Boycotts and Barflies (40 page)

Michael shook his head side to side. “He didn’t want anything. So we insisted he be our partner.”

“You did what?” Bianca shrieked, swatting away Jack’s hand. “You don’t even know this guy. He could be a total sleaze. Please tell me you didn’t sign anything. You need a lawyer to go over everything with a fine -tooth comb and make sure you guys are protected.”

“We signed everything already. He was only in town for a few hours, so we went with our gut on this one.” Jack put his arm around her shoulder, but  Bianca just shrugged it off.

“Um, I know it’s not really our business, but how can you be so trusting of someone you just met? Have you lost your minds?” Grace asked Michael.

“Don’t you trust my judgment?” When he saw her wariness, Michael reached in his pocket with a sigh and pulled out his phone. “I told him you wouldn’t just let this go. Do you want to talk to him? He said to call him if you didn’t believe us.”

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“Me? Why would he talk to me?” Grace watched Michael quickly punch a series  of numbers into his phone. “It’s me. Yeah, I think you’d better, because they  think we’ve lost our minds. No, they think you’re a crook and that we signed  away our firstborn sons in the deal. Yeah, here she is.” Michael smiled as he  held the phone out to her. “Here you go. Ask him anything you want.”

“Hello?” Grace said apprehensively. Michael could hardly contain his laughter,  so she shot him a dirty look. What the hell has gotten  into him? Her mental  tirade was interrupted by a male voice on the phone.

“Grace Marie Park, do you really think I would steal that bar from Michael?

You hurt me. Haven’t I been a good uncle to you all these years? And wasn’t it  Evelyn who got you those gold hoop earrings Susan said you couldn’t have  when you turned twelve? I think you can trust me, of all people,” the voice on  the phone teased.

“Uncle Frank? You bought the building? Are you crazy?” Grace nearly dropped  the phone in shock.

“Actually, I’m quite sane. Why are you questioning everyone’s mental faculties  today?”

“But, then, why did you do it? Who just buys a building?”

“Because, Grace, Michael and Ryan are wonderful young men. And five minutes  after meeting Jack, he impressed me not only with his wit, but with his  intelligence. The three of them are very sharp and have great ideas. Michael  and Ryan told me all about their plans for the bar at your mother’s house, the  direction they wanted to take it. They mentioned their financial predicament. That night, I spoke with Evelyn, and she convinced me they would be a good  investment. To tell you the truth, I think she’s a bit smitten with the two of  them.” He chuckled. “So we decided to invest in a piece of property that just  happened to be the one they had their eye on. Of course, I wasn’t expecting  them to insist I be their partner, but that just goes to show what kind of men  they are.”

“Uncle Frank, are you sure about this?” Grace still couldn’t believe all of this  was happening.

“The only thing I’m more certain about is how much he loves you.”

She glanced up at Michael as he stood a few feet away with an endearing look  on his face. “Thank you, Uncle Frank, you’re the best. I love you.”

“Love you too, Grace. Have fun celebrating tonight. Oh, and have a Happy New  Year.”

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“I’m quite certain that I will.” She closed the phone and ran into Michael’s

awaiting arms. “I’m so happy for you!”

Michael looked over at Ryan and Jack “Let’s go celebrate. Would you ladies join

us?”

“That depends. Where would we be going?” Bianca giggled as Jack tipped her

back and kissed her neck.

“Are you ladies any good at pool?”

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Chapter 25

The guys left to give the girls a chance to get dressed. They rushed through the apartment, clothes flying between the bedrooms. Meg and Bianca, of course, spent twenty minutes on their outfits. Grace, however, threw on her favorite jeans, a pair of knee high black boots, and her most comfortable black T -shirt, and waited on the couch for the fashion plates to finish dressing.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw they were dressed in similar clothing. Of course, Bianca’s “Nice Rack” shirt from the local barbeque restaurant, tied in a knot at the waist, made Grace laugh out loud.

When Grace heard Michael’s horn sound from in front of the apartment, her heart skipped a beat and she called to Meg and Bianca as she grabbed her keys. The girls all piled into Grace’s car and followed them to the pool hall.

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Bumpers wasn’t very crowed on a Thursday night. Only o ne of the seven pool  tables was being used by two gigantic, biker guys. Over at the bar, there was a  group of guys watching a hockey game on one of the plasma televisions.

Off to the side, the banks of pool tables were surrounded by tall bar tables that  each sat four people. They pushed two of them together and sat down while  Jack went to get a few beers.

Soon Jack was back, balancing two pitchers of beer. Carefully, he poured each of them a glass. Ryan strolled across the room to look at the pool cues, Meg at his side.

“So, you never answered the question. Are you ladies any good at pool?”

Jack asked with an air of challenge in his voice.

Bianca gave him a coy smile. “We aren’t too bad are we, Grace?”

“Nope, we aren’t too bad at all. We take the sticks and hit the balls into the holes on the table. It’s all algebra. Want us to show you our skills?” Grace laughed, waving her hand at the table.

What she failed to mention was that they were actually quite good—real

“pool sharks.” Before they met the guys, one of their favorite pastimes was  finding a pool hall, playing dumb, and letting guys challenge them to a game.  They won more free rounds of beer that way than Grace cared to admit. “Please, show us what you can do. I’d love to see you bent over the table—with  the cue stick in your hand, that is,” Michael whispered as Grace’s body came  alive.

“You’re so bad,” Grace said as she poked his rock hard  chest with her finger.

“Behave yourself or we’ll never make it until New Year’s.”

“Would that really be so bad?” he asked as he placed a lingering kiss on her

neck, his warm breath skipping across her skin.

“No, it wouldn’t, which is why you need to behave, because I don’t think I can

do this much longer.” Grace kissed his cheek and ran over to the wall where the

pool cues were hanging, trying to put some physical distance between them

while she pulled herself together.

“Grace! Come here,” Meg called across the room. “Girls versus boys; losers buy

the beer. Will you grab me one of those pole thingies?”

Grace bit her lip to try to keep from laughing; Meg was playing her part

perfectly. By the time she made her way back to the tables, Ryan was very

sweetly explaining the rules of the game to her like she had never played

before.

If only he knew how deadly she was with a pool cue!

“OK, let me see if I understand this. I hit the balls in the holes, but not the boring black or white one. Ryan, I don’t want to be s tripes. I want to be the cute solid ones.” Meg clapped her hands excitedly and when the guys turned their backs to laugh, she shot Bianca and Grace a sly wink.

“Honey, when you break, whatever ball you hit in the pocket first decides if you’re stripes or solids,” Ryan patiently explained, while Jack puffed out his

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chest a little more, sensing an easy victory. Michael gave Grace a smug look out

of the corner of his eye.

Hook, line, and sinker, she laughed in her head. This is going to be fun.

Jack set up the balls and Michael broke. As Michael leaned over the table to

take his shot, Grace shamelessly stared at his firm, sculpted ass. Meg got her

wish; the guys were stripes and girls were solids.

“Jack, you have high balls,” Bianca called over her shoulder.

Jack immediately looked between his legs, grabbing his crotch. “Really?

How can you tell from there?”

Bianca rolled her eyes in irritation. “You have stripes, Jack. Your balls are striped.”

“Should I see the doctor about that?” he said with a grin.

Bianca shook her head. “Smart ass.” Then she turned her attention back to the

game.

Grace’s turn was after Michael’s. Calmly, she went to the table and banked the  cue ball off the bumper, sinking the two-ball with ease. She made a big deal to  get excited and clap, claiming “beginner’s luck” on the amazing shot. Then she  purposely missed her next attempt—badly. The cue ball didn’t even make it all  the way across the table.

“It’s all geometry, ladies. Watch.” Jack strutted around the table, trying to  decide which shot would be best to take. Arrogantly, he decided to get fancy as  he tried a very difficult shot to impress Bianca, missing it by a hair.

Bianca stepped up to the table, and the three women began to run their  elaborate game. She missed her first shot to make their claimed inexperience  look believable. Meg, of course, made a spectacle of herself, playing the ditzy  blond and trying to use the wrong end of the cue to hit the ball. She, too, missed  her shot, nearly sinking the eight-ball. The guys cleared a few more balls and  were starting to get cocky.

“You’re terrible!” Jack teased. “I thought you’d at least make this interesting.” He slipped his sunglasses back over his eyes and juggled two of the balls from  the corner pocket.

Michael grabbed his cue and carefully examined the table. The ladies had six  solid balls still on the table to their two striped ones, plus the eight-ball. He and  Ryan took a second to discuss strategy, gesturing with their arms what was the  best way to make the shot he was considering.

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Being experienced, Grace knew what shot he was going to take and casually stood nearby—within distracting distance. Bianca smiled from across the table, knowing what was coming. Grace needed to make Michael miss his shot or their victory was going to be tricky to pull off.

After the conference with Ryan was over, Michael walked to the table and stood right in front of Grace. He leaned forward to line up his shot. Just as his cue stick came back, she stepped up behind him and when his elbow began to move forward, Grace put her hands on his ass, one  per cheek, and gave him a firm squeeze.

Michael let out a yelp and jumped. His cue stick flew and nearly went through the felt on the table. “What was that?”

Grace bit her finger innocently. “Sorry, Michael, you just looked too cute standing there, all bent over and sexy.” She glanced over his shoulder and saw  Meg and Bianca were laughing. Even Ryan was gasping for breath after Grace’s antics. “I couldn’t help myself.”

Sensing her game, Michael pulled her close, his velvet voice tickling her ear.  “So, is that how you want to play this game, Grace? Because I’ve been behaving myself like you asked, but I can always stop and make everything much harder for you as well.” His hands slid from her waist and landed snugly into the back pockets of her jeans. He pressed Grace tightly against his groin and she stopped breathing, suddenly understanding what his statement meant. He leaned closer, his nose running along her jaw as her heart sputtered. “Your turn to shoot, love.”

Grace cleared her throat and stepped away from him, flustered beyond all reason. She grabbed the first cue she saw and fumbled her way over to the table.

Grace glanced quickly at the table, but then felt Michael come stand behind her and continue his flirtation so she couldn’t focus on the game at all.

Trembling and wondering what he might do next, Grace leaned down to line up a shot when she felt the weight of Michael’s body covering her. One of his arms snaked around her waist, his thumb grazing the bottom of her breast, and the other slowly came over her shoulder running down her arm, finally resting on her wrist.

“You do realize that you’re aiming at the wrong ball, right? Your team is solids.”  Grace turned her face to look at him then felt his warm lips on her jaw.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when his tongue ran down her neck. “And by  the way, you really do look amazing bent over the table like this.” He chuckled  316

when he felt her body drop as her knees gave out when he ground his hips into

hers. “I know  what you ladies are doing, and all I can say is … game on.”

He released his grasp on Grace, but her body continued to tingle after he

walked away. She rested her forehead down on the pool table for a second,

trying to remember how to breathe. When she peeked up, Michael was across

the table, drinking his beer and looking quite smug.

Damn you, Michael Andris. Suck it up, Grace! Time to hustle the hustlers.

Without breaking eye contact with him, she stood up, blew him a slow and sexy kiss that received colorful hoots and hollers from the gang, and then returned her attention to the table, quickly finding her shot and taking it.