Page 20 of Play to Win
Del nodded. “You take the floor up here and I’ll work downstairs.”
“Cool.” Noah nodded.
“We’ve got this,” Ethan said. “And fuck anybody who thinks differently.”
Del’s head shot up at his words.
Lance stood with his feet spread apart, arms folded over his chest. “I concur.”
Ethan turned back to counting his bottles and checking the rest of his stock before the meeting was convened. He just figured everyone would move on to their assignments. He should’ve known better.
“You okay?” Noah asked.
Ethan looked over his shoulder to see that Noah and Lance were still standing at the bar.
“Yeah. I’m good. You?” he asked.
“You’ve been a little short the past couple of days,” Noah said.
“No. I haven’t.”
“Yeah,” Lance said with a nod. “You have. Not with customers, because you’re always good with them. But in general and with us, you’re different.”
Ethan sighed. “Is this about the other day? Look, I shouldn’t have said anything about your vow of celibacy in mixed company, but you were asking for a comeback.”
“Why? Because I was talking about Portia Merin?” Lance tried to look confused even though he knew damn well what he was doing.
“No,” Ethan replied tightly. “Because you were being an ass.”
Lance nodded and tossed a knowing look over to Noah. “Told ya,” he said.
Noah nodded in return. “Yes, you did,” he answered.
“What the hell are you two talking about?” Ethan began counting the glasses lined in neat rows on a tray.
“You always were a little touchy about Plain Portia,” Noah said.
Ethan sent him a heated glare and opened his mouth to speak. But Noah held up both hands as if in surrender. “I know. I know. Her name is Portia. You used to do that when we were in school too.”
Ethan could see where this was going and knew he wasn’t going to like it.
“You’ve seen her since she’s been back?” Noah asked.
Ethan didn’t respond.
“Rod said he saw your truck heading down the street toward the Sunnydale house two nights ago when he was leaving,” Lance told him.
“All roads in Providence lead to home,” Ethan said flippantly.
Lance grinned and shrugged. “Hey man, if you finally want to act on that little thing you had for her when we were in school, go right ahead. I ain’t mad ‘atcha. I saw her at the post office yesterday and she’s looking pretty good.”
Ethan stopped counting the glasses, but he didn’t look up at Lance. He didn’t need to. Again, Lance knew exactly what he was doing.
“There was never anything between me and Portia. She was a sophomore and we were seniors,” Ethan said. But even to his own ears the words sounded shallow. The only reason there’d been nothing between him and Portia back in high school was the fact that he’d been with one cheerleader after another, or some other senior or even the girl from the community college that had shown up at one of his games. Ethan hadn’t made a move toward Portia, even though he’d always felt drawn to her in some way, because he’d been too busy with everything and everyone else. What nobody else knew was that he’d decided that was the best route to take.
He wasn’t sure if that had been a mistake back then, or if it was now coming back to haunt him because since she’d returned, he hadn’t been able to keep her out of his head.
“Look, you know we don’t pry. We each do what we do,” Noah said. “But if you need to talk or release some stress, we can always burn off the extra energy with a basketball game.”
