“Y-yeah, of course.” Reid nodded, and I realized the poor bastard was tongue-tied around her. Didn’t blame him.
I gave him a tight-lipped smile and guided us toward the still-open dart board. It was against the wall on the far left, which gave us more privacy. With how much the place had filled up, it was lucky we were still able to snag it.
“What was that all about?” Lily asked as I pulled out my wallet to grab a dollar bill for the machine. “Gabe.” Lily drew out my name, raising her brows with an amused smile, like she knew something I didn’t. “I was in the middle of a conversation, and you swooped in. Not that I minded, but…”
I shrugged, trying to downplay it. “I…didn’t like how close he was standing to you.”
Lily let out a giggle. “Because it was hard to hear over the music,” she explained, although I didn’t believe those were his only intentions.
“Eliza said he’s had a crush on you for years.”
“Oh, really?” Lily asked, amused. “And that bothered you?”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something I’d regret and instead focused on pressing the display to set up our game.
“What?” Lily asked gently, stepping in front of me. “There’s more you don’t want to say. You can tell me anything.”
That was the problem. I felt like I could tell her things I hadn’t told anyone else. That was how comfortable I was around her.
“I don’t know if I can tell you this,” I said slowly.
“Try me.”
“I hated seeing him that close to you. He doesn’t deserve to be in the same room as you, let alone talking to you. No man does.”
“What about you?” She tilted her head to the side. “Do you deserve to be in the same room as me?”
“No,” I said on a self-deprecating laugh. Maybe I was least deserving of all. “I really don’t.”
“Well, you’re wrong.” Lily pulled the darts out of the board. She kept three for herself and handed me the others. “You do, and you know what? Tonight, I realized you’re the first person I look for when I enter a room. That’s going to be a hard habit to break once you leave.”
Those words knocked the air out of me, leaving me winded. Because she was the first person I looked for, too. I’d been watching the front door to Lake Ridge like a fucking hawk waiting for her to enter tonight.
“Now, let’s play. I’m excited to win.” She skipped over to the white line on the floor, and once I was out of the way, threw her first set of darts. “Well, look at that.” She grinned over at me. “A bullseye on my first turn.”
40
LILY
I started playingdarts younger than any kid should, but luckily, it had served me well, especially tonight. I didn’t think there was a way Gabe could catch up, but I didn’t want to gettooconfident.
“So,” I said as I turned toward him, “if I win, will you admit you were jealous?” I smiled sweetly and batted my lashes at him.
Gabe rolled his eyes. “You meanwhenyou win?”
I took my turn and stepped out of the way. “I suppose that would be more accurate.”
He shook his head with a laugh and threw his first dart, hitting a triple twenty, which shaved off quite a bit of his score. “What about if I win? What do I get then?”
“What do you want?”
“A kiss from you. At midnight.”
My heart skipped, because all night I’d been thinking about kissing Gabe. Wanting to find any excuse to kiss him—or to give him an excuse to kiss me. Now, I wanted him to win. His prize seemed way better than mine.
“That would work, especially since you had a good turn.” He could likely win on his next one.
Since we were playing 301, I needed to hit exactly the number I had left or less, but I couldn’t go over. I needed to hit the seventeen, but if I veered left, and just so happened to hit the nineteen…
