24. Isabelle
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
isabelle
R eid took a large swig of his beer, and I did my best to push down any feelings of disappointment. A small part of me always hoped he would correct me when I said we were only friends. There was no denying the feelings I had for him, so the rejection stung, but I was also scared of what might happen if I actually acted on my feelings.
I pushed around my glass, the clinking of the ice inside not quite loud enough to cut through the deafening silence hanging between us.
“Mm-kay.” I decided this was awkward enough.
I pushed my hands against the bar, attempting to scoot my stool backward so I could slip out to go find Ellison, but the rear leg caught the ground. My stomach dropped as I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for my chair to go crashing to the ground with me in it, but the world stopped at an angle. I opened my eyes slowly, and turned my head to look behind me where Reid’s hand gripped the back of the stool, holding it up.
Goddammit .
He cleared his throat, pushing the chair back upright, but pulled it slightly away from the bar so I could continue leaving.
“I… Thanks,” I muttered as I grabbed my glass and scrambled away, warmth already rising to my cheeks and my stomach tangled up in knots over a simple, stupid action.
I mentally cursed myself as I made my way through the bar, finding Ellison and the boys playing darts.
Stupid Reid with his stupidly attractive face and stupid reflexes. Should have let me fall.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ellison lowered her voice to scold me.
“Did you leave Reid all by his lonesome?” Jake chuckled.
Footsteps approached behind me, and I couldn’t help my shoulders tensing.
“Nope, I was right behind her.” Reid’s voice vibrated in my ear.
“I, uh, needed to get away from the bar. Stools… They’re…” I stuttered, unable to find any sort of composure with Reid standing behind me.
“She almost took a spill.”
“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Ellison’s eyes widened.
“Yeah. I’m fine. I didn’t actually fall,” I grumbled. “Got any room for one more?” I desperately needed to change the subject and get some of this pent-up energy out of me. Darts seemed like the right way to do it.
“Yeah, we’re just starting, actually.” Colter nodded. “I don’t think Mikey’s playing, so two teams of three?”
“That works. Hayden, you want to be on a team with me and Colter?” Ellison rattled out .
I glared at her, knowing she purposely put me and Reid on the same team.
“Uh…” Hayden looked back and forth between me and Ellison and Reid. “Sure?”
“Perfect! Isa, Reid, and Jake, you guys can be a team, then.” She smiled, satisfied with herself and her “matchmaking.” Maybe this was karma for all the times I tried to get Ellison to go on dates. I was only trying to be helpful, though. This was pure torture, and she knew it.
“Who’s going first?” I asked, accepting my fate.
“You guys can,” Colter replied.
I picked up a dart, standing behind the line and focusing on the board. Just pretend it’s his face. Can’t miss. I hinged my elbow, pulling back my hand to aim before throwing the dart. I watched it float through the air until it landed in the outer single ring in the ten-point wedge.
“I’m just warming up.” I rolled my eyes at Jake as he stepped up to take his shot. He, luckily, hit the triple ring and knocked down the score by forty-five points.
“You know, Reid is a real good darts player. He’s got great aim.” Mikey stuffed his hands in his pockets as he gave me a shit-eating grin.
“Better aim than you’ll ever have, buddy.” Reid slapped his back as he rolled his eyes at the innuendo.
The thing was, Mikey wasn’t wrong. He did have good aim. He hit a bullseye right off the bat then simply shrugged when he saw the surprise on my face.
“All right, Ellie. Show me what you’ve got.” Reid gestured for Ellison to take her turn.
“I could do this with my eyes closed, Lawsy.” She yawned as she threw the dart and completely missed the board, causing the boys to uproar with laughter. “Shut up!” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as Colter pecked her on the check.
“It’s all right, honey. You can’t be good at everything.”
“Sure I can,” she huffed. “I’m also warming up.”
We all laughed as we continued the game. Seven rounds later, and the score was eighteen to twenty-five, with our team winning.
“Just hit a low number or miss, Is,” Jake told me. “Reid can probably hit an eighteen on the dot, knowing him.”
“What about if I hit the eighteen?” I joked. I hadn’t hit any of the points I was aiming for so far that night, so it was unlikely. “Or what if I closed my eyes?” I covered my eyes with my hand and turned toward Jake, mimicking throwing the dart at his face.
“Easy there, Short Stack. With your luck, you’d actually hit him right in the eye.” Reid laughed as I uncovered my face and stuck my tongue out at him.
“Man, with how much those two flirted, you’d think they’d make it official already,” Mikey mumbled, his voice low, but not quiet enough where I didn’t hear him.
I craned my neck toward him, raising my brows.
“What was that, Michael?” Reid gave him a pointed stare.
“You know what I said, Lawson.” Mikey shrugged.
Silence fell over the group, no one wanting to say anything else. I flicked my eyes toward Reid. His were already on me, but they snapped away in an instant.
No one who likes someone more than a friend would avoid eye contact like that.
“Are you going to throw it, or are you just going to stand there?” Ellison broke the silence, gesturing to the dart still in my hand.
I looked down at the dart, pursed my lips, and nodded as I stepped up to the line. The throw was half-assed, landing in the outer boundary of the board. Zero points.
“Happy?” I rolled my eyes at Jake as I moved to lean against the wall.
“Very.”
“This is for the win, Lawsy,” Mikey chimed in.
Reid lined himself up with the dart board, looking as focused as he did when he roped. But right before he threw the dart, he looked over at me and smirked. My eyes didn’t move off him, even when he turned back to the target, threw the dart, and hit exactly eighteen points.
“Winners!” Jake threw a fist into the air.
“Are we done here?” Reid asked, forcing out a yawn. “I’m ready to hit the hay.”
Colter and Hayden mumbled agreements as they gathered their beers.
“I’m good with whatever. You ready, Is?” Ellison looked at me, to which I nodded.
Was I ready to go to bed? Yes. Was I ready to sleep five feet away from Reid? No.
A crash from outside the trailer jolted me awake.
“What was that?” I whispered to Reid, who was already sitting up from the sofa bed. Ellison and Colter were still asleep, surprisingly.
“I don’t know,” he mumbled as he swung his legs off the bed and stood.
“What are you doing?” I hissed at him. “It could be a murderer!”
“In Livingston, Montana? It’s fine.” He started rummaging in a closet until he pulled out a baseball bat.
“A baseball bat ?” That was what he was going to protect us with? “Aren’t cowboys supposed to have guns and shit?”
“I mean, I do, but if they’re right outside the door, a bat will hurt just as bad.” He shrugged as he walked toward the door, holding the bat over his shoulder. He held a finger to his mouth as he swung the door open, preparing to hit whoever was outside.
“Wait! Stop!”
I flinched at Mikey’s shrill yell, and Reid groaned, lowering his bat.
“What the fuck were you doing? We thought someone was trying to break in!” Reid scolded him.
“What’s going on?” Colter rubbed his temple as he walked down the steps attached to the bedroom.
“Jake and I stayed longer at the bar, okay? I fucking tripped and knocked over a bunch of shit out here.” Mikey gestured to the gash on his leg.
“Christ, Mikey.” Ellison was awake now, too, and was standing behind Reid with her hands on her hips.
“Sorry, guys. I’m gonna…go.” Mikey gestured over his shoulder at his trailer.
“I’m going back to bed,” Colter grumbled, and Ellison agreed as they disappeared again.
Reid lay back down on the sofa bed, letting out a quiet laugh, the rumble prompting me to peek my head over the back of the booth separating us.
“He’s such an idiot.” He continued laughing, his shoulders shaking.
I couldn’t help but laugh with him. “At least it wasn’t a murderer. ”
“True. I would have protected you if it was, though,” he murmured.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, of course I would.”
I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I mean, you’d probably do that for any of your friends, though.”
“You’re not just any friend.” He rolled his eyes, turning over, his back facing me. “Good night, Isa.”
What does he mean by that?
I forced the voice in my head to quiet as I lay back down and whispered, “Good night.”