She gave up but didn’t leave. Gray told me he ran into her on occasion but didn’t give her his time. She was a nurse at the local clinic. Night shifts.
That explained his not getting stitches last night.
I also learned that I was right; he was twenty-five, twenty-six in March.
For my part, Gray learned Casey was twenty-seven, Casey had currently convinced himself he was falling in love and that I had a natural talent playing pool.
It wasn’t a fair exchange but I was new to this, I was going easy and I was scared.
I was who I was and I had a sense that he knew who I was and didn’t care.
That said, I didn’t expect he’d be all that hip on having a pool hustling girlfriend who traveled the continental United States with her brother, playing pool, hustling idiots and returning back infrequently to have steak dinners with him at the VFW.
I didn’t know what I was doing or where this was going.
I just knew right then, for the first time since I could remember, maybe the first time in my life, I knew I liked right where I was.
So I was living that moment and doing the best I could.
Gray didn’t seem to mind.
“Yeah,” I answered his question as we walked into the cold and Gray moved us down the sidewalk toward the hotel which was away from his pickup thus clearly stated we were taking a short walk. “I mean, I wasn’t as good as I am now but it isn’t far off.”
“You got a head for numbers?” Gray asked and I looked up at his profile, feeling his arm around me, my arm, which had slid around his waist, and thinking, strangely, walking tucked to his side and held by him, that it didn’t seem cold.
Not even a little bit.
“A head for numbers?” I asked back.
“Yeah. Stands to reason, you can naturally play pool, you got a head for geometry, physics. If you see angles, can instantly assess velocity, force, impact then you’d have a head for science, numbers.”
I hadn’t thought of that.
I also left school at twelve so I really had no idea.
That said, I was good with money, for instance, I could assess the percentage of a tip without even thinking about it. I could also without thinking take our bank and divide it knowing down to the penny how much time we had before we needed another score.
Maybe I was.
“Maybe I do,” I told Gray. “I hadn’t really thought about it. Just thought I could play pool.”
“You can’t play pool, dollface, you dominate. Never seen anything like it. It’s sensational. Like watchin’ a master at a canvas. A prima ballerina on a stage,” his arm gave me a squeeze and my eyes, which had drifted to our moving feet, went back to his face to see he was grinning down at me, “not that I ever saw either of those. I’m just guessing.”
I grinned up at him.
Then I replied quietly, “I haven’t seen either of those either but what you said was nice.”
His arm gave me another squeeze; I felt my arm should reciprocate the gesture so it did.
His grin turned into a smile.
I made note of that for future reference.
His eyes turned to face forward.
My eyes drifted down to my feet.
And we both shifted to silence.
Then, it seemed liked seconds had gone by (but it was more like minutes just that I liked walking tucked to Gray in the cold) we were at my door.
Belly full of great food, beer, time spent in interesting and not demanding conversation, Gray’s eyes on me, my eyes able to take in Gray any time I wanted and Janie smiling on happily, I was lost in the night. A nice night.
No, a great night.
The best I ever had. None even came close. Not even when Casey and I scored huge with that idiot with the Rolex who bet five thousand dollars on a single game of pool.
And I’d never been on a date.
So it didn’t occur to me that we were at my hotel door and it was the end of our date.
So it also didn’t occur to me what normally happened at the end of a date.
Not even when Gray’s arm curled me to press my front to his and his other arm slid around me at my waist.
“Be back tomorrow, take you to breakfast at the diner, take you to my place, give you a ride. Does eight work for you?” he asked, his voice soft.
I smiled, liking that I got to go to sleep thinking that was going to be what I woke up to.
Liking it a whole lot.
Then I nodded.
“Good,” he muttered, his eyes dropping to my mouth and then his head dropped and then…then…
Then his beautiful lips were on mine and he was kissing me.
Kissing me!
My first kiss.
It wasn’t a stealth attack but I was still surprised and this worked in my favor because the touch of his mouth to mine, the hardness of his body against mine, his arms around me, his warmth, his smell, all that was him, I liked it. So much, I got lost in it and my body automatically melted into his, my arms around him going tight, my elbows bent, forearms running up his back either side of his spine. My hands felt leather and under that hardness and they pressed in.