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“Nah, man. That’s dismissive. But I’m not going to argue with her when she has a good suggestion. Unless you all want Beckett here with us. I figured we’d alternate.” Scott looked around the table. “Who’s in?”
I’m not sure why I bothered betting in the first round. I wasn’t going to win. My only excuse was that we put two bucks in the pot to play so it wasn’t like I stood to lose much. Given my luck with, well, everything, lately, I’d already kissed those bucks goodbye.
“Is no one going to ask Scott about Kayla’s reasons for not dating?” Tristan added another poker chip to the pot.
Darn. I was hoping conversation might find its way to a different topic. I really didn’t want to get into it. Sure, I was curious. But I was also hesitant.
“No?” Tristan shook his head. “Well, I’d like to know.”
Scott cleared his throat and tossed a pile of poker chips onto the growing pile. “Whitney says—and she adds that Megan agrees, so it’s not just a newlywed looking for romance wherever she turns—that Kayla’s in love with Austin here.”
I was going to laugh, but started choking instead.
Wes banged on my back between my shoulder blades. “You all right there, man?”
I shook my head and stood, grabbing my chair before it could tip. “Be right back.”
I got a glimpse of the guys’ faces as I strode to the kitchen to get a soda out of the fridge. Why didn’t any of them look as surprised as I was?
I popped the top on the Coke and took three long swallows before setting the can on the counter and leaning against the fridge. There was no way. Kayla?
No.
I shook my head. No way.
I carried the soda back out into the living room with me and took my seat.
“So…” Wes’s eyebrows lifted. “Not what you thought Scott was going to say, I take it?”
“They’re delusional. There’s no way Kayla thinks about me that way.” I couldn’t say I’d never looked at her and wondered. That would be a lie. But I’d gotten over it pretty quickly at the start of our friendship. She never gave me any indication that she thought of me as more than a brother, and I wasn’t going to be the guy who ruined a friendship because he misread signals.
Scott, of course, heard what I didn’t say. “You think about her that way?”
“Past tense. Way, way past.” I was going to stick to that. The casual appreciation of how nice she looked in a lot of the clothes she wore to school wasn’t romantic interest. It was just admiring the beauty of one of God’s creations. I’d look at her that way if she was my sister. Well. Maybe not my sister. A family friend, then.
“Nope. Not buying it.” Cody shook his head to emphasize his words. “You’re terrible at poker and your lack of skill isn’t helping in this case, either.”
The guys laughed.
I felt my shoulders hunch and was incapable of doing anything to prevent it. I knew if I protested, they’d rag on me more. “Are we playing poker here, or what?”
“Oooh. Touchy.” Tristan wiggled his eyebrows. “I think we hit close to a nerve.”
Scott smiled and dealt the final card.
I sighed and pushed my cards in. “I’m out.”
I watched as Cody went on to rake in the pot, and the deck was passed to Tristan to shuffle and deal. Maybe if I wanted the conversation to turn, it was going to be up to me to do it.
I cleared my throat. “Anyone planning a spring break trip?”
“You’re the only one of us who still has spring break, man. Although, if you’re heading back to the islands, I’m in.” Wes flipped up the two cards Tristan had dealt him. “I’m putting in my notice on Monday. Now that everyone is over the shock of Scott leaving, I think I can do it without it being horrible.”
“Sorry, man. I know you were ready to go before Christmas.” Scott slid his cards closer and peeked at them. “You didn’t have to stay just because I left.”
Wes snickered. “Yeah, I did. I didn’t realize Christopher could get angry. Stephanie? Sure. But man, Chris has a wicked temper when it gets free.”
Scott winced. “Sorry again. I thought they understood.”
