7. 7
Cowboy pulled the bike into a parking space at the bowling alley and killed the engine. He took off his helmet while he waited for Ava to dismount from behind him, then stepped off himself. He never would have thought of bowling on his own, but now he was looking forward to it.
If nothing else, it would give them time to talk and get to know each other better, plus, he’d get a chance to watch her move. After spending the last half hour with her pressed against his back, he wanted a chance to watch her walk away, but only knowing she would come right back.
They went inside and he asked for a lane, they did the shoe size thing, he paid for their shoes and headed for the lane they’d been assigned. He glanced around, not knowing why he’d expected it to be busier. Only four of the twenty-six lanes were occupied.
“Change shoes or find a ball first?” he asked as he set his rental shoes on one of the seats at their lane.
“I’m going to change shoes, but feel free to choose a ball if you like.” She sat and toed off her boots.
Cowboy sat and lifted the hem of his jeans. His boots would take a little more work to get off, since they laced up, so he got to work removing them. He wanted to go with her when she chose her ball, though he couldn’t say why.
By the time they’d finished with their shoes, and he’d chosen his ball, she sat at the score keeper seat, working on putting names into the computer. He didn’t think they’d had computers for score keeping the last time he’d been in a place like this. It would definitely help keep the score accurate.
“That will be helpful,” he motioned to the computer, “I’m not sure I remember how to keep score.”
“That’s the best part of the newer systems. You don’t have to remember all that stuff, add into that that you don’t have to worry about math mistakes. It’s way easier.” Ava finished putting their names into the computer, stood, and smiled at him. “You’re first, see?” She pointed to the screen over their lane that had COWBOY in big, animated letters.
He watched her for a moment, taking in the big smile and how it lit her eyes. It made him want to kiss her, but this wasn’t the time. Not yet.
Instead, he picked up his ball and headed for the lane, trying to remember how this was done. He took the first throw and watched as his ball rolled down the lane and took out two pins. He thought about making an excuse, but why? He’d already told her he hadn’t done this in a long time.
Standing next to the ball return, waiting for his ball, he watched Ava wiggle in her seat, reminding him of an antsy child who had a hard time sitting still. He couldn’t help but wonder if she was excited to play, or anxious for some other reason. Hopefully, he’d figure it out in time.
His ball came back. He took it and threw his second frame, not doing any better, but at least he managed to take down the two on the other side of the pins. He turned to Ava and gave her a wry grin.
“Well, there we are. I’m sure you can do better than four.”
“We’ll see. I’m not as sure as you seem to be.” Ava traded places with him, he sat and watched as she stepped up to the line and held her ball. The way her ass swayed as she made tiny steps and shifted her weight while she focused made him want to growl and grab a handful, but this wasn’t the place.
He stayed where he was and enjoyed the view. She slowly stepped forward, let the ball swing back, then forward. After she’d released it, she stood frozen at the line for a moment, watching it roll toward the pins. Before it reached them however, Ava started taking small shuffling steps backward. The movement drew his eye to the wiggle of her ass in the snug jeans.
Cowboy had to close his eyes and shift in his seat as his own jeans grew snug.
“Oh!” Ava’s voice made him open his eyes again, he found her standing up straight not far from the rearmost line on the floor still staring down the lane. He looked past her to see what had caused her exclamation and found there were only three pins standing.
“That’s great! Think you can hit the last ones?”
She turned around and stared at him, wide eyed. He didn’t know if the look was because she’d forgotten he was there or was surprised that she’d done so well on her first throw. He didn’t care. He loved that look on her, and wondered how many of her other expressions would make him feel the same way.
“I don’t know.” She slowly shook her head.
“You’ll never know if you don’t try.” He motioned to the ball return where her ball was popping up in the return.
She narrowed her eyes at him then picked up the ball and turned back toward the lane.
He found himself watching her again. He tried to keep his focus on the pins, but as she stepped closer to the line, his gaze went back to her ass and the way those jeans fit. As much as he wanted to watch how well her throw went, he found the way she moved, more tiny steps backwards then freezing again, even more intriguing.
When she spun to look at him, he took the time to glance past her at the pins. She’d knocked down another two pins.
“Nice! And you thought you couldn’t do it.” He stood, letting her have the seat while he moved to take his turn.
“I didn’t but I did get some of them.”
“You did better than I did. Don’t discount how well you did.”
Ava’s cheeks turned pink. “Thank you.”
She sat and he picked up his ball. He could do this and maybe, just maybe he could keep from embarrassing himself with his score.
They finished the first game. He’d scored 132 to Ava’s 197. He felt good about his score and was ready for another game.
“We can go if you want to do something else.”
“I’m good. I was going to ask if you want to play another game.” He turned and looked around. It took a moment, but he spotted the café, and the menu on the wall above it. “Looks like they’ve got a pretty good menu. We can have dinner here if you’d like. Or if you’d prefer, we can play another game, or not, and go somewhere else for dinner. I am open for either option.”
She watched him a moment before speaking, he got the impression she was trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not.
“Let’s play another game. Give me a few minutes to look at what they’ve got here then I’ll decide if we’ll eat here or wait until we’re through playing to go get food.”
Cowboy couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. He’d gotten past the need to watch her ass as she took her turn, mostly. And they talked a lot as they’d played. She was fun and easy to be around. And she could talk to you. Most of the women he’d spent time around in the last ten plus years only wanted to talk about one thing. What he was going to do to them or what they wanted to do to him. That was his own fault, but he’d lost interest in a quick roll in the hay, then move on to someone new.
“The menu looks good, let’s go ahead and eat here,” Ava said a few frames later.
“Good, decide what you want, and we can flag down a waitress. Maybe that will give me a chance to redeem myself with a better score.”
“I’ll decide what I want, but I’m pretty sure we can hit a button to call the waitress.” She moved to the control panel for the score computer. “Yep, here’s the button. When we’re ready we can hit that, and they’ll come take our order.”
“Wow. I’m glad you’re paying attention. I’m still a little blown away by the changes they’ve made here since the last time I went bowling.”
“Was that here?”
“It was, but more years ago than I want to admit to.”
“I don’t want to admit how long ago it was for me either. Makes me older than I want to admit to.”