Page 105 of Knight
I paused in the doorway and looked back.
Aiden gave me a small smile. “I should have called you Will. Sorry.”
“That’s all right. I’m just glad you’re calling me.” I winked playfully and headed for the front door.
“That’s horrible!” Aiden called after me. “You’re not supposed to tell dad jokes until you’re a dad!”
When I rolled up to Lucky Strike, still smiling at Aiden’s parting shot, Joyride’s ugly Hummer was already in the lot beside Hollywood’s more tasteful car. No sign of Ghost yet.
I walked down the row of lacquered bowling lanes. Joyride held a yellow bowling ball at chest height. Hollywood stood behind him, assessing his form.
“Loosen up this time,” Hollywood said. “Visualize where you want the ball to go.”
“I got it,” Joyride said impatiently.
He drew his arm back at an angle. Hollywood shook his head, cringing a little. Joy let fly, and the ball went far right, barely clinging to the lane before taking out one pin.
Clearly, the coaching was going well.
“Goddamn it!” Joyride whirled, eyes furious. “I did exactly what you said.”
“Not really,” Hollywood said.
“Yes, I did! I relaxed and—” Joyride stopped as his gaze landed on me. “Shit, man. You look even worse than I expected.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly.
Hollywood turned, surveying me with his head tilted. “Flynn wasn’t kidding. Damn, man.”
I’d hoped my bruises might fade before this meeting, but they were lingering in a sickly greenish yellow state.
“Eh, you should have seen me a few days ago,” I said with a chuckle.
“Well, we would have if you hadn’t kept making excuses to blow us off,” he pointed out.
I grimaced. “Yeah, sorry. Been kind of busy.”
Mostly with fucking Aiden, but priorities and all. Plus, I didn’t really want the guys to worry about me.
Flynn had worried enough for everyone, popping by the house a couple of times to make sure I was recovering. One time, he’d nearly walked in on Aiden blowing me. Not an image any brother wants.
He was pretty cool about the fact we were involved, though. I was relieved that secret was out of the bag. I didn’t like keeping things from friends.
Ghost came in the door, flicking us a glance as he passed by on his way to the snack bar where we gathered each week. Matteo was already over there, setting out a pizza and a couple of pitchers of soda.
“I guess we should head over,” I said. “The gang’s all here.”
“You forgettin’ about me that easy?” Tex’s voice sounded behind me. “I’m hurt.”
I whirled, grinning. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Damn, Knight, you really did take a beating.” He embraced me with a hearty backslap. “I thought I was the one who was supposed to get into trouble.”
I drew back. “Yeah, well, I saved you the trouble.”
Tex’s gaze flicked over my shoulder. I turned to see Hollywood’s tight expression and stormy eyes.
“C’mon, Joy,” I said. “Let’s go help Matteo and let these two talk.”
