His words did sound eerily familiar. “It’s just fun,” I insisted.
“Help me out here, Stone. You’ve had romantic dinners, spent an afternoon fishing, overnight visits. To me, it sounds like you’re pullin’ out all the stops, and I’m not a woman. If I was that type of guy, I might be hurt you didn’t ask me to help you pick out a ring.”
“Now I know you’re fucking with me.”
Liam barked out a laugh and shook his head, flashing a smile when Stone’s laugh echoed behind his. “Not at all. I figured you would ask Stone. Or Chris.”
“Stone?” I laughed. “Not until he gets his head out of his ass.”
“Screw you. Both of you,” Stone said and flipped us both the bird. “Assholes.”
“Looking good, Liam.” Kellyanne Kirkman stood beside the table, twirling one of her fat blond curls. “Buy a girl a drink?”
She was a sure thing, and the gleam in Liam’s eyes said he knew it, too. “You look beautiful as always, Kellyanne. But tonight, Oliver needs my wisdom.”
Disappointment flashed in her eyes, but one wink and her smile lit up. “Maybe another time. Good luck, Oliver,” she said and sauntered off, half a dozen sets of eyes on her fantastic curves.
“What in the hell was that?”
Liam shrugged. “I don’t mess around with local girls. Too many expectations and too much drama when it goes bad.” Still, his gaze was riveted on Kellyanne until she was out of sight. “Pity, too, because that girl is smoking hot.”
“Then why in the hell are you giving me such a hard time?” Stone snickered and refilled everyone’s glass until the pitcher was empty.
“Because I know that pitiful look well, man. You might be in denial about it, but that’s the look of a man who is smitten with a woman. Hell, it took us three full minutes to get your attention from thoughts of her. My old man has worn that look at least four times in my life. I know it when I see it.”
“Then maybe you need your eyes examined before your next job in whatever place you can’t tell us about. Blindness might be dangerous.”
“Funny. Almost as funny as watching you fall in love.” There was no humor in his words, only a sober kind of tone that gave me a glimpse into the warrior inside my friend.
Stone laughed and stood, pointed to a pool table that had just opened up and we made our way over, ordering another pitcher while we racked the balls. “Have you figured out what you’ll write when you lose the bet?”
I looked up just before I sent the cue ball flying across the table and frowned. “Who said I was gonna lose?” I took a breath and let the ball tear across the felt, wondering what in the hell had happened to my friends and all the other men in this damn town.
“Come on, man, it’s clear.” Stone’s tone was almost pleading, which I didn’t understand.
“He’s still in denial,” Liam offered with a laugh. “He’s gotta come to it in his own time. It’s the only way.”
“There’s nothing to come to,” I growled and sank two more balls. “Look, I like Eva, I really do. What’s not to like? She’s gorgeous with killer curves and she’s not afraid to get dirty. Cooks. Laughs easily. But I’m not falling in love. I won’t. I just don’t believe in it.” Love was a combination of chemical reactions and societal programming. “It’s not real.”
“If you say so,” Liam said. “Just remember one thing.”
I missed the next shot and straightened with a shrug. “What’s that?”
He bent and lined up an impossible shot that sank four solid colors all across the table. “First, you’re buying the next pitcher. Second, I have perfection vision. In all things.”
I laughed at his cheesy delivery but I couldn’t deny that his words felt more like a warning, or maybe it was the bottomless glass of beer. “Beer goggles, maybe,” I laughed even louder this time.
“Tough talk from a guy running scared all because he’s falling for an incredible woman.”
His words inflamed me and I couldn’t quite say why. “You’re wrong. I’m not falling in love with Eva. If I was ever gonna fall in love,” I said on a loud, obnoxious laugh, “it would be with a woman far less uptight than her. A woman who can let her hair down and have a little fun. One who doesn’t take herself so seriously.” I grabbed my glass and finished it, lining up my next shot and missing by a mile. “A woman with a real job, not one aimed a trapping a man.”
Liam shook his head, disappointment radiating off of him until shame heated my face. “Dick.”
Stone looked ready to bash my face in, but as soon as I thought it, the look turned to… pity.