AllFreeNovel
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“Ladybug, you are fierce in this outfit.” I set her down and take her in. “I see you’re ready to play some ball, and yet someone forgot to extend that message to me.” I raise my head and quirk a brow at the hot piece of man candy heading my way.
“I didn’t think you’d come if you knew we were playing games tonight.”
I inwardly laugh, and Grey throws me a smug smirk that only I can read.
“I would have muddled along. But in this?” I throw a wave down at myself indicating my cute outfit because, let’s be real, I look damn good in it. “And here I thought you knew me,” I quip.
Callan doesn’t stop walking until he’s in front of me. His arm swings around my waist, and he hauls me up against his chest. “I ordered you pizza with black olives, mushrooms, and bacon.”
“Then you’ll get laid tonight,” I promise, and he grins.
“I know you. Just not everything yet.” That’s when he kisses me. Right in front of all his friends. And Katy. “We’ll get there. But are you okay playing some basketball?”
“Does it come with alcohol?”
I hear a noise in the background. “Layla Fritz, come here.” I swivel around to find Aurelia waving me over to a cart bar they have in the corner of the massive room. “Tell me your poison, and I’ll mix it pretty.”
“I like you.”
She laughs. “I like you too. More importantly, I like that look on Callan’s face. Especially now that you’re drinking that particular poison with him.” The pretty blonde waves her hand across the tray of various alcohols like she’s a game show hostess. “What’ll it be?”
“Bourbon. Double. Straight up. No chaser.”
“If I was into chicks, I’d be into you,” Aurelia tells me as she lifts the heavy bottle of Blanton’s.
“If I was into chicks, I’d marry Stella, but you’d be my second choice.”
She hands me a glass and then pours one for herself. “I’ll take it. I’ve met Stella, and I can’t blame you. Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
Our glasses clink and then we’re both tossing back our drinks.
“I’m going to drop a hundred on you. You play, don’t you?”
I choke out a laugh, shocked as I meet her eyes. “How on earth could you possibly know that?”
She shrugs. “I read people better than most, and I can tell you have something up your sleeve. You’re too calm and coy, and I caught the look Grey gave you.”
I give her a wink. “You’re observant. I’ll remember that. Triple that bet, and I’ll go in for half with you.”
“Ash!” Aurelia cries out. “I’ve got five hundred on Layla beating your butt.”
Everyone gasps.
She pours me a second drink and I toss down the double and hand her the empty glass. I kick off my sandals and pad barefoot back toward the center of the court.
“Five hundred?” Asher questions, wearing a sleeveless Boston Rebels’ shirt and black gym shorts.
“Five hundred,” she confirms.
“What do you know that I don’t?”
Zax shakes his head. “Uh-uh. You can’t ask that. It’s like Vegas. You either take the bet or you don’t.”
“You don’t even play,” Asher tosses back at him.
Zax gives him a careless shrug. “I don’t make the rules, brother. You know how this works.”
