Page 16 of Back To Our Beginning

She’d left the table wide open, and I’d finished the game in two shots.

“Dammit, Maddie! Do you know how much money I just lost?” Louie cried out.

“That’s on you,” Ruby shouted back at the man.

I gently took the pool cue out of Maddie’s hand and put hers and mine up in the cue rack on the wall.

“It’s early, only eight o’clock,” I said to her softly. “Your house or mine?”

She bit her lip, and I could almost see what was going through her mind. She was debating whether she wanted home field advantage. I would want that, so I couldn’t quite figure out why she would consider going to my house.

“Your house,” she said, surprising me.

I shrugged. “Okay. Are you actually going to follow me, or are you going to ditch me?”

“I’ll follow you. Unlike some people I know, I’m trustworthy.”

My gut clenched as her verbal blow landed hard.

Little did she know she was right, because there wasn’t a chance in hell that I would have stopped calling if she’d won the game. But I couldn’t say that I wasn’t fucking pleased that she’d lost.

I drove slowly to make extra sure that she wouldn’t lose me. Not that it was necessary; it was my old house where she had spent half her childhood. When I pulled into my carport, she was right behind me. We turned off our engines at the same time, and she was out of her Jeep before I had a chance to open her door for her.

“Nice landscaping,” she noted.

“Since I’ve been renting this out, Bernie’s arranged landscaping to be done, so that the renters didn’t need to be responsible.”

“Makes sense.”

She stood well behind me as I unlocked the door, but I held it open for her, forcing her to precede me into the house.

“Jeez, Beau, this place has really changed.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’d tell Harvey want I wanted done, and he made sure it got done.”

She nodded. “Yeah, Harvey and his company do good work. It’s hard to believe this is the same house I used to come and play pinochle at.”

I took a deep breath. I hadn’t thought of that card game since I joined the Marines. Mom got such a kick teaching Maddie and me that game, and we’d play for hours when Mom was in a good mental place.

“Come see the kitchen.”

“Okay.”

I went to put my hand at the bottom of Maddie’s back to guide her to the kitchen, and hesitated. She was wearing that crop top that had been driving me insane all evening. If I rested my hand where I intended, I’d be touching her smooth, bare skin.

Fuck it.

As soon as I touched her, she jerked, and I felt a jolt go through me like I had been too close to a mortar when it exploded. But I didn’t move my hand. She felt too good.

She slid away from me and walked quickly to the kitchen on her own.

“This is amazing, Beau,” she called out.

She was right about that.

She was opening the big stainless-steel fridge when I entered the kitchen. “This thing is huge. Do you rent to families?”

“Sometimes.”