Arm Candy (Real Love #2)(52)

I close my eyes and pull in a breath, endeavoring to stay in the moment with Vince and Jackie and Davis, whose hand hasn’t left my thigh since I sat next to him.

“I’m so glad we got to do this!” Jackie exclaims out of nowhere. Her gaze softens on me. “I’m also glad you and Davis worked things out.”

“Couples who work out, you know…work out.” Vince lifts and drops his brows three times and I burst into laughter.

Davis chuckles too. Vince has used that joke before, but Davis didn’t find it funny when he and I were dancing around the sexual tension. Now I’m part of the group. I like being part of the group.

“Seriously,” Jackie leans forward in her seat so she can look past the two men between us. “Neanderthals.”

“Darts?” Vince asks Davis.

“Yeah.”

“Shouldn’t we be invited?” Jackie asks, offense lining her pretty features.

Vince is standing next to his barstool looking slightly perplexed. “Do you…want to play darts?”

“No.” She gives him a sweet smile. “But it’s nice to be asked.”

He narrows his eyes and steals a kiss. I’m aware of Davis’s hand on the back of my barstool, so I study my empty shot glass, embarrassed. Not because Vince and Jackie are kissing but because I’m not sure if Davis and I are going to kiss in front of them. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in a “relationship,” and the guidelines are fuzzy.

“Gracie. Another drink?” Davis offers, his low voice at my ear.

I turn my head to say yes, but before the utterance is out of my mouth, his lips are on mine. The kiss goes on for so long, and his possessive hand is wound in the back of my hair so obviously, that the guys at the L-shaped end of the bar clap and whistle.

Davis smiles down at me and finishes with a soft, full-lipped peck as my cheeks heat. Jackie shoos the guys away and asks Candace to bring us two beers. Once Davis and Vince are set up at the back of the bar at the dartboard, Jackie gets up and relocates to the seat next to mine.

“I like that you two are dating,” she tells me.

“He’s…surprising.”

“He is.” Jackie’s thoughtful for a moment. “He intervened when Vince and I were going through some things. I didn’t even know him that well then, but he showed up at my place—and at Vince’s—trying to set things straight. He didn’t want either of us to be unhappy.”

“Sounds like him.” I smile and take a swig of my beer. It’s ice cold and damn refreshing. It’s been a long night.

“He likes to take care of people.” She takes a swallow of her beer and we glance over at our guys. Davis throws every dart so close to center, Vince drops his head in defeat and covers his face with both hands. “I bet you they have money on this game. I know Vince’s I’m-losing-money face.”

“Davis likes to bet.” I smile at the memory of our own bet. “How do you think he got me to go out with him in the first place?”

“That’s not how I heard it,” she sings. “I heard you bet him money he wouldn’t take you out.”

“Not true,” I correct, enjoying her being in the know. “I bet him he wouldn’t ask out a nonblonde, and I offered to double his money if he asked out a redhead. I didn’t mean me.”

“Oh, come on. You had to at least hope it’d be you.”

I bite my lip, recalling the warmth in his eyes, his sexy lean with his elbow on the bar. The husk in his voice when he said, I win.

“Okay. A little,” I admit. “But he didn’t waste any time when I issued that bet.”

“Davis likes challenge. Likes to push himself. I’ll bet the bedroom is fun for you guys.” Her saucy wink is harmless but her words are heavy—like an elephant sitting on my chest.

“Challenge. Right,” I comment, my mouth turning down.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean you’re a challenge.”

“I didn’t think that.”

“Good.” Jackie pushes her shiny brown hair behind her ear. “I just meant that if there’s a way to excel, Davis will find it.”

“You mean like the way he was trying to date every blonde in the state?” I take a brief inventory around McGreevy’s and spot two single blond ladies, white wine in their hands, their eyes homed in on Davis.

“Grace.”

I turn to Jackie to find her expression one of concern.

“I’ve known Davis for a couple of years, not as well as Vince, but enough to know that he acts totally different with you. Those two.” She tips her chin at the pair of blondes she also noticed. “Have nothing on you. And the way Davis dotes on you makes me doubt they’ll even turn his head.”

“Thank you for saying that.” Oddly enough, I feel better. “I have a slight streak of jealousy because I’m nothing like those girls. How can he want them and me? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well.” She checks to be sure our guys are still out of earshot—they are. Vince pulls money out of his wallet and Davis snatches the bill with a grin. “Vince had a few flings after his divorce. We were best friends at the time, and he never told me. I found out and called him on it, and he said he slept with them so he could find his mojo or something.” She rolls her eyes and lifts her beer bottle. “Boys are dumb.”