Chapter 39
GAbrIEL
I didn’t think losing the pool game got me any points with Wes, but at least it was fun and a chance to get to spend more time with Lily’s brother and the people in her inner circle.
Wes and Cooper were competitive, but it was good-natured.
It was amusing, especially because growing up, my father’s competitiveness was nothing like this.
He always wanted to win—no matter the cost. For a while, I had that same mentality.
I wanted to be the best at anything and everything.
If I wasn’t, then I needed to spend time getting better.
But that quickly took the fun out of things.
Tonight, it felt good to be bad at pool. It felt good to let go and get to know Wes, Eliza, and Cooper better. I’d had a chance to talk with them during Christmas dinner, but this felt more casual. It was also amusing to witness the banter between the three of them.
Once we finished playing best two out of three—which Wes and I did win one of the games—I looked around for Lily, who was no longer on the dance floor.
She’d been there a minute ago. My eyes scanned the crowd until they landed on her, and my shoulders relaxed a fraction.
She was standing by the bar…but who was standing next to her?
Trying to be casual, I asked Eliza, “Who’s Lily talking to?”
Eliza glanced over. “Oh, that’s Reid. He must be back home visiting his parents. He’s had a crush on Lily for years.”
Nope. Didn’t like that. A pain radiated throughout my jaw, making me realize how clenched my teeth were.
An amused snort left Eliza. “Huh, the vein in your forehead is throbbing. Does that happen often?”
“What?” I brought my hand up to my forehead and quickly shook my head. “No, it’s not.” At least, I didn’t think it was. That’d never happened before.
She grinned at me, and I couldn’t tell if she was messing with me or not. “Interesting,” she commented slyly, tipping back her drink and finishing it.
“I’m not jealous or anything.”
Eliza shrugged. “Didn’t say you were, but if you were looking for an excuse to go talk to Lily, one of the dart boards opened up. She loves to play.” With that, Eliza walked away, getting caught up in another conversation as someone stopped her.
Not wanting to waste more time, I started to close the distance to the bar. My first instinct was to say Sorry for the interruption, but I held back.
Because I wasn’t sorry. Not one bit. He’d already taken up too much of her time.
I tried to relax my face as I approached the two of them.
“Hey, mind if I steal Lily for a game of darts?” I asked, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her in toward my chest. I normally wasn’t so possessive, but…
I didn’t hate the idea of letting everyone think Lily was mine.
“Oh, uh, we were just—” Reid rubbed the back of his neck as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
“I’d love to play!” Lily chimed in, and my grip on her waist tightened. “I’ll catch up with you later, Reid. It was great to see you.”
Over my dead body was she catching up with him later.
“Y-yeah, of course.” Reid nodded, and I realized the poor bastard was tongue-tied around her. Didn’t blame him.
I gave him a tight-lipped smile and guided us toward the still-open dart board. It was against the wall on the far left, which gave us more privacy. With how much the place had filled up, it was lucky we were still able to snag it.
“What was that all about?” Lily asked as I pulled out my wallet to grab a dollar bill for the machine. “Gabe.” Lily drew out my name, raising her brows with an amused smile, like she knew something I didn’t. “I was in the middle of a conversation, and you swooped in. Not that I minded, but…”
I shrugged, trying to downplay it. “I…didn’t like how close he was standing to you.”
Lily let out a giggle. “Because it was hard to hear over the music,” she explained, although I didn’t believe those were his only intentions.
“Eliza said he’s had a crush on you for years.”
“Oh, really?” Lily asked, amused. “And that bothered you?”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something I’d regret and instead focused on pressing the display to set up our game.
“What?” Lily asked gently, stepping in front of me. “There’s more you don’t want to say. You can tell me anything.”
That was the problem. I felt like I could tell her things I hadn’t told anyone else. That was how comfortable I was around her.
“I don’t know if I can tell you this,” I said slowly.
“Try me.”
“I hated seeing him that close to you. He doesn’t deserve to be in the same room as you, let alone talking to you. No man does.”
“What about you?” She tilted her head to the side. “Do you deserve to be in the same room as me?”
“No,” I said on a self-deprecating laugh. Maybe I was least deserving of all. “I really don’t.”
“Well, you’re wrong.” Lily pulled the darts out of the board. She kept three for herself and handed me the others. “You do, and you know what? Tonight, I realized you’re the first person I look for when I enter a room. That’s going to be a hard habit to break once you leave.”
Those words knocked the air out of me, leaving me winded. Because she was the first person I looked for, too. I’d been watching the front door to Lake Ridge like a fucking hawk waiting for her to enter tonight.
“Now, let’s play. I’m excited to win.” She skipped over to the white line on the floor, and once I was out of the way, threw her first set of darts. “Well, look at that.” She grinned over at me. “A bullseye on my first turn.”