23. Placing Bets on Love

TWENTY-THREE

Del was on edge, but I couldn't tell if it was because she didn't know the people here, or if it was because of something else. Her freshly manicured nails tapped relentlessly against the bartop as I approached.

"Here, have a drink." I set the plastic cup down in front of her and angled the straw toward her mouth. She looked at it apprehensively. "What? I didn't spike it or anything I swear."

"It's not that. I told myself I wouldn't drink tonight, but I'm feeling way too uptight to mingle with strangers."

I shrugged. "Up to you. I'm not drinking and you're riding with me. It couldn't hurt to let loose a little."

She looked up at me as I settled in beside her. Her crystal blue eyes stood out against the sparkly powder on her eyelids.

"Somehow, I don't think that makes it any better. I feel like I need to be thinking clearly when I'm around you." She followed her words up with a sip of her drink. I couldn't help but watch her lips wrap around the skinny, black straw and then draw up in a smile when she tasted her favorite drink. The soft skin of her throat called to me as she swallowed. "But I'm not sure it would even help."

A drop of liquid hung from her shimmery, pink lips. I wanted to lick it off but instead used my thumb to wipe it away. Her pupils dilated just a touch as I brought my thumb to my lips and licked it clean.

"My point exactly." She indicated to the bartender that she wanted another, threw it back, and hopped off the stool. "Be a doll and hold onto this for me?" Her voice raised like it was a question, but I obviously didn't have a choice as she shrugged off her jacket and tossed it at my chest. She didn't wait for a response, just sauntered away. Which was good, because I didn't have the ability to form words. The moment she turned around, my eyes were glued to her retreating form. Without the leather jacket she'd been holding tightly around herself, I took in her bare skin peeking through the lace bodysuit. She turned back to see if I was watching her, and pearly white teeth sunk into her bottom lip when she found me staring. The woman was stunning. She winked and spun around, having reached Thomas and his group of friends on the dance floor.

He greeted her with a happy, half-drunk smile. She slung her arm around his neck, and he didn't hesitate to pull her toward him with his palm on her lower back. Too low in my opinion, but no one cared what I thought. I was just the jealous baby daddy pining after her.

The bartender reappeared and nodded toward my line of focus. "Tough break man. Want a drink on the house?"

I shook my head. "Nah, she'll be coming home with me. Not worried about it." I was used to pretending things were fine at all times, but even I wasn't convinced by my own lie.

He patted my shoulder. "Whatever you say, bud."

My patience was wearing thin. I'd never seen Del dance like she was with Thomas. Every movement blended together under the flashing lights, like a movie that was going on way too long. They retreated far enough into the crowd that I couldn't make out details, but I saw his hands on her ass and her head thrown back like she was having the best night of her life. It was bullshit.

In theory, it shouldn't have bothered me. It had been days since I cornered Thomas and asked him explicitly if there was anything going on between them. But it didn't make me feel better because he admitted that Del didn't feel that way about him. She told him that when he made a move on her a few months before I came home. She politely turned him down, and they went back to being friends.

I commandeered a pool table and started playing with one of Thomas' friends that I'd been introduced to earlier in the night. We didn't talk much as we played a couple rounds. I was lining up my shot and found Del leaning over the table to block my view.

She looked at the guy I was playing with and gestured toward me. "Kicking his ass?"

"Quite the contrary. Wanna step in for me before I get embarrassed and lose for a third time?"

Del turned to me and wiggled her brows. "I'd love to knock him down a peg for you." She took the cue stick from him and smiled in thanks.

"I'd like to see you try, Dellie baby." I closed the distance between us and slipped my finger through her belt loop.

"Stop calling me that. It reminds me of..." She wouldn't meet my gaze as she racked the balls and lined them at the end of the table, ignoring my grip on her.

"What does it remind you of?" I teased, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

Her baby blues glanced up at me from where she leaned over the table to break. I could see straight down her top to the pretty tits that sat there taunting me. Del caught me looking and raised her eyebrow. She sent three stripes and one solid into the pockets. "Stripes." She popped up and put a hand on her hip. "Let's see what you've got Mr. James. How about we raise the stakes?"

"What do you have in mind, Mama?" I murmured in her ear while curving my hand around to the small of her back.

"If I win, you have to dance with me." She poked me in the chest and smiled innocently. Del loved to dance. I couldn't count the times she deemed her prom dates duds and begged me to join her instead. I couldn't understand how they'd denied her a dance when she flashed that sweet smile. It always reached her eyes when it came to dancing. I had a hard time denying her anything.

The deep timbre of my voice caught when she moved closer and trailed that finger down my chest. "And if you lose?" I cleared my throat, praying for a semblance of control.

"What do you want?" She looked up at me through thick, dark lashes.

Her, splayed out on my bed in this little outfit.I tapped my chin as if thinking about it before answering. "A truth."

She laughed like she wasn't worried. "You're on."

Del bent over in front of me to line up her next shot. I tried and failed at keeping my eyes from watching her curves move as she prepared her shot.

"Parker."

"Yeah?"

"If you don't stop staring at my ass, you aren't going to see me beat you at this game."

"I wasn't…"

She craned her neck around and my eyes flicked up from where they were glued—on her ass—to meet hers.

She shifted her weight from one hip to the other, and it drew me right back in. "Uh huh."

The crack of the white ball making contact caused me to finally look up in time to see another stripe fall into a pocket.

"What's that you said about the first rule of pool?" She bit the corner of her lip.

I rolled my eyes and leaned on the pool stick in front of me. "Don't let your opponent get in your head." She was such a brat.

"Right." She drew up to her full height, which was taller than I was used to with the heels. She looked like some kind of sexy fallen angel. She brushed her long waves back over her shoulder to showcase her smooth bare shoulders. I saw her tug them loose while I was playing pool and trying not to watch Thomas' hands all over her body. I swear the skin along her collarbone glittered.

"When did you get so good at pool? Last time I checked, you sucked."

"You taught me everything I know, Parker Baby." She mocked my constant use of nicknames and rested a hand on the edge of the table. "You remember how well I follow directions, right?"

Her next shot missed, finally, but the smile didn't slip from her face as she backed up and sat on a stool against the wall. "I might have practiced a little since the last time we played."

She must have. Del wasn"t bad at pool before. I taught her how to play, but she hadn't been able to hand me my ass so thoroughly.

"Just sit back and relax." I placed my palm on her bare knee and brushed the hem of her skirt with my thumb. "I"ll finish this up and we can head home."

I surveyed the green felt, strategizing my next move and anticipating where the balls would bank off and rebound. I rounded the corner so I was facing Del and bent toward the table. "You are so fucking pretty when you're smug, Dellie." The white ball rocketed toward my target and sent it racing toward the corner pocket. It bounced off the felt exactly where I intended.

I glanced up to find Del watching, the wicked gleam in her eyes still intact. The next one on my kill list sunk down over the edge as I tapped it in. Her black stiletto clinked against the base of the metal stool as she crossed and uncrossed her legs, the only tell that she was starting to feel less sure of herself.

"Hey, we"re all headed to Club Dusk. Are you guys coming?" Thomas walked up to Del. Club Dusk was loud, and she'd gotten lost in there once when she was in college. I remembered her, drunk, calling me from a stranger"s phone because she had my number memorized. I'd been thousands of miles away and unable to do anything but call one of our friends who lived in the city.

She smiled hesitantly as if remembering the same thing. "I think I'm going to stay here with Parker for a bit, and then we'll head home."

She reached her arms out and he stepped into them for a hug that was longer than needed. Del wasn't a touchy person, and I hated how generous she was with her affection toward him. Thomas whispered something in her ear before pulling away. Her gaze flicked up to mine before she quickly looked away. I took another sip of my water and rolled my eyes, wishing it was something that would distract from my envy.

Thomas walked over and shook my hand, ever the "gentleman," and winked before heading towards the door.

"Welcome to the boring parents club," Del murmured as I took my third shot in a row. It went in but the cue ball followed behind. She jumped up and scrutinized the table, pondering where she wanted to place it.

"I kind of feel like I'm already there when I"m in Seattle with my friends. I'm fun Uncle Parker."

She missed her next shot. "Is it weird that I'm kind of jealous?"

I scrunched my forehead in confusion. "Why would you be jealous of them?"

"Because you've been doing all these crazy things in our time apart: breaking records, reaching your goals, living where we always talked about. I haven't been doing anything. You have a whole life there without me. At least I visited you in Buffalo and knew who you hung out with." She continued rattling off the reasons before her eyes widened. "Sorry, that was a lot." She took another drink. "Not that I'm not glad you had people. I am. I'm just not used to being on the outside of your life."

Not wanting to ruin the moment when she was opening up, I resisted the urge to pull her into my arms. "Don't discredit your hard work, Del. You've accomplished way more than I have. You have the job you've always wanted—getting paid to work with authors, read their work, and help them publish the stories they created. And I think you're forgetting the best thing you've ever done for me. You were raising our daughter all by yourself. You make her feel loved and safe." I reached out to tuck her hand into mine. "I can't thank you enough for that. For taking care of everything when I wasn't here. I'm so proud of you. You're a freaking badass and I don't want to hear you say anything other than that."

"You didn't know. You don't have to thank me."

"I do. I can't imagine how lonely that must've been. I was so confused when you were mad at me that first day, but now I completely understand. Honestly, you should've punched me."

She smiled and it was real, radiant. "It was so hard not to. I guess kicking your ass at pool will have to be satisfying enough." I was relieved when she cracked the joke and lightened the mood.

"Big talk for a girl who missed an easy shot. Maybe you need some pointers after all." I slid off the stool and finished the game in three back-to-back turns, much to Del's dissatisfaction. "What do you say, pretty girl? Ice cream and fries on the way home?"

She nodded her head vigorously. "After you take me dancing?" She fluttered her eyelashes dramatically.

"But you lost the bet, Delilah." I faked annoyance. Dancing with Del was something I'd always carve out time for.

"But you loooove me." She was playful as she said it, but her face changed when she realized we were different now than before, and real, romantic love might've been something on the table. For me, I was already there. I hated not knowing if she felt the same. "Well, not like that but… you know," she clarified as she finished the rest of her drink, then grabbed my hand and tugged me behind her. "Come on, I wanna see if you can keep up like you used to."

We were out the door and out front of Club Dusk in seconds. I felt the bass vibration under my feet as we waited in line. I pulled our IDs out of my wallet, and once we each had a neon green wristband on, she was tugging me inside. We bypassed the crowded bar. We weren't there for drinks anyway. Del never usually had trouble parting a crowd and making her way through, but it was a little rowdy, and she was short. We swapped positions so my bigger frame moved people out of the way and less people bumped against her.

If I thought it was loud by the bar, the dance floor in the next room was likely to make me deaf at an early age. In front of the stage was a mass of swaying bodies. My boots peeled off the sticky floor as we navigated our way over the center. Satisfied with our position, Del threw her arms in the air and lost herself to the music. Her dark eyelashes met the top of her cheeks as she swayed and moved in front of me. The smile plastered on her lips was completely uncaring and relaxed. I loved seeing her when her mind was turned off and at peace.

My hands itched to reach for her, but I held off until she turned her back to me and leaned against my chest. She arched her neck so she could meet my eyes. I couldn't hear her words but it was obvious what she wanted when she took my hands and planted them firmly on her hips. I read her lips clear as day when she said, "Touch me."