rub her hands together out of the corner of my eye before she grabs Aiden and practically drags him to the other side of the table with her.
“What the hell?Who said I wanted to play?” Aiden grumbles, looking at Lennon’s hand that is still wrapped tightly around his bicep.
She doesn’t seem fazed in the slightest. “I did,” she sasses.
“Does it not matter that I don’twantto play?” Aiden asks, flabbergasted.
“No," she says, shaking her head before she continues. “You remember how good we played together last week.” She says it more as a statement, than a question.
“What does that have to do with tonight?”
Lennon’s eyes practically cross, before she turns towards Aiden, her hands on her hips in a don’t fuck with me kind of way.“Hmm, everything?” You can hear the unspokenduhat the end of that sentence.
Aiden’s incredulous face says it all. That Lennon O’Malley is crazy as hell.
And also hilarious because there is no way I’m letting her and Aiden beat me, even with a partner that doesn’t know diddly squat about beer pong. I could beat them with one hand tied behind my back and my eyes closed, that’s how confident I am that tonight is the night I get my mojo back. And it might have a little something to do with the curly haired bombshell standing next to me.
“And I get no say in this?” Aiden grumbles.
“You should take it as a compliment, really. I am very picky about my beer pong partners.” Lennon answers so nonchalantly I’m having a hard damn time keeping my chuckle in.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re kind of scary?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?”
Aiden’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead, comically. He has no idea what to do with this woman and I’m loving every minute of their awkward interaction. “No, I’m genuinely asking if you know how scary you are.”
Lennon turns towards him so it gets a little harder to hear her but I’m pretty sure she says, “Oh, come on big man. How can you be scared of little ol’ me?”
Lennon is referring to the substantial difference in their sizes. Aiden Graham is one of the biggest players on the team, at roughly six foot six and well over two hundred pounds. He’s like a big teddy bear, quiet and even keeled.
Lennon on the other hand can’t be more than five three, a petite blonde that packs a mean punch. She’s on the sassy side, some might even call her abrasive but I’ve always just found her antics entertaining. Her and Stella are pretty close friends and I can see why. They both have that same spunk.
“Are they dating?” Millie whispers. She’s standing so close to my side that I could reach out and graze my fingertips along her thigh if I wanted to, and boy do I want to. But I refrain, remembering that a friend just doesn’t randomly reach out and touch their friends like that.
“No, they’re not.”
“Really?” Millie asks in disbelief. “That’s some serious sexual tension going on.”
I laugh because she isn’t wrong. I watch as Lennon throws her hands on her hip in exasperation, probably at the fact that Aiden still hasn’t technically agreed to play. While Aiden stands there with his arms crossed across his chest, looking down at Lennon with a frown on his face. “They just don’t see it yet,” I answer.
