We were on our final turn of the second game and the boys were in the lead. It wasn’t fair because it was four against three. And let’s be honest: guys have better arms to bowl with, especially these four who worked out on a regular basis. Us girls were seriously outmatched and were now regretting making the bet with the boys.
Shang, aka Luke, was up currently, and Macey was trying everything to distract him. His first ball, she did pretty well at distracting him by coming up and wrapping her arms around his waist. She whispered something in his ear before backing off with a wide grin. His ball went right into the gutter. He caught on quickly to what she was doing and got back in gear for his final bowl. Because he messed up on his first, he didn’t get his third try, much to our pleasure.
When it was Macey’s turn, Amy and I cheered her on and kept Luke back from trying anything on her. We weren’t successful because on her final bowl, Luke got around us and grabbed her from the waist just as she let the ball go. She only hit one pin.
The same thing happened for Ethan and Amy’s turn. We were even less successful because Ethan knew what we were doing. Nothing Amy did fazed him, and he rolled a perfect strike, probably his sixth one of the night. He easily got to do a third bowl and managed to knock most of the pins down, upping his score even more. Thankfully Amy was a little better than Mace and was able to get all her pins down on the second try. Her third wasn’t much help to us.
When Gage got up to go, the boys clapped and cheered him on. They all clearly found common ground—beating us at bowling—and they had bonded pretty well. No harsh words were thrown around and the awkwardness faded pretty fast. I even felt like they might have changed their attitude toward Gage a little bit; even if it was just a little bit, it was fine by me. It was progress in my book.
Gage was definitely the reason the boys were winning. Sure, all four were good and put up their share of points, but Gage dominated. Right off the bat he got a strike on the second game and got five more afterwards. Dylan of course was helping out as well. It was like they were both secretly on a bowling team no one knew about. Gage was a natural and bowled so easily, never once getting in the gutter, much to my displeasure. I wanted to find something he wasn’t good at.
Just as he picked up his ball, I got an idea: I might as well try and distract him as well. It couldn’t hurt us any more. I was the last of the girls to go, so it was basically up to me. Yeah, no pressure there. With Amy and Macey talking to their boyfriends, I snuck up behind Gage, ready to pounce on him.
As he pulled his arm back, I took my shot. I ran the few feet between us and jumped on his back, hoping to throw him off. Of course it didn’t work out like I had planned it would; nothing ever did when it came to Gage. I did nothing to deter his motion. His arm let the ball go perfectly, and it rolled down the lane before it hit straight on, making the pins slam back with a loud bang, all falling down. With my legs wrapped around his waist and my arms around his neck, I sighed, placing my forehead on his hard shoulder.
“Damn, that didn’t work out like I hoped,” I muttered against him before sliding off his back. Why did I think that would even work? When Gage turned around and stared down at me, his chest was inches from mine. I gulped as I tilted my head up to look at him.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I tried to smile up at him, but it didn’t work. I could feel everyone’s eyes on us but with Gage’s eyes on me, that was all I could think about.
“Looks like you are taking me out on a date, Princess,” was all he said before he bent down and suddenly I was in the air. My body was flung over a hard shoulder and it stuck into my gut hard. My head hung down his back and my butt was in the air. I didn’t even know what he was doing until it was too late.
“Gage, put me down!” I yelled leaning up and trying to see Gage’s face.
“No can do, Princess.” he said looking over at me. I noticed his lips were twitching as he held back a grin.
“Gage,” I warned, but a smack on my butt made me stop. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Did you just smack my butt?” Gage just smirked before he looked away and started moving.
Every step he took, his shoulder poked into my stomach, almost knocking the wind out of me. I tried to move out of his hold, but again it didn’t work.
My face was turning red as I felt everyone in the bowling alley looking over at us. Being someone who didn’t like attention, this wasn’t for me. I put my head into the back of Gage’s shirt trying to hide my face.
“What are you doing?” I heard Ethan ask as Gage led us back to the table. Gage turned around so I was facing our group.
“Oh, you know…just hanging,” I said lifting my head up to see Macey and Amy grinning and Ethan and Luke narrowing their eyes at me. Dylan looked like he could not care less.
“I can tell.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you going to go so us guys can win already?”
“Of course that is what you are more concerned about,” I commented. I tapped Gage’s back before directing my next words at him. “Can I get down now?” With another tap to my butt, he grabbed my waist and pulled me off his hard shoulder. When he set me on my feet, I held on to his arms as the blood rushed back to my head.
“Nice ass,” he whispered before he let me go and took a step back. I stared at him with a wide mouth. Did he really just say that? I wondered. Sending me a sly smile, he went and took a seat at the table.
Flustered, I made myself turn to grab my ball. I wasn’t even thinking straight as I grabbed it and headed for the lane. It wasn’t until my ball flew from my hand and smacked against the wooden floor of the lane, did I come back to earth.
Just as I thought I had messed up my final bowl, I watched as my ball went straight down the lane and hit the first pin with enough speed to knock the rest down. The first strike of this whole game. I jumped up and turned around to face the group.
Grinning like an idiot, I cheered with Macey and Amy. It would do nothing to help us out of losing, but it didn’t matter.
“Yes!” I cheered coming to the table, pointing at all the guys. “In your face!” It seemed Gage’s little move made me do better. Who would have thought?
“And you thought you would mess me up,” I accused Gage, who had a soft smile on his face. Sticking my tongue out, I pivoted on my heel to bowl again.
My little streak died fast because my next ball wasn’t great at all. I only hit a few pins and then the ball went in the gutter. Well, that lasted, I thought sarcastically. When I got to the table, I held a hand up to stop any comments from the guys. We all knew who won.
As we all thought, the guys won, at us girls’ displeasure. The deal wasn’t terrible, though: paying for dinner and taking our boyfriends on a date. It would have been better if we won, though.
“You girls better pay up,” Luke said grinning. Next to him, Mace just rolled her eyes, as did the rest of us.
“Yeah, yeah.” Amy waved him off.
The guys celebrated before we started the final game. At least this game we didn’t have to care about our score. We played a few turns before Macey started gesturing toward Gage. I knew what she was trying to say, but I didn’t want to bring it up yet. I shook my head at her trying to get her to stop, but she didn’t.
I knew she wouldn’t give up, which meant I had to ask Gage if he’d come to meet my parents. Sighing inwardly, I looked away from her to Gage.
“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” I whispered to him, tapping his arm. He raised an eyebrow but nodded. With Ethan barely going, we had time to talk. I led him over to a corner where no one could hear us.
I fiddled with my fingers trying to figure out how to start this off. Apparently I couldn’t avoid this conversation.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Gage asked first.
“I, uh, well…” He gave me a look as if to tell me to just spit it out. “At our family dinner last Saturday, Amy kind of told my parents about me dating you, and now they want to meet you,” I said in a rush. I stared a
t his face waiting for his reaction.
“Wait. Your parents want to meet me?” he asked.
“My parents think we are dating, so they want to meet the guy. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, and I don’t blame you. I mean, we aren’t really dating so it is okay.”
“I’ll go.” His words stopped me.
“What?”
“I’ll meet your parents.”
“Seriously?” I was shocked he said yes. He didn’t have to go at all, but here he was saying yes.
“Yeah.” Gage shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, but it was for me. There had only ever been one guy who I had taken home to meet my parents and look how that turned out. With my parents having an idea of Gage in their mind, I was just hoping they would like him. If my father didn’t, he showed it. And let’s be real here: he wouldn’t let me see him again if he didn’t like him.
“Okay, uh, good. Thank you.” I didn’t know what to say. I was beyond happy that he said yes. There would no more nagging from my mom through text.
“Just let me know when.” He gave me a small nod and moved back to our table. He literally made it sound like it we were just going to dinner, not meeting my parents. While I was here trying not to freak out about it.
“Yeah,” I muttered when he moved away. Okay, now we just had to set it up.
Wait, Gage was going to meet my parents. Well, shit.
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Acknowledgements
I want to thank all the friends I have made from Wattpad. Jordan, Casandra, Ashley. You guys are incredible! Thank you for listening to all my story ideas and my rants. Without you guys I wouldn’t have had the guts to send this book in. Thank you babes!
Thank you again to my amazing family. Your unending support is incredible, and I couldn’t have asked for a better family.
And thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of my books. I don’t know how to thank you!
About the Author
Currently lives in a small town called Mesquite, Nevada. She is going to college to be an English teacher and writes on the side. When she isn’t busy with school work or writing new books she likes to hang out with her family, do things outdoors, and read whatever she can get her hands on.
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https://www.facebook.com/kenadee.bryant
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Silent Love [Part 2]_Forbidden Series Page 23
