Page 141 of Clean Finish

The pair of them walked back over to their seats after Camille gave us a polite smile. Threading his fingers through mine, Larkin led me over to one of the lanes that wasn’t already occupied.

“They’re kinda weird,” he murmured to me. “Which makes sense. They’re Holt’s family.”

As I chuckled, I noticed Susan and Asmo heading toward us, both holding custom bowling bags.

“Okay, boys,” Asmo declared with a huge grin as he reached us. “Y’all ready to epically lose? Susie and I are in a league. We bowl every month. We both know how to handle balls, just sayin’.”

“Just don’t tell anyone we’re wearing another team’s shirts,” Susan added with a grin, pointing at her name stitched on her Holt’s Ball Hurlers shirt. “They’ll never forgive us.”

Larkin laughed, perching on the little stool in front of the lane screen’s keyboard. “Noice. I’ve never bowled before today, but Seb was teaching me earlier. I still suck, but he’s pretty good.” He peeked over at me with a grin.

“Seb, my man.” Asmo came over to clap me on the shoulder, giving it a friendly squeeze. “Look, I’m decent, but Susie’s game is always flawless. She’ll wipe the floor with all of us.”

I chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”

“Let me go get us all drinks before we start,” Asmo said cheerfully, pecking Susan on the cheek as he passed her. “Larkin, bro, put me in as ‘ASS.’ Obviously.”

Larkin snickered, giving him a thumbs up. He’d already inputted me as SEB and himself as LAR. He quickly added SUE and ASS to the screen above, then stood and came over to wrap his arms around my waist and grin up at me.

As he leaned up to give me a firm kiss, I heard Susan sigh and say, “Oh my gosh, you guys are so cute.”

Keeping the kiss brief to be polite, we pulled back and Larkin let go to turn and face her with a grin. “Sorry, Susan. No more PDA. Promise.”

“Oh, it doesn’t bother me.” She waved a hand then unzipped her bowling bag, revealing a sparkling black ball. “I love love. So does Asmo. We’re both total romantics.”

“So you’re in a bowling league, huh?” Larkin asked, watching as she expertly hefted her ball.

She grinned over at us, showing off her deadly sharp teeth. “Yep. Few years now. We actually met here, when we were both bowling with our separate groups of friends. Asmo was in the lane next to mine.” Her eyes went dreamy. “He almost bowled a perfect game, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.”

“Aww, that’s cute.” Larkin grinned up at me, nodding at the lane screen. “You’re up first. Maybe if you bowl a perfect game, I’ll come home with you later,” he teased.

“I don’t need more motivation than that.” As I made my way over to the ball return to select a bowling ball, I saw Holt and Taylor walking toward us hand in hand, each holding a cup.

They were both wearing their bowling shirts, though Holt had put his suit jacket back on over the top of his and tucked it into his slacks to try and make it look somewhat chic.

“Hi, folks,” Taylor said cheerfully as they stopped in the empty lane next to ours. “Having fun?”

“This was so sweet of you, Taylor.” Susan beamed at him. “Holt never lets us celebrate his birthday.”

Holt cringed slightly and took a deep gulp of his drink. Taylor looked a little worried, so Holt quickly flashed him a big smile and said, “Well, it’s nice to do it for a change. And this is perfect. I haven’t been bowling in years.”

“Did you go as a kid?” Larkin asked curiously, glancing over at Holt’s mother and sister. “Your family doesn’t seem like the type to, uh, do stuff like this.”

Holt snorted, setting down his drink. “We’re not. It was country clubs when I was a kid, with Mom and Dad schmoozing at the bar while Amalie and I were sent to the pool or tennis lessons.”

Larkin snorted and sardonically said, “Sounds terrible, dude.”

“I never said it was terrible.” Holt draped himself elegantly on a plastic chair. “Just boring. I didn’t give a shit about tennis. But Amalie still plays.”

“So you might be as bad as me at this.” Larkin grinned at him as Holt huffed in amusement.

“Probably.”

Asmo returned with a tray of drinks and said happy birthday to Holt, so I turned toward the lane. When I got a strike, Larkin blurted out an enthusiastic, “Fuck yeah!”

“Of course Seb is good at this,” Holt drawled, sipping his drink.

I chuckled with a shrug. “Just got lucky.”