“Well, playboy, I can safely tell you right now is not one of those times.”
“Right, then how about this?” Luke paused and the cocky left his smile and he gave me a sad smile. “You’ve had a rough week, have a few drinks and relax.”
“I don’t need to drink to relax.”
“You’re absolutely right you don’t. I know of far better ways to relax you. Unfortunately, those aren’t on the table and you’re wound up tight. You don’t wanna have a drink, fine, but do me a favor? Tonight don’t throw the game, kick their asses. And tomorrow when they’re giving you shit about it? Pay attention—they’re not giving you shit because of ego. They’re not complaining. They’re pulling you in. That’s what a team does. That’s friendship. That’s camaraderie. Having something to talk about.”
I was stuck back on the better ways he could relax me and why those were off the table. Luke had stated plain we were special friends. I’d kind of hoped the special part of that meant more of what had happened in the bathtub.
“Shiloh,” he growled and I blinked.
“Huh?”
Luke blew out a frustrated breath.
“You’re killing me.”
I did another slow blink. His groan indeed sounded like I was killing him. When my lids fluttered open Luke was in my space. His hands went to my face and I couldn’t remember a time I’d been touched so gently.
“Pay attention to this part, yeah?”
His question was strange but I couldn’t focus on that when his face was getting closer…and closer…then his lips were on mine.
Feather soft.
Chaste, yet the sexiest kiss I’d ever had.
Luke’s tongue came out and grazed my bottom lip. Mine came out and trailed behind his. There was something so weirdly intimate about the whole thing and it turned into something more when the tip of his tongue touched mine.
Then he pulled away and it was over.
Just a touch of tongues.
So slight that I could convince myself it never happened.
But it did.
What was that?
Luke’s hands dropped from my face and he murmured, “We better get on the road.”
His quiet words pulled me from my haze.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll drive,” he told me and tagged my hand.
Next thing I knew we were in his truck and he was backing out of his driveway.
What just happened?
13
Shiloh hadn’t lied; she was oddly good at miniature golf. She was also hilariously sexy every time her ass wiggled when she sank a ball under par. It was becoming increasingly difficult to remember four members of her team were with us, especially when she smiled brightly and looked totally carefree. I, of course, now knew that was a façade. But she was goddamn stunning in her charade.
Dinner at LuLu’s had gone as I’d expected. The inquisition had started as soon as my ass sat down. A man called Gordy took the lead and immediately started grilling me. It wasn’t aggressive but it was assessing. Much like I’d done when I had my run-in with River and Echo, I reminded myself that these men cared about Shiloh and I set aside my anger. They were simply looking out for her.
Shiloh might’ve told me she didn’t have friends but that was untrue. Not that she lied—it was like she had a mental block when it came to the word friend. The men she worked with respected her, treated her like she was one of them without reservation. They joked and teased her the same way they did each other. The same I did with my team. It was Shiloh who held herself apart. Yet she did it in a friendly way. It was the oddest shit I’d ever seen and before I’d witnessed it firsthand I would’ve said it was impossible to be friendly and distant at the same time, but Shiloh pulled it off.
So there I was standing at the seventeenth hole of the game, one Shiloh was going to win by a long shot. She was dancing around smiling, the guys around us were giving her shit, and she was completely fucking oblivious to what she meant to them when she should’ve known down to her bones these men cared for her. They didn’t hide it.
Shiloh’s ball slowly rolled into the cup, her second putt on a par four hole. Her head came up, her gaze slid through the men watching and stopped when it reached mine and she smiled.
Fuck, she was gorgeous.
“I don’t know how you’re doing it but you’re cheating,” Chip boomed.
Earlier I’d learned that Chip’s name was Allen. But he’d earned the nickname Chip after he took an elbow to the mouth during a takedown, chipping his front tooth. He’d refused to get it fixed. As the story went the suspect was nearly seven feet tall and three hundred pounds. Chip was five-nine and maybe one-eighty. Further, the story went Chip had taken the guy down by himself, thus keeping the chipped tooth was a reminder he was a badass. The story sounded like a fish-tale if I ever heard one but I said nothing at the exaggeration.
“I’m not a cheat,” Shiloh retorted, with mock affront.
“It’s his fault.” Andy pointed to me. “She’s showing off for her man.”
I’d put two and two together and figured out Andy was Andy Riddle, the Head and Shoulders shampoo guy.
“Why does it have to be someone’s fault? Admit it, I’m better than you,” she went on.
“Stop bitching and take your shot so we can move on,” Valentine called from the green. “I got shit to do.”
“Is that what you’re calling your dating life now, shit?” Gordy put it. “I keep telling you those apps don’t work, brother. It’s best to meet a woman the old-fashioned way.”
“Listen, old man, I know this is a hard concept for you seeing as you got married in the Dark Ages before the internet was invented but I’m not interested in trading sheep for a bride. I don’t want a bride, I want a…” Valentine paused, looked at Shiloh, then went on. “Fun. I’m just looking for fun.”
Something I’d noticed, all of the guys teased and joked amongst themselves and with Shiloh and she returned the jabs. But she didn’t tease with them the way she did with me. There were no flirty undertones, no innuendo, and the men went to great lengths to keep their comments clean. There was plenty of shit-talk—they cursed in front of her—but the topic of sex or anything that could make her or them uncomfortable was clearly avoided.
Gordy flipped Valentine off then swung his putter, taking his shot. Once his ball circled the hole and dropped in he addressed the crowd.
“That’s your problem. You think keeping your sheep is the fun part.”
“Someone, anyone, please take their turn before we get the twenty years of marriage sermon again,” Chip groaned.
“Right,” Gordy drawled. “Yet I’m the only one going home to a woman tonight. The rest of you are gonna be sliding into cold sheets thinking about how Sunny kicked your asses and I’m sliding into…beauty.”
I had no idea what Gordy’s wife looked like but I figured he was telling the truth.
My gaze went to Shiloh and she was staring at Gordy with a soft look. It wasn’t lost on me she was closest to Gordy. He was the oldest of the bunch and it was obvious he had a soft spot for her.