A Brush with Love(28)

“I didn’t pick it tonight.” Harper shot a look at Thu, who gave her a guilty smile.

“Why this bar?” Dan asked. “Their beer?”

Harper shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. “The beer is good, but it’s mainly the space. Other places get so crowded and noisy and just too … bleh,” she said, sticking out her tongue. “Fat Louie’s is huge, and you can always get a table, and it feels like I can breathe. Plus”—she turned to her friends—“at those other fun bars, I’d never be able to hear all the nonsense you like to spew.”

Lizzie and Indira clinked their bottles together before taking a drink.

The conversation started flowing smoothly through the group. They ordered another round as Lizzie entertained them with stories of being a high school wild child, and Alex had everyone doubled over with laughter at stories of his mother.

“I swear, the second I turned eighteen, my mom made me a profile on a dating site. She said she didn’t trust me to find a wife, so I should focus on school while she handles the other ‘stuff.’”

“Isn’t that a bit invasive?” Harper asked, wiping at her eyes as she giggled. Dan loved seeing her laugh. He wanted to take a picture of the way her eyes creased and her nose crinkled. Capture the rosy stain of her cheeks—his new favorite color.

“Alex talks to his mom, like, fifty times a day. Doctors say they’ve never seen an umbilical cord stay attached this long,” Dan chimed in, making the girls giggle harder.

Alex rolled his eyes. “What kind of dick doesn’t answer the phone when his mom calls?” Alex shot back, giving Dan a pointed look.

“Cheers to that,” Harper said with a sad smile, clinking her bottle with Alex’s. Guilt flooded Dan as a mental stream of missed calls and unanswered texts from his mom filtered through his mind. He shook himself, not wanting to go there. Not tonight. Not anytime soon. He’d completely rerouted his life for his mom, for fuck’s sake. He should get a hall pass on a few missed calls.

“You guys want to play pool? A spot just opened up,” Alex said, nodding toward the billiards tables in the corner.

“I’m in,” Thu said, getting up from her seat. Lizzie and Indira followed her lead.

Dan glanced at Harper. She stared at the densely packed corner, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

“I’m good,” Dan said, and he noticed her shoulders soften. Alex shrugged and the group left to play.

An awkward silence hovered between Dan and Harper, both looking around in opposite directions.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, leaving the table.

He walked to shelves in the corner, scanning and pushing through discarded boxes and pieces until he found what he was looking for. He walked back to the table with what he hoped would be a decent icebreaker.

“Jenga?” Harper asked, arching an eyebrow as he stacked up the wooden tower.

“Get-to-Know-You Jenga,” Dan said. “Every successful piece removed means you get to ask the other person a question.”

Harper eyed him for a moment before nodding and taking a sip of her beer.

“Ladies first.”

She slid out a block near the top and tapped it on the table, staring at Dan. His heart hammered against his chest.

“Do you have any siblings?” she asked.

“No, I’m an only child. Do you?”

“You have to take a block before I answer a question,” she said, smiling at him.

He pulled a brick out a few rows below hers. “How old were you when you had your first kiss?”

Surprise flashed across her face. She shot him an embarrassed grin. “Eighteen. I was late to the game.”

“Were you not allowed to date in high school?”

“I was,” she said, running the Jenga piece through her fingers. “I just never thought about it. And then I turned eighteen and was like ‘oh wait, this is probably something I should do before going off to college,’ or whatever. It’s stupid.”

Dan didn’t think anything about her was stupid; he wanted to learn every arbitrary detail she kept so close to her chest.

“And you asked me two, so I get a bonus.” She pulled out another piece. “What do you do to work out?”

Dan’s head pulled back with a smile. “Who says I work out?”

Harper’s eyes traveled down his body before returning to his face and giving him a skeptical look. His blood heated and he ducked his head with a laugh. He liked seeing her inch out of her shell.

“I really don’t do that much,” he said, running a hand across the back of his neck. “I like to run, and I lift weights once or twice a week.”

“Running?” she said with a wince, giving a dramatic shudder before grinning at him. Dan laughed.

“What’s your bonus question?”

“Umm…” She studied him for a minute. “First scar and how you got it.”

Dan lifted his chin and pointed at the thin sliver running beneath it. “Street hockey when I was eight.”

Harper leaned forward for a better look, and Dan felt the heat of her breath on his throat. She reached up and traced it, the pad of her finger barely touching his skin and leaving a scorched path in its wake. He swallowed.

“If you squint hard enough, it kind of looks like a shark fin,” she said, dropping her hand. He immediately missed her touch.