Chapter 31
Quinn’s hand hasn’t left mine since we got situated in our proper seats and I drove us to the bingo hall.
She holds it a bit tighter when I pull open the heavy red door and usher her inside ahead of me.
I grab a fleeting glance of her ass in those criminally sexy jeans before focusing on the warm space around us.
It’s huge, with three rows of white folding tables and a plethora of chairs.
At the front, there’s an old woman with a head full of round, hot pink rollers and a matching sundress fluttering in the breeze from the standing fan beside her.
She’s cranking the lever of what looks like a round, steel cage full of numbered balls.
I stroke the back of Quinn’s hand and tug her close enough that our sides brush. “Where’s Ruthie?”
“Uh . . .” Her head moves left and right as she searches the tables closest to us.
“Should I call her name?”
“No!” she hisses, drawing a few curious glances. Her cheeks flush, and she lowers her voice. “They take bingo really seriously here. If you interrupt them, they might make us stand at the front for target practice or something.”
“Good to know.”
“Maybe we can just sit somewhere else for now—”
“Quinn!”
My brows shoot up high on my forehead at the loud voice.
Quinn mutters something under her breath that sounds a lot like “so much for wanting quiet.” Ruthie’s standing at an overflowing table smack dab in the middle of the hall, her hand cutting through the air excitedly.
I grin at her and head her way, forcing a reluctant Quinn to follow.
“And Beck,” Ruthie adds once we get close enough that she doesn’t have to yell. “You’re both here. And don’t you look darling together. Isn’t that right, Rox? Aren’t they a gorgeous couple?”
The woman beside her with dark brown skin and electric-blue eyes immediately reaches for Ruthie’s hand. There’s a glimmer of something in her gaze that has my grin wanting to wander into smug smirk territory. Between her and Ruthie, I’m thinking we don’t need to put on a show.
We’re believable enough without having to try.
“They are gorgeous,” Ruthie’s friend states with a confident nod. “It’s no wonder she didn’t want your grandson. We both know he doesn’t compare.”
“Don’t insult my grandbaby, Rox. He’s sweet when he wants to be. And I’ve got no doubt that a good girl will whip him into better shape.”
“What a glowing review. I’m so disappointed that I missed out there.” Quinn rolls her eyes, the right side of her mouth tipping up.
“Oh, forget it. Just sit with us, and I’ll get the two of you sorted.
You can use my extra dabbers. Oh, and Beck, you had a great game today.
We were all cheering you on. How fast does your fastball get?
I couldn’t make out the speed on the screen from my table.
My eyes are worse for wear now, and Phil lost the remote, so we couldn’t turn up the volume. ”
Excitement pricks my skin. “I’m not quite back to where I was last season yet, but I’m topping out at ninety-six right now. We’ve been focusing more on my splitter than any of my other pitches right now.”
“I can tell!” I hear someone say from a table over.
Quinn makes a low noise in the back of her throat, drawing my eyes.
It takes all of a millisecond to spot her humour.
Her nose twitches, and the corner of her right eye tightens the same way it does when she teases me about being vain.
Searching her face for tiny tells is growing to be quite the addictive pastime.
I release her hand only so I can slip my arm across her back instead, filling my palm with her soft hip. “It’s been going alright.”
“Don’t try to be modest. You’re the best player on the team. The crowd screamed even louder when you came out than they did when Kellan got a home run,” she blurts out, sounding almost angry.
It’s impossible to look away from her now. Not only is she glaring a hole at the floor, but the tip of her nose is fire-engine red, and the toe of her sneaker is smacking the floor at a quick pace. There’s no mistaking her comment as anything but honest. She’s just mad she let it slip.
I curl my pointer finger under the edge of her shirt and brush it along her warm skin.
Goosebumps pebble beneath my touch, and I lower my head and press my nose to her crown, grinning.
The last hour hasn’t stopped replaying in my mind, and touching her now isn’t helping drown those memories.
Her moans, the feeling of holding her in my lap, against my chest, and watching as she came with our eyes locked.
I’m still hard, which I’ve started to just accept is my body’s natural reaction to being around her.
It’s awkward as fuck, considering we’re currently standing together in a bingo hall full of grannies, but I wouldn’t trade this for anything.
“Thanks, baby,” I whisper into her hair.
She exhales while her body leans further against me. “So, are we going to play bingo or what?”
“Not yet, we aren’t,” Ruthie argues, eagerly patting the seat beside her. “Tell everyone how you met. They’re dying to know.”
My grin is instant. Pulling the chair out for Quinn, I watch her sit stiffly.
The seat has a thin layer of cushion that sinks beneath my ass when I take the one beside her and cup her thigh.
A dozen pairs of eyes have fallen to us now, watching and listening.
Poor Quinn flushes and looks to me for help.
“Originally, we met in school, but when I found her again, I was on a coffee run for the team. The café we usually went to was closed, and after a quick Google search, I found Blank Page. And if anyone doesn’t know this place, you need to change that.
Best coffee on the West Coast,” I boast, every word dripping with honesty.
Quinn leans into my body, loosening up bit by bit. “He was loud. Still is. I assumed he was just a douchebag jock coming in expecting me to comp his drinks or something.”
“But I didn’t. If I remember correctly, when I realized you didn’t know who I was, I kept it that way.”
“What a thoughtful king,” she teases, eyes rolling.
I pinch the inside of her thigh, dropping my mouth to her ear. “Yeah, I am. Do you need me to remind you of how considerate I am right here?”
She swallows, her skin burning through the fabric of her jeans and into my palm. I nip the tip of her ear before pulling back and winking at Rox.
“Anyway, I was so taken by Quinn that I kept coming back every day that I could. She refused to give me the time of day, though. No matter how hard I tried to sway her to go out with me,” I explain.
One of the old men a few chairs from us stares me down. “What changed your mind, Quinn? He sounds like a pest.”
“Don’t be an ass, Frank. Keep the jealousy to yourself,” Ruthie chastises, glaring brutally at him.
“I’m not jealous! My husband couldn’t be further from a pest.”
Quinn struggles to stifle her laugh. I barely manage to hide mine by coughing into my fist. When she clears her throat and starts speaking, my stomach falls out of my ass.
“I don’t know if it was so much as him doing one specific thing.
It was more like . . . a collection of everything he did and said that helped prove that he wasn’t the guy I thought he was.
His kindness and the acts of service that I wouldn’t have ever expected from a guy who looks like him.
There was always something deeper inside of him that intimidated me. But once I saw it, I lost the battle.”
It sounds too honest. Too real.
I struggle to keep from throwing her over my shoulder and taking her home so she can tell me all of that again in private. She avoids looking at me, falling silent. The rest of the table picks up on the emotion thick in the air and instantly flick their eyes away from us. Only Ruthie’s remain.
She’s not my focus, though. Quinn is.
And she can hide from me all she wants, but I’m starting to see the truth.
We’re inevitable.
“Bingo!” I announce proudly.
“You’re such a liar. There’s no way you won again,” Quinn accuses, already leaning over my lap to inspect my card.
“Go ahead and double-check, gorgeous. I’m afraid you just aren’t as naturally skilled at bingo as I am.”
“You cheated somehow.”
“How do you cheat at bingo?”
“You just do! Trudy! I need your eyes on this, and please, please don’t get distracted this time. He already knows he’s pretty. Let’s not make a bigger deal out of it.”
“Yes, I’m coming!” the woman manning the contraption at the front shouts a smidge harshly.
With the rollers bouncing on her head and her sparkly, strappy sandals slapping the tile floor, she rushes down the break in tables toward ours.
She huffs the closer she gets, and I catch the annoyed look she tosses Quinn’s way before she lets it fall.
I stifle a laugh behind my fist and clear my throat.
Trudy stands behind both Quinn’s and my chairs, because we’ve all but glued them together, and peers down at my card. The blue dots I’ve stamped on the spaces she’s called form a perfect diagonal line. Despite Quinn’s disbelief, I have, in fact, won yet another game, making this my third in a row.
The number card in Trudy’s wrinkled hands shakes a bit as she double-checks I’ve only stamped the numbers she’s called. Her unimpressed expression makes another appearance, and this time, she lets it stay fixed on Quinn.
“For the third time, he won,” she mutters.
Quinn guffaws. “It has to be beginner’s luck, then.”
“Who said I was a beginner?”
Slowly, she looks away from the cards in front of us and up to me. Her neck arches as we hold eye contact before I wink. Her bottom lip gets tucked between her white teeth.
“I’ve played quite a few times in my life. My dad’s mom loves going to bingo. I go with her every off-season. It’s kind of our thing now.”
She balks. “And you didn’t think to share that with me? You acted like you knew nothing about bingo!”
“Oops. If I had told you all my secrets, would you have wanted to team up instead of being rivals?” I tease, resting my hand on her thigh.
“No. I’d have made you go up there to call numbers instead so I could have had a chance at winning.”
“Bingo’s all luck, Quinny. Experience doesn’t matter.”
“Says the guy who’s now won a new toaster oven, a voucher for a free pedicure, and a cowboy hat air freshener!”
I lean in and run my nose along the back of her ear. “Do you want my prizes for yourself?”
She shivers, sucking in a breath. “No.”
“Really? Because it sounds like you do.”
“Maybe I just don’t want to listen to your endless bragging tonight.”
I drop my voice to a low murmur, teeth ghosting the edge of her earlobe. “I’ll let you shut me up, then. You can even choose how you want to do that.”
“You’re shameless.”
Gliding my hand higher up her leg, I squeeze the softness I find. “For you, I’m just about everything.”
“Look at them, Ruthie. Have you ever seen a man so enamoured?” Rox sighs.
“Shhh. You’ll distract them.”
Quinn’s lips rise when she turns her head and drops her hand to cover mine, not to pull it away, but to hold it in place. “How long do you think they’ll last before they interrupt?”
“At least another minute.”
She hums, our lips only a hair apart.
“Want to give them something to gossip about? We’re here to put on an act, aren’t we?”
Her pupils expand. “We are.”
“Don’t slap me.”
And then I’m kissing her.
I keep it light and more romantic than feral, even if that’s not a choice my dick agrees with.
I ignore the way it aches in my jeans and cup the side of her face, simply holding it in my palm.
The way her skin heats in response makes mine do the same.
It’s intoxicating knowing that I can pull this reaction out of her.
A moment later, I force myself to pull back and run my thumb across her cheekbone before releasing her entirely. She slowly opens her eyes as I return my hand to her thigh and decide right then that I’m not removing it for the rest of the night.
Once Quinn recovers, she reaches for her dabber and uses it to point to the table at the front of the hall. Without so much as looking at the women at our table, she speaks firmly enough to make it clear she’s trying to distract herself and everyone here from what just happened.
Or maybe the way she didn’t want our kiss to end. If she’s feeling the way I am, then she’s already thinking about when we’ll be doing it again.
“We have another game to play, don’t we?” she asks firmly.
I follow her lead. “Are you sure you want to lose again?”
Ruthie laughs, the cheerful sound relaxing Quinn. “How many times have you played, Beck?”
“I’ve been going with my grandma for . . . five years now? I’m actually surprised we’ve never come here before.”
“Well, the next time you get together, you’re more than welcome to join us. I’d love to meet her. Have you met his family, Quinn?”
If she had water in her mouth, it would be spraying across the table. Her quick cough doesn’t go unnoticed by anyone here, but we pretend otherwise as she shakes her head.
“It’s still really early for that.”
“Now, what did I say about timelines?” Ruthie asks her.
“This isn’t the same.”
“Isn’t it?” The older woman looks to me now, her smile encouraging. “If you wait for the right time to do anything in life, you risk never finding one. Follow your heart, not some predetermined schedule of how things should go.”
“I’m just following Quinn’s lead,” I announce, unable to look away from her. The moment I do, a heavy sense of understanding blankets my chest. “Whenever she’s ready, so am I.”
Because I’m falling head over heels in love with her, if I’m not already there.
Quinn’s eyes round, and it still baffles me how anything I say could surprise her at this point. I’d do just about anything for her. Any time, any place. If she hasn’t realized that already, then I’m left with no choice but to make her see it.
Is it possible that I’ve been going too slow? Have I missed a cue or misread a signal?
Ruthie pats my elbow. “That’s good, Beck. Patience is one of our most valuable qualities.”
I swallow, feeling the truth in that statement. It’s reassuring. Without overthinking any longer, I grab my dabber and bop it against the end of Quinn’s. Her brow jumps in question as she looks at me for an explanation.
“You wanted to play another game,” is all I say.
Appreciation overwhelms her features as she nods. “Right.”
And that’s that.