Since I was with Hunter, I half expected my sister to show up at Felt, the pool hall and bar not far from my family’s speed shop. It wasn’t much, just a block building with a bar and stage in the front, and a large game room in the back that sported two rows of pool tables. The sort of place you went to kill time and your liver.
“Remind me to piss off Slater more often.” Hunter brought a pitcher and two glasses to the little table.
To our left, a rowdy game of pool played out with lots of good humored shouting and ribbing. This was the first time I’d been in a place like this in quite some time. I relished being here, feeling like I belonged.
“I might not be there to rescue you next time.” I winked over the rim of my beer glass.
He grabbed his chest as if wounded by my verbal jab. “Ouch!”
I sipped the beer he’d poured for me and finally let myself relax. “I owe you an apology for all that.”
“No, you don’t. I was asking for it.” There was a glint of that dangerous something that had drawn me to Hunter years ago. Brash, cocky, so much like Jordan.
“You really did.” I laughed and let it trail off. “He still shouldn’t have acted that way. I’m not his property.”
“Don’t worry about it. My actions had the desired effect. You’re here.”
“That’s how you pick up chicks? Pick fights with their brothers?”
“Nah.” He took a swallow and gestured at me with his glass. “He’s not your brother.”
“Close enough.”
He snorted and downed about half his beer. “Brothers don’t get that mad when a guy starts talking to their sister.”
“You said more than hi.”
“He doesn’t know that.” He gestured with his beer. “You really don’t see it, do you?”
“See what?”
“I dunno…” He stood and reached for a pool stick as a table became available. “Raelynn, jealousy is about the only thing that sets a man off like that.”
I chalked a stick as he racked. “For the record, I’m not here to make him or anyone else jealous.”
“I know.” He stepped back to let me break. “I also know that it was different once.”
The balls crashed and clattered across the table. Once upon a time, I’d wanted nothing more than a jealous outburst from Jordan. For him to want me, to start fights over me. But my attitude had changed, I needed different things out of life. I might have used Hunter, but I liked him too. Now I was here because I could forget about Jordan and Devin when I was with Hunter. He was my port in the storm.
I lined up my shot as Matt, the object of my sister’s affection, slipped out of the game room. Most of the people in Felt that night were friends of Hunter’s, people that raced with him, his crew. I still knew most all of them, they were people I’d grown up with and people who came into the shop. Our crew, Jordan’s crew, was a small isolated part of the bigger picture, of Arkadia.
I took my shot and missed. “It was. We both know
I was young and dumb.” I pointed my stick at the swinging doors, as I changed subjects. “What can you tell me about Matt?”
“Other than he sneaks off to see your sister?” “Yeah, other than that.” I laughed as he sank two
solid colored balls.
“He’s good people. Works hard, works a lot. Doesn’t start shit.” The muscles in his jaws twitched as he fought back a smile. “I wouldn’t start a fight if he was sneaking off to see my sister.”
Whatever tension I’d had left was gone in that instant. At the core of it, Hunter was my friend. I’d needed him more than I’d realized. For the first time in months, hell, probably more than a year, I felt like my old self again.
The rest of the night was much of the same. Hunter and I fell back into the comfortable, familiar rhythm of friends who didn’t mind if things went a little further.
When I put back more beer than he did, he obliged my desire to slow dance and make out. I let him kiss me, more than once, which was a step in the right direction. Instead of the distant flashes of my nightmares that I’d expected, I thought of Jordan as I kissed Hunter. Of that kiss out in the field. Jordan was right, Hunter was a great kisser but he didn’t make me moan like Jordan did.
There might have been a time where I went on a date with Hunter to make Jordan jealous. But, I didn’t keep going back because of that. Hunter made me happy. Hunter made it easy to forget all the other things. There wasn’t any spark, not like there had been with Jordan in that field. But, there wasn’t any pressure either. Being with Hunter was easy.
I hated that I continued to think of Jordan even when Hunter drove me home. I promised to call him soon. Hunter was no pressure, he was safe. Jordan hadn’t been safe, and there was all the pressure in the world on me whenever he was close. Not only did he remind me of all the things I didn’t want to remember, but of all the things I’d run away from. The worst part was he could see it when I attempted to pull away—and usually why.
I kissed Hunter before I climbed from his truck. I couldn’t help but feel cheeky, sneaking home drunk after making out with a boy. I reveled in it. For once in the past year I was happy, alive, and normal.
My good humor was short lived.
“You can’t be serious.” I grumbled at the large, familiar form that unfolded from a chair on my darkened back porch. “Really?”
I tried to push past him at the top of the steps, but I wasn’t on my game. Too late, or early as it was, and I was too drunk. I fumbled as I spoke. “I want to go to bed. I think I said all I had to say to you.”
“Yeah, well.” Jordan caught me as I stumbled on the top step. His hand spread out across the small of my back, offering steady pressure as it sent tendrils of heat flashing across the spot he touched. Tendrils of heat that leaped across my skin and left me instantly aroused. “I haven’t said my piece yet.”