AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I grin at her because she’s joking, which means I’m not acting like a self-entitled dick. “Oh, no, I am though. The biggest.”
“Above average. By a bit.”
“You’re mean,” I complain as Mina stands to take her turn. She laughs and walks over to find her ball.
She’s up against a barely-legal-to-drink stuntman named Dex and the good-natured jabs the two of them have been trading might be verging on flirty now.
Grumble.
Timbo’s Bowling “Death by Match Play” isn’t any match play. There’s a rolling penalty for whoever gets the lower score. Curtis got to toss Nic’s ball down the gutter when Nic didn’t make it back from the bar in time a few frames ago. Danny had to lose his shirt when I got a strike to his spare. If Mina loses to Dex, she has to finish her drink and his before their next turn, or she’ll be bowling the rest of the game in her underwear.
Considering she’s braless and we’re all treated to a peek at her lacy thong every time she bowls, I have a vested interest in helping her cheat if it comes down to it—namely, I don’t want to share.
The moment she steps up, we all go silent as we watch like the perverts we are. Mina gives no fucks—she models the underwear she sews, so her ass is already online and yes I have every image bookmarked and saved—and she flips off anyone who whistles. Including a fox furry earlier—though she cuddled the fox after they dropped their ball on their foot.
Dex motions for her to go first. He’s a nice guy. Handsome and tan, with floppy ash-blond hair. I had to cut my hair short and dye it darker to stunt double for Nic, so I’m a little jealous of Dex’s locks. Honestly, I just want hair long enough to be pulled in the heat of the moment.
Not that I’m having any “heat of the moment” moments these days.
I mentally revoke my opinion of Dex being a nice guy when it becomes apparent he’s standing back for the view up Mina’s short dress. Jackie Chan kicks me for not clocking Dex, but really, Jackie, who can blame the kid?
Mina beats him, so he has to drink her beer and his before his next turn or strip.
“Sorry, Dex,” she says with a laugh. “No clue where my drink went. Might as well strip now.”
I hand Dex Mina’s beer, giving her a stern look.
She ducks her head, blushing, but she doesn’t sit next to me again. She stays standing with Dex.
I frown and stare at my bowling shoes. Maybe I’m reading too much into the incident at the bar. Maybe she’s into Dex. She’s never really been into anyone, so would I even know?
Asking her out is a jump I’ve face-planted every year. I’m sick of landing on my face. I need to know if this year I can make it. I need a sign.
I stand, grabbing Mina’s hand and twirling her into my arms. She looks surprised, but she’s going with it. Probably because she’s tipsy.
“Let’s get out of here. We’ll go dancing, just you and me.” I want to touch that silky dress again, so I pull her close. The fabric catches on the rough pads of my fingers as I slide them up and down a few inches. My eyes practically roll into the back of my head, but I don’t break my stride, swaying her like we’re at a middle school dance.
Only my thoughts are very grown up.
Mina laughs, but I can feel the little shiver that slips down her spine. I pull her tighter against me and her laugh stops.
The rest of the bowling alley fades away. Nic could be juggling bowling balls. The furries and the metalheads could be having an orgy. I wouldn’t see any of it.
Look at me. See me. My heart is yours.Hope is too raw to let me say it out loud, so I tell her with a look, with a squeeze of her hand, her waist. Five years of longing pulled tight into this moment and all I need is one sign she wants this as bad as I do. Something to keep me from giving up.
Mina glances over her shoulder. “I can’t leave my friends.”
My heart takes the body slam.Thanks, universe. Wrong fucking sign.
Her friends have left her. Charlotte’s chatting with Curtis, who is not only a dead-ringer for Regé-Jean Page, but also has an Irish accent, tells the best stories, and fosters kittens. Charlotte, who looks a bit like Isla Fisher but taller and somehow less potentially stabby, has forgotten Mina exists.
It’s been driving me nuts all evening, but I don’t know who in the world of celebrity Lexi resembles. Whatever. She’s talking to a woman at the bar. I don’t know the woman, but she’s from the group dressed like 1920s gangsters, and Lexi appears very interested.
Her friends are happy. The look in Mina’s dark eyes tells me she knows. She just doesn’t want to leave with me.
“Okay,” I say quietly, releasing her.
The beer is flowing and the next two hours pass in a whirl of laughter and the occasional bit of nudity as I pretend my world isn’t crumbling. The amount of shit-talking has everyone clutching their sides. Nic spills some beer on a beaver and we’re seconds away from a brawl until I manage to separate them. And pull Nic away when the beaver whips him with their tail.
