Chapter 24 #3
“It wasn’t personal,” I said, smiling at Shiloh. “That’s just…Emory.”
“No way,” Lottie shook her head. “I thought she was like, sorry, but really uptight and prudish. I thought we were the ones to corrupt her. I mean, she didn’t even say ‘shit’ for, like, I don’t know, maybe six months after we finally started hanging out.”
My jaw dropped. I looked between her group of friends and Shiloh for a moment.
“Wow. I dunno what to say to that. I mean, that’s just not the Emory we knew,” I said with an awkward chuckle.
Everyone looked to Shiloh for answers, and I squeezed her thigh, feeling her muscles tense beneath my fingers.
Thankfully Jae spoke up. “Anyways…if it weren’t for this guy and his love-at-first-sight crush, I wouldn’t have ever stuck around to find out that she’s actually only as scary as a three-legged chihuahua.”
I could tell that her friends were a little confused as to why Shiloh had been so reserved and shy with them, and not with Jae and me.
And I couldn’t blame them. It was definitely strange to think that my Shiloh had been so docile when she met this group of friends.
My stomach soured at the thought of what made her act that way.
Had it been a result of her time in the gang?
Or was she simply scared and hiding, new to WITSEC and just trying to survive?
If they didn’t know that Shiloh spoke so colorfully, what else didn’t they know about her true personality? How much of herself was she allowing to show as Emory?
“Can we please fucking stop with the stray animal comparisons?”
Shiloh punched Jae straight in the stomach. He keeled over dramatically.
“Shut up, shitlicker. You’ve got a whole-ass twelve-pack. I know that shit didn’t hurt.”
“And how would you know that?” Jae smirked, sitting up right to feign a yawn as he not-so-subtly raised his shirt, exposing his cut abs.
“How do you know that?” Cole asked curiously.
“He’s allergic to shirts,” Shiloh said with an eyeroll.
“I can do as I please when I walk around my own home, thank you very much. You don’t have to look,” Jae snarked, struggling to not laugh.
“Don’t make me go for the throat again,” she said, brow raised in challenge.
Jae quickly sobered, slapping his hand protectively over his throat.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Don’t hurt me,” he whined.
Shiloh sat back, smiling softly as she squeezed my hand and motioned towards the scoreboard.
It was my turn. I stood up, earning a stinging slap on the ass from Shiloh that had me turning around to pin her with an unserious glare.
I guessed some PDA wasn’t off the table.
I flicked her nose, and she smirked, wishing me luck.
I chuckled and nervously wiped my hands on my jeans before selecting a ball from the ball return table.
Of-fucking-course my first attempt ended up in the gutter. I was forced to turn around and face the crowd.
“Maybe I should get the bumpers?” I joked, trying to ease the nerves I was feeling. Why the hell did I suddenly care if I was good at bowling?
Thankfully that earned me some laughs and Hannah lamented that she probably needed them too. I managed to get the ball further down the lane this time, but it still ended up in the gutter. I returned to my seat with a sigh, Shiloh leaning in to whisper into my ear.
“A for effort, baby.”
My heart leapt into my throat. Baby. She just called me baby. I couldn’t help the grin on my face as I squeezed her thigh. I liked that. I liked that a lot. It felt like she was finally accepting that I was hers, that this was real.
Jae left to take his turn and Mason stood, sliding Lottie off his lap and onto the bench.
“So, it was love at first sight?” I turned my head to face Lottie who had asked the question.
“Uh,” I cleared my throat, and Shiloh wrapped her arm around my own. “No. I wouldn’t say that. We were friends before anything, and it just kind of blossomed into a relationship. I was afraid I’d freak her out and she’d run away if I asked her out any sooner than I did.”
I glanced at Shiloh, and she rolled her eyes, a smile still on her face. Jae spun around with a hoot, hollering out that he’d gotten a spare. Hannah passed him on the way to the ball return table.
“So, Jae, are you in the military too, or are you just in town visiting?”
“No, no. I live here, too.”
Hannah hummed, nodding in understanding. “So, what do you do for work if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I’m in a similar line of business as your sister and brother-in-law. I’m about to open an MMA gym,” Jae explained, tucking his hands into his back pockets.
“Really?” Hannah’s brows rose in surprise, before she chuckled, her eyes drifting down Jae’s body. “Well, that would explain the physique. Are you, like, a professional boxer or something like that?”
Jae shook his head. “Nah, I like to fight, sure. But, not as a professional. My family runs an MMA gym back home and I’m just kind of carrying on the legacy I guess you could say.”
“And it’s opening soon you said?”
“Yeah. Yeah. If all goes to plan, it should be open first of the month.”
“I’d lo—”
Hannah was cut off by Mason returning to our lane. “Alright. Who wants beer?”
My eyes got stuck on the pitcher of bubbly amber.
I could smell it from where I sat, and I realized it was the first time since I got sober that I’d been in a social setting where there was alcohol.
I didn’t even need to taste it. The orange wedge on the rim and the smell alone were enough for me to identify it as Blue Moon.
Something that shouldn’t have had me salivating.
“Me!” Lottie said, reaching towards the low table that stretched between the two benches we occupied.
Mason pointed a finger in our direction. “I know you don’t drink, Emory. What about you guys?”
I blinked, my mind frozen for a moment. The words were stuck in my throat. I knew the answer was no. I knew that’s what I wanted to say, but for some reason I couldn’t get my damn tongue to work.
“We’re good,” Jae supplied as he walked in front of me to take his seat. I caught his stare as he studied my face, and I flashed him a quick, grateful smile, embarrassment making my face hot.
Shiloh sprung up to take her turn, but I couldn’t stop staring at that damn pitcher of beer.
I didn’t even fucking want to drink it. Okay, maybe a little.
Maybe a small, tiny, sliver of myself was thinking about how just one drink would help me loosen up.
Help me to stop caring so damn much about how shit I was at bowling, at how anxious I was to be liked by Shiloh’s friends.
A hand on my neck had me jerking myself from my thoughts.
I turned to face Shiloh, and she bent down to press her mouth to mine.
I’ll admit, it was a pretty damn good distraction.
Especially when her nails scratched the nape of my neck.
The sounds around us faded out to white noise and I was fully prepared to take her home right then and there just so we didn’t have to stop kissing.
But then she pulled back. I let my eyes open, immediately finding her gaze as she stared at me with those damn hazel eyes that always held me captive. The question was there. In her eyes. And I nodded. I’m okay.
“Thank you,” I mouthed.
She smiled softly before nodding her head behind her to the alley.
“Wanna help me?”
I snorted, “I think I’ll just make you worse.”
Shiloh scrunched her nose and shook her head, “You never know. You might be my good luck charm.”
I nodded, letting her pull me up and away from the table with beer.
Fuck alcohol. I’ve got Shiloh.