Outmatched

The tables of quizzers chortled. It wasn’t the first time Bill had stopped in the middle of the quiz to ask Della, whom we’d soon learned was his wife, where she’d found what were truly random, difficult questions.

“It’s like an admiration thing, right?” Elijah said, his voice low as he sat forward. “To praise a person.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Navin nodded. “Write it down.”

Ren looked at them like they were crazy. “Are we seriously not going to talk about the fact that Parker is dating an ex-heavyweight boxing champion and didn’t tell us?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You know who he is?”

My friend glowered. “Yeah, I know who he is. As soon as you said boxing gym, I remembered why he’s so familiar. So, what’s going on? Is this why you’ve been quiet?”

My belly roiled. Oh my goodness, I did not want to lie to Ren. But if I told him I had hired Rhys to be my fake boyfriend, he would probably take a swing at Rhys, assuming I was being taken advantage of, and not caring that the Widowmaker could crush him.

“As you can imagine,” I started, trying not to lower my eyes because he’d know I was lying if I did, “I’ve been somewhat surprised by this turn of events, and I’ve been attempting to figure things out and … I honestly didn’t even know we were dating until he just said it.” I fibbed the last part.

“Do you want to date him?”

Oh boy, wasn’t that the question of the century.

“Yes,” I said shyly.

Ren studied me a second and then nodded. “Okay, then. Just would’ve been cool if you’d told us about him.”

Elijah tapped the table in front of us. “Uh, this is all very interesting but we’re missing the questions.”

“Bill asked”—Dean suddenly appeared, sitting down beside me with a beer in hand, forcing me to budge up next to Ren—“‘What is nanoscience?’ Easy. It’s the study of molecules and structures whose size ranges from one to a hundred nanometers.”

The guys all looked at him; Rhys drew my attention as he pulled a chair next to the table. “My brother’s wicked smart,” he said, straddling the chair and sipping his beer.

“We knew the answer,” Navin said, his geek pride rearing its competitive head.

Dean shrugged. “Six brains are better than four.”

“Six?” Ren shot Rhys an incredulous look, and while Rhys might have looked through my friend like his words meant nothing, anger suffused me.

I slammed my foot down on Ren’s under the table. I was still wearing my heels from work, so that had to hurt.

“Fuck!” Ren bit out. “What the hell was that?”

I gave him my most disappointed look, and he had the grace to appear ashamed. With a grimace and a sigh, he turned his attention toward Bill. His next lot of questions, we answered easily, while Rhys watched on with a bland expression I couldn’t decipher. Was he bored? Irritated? Indifferent. He was puzzling and distracting.

Why did I care so much?

“Last question,” Bill finally said. “Which animal does not drink water?”

We all looked at each other.

“Camel?” Elijah asked.

“I think they can survive a long time without water, but they still need it,” Dean said.

“It’s a kangaroo rat,” Rhys said, voice quiet so teams nearby wouldn’t hear.

“I’ve never heard of it,” Navin said, scowling.

“Probably because it’s made up,” Ren huffed.

“Write it down,” I said.

Ren nudged me. “What? No.”

Oh boy, he was really ticking me off. “If Rhys says it’s a kangaroo rat, it’s a kangaroo rat. Write it down.”

“Whatever,” my friend muttered.

I practically growled at him. He knew using the word whatever in that manner was a pet peeve. It was a word for petulant teenagers, not for adults. It made adults sound like immature morons.

“Okay, you all got your answers done?” Bill asked as he approached our table. “Hand ’em over. Sorry they were so fucking hard. I think Della must’ve googled a quiz from the fucking MIT website.”

Navin handed over the bit of paper and Bill scanned it. “Hey, looks like you guys might win.” He frowned down at it. “How the fuck did you know it was a kangaroo rat? I hadn’t even heard of that shit.”

A smug smile spread across my face as Ren turned to me with a sheepishly apologetic look. I turned to Rhys, who wasn’t smiling until he caught my expression. His eyes glittered with amusement as he took a swig of beer; I felt an unwelcome flutter of attraction in my belly.

Elijah pointed to Rhys. “Apparently this guy has.”

“Rhys, didn’t even see you there.” Bill grinned as he came around the table to clap a hand on Rhys’s shoulder. “How’s it going? You haven’t been by in a while.”

“Been busy, Bill. How’s you and Della?”

I studied Rhys as he talked to Bill, my eyes drawn to the hand resting flat on the table. He had big hands, big knuckles, long, surprisingly graceful fingers. It had never occurred to me that a man could have attractive hands. But Rhys’s were. I imagined they must have gotten pretty bruised up when he was fighting professionally, and that made me frown.