“I already told you mine.I don’t want to be farm manager for my dad like everyone expects.I want to go to college and find something else.Anything else.I’d do anything to play college ball and try out for the pros.”I threw my arm across the seat of my truck behind her head wondering if I could get her to kiss me on this date or if it’d be on our second.
“I have one superpower.”
“Which is?”I prompted.
“I can rock any pool hall game.Foosball, pool, or air hockey.”She punctuated the admission with an evil villain laugh.“Dad has been dumping me at the Salted Mule when he has a farm call at night since I was a freshman.Mom was sick, you know.I had to go somewhere.”
I couldn’t help but laugh in reaction to her ridiculous cackle.“Are you a hustler?”
“Mike loves it because it brings in lots of money for him at the bar when they buy drinks to work themselves up to playing against me and then beat themselves up afterward.”
“One game.”Erika held up her finger to Drew.“Then I’ve got to be somewhere else.”
Drew had dressed up in jeans and a T-shirt, which for him was practically formal compared to the coveralls he usually lived in.He wore that goofy, trying-too-hard smile of his—the one meant to be charming, but it just made him look like an overeager Care Bear.
“Bet you fifty bucks you can’t beat Drew,” someone in the back of the crowd of about fifteen yelled.“He’s the master of foosball.”
“Fifty, huh?”She twirled the foosball rod closest to her and chewed on her lower lip.How could anyone fall for her fake insecurity?She said, “Okay.I guess I’ll try.”
Watch out, boys.She’s about to steal your money.I had to see this.I once watched her hustle a pool game.It was the most unbelievable thing I’d ever seen.Okay, an amazing second to today when I watched her in surgery.Drew had to know her secret, but he was so focused on her tits that he didn’t seem to care what went on around him.
Her sixth sense must’ve kicked in, because her gaze slid straight to mine.And then…
She winked.
My heart slammed so hard I instinctively pressed the heel of my hand to my chest, trying to ease the sudden rush.
Then she gave me that wicked grin, sharp and sure, locking onto me with sniper-level precision.For a beat, I could’ve sworn the whole room froze with everyone else fading into background noise.Maybe it didn’t actually happen that way, but for that moment, in all the bustle, it was just the two of us.
I wouldn’t allow her to tie me in knots like this again.Maybe Milly was right, and she could be trying to seduce me.However, it looked more like she was working her magic on Drew than me.
With a shrug, she took off her black jacket and laid it next to Vinny.He grinned at her.I hadn’t seen the kid happier.A tight, black top contoured plentiful breasts down to a flat abdomen.What had me swallowing hard were the intricate tattoos she had down both biceps.The one closest to me was a mix between a firefly and a dragon.
Everything about that tattoo qualified as one hundred percent sexy.
She leaned in across the foosball table.“I’ll raise that fifty to a hundred.What do you think, Drew?Are you feelin’ lucky?”
“So lucky.”Drew swallowed hard and nodded.His eyes remained fixated on the breasts she too obviously used to distract him.
You asked for it, man.Not saving you now.
Mike leaned against the wall next to me.“You’ve got to figure out how to keep her here.She’s magic, bringin’ boys in who I ain’t seen in years.I’ve sold more beers in the past ten minutes than in the past three days combined.I miss having that girl around.”
“You think I have any control over her staying or going?”I glanced over at him.
Mike stroked his manicured, gray beard with his left hand.His gold wedding ring flashed in the light.“I don’t know what possessed you to screw it up the first time around, but what was a wild and untamed girl before is now…” He whistled low.“A whole lot of complicated.”
“You said it.Not me.”
“I’m not sure you can handle that kind of complicated.”Mike gave me a skeptical smile.
“I never said I wanted to?—”
“What’s going on?”Milly asked beside me.
I jerked to see her on my left.Shit, I’d completely forgotten I left her out there.I was a crappy date.“Erika is about to break Drew’s heart.”
“Seriously?You ditched me to watch whatever this is?”
