Page 46 of Breaking Emily's Rules
“Do you play pool?” He asked.
I looked in the direction of the pool table a few feet away. There seemed to be a bunch of sweaty men over there.
“Maybe I’ve played once or twice. Why?”
“Let’s play a game after we eat.”
After Stone had paid for our meal, resisting my attempts to go Dutch, I was rethinking the pool idea. I hadn’t played in a while, and what I remembered about it was suddenly coming back to me in waves. A klutz and a pool table? Surely Stone hadn’t thought this all the way through. The last time I’d nearly impaled a man when he’d come too close during my attempts at a shot.
But he talked the grunts into letting us have a turn. This was worse because now we had an audience.
“Yeah, I got hustled, too. He doesn’t look like he plays pool.” The guy they called NFG said.
“Why don’t you just shut up and watch. Maybe you’ll learn something,” Crash said.
“Hey, genius. Stop your damned cussing, a lady is present.” This from a woman who had sidled up to watch. She was beautiful in a hard way, hair pulled back so tight it made her eyebrows arch.
“Excuse me for living,” Matt said.
“You’re excused,” she said, putting her arm around Matt.
My hands shook. I had to come up with a way out of this. Maybe I could fake illness. I could claim to be allergic to chalk.
“I’m having second thoughts.”
Stone was chalking up and turned to the small crowd. “Would you all just leave now? You’re cramping my style.”
“Ah, man,” Crash said.
“Let’s all play darts,” the woman said. “I don’t know how. Would you teach me, Matt?”
“Oh, hell yeah,” Matt said.
The woman walked away but not before throwing a smile in Stone’s direction.
“Something tells me Matt is about to get hustled,” Stone said.
“And that’s probably the least of his problems,” I answered.
Stone laughed. A hearty deep sound I’d never heard out of him before. “This game is more fun if there’s a wager on it.”
“I don’t gamble. Sir.” I started to relax now that it was just the two of us.
“Not money. Something more interesting.” He eyed me with a wickedly seductive glint in his eyes, and I nearly felt my womb leap in anticipation.
“Fine. If I win, you’ll dance with me right here in front of your buddies. A country song.” I waved in the direction of the jukebox. He’d already demonstrated he could dance, but something told me these boys didn’t know it.
Stone scowled. “Agreed. And if I win, you’ll—I should probably think this over. Carefully.”
“Why don’t we just call it a game now? You and I both know you’re going to win. And as for me, we’ll be lucky if I don’t accidentally injure you.”
“You’re taking all the fun out of this. I need to earn it.”
“All right, Mr. Show-Off. Earn it.”
“If I win, I get one more date.”
I swallowed. One more date with him wouldn’t feel like losing, but I kept my mouth shut and watched as he made the next of several shots easily and effortlessly.
