Page 1 of Playing for Keeps
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GCSports18: Tell me what you like.
Rylan stared at her phone screen; fingers poised to type a response.
She didn’t know what to say. Or rather she did, she just wondered if sheshouldsay it. After all, she had no idea who GCSports18 was. He’d popped up on the social networking site she was using to livestream karaoke night at the Game Changers Sports Bar & Grill.
Karaoke wasn’t usually her thing, but tonight was a special occasion. Ethan Henley, who co-owned the bar with five of his close friends and had grown up here in Providence, Virginia along with Rylan, was getting married on New Year’s Day. His fiancé, Portia Merin, was also from Providence but she’d gone away to college and came back as an intimacy instructor. With Thanksgiving, Christmas and the weeks Portia had to travel for work coming up, Rylan’s best friend and Portia’s maid of honor, Camelia “Camy” Greer decided to throw Portia’s bachelorette party a little early. The second week of November was probably a lot early, but the group of six women were having a fantastic time on this rainy Friday evening.
GCSports18 commented on the show and the rousing rendition of Aretha Franklin’sRespectby Kasey, one of the waitresses that worked at the bar. Rylan replied in agreement that Kasey was rockin’ the house with her sassy attitude and stage presence. After a few more comments that Rylan barely recalled because she was simultaneously chatting with others who were responding to her video, GCSports18’s screen name and bullseye icon appeared in a dropdown on her screen. It was a private message. Rylan had no idea who this person was or when they’d connected on the site. She didn’t normally spend time online. Managing and working on vehicles at Kent Automotive took up a lot of her time. She wasn’t certain that would be the case by the end of this year, but Rylan was determined not to think about that tonight. The staggered private conversation with GCSports18 had been going on for about twenty minutes, during which time she’d surmised he was a guy after he’d mentioned playing pool at an all boys’ club when he was a kid. She’d responded to his comment about the boys’ club with a comment about her early-sprouting breasts keeping her out of boys’ activities since she was eight years old. It was after that comment that Rylan sensed their conversation taking a very sexual tone.
“I’m going to advise you ladies go lightly on this next pitcher of Pink Panty Dropper. Despite what I’m sure would be the pleasure of more than one guy in the crowd, absolutely no panties will be dropped in Game Changers tonight. Or any other night, for that matter,” Delano “Del” Greer, part owner and manager of the bar, spoke in his deep somber voice, his lips barely lifting in what she knew was his general pass for a smile.
Rylan had known Del for the majority of her life, since she’d met Camy at Ms. Anne’s daycare when they were five years old. Camy was Del’s younger sister. Del and his twin brother Delancey, who they called Lance, were three years older than Camy and Rylan.
Camy laughed and clapped a hand on Del’s shoulder. He was a little over six feet tall, but Camy was sitting in a high-boy chair so they were almost face-to-face.
“You just head on back over there to the bar where you’ve been standing and stewing all night, big brother,” Camy said before rubbing her fingers over the side of the pitcher filled with the pretty pink beverage. “And we’ll continue to enjoy ourselves at this lovely party.”
Camy’s light brown eyes were a little glazed and her smile was constant. Rylan
knew what that meant. She would definitely be tonight’s designated driver. With that thought, she figured she might as well finish off the first drink she’d had tonight. The Pink Panty Dropper packed a hell of a punch, but she’d enjoyed a perfectly cooked well-done filet at Milligan’s Steakhouse, where the bachelorette party had started earlier tonight.
“I think somebody over there might like it if my panties get dropped,” Portia said between the giggles she’d had for the last half hour.
“I hear that!” Brenda Cole, who went to school with Camy and Rylan, said before lifting her empty glass into the air to toast with whoever thought what she’d said was a good idea.
Gina Rivera, who taught Zumba classes at the gym, lifted her glass to clink loudly with Brenda’s and Rylan grinned while shaking her head because Del didn’t find any of that funny.
“My fiancé is over there working, Del. And I happen to know for a fact that he prefers me panty-less,” Portia continued.
Now Del pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. This was a familiar reaction too. Unlike Lance who would’ve most likely laughed and provided a quick and raunchy retort, Del probably felt uncomfortable considering Ethan was one of his best friends.
“Not here,” Del said when he opened his eyes again. “This is the last pitcher for you ladies. Only coffee after this.”
His tone was stern and he topped it off by giving a curt nod, his medium-thick lips drawn tight, a muscle twitching in his jaw. Rylan didn’t actually see that muscle twitch because of Del’s full beard. But she knew it was there because it always appeared when he was agitated or worried. She knew Del like he was the brother she never had.
And because that was a fact, the moment he walked away from the table, Rylan looked at her phone screen once again. GCSports18 was still waiting for her response. She should close out of the app and put her phone in her purse. Nothing was going to come of an oddly sexual chat session with a stranger. Not for her anyway. While Portia and Ethan may be blissfully in love, Rylan was currently witnessing the divorce from hell play out between her parents.
Rylan: I’m not into roses and candlelight.
She typed because one of her mother’s chief complaints about her father was that he didn’t wine and dine her enough.
Estelle Kent had a list of complaints against Will, her husband of thirty-seven years, that was easily longer than Rylan’s left arm…and her right leg. Which was precisely why Rylan had no intention of ever getting married or even giving her heart to a man. But this was only chatting. While she hadn’t been on a date in almost three months, Rylan wasn’t yet ready to venture into online dating. And if she ever considered it, she definitely wouldn’t start the conversation while drinking at a bachelorette party. That was a sure recipe for disaster.
Del hated social media.
He despised the idea of putting his personal business online for billions of strangers to dissect and devour. He also didn’t like the amount of time it took out of the lives of a good majority of the people in this world on a daily basis.
But Noah Jordan—one of his closest friends and the marketing guru of Game Changers —could be as big a nag as anyone that Del had ever had the displeasure of meeting in his thirty-one years of life.
“Great crowd tonight,” Ethan, the bartender, said when Del once again joined him behind the bar.
The Brothers—as they used to call themselves—Del, Ethan, Noah, Rochester “Rock” Patterson, Jeret McCoy and Del’s twin brother Delancey “Lance” had been as close as if they were all blood-related since the time they’d spent together as teens at the Grace House for Boys.
“Yeah,” Del replied and looked out to the main floor to see that almost all of their tables were full of guests.
The Bullpen area, which was where he’d just come from, tending to Ethan’s fiancé’s bachelorette party, was also full. Upstairs, the private area they called the Skybox had been reserved by one of the bowling leagues attending an annual conference at the Regional Resort and Spa in Alexandria. Drinks were flowing, food was being brought out of the kitchen in regular intervals and the entertainment that Lance insisted would be a success was certainly entertaining the crowd. Del was happy. Even if it didn’t look like it.
