“Ready to lose?”Alice asked.
Lark folded her arms.“Ready to watch your old ass pull something trying to throw that ball?”
Alice gasped.“Old?”
Wren cackled.
I laughed under my breath, but even as I did, my eyes drifted.
Not on purpose.
I didn’t even realize I was doing it until I was already looking toward the bar.
Jude was still there.
He’d moved a little farther down, closer to Oliver and Thorn, but I could still pick him out without trying, which was annoying because I was very much trying not to.
He had a glass in front of him now instead of a beer bottle—water, maybe, or something clear.His shoulders were broad and loose in that way men’s got when they were sitting still but weren’t really relaxed.Oliver was saying something to him, and Basil was laughing at whatever it was, but Jude barely seemed to react.
My stomach tightened, not because he was doing anything, but because he wasn’t.
Because I hated that I was still aware of him.
“Ever.”
I blinked and jerked my attention back to the game.
Wren gave me a curious look.“You trying to order a drink with your mind or what?”
“What?”
She tipped her head toward the bar.“You keep looking over there.”
Heat crept into my cheeks.“Oh.No.I was just looking.”
“I wonder at what?”Lark asked dryly.
I shot her a look.“Shut up.”
Wren laughed and turned, lifting a hand toward the bar.“Penny!”
Penny was weaving around the end of the bar with a tray balanced on one palm.She glanced over.“Yeah?”
“Bring us a round of Amaretto Sours when you get a second.”
Penny grinned.“Got it.”
“See?”Wren said, turning back to me.“Now you don’t have to stare holes through the bar.”
“I was not staring holes through the bar.”
Alice raised a brow.“You kind of were.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the kickball from the floor where it had rolled after the last toss.“Can we please just beat you now?”
“Oh, she’s feisty,” Alice said.“That’s cute.”
Lark held out her hand for the ball.“Give me that.I’m about to humble them.”
