Page 21 of Back to Me
“Come on, we have left them alone long enough. Belle is probably ready to run for the hills.” We moved out of the office and went back to the bar, finding the girls exactly where we left them. I could feel the tension was still there and looked to Tye.
“You got someone watching the bar tonight?”
“Yep! She will be here any minute.”
“We will meet you in the pool room. Belle can fill in for you until you get there. Girls, you are with me.”
“What are we doing?”
“Pool. Ally and me versus Dallas and Tye. Belle and Beau can play the winner when he gets here.” Belle laughed and slipped off the stool.
“What and break up the Grady and Beau bromance, I think not!”
“Belle can play with Tye, I’m gonna go upstairs, not feeling well.” Dallas got off her stool and went to walk away but Tye cut her off.
“Dallas, stop. No, we aren’t doing this. We are all adults here so no more running. We talked about this.” Tye looked over to me and motioned to the pool room behind me.
“Come on girls, let’s go set up.” Ally and Belle picked up their drinks and we left them to talk. I placed a hand on Ally’s shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. She moved closer and wrapped an arm around me.
Setting my drink down on the table in the room, the girls walked over to grab pool cues from the wall and Belle grabbed the chalk.
“So, you any good?” Ally just shrugged.
“Used to be, I haven’t played in a while though so I may be a little rusty.” Going to the table, I started pulling the balls out and setting them up.
“Why don’t you take a few practice shots before we start.” With a nod, Ally moved over to the table. Once I moved the triangle, she took a shot to break. She managed to sink one into the corner closest to where I was standing.
“Oh, would you look at that. I still have it.” I raised a brow at her.
“You have been practicing!”
“Nope! Haven’t picked up a pool cue since I left.” She looked down at the placement of the remaining balls and moved to the side. Taking a shot, she sank another one. After sinking a third but missing the fourth, I took the cue from her.
“Okay, you are warmed up enough, woman.” She laughed and moved back as I moved into position to take a shot. I got two in before she decided it was time to start throwing me off. She leant over onto the table so that I could see straight down her shirt. Shaking my head with a smirk, I looked right at her as I sank two more. Belle broke the silence in the room.
“If this is some kind of foreplay for you two, I can go wait for Beau at the bar.” I laughed.
“No, Ally just doesn’t like to lose against me. It’s why we are always on a team together.”
“Oh, because you are so good at losing!”
“Don’t even get me started on board games!”
“No comment!” Belle laughed at that.
“Let me guess… if you ever played Monopoly, there was a natural disaster?”
“Not you too?” She nodded and Ally high-fived her. I snorted but before I could answer, Dallas and Tye walked into the room carrying another round of drinks. They sat them on the table and moved to join us. In a peace offering, I held the cue out to her. “What do you say, Dallas, you and me against these two?”
“I don’t think they are ready for that!” She took the cue from me. “Stripes or solids?”
“Solids.” I went and grabbed my beer from where I had left it and took a drink as Dallas took her shot. She got one but missed the second. Tye had taken a cue from the rack and was chalking it up while Dallas took her shots. He leant over but at the same time so did Dallas who just crossed her arms against the table, trying to do to him what Ally had done to me. Unfortunately for Tye though, he missed, and it was back to our turn. Dallas went to hand me the cue and I shook my head.
“No, you finish them off this time.” I watched as she lined up her shot.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t go easy on them? I mean, Ally is at a disadvantage with Tye after all.” I chuckled.
“Well, someone is going to get stuck with him.”
