AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I explain the whole scene that took place in the secret tunnel, which leaves her with a confused expression on her face. “He won’t date anyone because he’s afraid of it not working out?” She sarcastically adds, “Welcome to life, buddy boy. There are no guarantees.”
Before I can respond, Jamie walks over to us. “It’s your turn, Paige.” She glares at him before sauntering away. Meanwhile, he sits down next to me. “You cannot go on that dating show.”
“Are you my mother?” I demand. “Because I’ll have you know, evenshecan’t tell me what to do anymore.”
“Melissa, millions of people will be watching you. How can you make a decent connection with someone, knowing that your every move is going to be dissected on social media?”
“You seem to know a lot about these shows for someone who claims to have never watched them,” I accuse.
“I’ve seen commercials …” he attempts, but I interrupt him.
“We’re friends, Jamie, so I’ll listen to your opinion, but just so you know, I don’t have to follow it.” Paige bowls a strike and Sammy starts to cheer for her. “Looks like it’s my turn.” I stand up and leave him staring after me.
How dare he tell me that I can’t go onMidwestern Matchmaker? Who does he think he is? He’s certainly not my boyfriend.
I’m so distracted by my anger that I only knock down eight pins, leaving a seven-ten split. Crap. That’s the hardest combo to get a spare on. Behind me, I hear Sammy shout, “You’ve got this, Melissa!” I love how she’s cheering for everybody. In her eyes, we’re all there to have fun and it doesn’t matter who wins.
In a perfect world, that would be my attitude as well. But right now, all I want to do is wipe the floor with Jamie.
Paige calls out, “Hit seven on an angle so it ricochets and takes down ten.”
I move right of the center line and lift my ball. In my mind’s eye, both the remaining pins become miniature Jamies. As they smirk at me with superiority, I take aim and let my ball fly. Not only does it eviscerate the seven pin—which then knocks down the ten pin as planned—but it hops lanes and takes out another six pins in the lane next to us.
Paige jumps to her feet. “It’s a spare plus six!”
“No way,” Jamie says. “You get the spare but that’s all.”
The rest of the game is both exciting and tense beyond belief. And not all the tension has to do with bowling. Jamie stares daggers at me all night, making me wonder if he has something in his eye.
The game goes neck and neck right up to the end when Sammy’s final strike wins it for her team. While I hate that Jamie won, I love that Sammy had such a cool moment.
“Congrats, kid,” I tell her. “You are an amazing bowler.”
“That’s only because I had no social life last year. Dad took me bowling to try to get my mind off of things.” I’m happy he did that for her, but also irritated that there’s yet another reason to admire his parenting skills.
“That was nice of him. What else did you guys do?” I’d better find out if they became pro at any other sport before placing more bets with them.
“We ate a lot of pizza,” she tells me.No worries there. I’m pretty sure I could take anyone in a pizza eating contest.
“Relationships can be hard work, can’t they?” I ask her, remembering my own adolescent dramas.
“Regan and Cameron are so nice though, I’m hoping we don’t have any drama,” she says hopefully.
“Paige and I never did,” I tell her. “Which goes to prove there are some people you’re destined to have in your life.”
Paige comes over and asks, “Are we up for another game?”
“I am,” Sammy says.
I’m about to tell them I am too, when Jamie interjects, “You and Paige go ahead, Sammy. I need to talk to Melissa about something.”
“What?” Sammy asks for all of us.
“Something about going to Chicago next weekend.”
“Oh.” Sammy’s energy drops considerably before she heads to the scoreboard to type in Paige’s and her name.
Paige shoots me a questioning look, so I just shrug my shoulders. Surely Jamie and I could talk about Chicago during the week. Once we’re alone, I ask, “What about Chicago?”
