AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Aiden shook his head. "The place is dead. I got it covered. Hey, Piper. Congrats on the engagement. Declan's a great guy."
She waved back. "Thanks," she said, before turning back to Declan. "He knows it's not real?"
"Yeah. He's a good friend. I trust him." He paused. "How could you tell?"
"Because he's a terrible actor." She raised her voice. "Aiden. Who would your money be on if Declan and I played a game of darts?"
"Declan," Aiden said without hesitation. "He's spent a lot of time in dive bars."
"And you assume that because I'm a woman I haven't?"
He grinned. "You don't look like someone who has spent a lot of time in dive bars playing darts, regardless of gender."
She stood up. "A free girls' night for me and my friends if I beat him? We get drinks and food."
Aiden grinned. "You're on. Declan, don't let me down."
"Never. I am not a gentleman when it comes to darts." He jogged over to the bar, grabbed a box of darts from under the counter, then came back. "You ready to lose?"
She snorted. "I might lose at being a wedding planner, but not darts. Never darts."
He set the darts in her hand. "Best two out of three?"
"One game, winner takes all, and then I have to go back to work."
Two hours later, Piper was laughing so hard she had to sit down on the floor. After five games of darts, Aiden had kicked them out, and they'd retired to Declan's house to play ping pong in his basement, which had been one of the best decisions she'd ever made.
She hadn't laughed that hard in a very long time. "You're the worst ping pong player I've ever seen."
Declan grinned, amusement dancing across his face as he dropped to his belly to fish a ball out from under his couch. "I'm definitely not the worst, because you're worse than I am."
She leaned against the wall, laughing as he wormed himself along the floor, trying to get the ball. "But I crushed you at darts."
"You did. That was impressive as hell. Unexpected. Aiden's going to put the girls' night on my tab."
She laughed. "Good. You deserve it for losing."
"I didn't lose. I was destroyed. I'm still bleeding from my soul…but not my ego. That's still intact." He wiggled back out, hopped to his feet, and held up the ping pong ball. "We both have won seven games in ping pong. Call it a tie or go for the title of grand champion?"
She looked around. "Are there any other games here? Maybe some air hockey?"
"Damn. I love air hockey. I'll get us a table for next time."
"Oh, heavens no. Don't buy an air hockey table for me. Who knows when we'll play again?"
He crouched in front of her, balancing on the balls of his feet. "You're scared of losing, aren't you? That I'll be the grand champion, and you'll be sad."
She pushed him off balance, and he fell over. "We can always do a tiebreaker of hurling can openers at posts."
"Hell, no. I concede defeat on that one. That's a special kind of talent." He rolled onto his side and propped himself on his elbow. "Where'd you learn to play darts like that?"
"Kindergarten. I was five. I owned recess."
He grinned. "The woman with no past."
Her smile faded. "What?"
"You have no past. I looked up Clark to see what he was about, and there's not a single hint of where you came from before you landed in the wedding planner arena. No hometown. No college. Nothing."
