The Rules of Dating(42)

The room grew silent.

“Yes.” Billie nodded. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Owen blew out some smoke. “The reason there’s a fifth chair already set up at this table is for him.”

Her expression fell. “Oh crap. And I’m sitting in it?”

Brayden placed his hand on her shoulder. “No, no, no. It’s all good.”

“He’d be happy if you were sitting on him.” Holden laughed.

Seriously, fuckhead? I glared at him. “And here I was thinking we’d get through this night without me having to smack you.”

Holden shrugged. “Relax. It was a joke.”

I gritted my teeth. “Yeah. I got that.”

Billie looked around the table. “You guys don’t have to tread lightly around me. My best friend, Deek, never holds back. I’m used to it. I have thick skin.”

Once the game got started, much of the talking stopped. I found myself alternating between fumbling with my cards and staring at Billie’s beautiful poker face.

A few hours later, I was out of the game.

We’d reached the final betting round, and it was down to Billie and Holden. In a showdown, they each displayed their cards. Billie had the best hand with four of a kind and won.

“Well, damn,” Holden said. “Great game, everyone.”

“Congratulations, Billie,” Owen added.

Brayden laughed. “I guess that’s what happens when you bring a badass girl to poker night. She beats all of us, and we can’t even swear at the winner like we normally do because we don’t want to seem like the assholes we are.”

“Swear away. I can take it,” she said.

I walked around the table and gave her a celebratory kiss on the cheek.

“Hey, no kissing, remember?” she teased.

“Oh, yeah. Forgot…” I said as I took a long sniff of her neck.

“What the fuck?” Holden drew in his brows. “Does he always sniff you like that?”

“It’s what we do instead of kiss,” she said.

“Y’all are weird,” Holden said, getting up from his seat and heading to the bathroom.

I chuckled and took our trash to the kitchen. Owen followed.

He spoke in a low voice. “You’ve been holding out on me. What’s really going on between you and that vixen? I ain’t buying that not-dating crap.”

“Could you maybe try a little harder not to stare at her chest, so I don’t have the urge to murder my best friend?”

“Was I?” His eyes widened. “Shit. Sorry. I didn’t even realize. Maybe I need to get laid.”

I arched a brow. “What’s going on there? Dry spell?”

“Work’s been too damn busy. I haven’t gone out in ages.” He shook his head. “Wait. I see what you did there. Don’t change the subject. I asked you a question. What’s the deal with Billie?”

I sighed. “The deal with Billie is that…we seem to like each other…a lot. But she doesn’t want to date me. So we’re pretending like we’re not dating so we can spend time together.”

“So, you’re essentially dating.”

“Undating,” I corrected.

“Believe what you want.” He shook his head. “Anyway, why doesn’t she want to date you?”

“I think she’s scared. Wouldn’t you be? I mean, any woman in my life has to consider the possibility of being a mother to a child who’s not hers. That would be enough to make me run away.”

“Has she met Saylor?”

“She has. Saylor freaking adores her.”

Owen smirked. “Saylor isn’t the only one. You really like her. I can tell by the way you look at her.”

I smiled. “Remember when your dad took us on that fishing trip when we were twelve? You caught that big, beautiful bass? We were all so damn envious of you. None of us had been able to catch anything all day. That thing was wiggling like crazy to get away from you. And it won. It broke away from the hook somehow, and you lost it after all that. Remember?”

He grinned. “Yeah. I sure do.”

“Well, that bass reminds me of Billie.”

“Because she’s a great catch?”

“No.”

He crushed a pizza box. “Not seeing where you’re going with this, then.”

“I haven’t finished yet,” I said.

“Well, don’t forget what happened after I lost the bass, by the way. I caught it again.”

“Yeah. That’s getting to my point. The second time you threw it back—after all that work. We didn’t even get to take it home and eat it. So, Billie is like the bass. I want her. And she’s struggling to get away—because she wants me, too, I think, but I scare her. Ultimately, though, I’m not even sure if I’m right for her long term. So, the thought is always there that even if I did catch her, I might—”

“Throw her back in the ocean for her own good?”

“Figuratively. Yeah.” I rubbed my temples.

“Well, since we’re talking fish metaphors,” he said. “There are a lot of fish in the sea, but a bass like that is worth fighting for, if it’s what you really want.”