An Endless Summer(79)

Tammy nodded at everything Sean whispered to her. Brows narrowed, it seemed her inner warrior had appeared for battle. I half expected Sean to rub Vaseline on her brows, pop in her mouth guard and rub her shoulders before she stepped into the boxing ring.

By now we had gathered quite the crowd of onlookers, both amused by Tammy’s dreadful technique and no doubt, entertained by how Sean and I were matching each other shot for shot.

What I hadn’t expected were the cheers and whoops of encouragement for when Tammy lined up the cue.

“Come on, Tam, you can do this!”

“Come on, honey, bring it home, all the way.”

My eyes darted around at the newly-formed Tammy fan club. She had the whole room cheering for her. How had this happened? When had she turned everything around?

I straightened, fighting to uncrease my forehead and tone down my penetrating glower at my former best friend as she lined up for the shot. Sean leaned next to her, his hand placed lightly on her back as he whispered into her ear some last words of advice. I gripped my Cruiser so hard I feared the bottle might shatter in my hand.

“You okay?” Stan whispered.

I snapped out of my terminator vision and half smiled, before taking a swig.

“Never been better.” I took another long, deep swig.

“Tammy! Tammy! Tammy!” the crowd began to cheer.

Oh, for God’s sake.

I took another swig, hoping against hope that she would miss. I envisioned after Tammy potted the game-winning ball, the uproarious crowd would engulf her, lifting her onto their shoulders to parade her around in her victory, after she and Sean embraced passionately.

I felt sick.

“All right, all right, everyone, keep it down for a minute,” Sean said, motioning everyone into silence.

It was so quiet now, even the jukebox volume had dimmed and all I could hear was the drumming of my heartbeat pounding against my chest.

Miss, miss, miss, miss echoed in my mind as Tammy drew in a deep breath and pulled her elbow back slowly, then tapped the white ball into motion.





Chapter Thirty-Eight



The white ball glided along the felt. It tapped the black, pushing it smoothly and directly into the pocket.

So perfectly and tapped so directly, the white ball followed the black into the pocket, meaning Stan and I were the winners! Perhaps someone should have explained the rules to Tammy who, after her double-pocketed shot, squealed and jumped up and down like a lotto winner.

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” She bounced up and down. “We won! We won!”

The spectators slowly peeled away. Sean pinched the bridge of his nose when the white followed through. He ran his hands through his hair before smiling at Tammy.

“You’re a winner all right, Tam, just not tonight.”

It slowly registered with her that what had happened was not something to celebrate. The volume to the jukebox was turned up and everyone went back to their usual business.

“We lost?” she said, the look of dismay lining her face.

“Well, look on the bright side, you pocketed a ball so now you don’t have to do the table run with your skirt hitched up,” I said, genuinely feeling for her.

“Good game, everyone.” Stan beamed as he came over to shake my hand and Tammy’s.

As Sean unloaded the balls out of the pockets for the next players, I couldn’t help but steal a moment to shake his hand. Good sportsmanship and all that.

I sauntered smugly up to him, holding out my hand. “Bad luck, but you’re a plucky kid and I like your style. Maybe if you keep practising, who knows?”

Sean grabbed my hand, engulfing it in his. It was as if an electric current exchanged between us. He held my hand, shaking it slowly but firmly. My mouth went dry as he looked down at me in amused silence, telling me I was a little smart-arse. His lips twitched but he didn’t let go.

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” he asked.

I shrugged. “It’s always nice to win.”

“I’m not talking about winning.” He squeezed my hand before letting go, his fingers sliding across mine in a slow caress that made my tummy tingle.

His eyes never left me as I struggled for something to say, but as quickly as the oddly electric moment had swept over us, it was just as quickly doused with an ice bucket of water.

“You and Stan make a good team,” he said in all seriousness.

There was an edge to his words that had me thinking he wasn’t only talking about playing pool.

I smiled. “He’s a good guy.”

Sean nodded and looked away. “That he is. He suits you.”

Whoa, okay, this was definitely not about playing pool.

“Oh yeah, I was thinking of even getting him to walk me to my bedroom later,” I joked.