Third Chances - Chapter 21
Daphne
I quickly picked up the suit jacket that James had accidentally thrown on the floor. "You dropped this," I said and handed it to him.
"Oh, no, that's not mine." He immediately pushed it back into my hands. "I'm not wearing one."
"Right. Because you just took it off..." I let my voice trail off.
Does he really not remember wearing it a second ago?
James had only drunk half of the beer in front of him.
Maybe he was a light weight, but I had never seen someone react so quickly to a beer.
I placed the suit jacket on the back of my chair so it wouldn't get stepped on.
James ran his hand through his hair. It was the same thing that Rob seemed to do so often. It made me wonder if their father did it too.
"So," Layla said, breaking the awkward silence, "should we play an icebreaker game?"
"I learned a fun icebreaker game from my boyfriend, Tim," Kristen said. "You ask a question about someone, but then someone else at the table has to answer it."
"Two truths, one lie," James said way too loudly for the middle of a restaurant, completely ignoring Kristen's suggestion.
He rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt and put his elbows on the table.
"I just played this with Penny and some of the new interns at my company.
It's lots of fun. When it's your turn, you tell two truths and one lie about yourself, and everyone has to guess the lie. "
"We can totally play that, if that's what you want, James," Kristen said way too seductively for normal conversation.
Rob leaned toward me. "Has everyone at this table lost their minds, or is it just me?"
I laughed. "I was just thinking the same thing. Your friends are very interesting."
"My friends? What about your friends?"
I laughed again. My eyes wandered to his mouth.
His smile was so charming. And I couldn't help but think about how his lips felt on mine.
The kisses we had shared had been some of the best of my life.
Maybe Rob was right. Maybe there should be more passion in a relationship than I realized.
His smile broadened when he noticed I was staring at his mouth.
I cleared my throat and looked away from him.
Kristen gave me a not so subtle thumbs up from across the table.
"I'll go first," James said. "Let me think. No! Actually someone else go first. I can't think of anything right now." He wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.
Something was definitely off with him. It was almost like he had taken something to make him all hyper. I frowned. Was he on cocaine? The thought made my stomach twist into knots.
"James, are you feeling okay?" I asked.
"I'm swell. You go first!"
"Oh, um..." I tried to think of some funny facts about myself. All I wanted to do was tell him that I felt it too. That I loved the feeling of rain on my skin and his hand in mine. But I couldn't do that in front of all these people. Everything else that popped into my head was just super lame.
"I'll go first," Alina said, saving me. She gave me a small smile. Alina was never very outgoing either, so I appreciated the gesture more than she even knew. "I'm about to get married to the love of my life. I can play guitar. And I only have one major regret."
"You're definitely lying about getting married to the love of your life," Matt said.
Alina laughed awkwardly. "No, that's true. It's really, really true."
"It is," Kristen said. "Just mentioning Bryce's name makes her giddy like a school girl. See, look at her face right now."
Alina was smiling. She grabbed her drink and took a sip, clearly embarrassed.
I glanced at Rob out of the corner of my eye, but immediately looked away. He was staring right at me. We had both just talked about what love meant to us and how neither of us had experienced it yet. Was that why he was looking at me? Was that why I had looked at him?
"Cheers to that," James said and lifted up his glass. "And this guy right here is about to be in the same boat as us. He's proposing to his girlfriend soon." He slapped Mason on the back.
"What the fuck, man?" Mason said. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone."
"I haven't told anyone. I haven't even told Penny. Which has been really hard, because we don't keep secrets from each other. Besides, we don't know these people."
I was pretty sure he meant to whisper the last line. He had said it a little quieter, but his normal speaking voice seemed strangely loud tonight.
"Layla knows her." Matt gestured to Layla who was sitting beside him.
Layla put her hands up. "I swear I won't tell Bee. Your secret is safe with me."
"Still," Mason said. "Stop trying to ruin the surprise." He laughed and lightly pushed James' shoulder.
James shrugged. "Anyway, Alina, you're lying about only having one regret. We all saw that it was more than that."
Alina's eyes got wide. If the restaurant wasn't busy around us, we would have been able to hear crickets chirping. "No," she said quietly. "I, um, lump that all together as one bad decision."
"Oh, sorry. You're lying about the guitar thing then?"
Alina nodded her head. "Yeah. I'm terrible with musical instruments."
"Really?" Matt asked. "I would have guessed you'd know your way around, say, a flute or a clarinet pretty well."
Alina choked on the sip she had just taken.
Rob laughed. "Did you seriously just compare your dick to a flute? Is it like super thin or something?"
"No," Matt said. "Shut up, you've seen my dick. It's normal. It's not thin."
"Wait." I laughed and looked up at Rob. "Why have you seen his penis?"
Rob shrugged. "I don't know. We all grew up together."
"Now I just have to know," Kristen said, staring directly at James. "Who is the biggest?"
James looked away from her and downed the rest of his beer. He picked his straw up from the table and put it in his other drink. He swirled it around, seemingly transfixed.
"We weren't erect around each other or anything," Rob said. "But everyone knows that the Hunters have huge dicks."
"Oh, really?" Kristen winked at me.
Don't fucking wink at me!
"So," she continued, "how big are we talking?" She stared directly at James who made a weird face.
"Not as big as the Caldwells'," Mason said.
James laughed.
"Why are you laughing?" Mason said.
"I just feel like I'm probably bigger than you are."
"Prove it," Kristen said.
"As much as I know you'd like that, I'm not going to whip my dick out in the middle of a restaurant. I'll keep public nudity off my rap sheet."
"I definitely wouldn't mind you doing that." She batted her eyelashes at him.
Oh my God, Kristen.
"Don't you have a boyfriend?" James asked. "I'm pretty sure you literally just mentioned your boyfriend."
"Yeah, but you're on my list."
"Your list?"
"Yeah, my list. You know, like a list of people we're allowed to have sex with outside of our relationship. You're at the very top of mine, Professor Hunter."
Oh my God.
James lowered his eyebrows slightly. He looked pissed. "Please call me James. And as flattering as that is, I'm getting married. And I don't have a list because I don't want one. I would never cheat on my fiancée. She's everything that I need."
"Right, but maybe...ow!"
Layla had just elbowed Kristen in the ribs. Kristen glared at her.
"You're up, Matt," Rob said.
I silently thanked him. It was nice of him to intervene to help his brother out. If I had been sitting next to Kristen, I would have elbowed her a few minutes ago.
"I'm kind of liking this conversation," Matt said and looked back and forth between Kristen and James. "You know, Kristen," he said, putting his arm behind her on the chair. "You could always add me to your list. I promise my dick is much thicker than a flute."
She laughed. "I'm not prepared to kick James off quite yet. But I'll keep that in mind."
"Please kick me off," James grumbled beside me.
I laughed.
He looked over at me and smiled. His smile was just as charming as his brothers, but I was too busy staring at his eyes to focus on it. His pupils were dilated. It wasn't dark in the restaurant. His pupils shouldn't have been that big.
"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" I whispered.
He gave me a small smile. "I'm good. Just a little overheated." He rolled up his sleeves even more. "Is it hot in here, or is it just me?"
"It's a little warm, I guess." If he was on drugs, he was trying to hide it.
Or maybe he didn't know. Maybe someone had slipped him something.
I had a fleeting thought that it was Kristen.
But she hadn't been alone with him. And even though she was acting completely inappropriate, I couldn't imagine her drugging James.
That would be crazy. Kristen wasn't crazy.
Was she? I looked over at her. She was staring down at the table.
She looked a little embarrassed about her onslaught.
It definitely wasn't her. Or maybe she was just planning how to proposition him next.
"Okay," Matt said, removing his arm from the back of Kristen's chair. "My dick is thicker than a flute, even when it's flaccid." Everyone laughed. "Stop laughing," he mumbled. "I can break dance. And I'm really into working out."
Rob laughed. "You're lying about working out."
"Yup. Working out is the worst."
"So, you can actually break dance?" Alina asked.
"Yeah, I'm a great break dancer."
"Really?"
"Maybe I can show you a few moves later."
She laughed. "Bryce would love it if I came home knowing how to break dance."
Matt shook his head, clearly defeated by the women on either side of him.
"Well," Kristen said. "I hate Justin Bieber so much that it hurts. I love Disney movies. And I have a crush on my professor."
"Jesus Christ," James said under his breath. "Does she ever let up?"
I laughed. "No. She's been obsessed with you ever since you walked onto campus."
"Yeah. I had my suspicions. How do I make her stop?"
"Seduce her?"
James frowned. "I'm not going to..."