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He took a sip of his beer and chuckled along with Kent as Leon threw a dart and missed the dartboard entirely. Leon blustered around about having something in his eye. Heath had no idea how he’d lost the round so quickly to someone who was obviously so horrible at it.
But then again his head wasn’t really in the game. It was back in town with Sylvie. He’d made a move toward taking their relationship to the next level and been interrupted by her brother. He and Sylvie hadn’t discussed it since it happened the night before, even though they had spent a few hours together this afternoon.
Kent gave a small whoop as he hit the dartboard with the final dart that won the game. Heath smiled and raised his glass in the air. Kent pulled the darts out and tried to hand them to Heath to start a new game, but Heath shook his head.
“No thanks, I think after these couple of beers, I’m more likely to take out somebody’s eye than hit the dartboard.”
Kent grinned. “If you’re going to be hanging out with us more often, you’re going to have to get better at darts. Every Thursday night is league night, and we have an opening for a floater.”
“What makes you think I’ll be hanging around long enough to join a team for league night?” Heath asked the question cautiously.
He was curious to know what Sylvie’s family and friends thought about his continued presence in town. He had said that he was a friend of hers, but it seemed like it was pretty obvious to folks that there was more going on. Little did they know, not a damned thing they thought was happening actually was.
“Right …?” Leon gave Heath a long look. “You’re gonna try and tell us that you’re not into Sylvie? Ho-ho! We know that look. You’ve got it bad, man.”
Heath was chagrined. He thought he was covering his emotions for Sylvie better than that. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Kent lightly knocked shoulders with him. “It’s okay. You’re among friends here. The only thing is if you get involved with Sylvie, you have to put up with that asshole of an ex-boyfriend of hers. Especially since he’s probably going to want to be part of the babies’ lives, eventually.”
Now, this peaked Heath’s interest. He had heard rumors around town that there was an ex-boyfriend in the picture, and of course, Sylvie’s mother had basically said as much. But he didn’t know the details, and he didn’t want to put off Sylvia by putting her on the spot about it.
He tried to sound casual when he asked his next question. “So what’s with them, anyway? Sylvie never talks about him.”
“Can you believe a guy would get a woman pregnant and not step up and take care of his children?” Kent seemed appalled by the idea.
Even though he hadn’t known the man long, Heath liked Kent a lot. He recognized Kent right away as the genius behind Kenrik, a company Heath had once scouted and considered trying to purchase.
The rumor around town was that Kent had a small fortune stashed away and that he was a reclusive billionaire. Kent wasn’t ever reclusive, but he certainly had a large fortune. He’d made a killing on the sale of Kenrik.
Heath wondered if, at some point, he might become the object of similar gossip around Zeke’s Bend. The funny part about that, of course, was that he really was a reclusive billionaire. The irony wasn’t lost on him.
Leon stepped up to the table and took a drink of his beer. “Alan’s a chiropractor. He and Sylvie dated way too long. He’s an ass. Never treated her right. Always chased around other women’s skirts behind her back. He didn’t even bother to hide it that well because everyone knew. I think Sylvie knew, too, but she wouldn’t admit it. I don’t know why she put up with him for so long. I think she was just being stubborn.”
This was also interesting news. Sylvie had been going out with this man until last year.
“So what happened? What made her finally give him the boot?”
“She went on a trip with him,” Leon said. “I don’t remember where. And I don’t know what happened. Meg went on and on about it, but who can listen to all that chatter? Ho-ho! Anyhoo, when Sylvie came back, she was done with Alan, and that suited all of us Joneses just fine. We were glad to see him go. Isn’t that right, Kent, my boy?”
Kent nodded. “I don’t know the guy, really, but he hasn’t stepped up to his responsibilities, so I don’t have much use for him.”
“She went on a trip with him, you say?” Heath asked. “Does she travel often?”
“Nah,” Leon said. “She’s always working, just like the rest of us. Gotta make a living, eh boys?”
The pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to fit together. The trip must have been when he met Sylvie in Chicago. And if so, then it was when she’d broken up with this Alan character. It was all starting to make sense. A heartbroken woman would be a woman looking for perhaps a little bit of fun and a rebound.
And that’s where Heath came into the picture. Fun and a rebound. Was that all he’d been? Not exactly a testament to his romantic prowess.
“Of course, then it turned out that Sylvie was pregnant,” Leon continued. “Sachet can’t stand that Sylvie is letting Alan off the hook. At the very least, he should be paying child support for those babies. I agree with my sister.”
“So she’s admitted that Alan is the father of the babies?” Heath asked the question with a great deal of trepidation.
“Who else could be the father?” Kent asked. He shook his head at Heath like he was crazy. “She hasn’t dated anyone else since she broke up with Alan.”
“I see.” And Heath definitely did see. If Sylvie had been with him and with Alan that weekend, it was possible that everyone could be wrong about the man who fathered Sylvie’s twin boys.
The conversation may have settled nothing for him, but it certainly had reopened a can of worms he thought was sealed.
“So, you have to tell us the story. When Meg found out I was going out with you tonight, she told me I had to get all the dirt.” He took a drink and mumbled, “It’s pretty much the only reason she let me come.”
“Yeah, what’s up between you and Sylvie,” Kent asked.
“Just friends,” Heath said.
“Ahem.” Leon cleared his throat. “Meg told me that Sylvie’s been acting happier in the last week than in a long time.”
“Really?”
“She’s whistling, Meg says.”
Huh. Whistling. A warm swell of pride filled his chest, although the conversation itself was awkward. He wasn’t used to having conversations like this with other men. He didn’t think that men usually gossiped, but then again, he didn’t know why he was surprised. So far, he’d observed that it seemed as if everybody gossiped in Zeke’s Bend.
“We’re friends, that’s all,” he said.
“What do they call it these days?” Leon blustered. “Friends with Benefits? Ho-ho!”
Kent and Heath exchanged glances. Kent appeared to share Heath’s opinion that Uncle Leon was quite the character.
Heath didn’t answer Leon’s charge, only shook his head and sipped at his beer, keeping an eye out for the floating fleck of whatever it was.
“You know what? I think I’m going to toss some more darts,” Kent declared.
Heath silently thanked him for the save. Leon whooped for some unknown reason. Heath couldn’t imagine getting that excited over a game of darts, but whatever floated the older man’s boat.
As they played, the noise rattled through the whole bar and before long they’d attracted a surprising fourth — Will Jones, Sylvie’s brother.
The four men split into two teams, Heath with Will, and Kent with Leon. Soon, the score was tied. It came down to the final minutes of the dart battle. Some fellow patrons of the bar stood around watching them play.
In an aside, Will nudged Heath’s ribs. “Everybody around here said you don’t play darts.”
“I had some incentive.” Heath wasn’t going to say that the incentive was that he wanted to stop talking about Sylvie.
Thankfully, Will wasn
’t asking any questions about his sister. All the same, Heath knew Will was sussing him out, trying to get a handle on who he might be, what kind of man he was. Heath couldn’t blame him for it. Heath liked to think if he had a sister he’d be protective of her, too.
Sometimes, though, when Will thought he wasn’t looking, Heath would catch Will watching him with a speculative air. It was as if Will were trying to figure something out. It was strange and Heath did his best to ignore it.
Kent stepped up. He took his time at the line studying the board intently. People around them were taking bets, and he thought he heard someone call out a bet for fifty bucks on Heath and Will. Heath wasn’t quite sure what to make of being the center of attention, but the fresh, fleck-free beer he’d been served was helping.
“So where did you say you were from again?” Will asked.
