Page 69 of Will Bark for Pizza
I couldn’t bring myself to write the love stories I no longer believed in.
Shit, that’s heavy.
Too heavy.
I finished off the cupcake and wiped my fingers on a napkin.
“You okay?” Beckett asked.
“Yep. Why?”
“It’s your turn.” He offered my darts to me. “Been your turn for a few minutes now.”
“Oh.” My fingertips grazed his warm hand as I took them. I was instantly pulled back to the bookstore, sitting on the cold tile, Beckett’s warmth wrapped around me like a blanket as I slowly came back to consciousness. How he held a cold compress against my forehead, never once rushing me. He not only took care of me without me asking, he didn’t expect anything in return for doing it.
Yeah, this whole being upset with him thing was on shaky ground.
And if I didn’t start playing dirty, I was going to lose more than this game.
Maybe I want to lose.
I focused all of my attention on the dartboard, took a deep breath, and threw.
My dart hit the double twenty. Then a triple eighteen. And a single sixteen.
Oh, thank God, there was hope after all.
When Beckett was up again, I stepped up behind him.Just as he threw the dart, I used a sultry tone and said, “You know the favor I want is open-ended right?”
Beckett stumbled his throw, and his dart hit the wall.
Alyssa laughed.
“I tried to warn you. She cheats.”
“Playing dirty, Red?”
Another shiver, this one more centrally located, tingled inside. He hadn’t called me Red since we were properly introduced. I didn’t realize until now that I missed the nickname.
“Just keeping you on your toes.”
He threw his second dart of the round and hit the bullseye.
Damn, he was good.
As Beckett took aim for his final throw, I ran my fingers from his hard bicep to his elbow.
“Don’t miss.”
His dart hit the edge of the board, barely holding on to the one spot he didn’t need.
He looked down at me, those intimidatingly sexy eyes a mixture of mischief and heat.
“Is this how we’re playing this game, Red?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said, feigning innocence.
I fluttered my lashes in exaggeration, and Beckett laughed. God, that sound was magical.
