Page 23 of The Best Man Problem
Clearing his throat, he stepped closer so as to be heard above the pinging of the machines.
“Impressive score, Ms. Walsh.”
Lilly and Mo turned as one to face him, a very different expression on each woman’s face. They both appeared surprised to see him there, but Mo’s face morphed into happy excitement while Lilly’s eyes widened right before she scowled at him.
“Seriously?” She threw her hands up in the air, frustration clearly etched on every beautiful inch of her face.
“Sorry.” He grinned. “Were you expecting someone else?”
“I was expecting to play my game in peace, without being interrupted by the reason…”
“The reason for what?” He tilted his head, curious why his presence here seemed to bother her so much.
“Yeah,” Mo said, a cheeky grin on her face. “By the reason for what exactly, Lil?”
He watched in fascination as the two women seemed to have an entire conversation with nothing more than their eyes. There might have been some lowly muttered words, but the place was really loud and Lincoln couldn’t pick anything up. Though he thought he caught Mo say the word “relax.”
Lilly sighed, pasting on a ridiculously fake smile and turning to him. “What brings you to 1up tonight?”
He smiled, in no way fooled by her false sense of cheer.
“Kenneth and Marie wanted to show me some of their favorite spots in the city.” He turned slightly, pointing back and to the left. “They’re over there playing giant Jenga. Marie wanted to know if you two would like to join us for a game.”
Mo hopped up and down. “Ooooh, I love giant Jenga. Count me in!”
“Uh, Mo, don’t you think—?”
But Mo ran off before Lilly could finish, tossing Lincoln a wink over her shoulder as she left.
He liked Mo, but not as much as he liked the woman standing in front of him with a frustrated little frown pulling at her lips.
“You in?”
She bit her lip. A lip he vividly remembered nibbling on himself. His body tightened with need, every muscle tensing with anticipation. Calm down, man. The woman made it pretty clear she didn’t want to get in bed with him again. Actually, she made it clear they shouldn’t go to bed together again. Judging by the heated look in her eyes, what she wanted and what she’d allow herself were two very different things.
But he would never push her into anything she might regret later, so he motioned to the machine behind her.
“Or we could play this?”
At that, her eyes widened in surprise. “You play pinball?”
He snorted. “No. Other people play pinball. I dominate pinball.”
A disbelieving laugh escaped her lips. “Really? Wanna bet?”
“Depends on what we’re betting for.” He bobbed his eyebrows in an overly comical manner.
Lilly laughed, shaking her head. “How about bragging rights?”
Not what his first choice would be, but he got her to laugh again, so he’d call it a win and agreed, motioning to the pinball machine with a wave of his hand. “Ladies first.”
Lilly grabbed another quarter from her pocket and put it in the machine, starting a new game.
Lincoln watched, enthralled with the skill she used to coax the ball exactly where she wanted it to go. Her fingers deftly worked the flipper buttons to send the ball flying up the ramps to fall back down and hit every single sensor on the game, sending her score sailing into the high hundreds of thousands.
He whistled. “Not bad. You’re good.”
“Thanks,” she said, focus never leaving the game. “And don’t try to distract me with any of your corny pirate jokes.”
