Page 22 of Back to Me
“Guys, I am right here you know!”
“We know.” Dallas and I said at the same time. He muttered something under his breath and shook his head. I knew it was only a matter of time before all hell broke loose and the distraction and sabotage techniques got more intense, but at the end of the night, we always brushed it off and left it here. It was never anything serious.
We were halfway through our second game, Tye deciding to sit out so Belle could play, when Beau and the other guys turned up. We mixed up the teams for the third game, Dallas sitting out, Beau teaming up with Belle and Ally coming to play with me, but again, I won that one. I decided to sit out after that because we did have the unfair advantage.
Looking over to the bar, someone waving got my attention. Gabriella smiled at me from the bar, and I waved back. I was about to go and talk to her when her face dropped, and she quickly turned around. Looking over my shoulder to see who else had noticed her, I found Grady’s eyes on her before they slid over to me.
“Tell me something, Austin? Why is my ex-girlfriend waving at you?” I raised a brow.
“First off, I didn’t think you did relationships. Secondly, she is my new artist. I hired her today.”
“She is the reason I no longer do relationships.” There was a story there, but before I could ask him what it was, he was gone. I turned back to Gabriella and watched her quickly down her drink and stood to leave. She made it to the door when Grady caught up to her. Beau, seeing what was going on, moved over to stand beside me. I looked over at him.
“Did you know about an ex?” He shook his head.
“No, must have been well before we knew each other. He has only ever had casual fuck buddies. As soon as they wanted anything more, he cut them loose. What was her name?”
“Gabriella Bryant.”
“Bryant?”
“Yeah, why? Does that mean something to you?”
“Who else do we know with the last name Bryant?” I thought about it and ran through the people we knew. It wasn’t until I started thinking about Ma and Pops’s friends that it hit me.
“Shit, you don’t mean Chief Bryant?” He nodded. Chief Bryant had been Pops’s best mate for as long as we had been alive. They had been in the academy together and when dad retired as police chief, Bryant stayed on to run it. We knew he had a daughter, but she had been younger than us, so we had never been close. “Wow, she has changed a lot! I didn’t even recognize her.”
“Time does that to people.” We turned our attention away from them to give them their privacy. Grady came back to join us but was alone. I looked over to Beau, who just shook his head, so I left it.
“Okay, guys, you’re up! We ladies are going to leave you to it.” The girls left us, I guessed to have a conversation of their own.
“Beau and Grady versus me and Tye?” They nodded and I grabbed the triangle from the table, setting them up again. “I won last game so other team can break.”
“Losing team buys the next round.”
“You really want to make that bet, Beau?”
“I’m confident, so yes.”
“You are on then, brother.” That may have been cheating, even if we lost, Tye wouldn’t have to pay for the drinks, but I wasn’t about to point that out to him. I looked over to Grady. “I’m not going to push, talk about it or don’t talk about it, that is your call but is there something that I need to know?”
He shook his head. “It’s her story to tell you, so you will have to ask her. I am not about to spill her secrets.”
“Okay, I respect that. I will leave it alone. If she wants me to know it, she will tell me.”
“Thank you. Whose shot?”
“Yours.” Beau handed him the pool cue and he got into position.
ChapterThirteen
Ally
Sittingat the bar with the girls, Dallas and I talked and it wasn’t long before all the tension dropped away, and we were almost back to how we were before I stuffed everything up. When my shit night’s sleep finally caught up with me, I knew it was time to call it. Going into the pool room where the guys were playing, I leaned against Austin’s side and rest my head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me.
“Is someone a little tired, Duchess?”
“No, someone is a lot tired, Romeo.” I looked up at him. “I can get a cab home if you want to stay and play some more though.”
