Page 34 of Before We Fell

“Not at all. In fact” —I turned to Andrew and held out my darts— “take a few turns for me?”

Andrew took a pull from his beer. At thirty, both Andrew and Brooke were several years older than me, but I’d known Andrew almost as long as I’d been teaching in the room next door to Brooke. He loved his wife like crazy, put up with her wild and outgoing shenanigans but he was definitely more introverted. Arching one of his black brows, he tilted his head. “You don’t mind? I got a buddy heading up soon, but I’ll play for you until he gets here.”

I clasped my hands together in prayer. “Yes. Please. She’s kicking my butt. See if you can get me ahead for once in my life?”

“You’re a goof,” Tinley teased. “If you don’t like to lose, you don’t have to play.”

I shrugged. “It’s fun. But just once I’d like to kick your teeny-tiny butt and if it takes help, I’m not above pleading.”

Tinley glanced back over her shoulder, gaze aimed at her ass and frowned. “Hey. I work really hard on this ass. Don’t insult it.”

“You women keep up with the ass talk and I’ll be shoving these darts into my ears,” Andrew muttered.

“Oh please.” Brooke’s loud voice rang out as she smacked her husband’s backside. “Don’t even lie and pretend you don’t like some ass talk now and again.”

He flashed her a look that said he knew exactly what she was talking about. Had that same look been aimed at me, my toes would have curled inside my ankle boots. “Woman—” he growled.

Brooke rolled her eyes. “Man.” Her voice went low, matching Andrew’s and I shoved her shoulder, laughing.

“Hey, don’t distract my savior.”

She waved her hand in the air. “Fine, fine, fine. Let’s grab a seat and bitch about students.”

“You know your son is one of mine, right.”

“Yes. And if you don’t let me know how much trouble he’s giving you I’m going to know you’re a liar.”

Oliver was definitely one of my more wiggly boys. The kind who I sometimes let sit on an exercise ball during quiet reading or work time so he could move. It helped with his focus. But he was as sweet as sweet could be. I often teased Brooke he must have gotten that from his dad and his wild energy from her.

I picked up my bottle from the table where Tinley and I had dropped our stuff and took a drink. “Has anyone ever told you you’re crazy?”

Andrew grinned at us over his shoulder. “Only every day of the week that ends in a y.”

Brooke scowled and pointed a finger at him. “Watch it, or this ass is off-limits to you for every day that ends in a y, too.”

“Oh God,” someone groaned, and I looked over my shoulder to see Shawn Blakely headed in our direction. The man was ripped in all the right places with well-styled blond hair that put him firmly in camp PrettyBoy. When Andrew said he had a friend coming, I should have known it was him. According to Brooke, the two had been friends since they were in diapers. “Please, please tell me y’all aren’t having another ass talk. I came to shoot pool not listen to another domestic dispute.”

“What are you going to do, Officer?” Brooke asked, sweet as sugar. “Handcuff me, throw me in the back of your truck, and have your wicked way with me?”

“Sorry.” Shawn patted his back pockets and hips. “Off duty. I’ll leave the restraining to your husband.”

Her eyebrows wiggled. “Now we’re talking.”

Shawn glared at her playfully. “How much you had to drink already, Brooke?”

“One.”

“Four,” Andrew shot back. “You had three before we left the house.”

“Oh.” She shrugged and sipped a glass of wine. “I thought he meant since we’d been here.”

“You are such a nut,” I said, laughing as I took another drink of my own ale. “How are you, Shawn?”

“Can’t complain. How’s the school year going for you so far? Three weeks in, right?”

We didn’t know each other well, but I spent enough time around Brooke and some of her other friends that we’d met on several occasions. Most recently was at a Fourth of July party their friends Rebecca and Cooper Hawke held every summer.

We’d had a couple of drinks, spent so much time talking at one of the tables everyone else around us eventually disappeared. I’d almost thought Shawn was going to ask me out, but his phone had pinged with a text. He was a police officer for our town and when he excused himself to take the call, he’d never returned.

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