Obsession Falls(44)

“Hey, we won a game last season. Three, in fact.”

“Let me guess,” Luke said. “It was a building year.”

“It was a building year,” Theo said. “We had a young team.”

Luke laughed and patted his shoulder. “I know, man. I’m just giving you shit.”

Theo rolled his eyes. “I’ll know more after camp later this summer. But I believe in those kids. They’re gonna have a good year.”

“Thanks, coach.” Zachary smirked at him. “We believe in you too.”

“Shut your hole, Z.”

Zachary just chuckled.

“How’s Audrey doing?” Luke turned to me. “Sucks what happened to her car.”

“Who’s Audrey?” Zachary asked. “And what happened to her car?”

“You know,” Theo said. “The new girl.”

“Hit and run,” Luke said. “Damage to the front bumper, broken headlight. I took care of her.”

“There’s a new girl in town?” Zachary looked around the bar, as if she must be there. “How did I not know about this?”

“She’s in one of Josiah’s rentals.” Luke met my gaze, his eyes full of challenge. “Cute, too. Dark hair, kinda curvy.”

“Stay away from her.” My voice was hard.

“Which rental?” Zachary asked.

I pointed at him. “You especially stay away from her.”

“I actually agree with Josiah on that one,” Luke said.

Theo raised his hand. “Me too.”

“What?” Zachary put a hand to his chest. “I’m hurt. If she’s new in town, she could use a nice guy to show her around.”

“You?” I asked. “Since when are you a nice guy?”

He grinned. “I’m not. But when Luke is done showing her the town, I’ll show her something better.”

“If you send her a dick pic, I’ll kick your ass,” I said.

“What am I, a child?” Zachary shook his head. “Dick pic. I’m insulted.”

“Yeah, you’re a real gentleman, Z,” Theo said.

“I didn’t say I was a gentleman.”

“All of you.” I pointed to each of them. “Stay away from her.”

Theo’s brow furrowed. “What did I do?”

I let out a frustrated breath. Apparently going out for a beer had been a bad idea.

“No one’s trying anything with her,” Luke said. “It’s just fun to mess with you.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t try anything with her,” Zachary said. “Why is the new girl off limits?”

I leveled him with a glare.

“Oh, she’s your girl.”

“She’s not my girl.”

“So she’s your girl but she doesn’t know it yet.” Zachary grinned again. “Nice.”

“She’s. Not. My. Girl.”

“Apparently he doesn’t know it yet,” Theo said.

“She’s—”

“Why not?” Luke asked before I could finish. “I’m not saying you should marry her or something, but she obviously likes you for some reason. Why not take her out?”

“She likes him?” Zachary’s voice was full of skepticism. “Then yeah, dude, you should definitely take her out. You don’t know when you’ll get a chance like that again.”

“He does have a point,” Theo said.

“Why are we talking about this?” I asked. “You guys are as bad as Aunt Louise.”

“Hey.” Zachary held up a hand. “Aunt Louise is a Tilikum treasure. Don’t you talk bad about her.”

“You just like her because she bakes you cookies and never tries to set you up with random girls,” Theo said.

“Aunt Louise tries to set you up with random girls?”

“Yeah, all the time,” Theo said.

Zachary turned to Luke. “You too?”

“Yeah, but it’s never a good thing,” Luke said. “Trust me.”

“Why doesn’t she try to set me up with random girls? I feel so left out.”

“Don’t,” I said. “Luke’s right, it’s never good.”

“She wore me down a few months ago and I agreed to a date with someone she claimed was perfect for me,” Theo said. “Turns out the girl was twenty and two years ago she was one of my students. Aunt Louise neglected to mention that. When I called her out, she claimed she thought the girl was older because she seemed mature. The whole thing was mortifying.”

Zachary winced. “Yeah, that’s a little much, even for me.”

“The last Aunt Louise date I went on turned out to be Jill,” Luke said.

“Your crazy ex-girlfriend, Jill?” Theo asked. “Damn.”

“Yeah. That went over well. Never again.”

“Okay, maybe I am lucky to only get cookies from Aunt Louise,” Zachary said. “The last thing I need is for someone to set me up with an ex-girlfriend.”

I sipped my beer while the conversation turned from Aunt Louise’s lack of matchmaking skills to Luke’s latest car restoration punctuated by commentary on the karaoke song choices. At least they weren’t talking about Audrey anymore.