Page 34 of Hell Bent

Sebastian said, “You know the worst thing about this? I don’t get a chance to beat Boy Wonder here. Got to be a way to take it past two and find a winner. You could have to hit the ball and spin around in place, maybe. That’d work.”

“In your dreams, you’re beating me,” Harlan said. “See, you’ve got explosive lower-body power, butI’vegot grace and wingspan and supreme aerobic fitness.”

“Nobody likes a bragger,” Dyma said.

“That’s not bragging,” Sebastian said. “That’s trash talk. Kickers never get to hear trash talk. Look how privileged I am. And that’s a rematch,” he told Harlan. “Get that new table, and you and I are going again. Twenty bucks says I can beat you.”

“You haven’t even paid me for the last bet,” Harlan said. “Deadbeat.”

Sebastian pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, extracted some bills, and handed them over. “Consider yourself challenged.”

Jennifer said, “What bet? Have I married a problem gambler? I’d better set up Nicky’s college fund fast.”

“Nope,” Harlan said. “It was personal.”

“What?” Dyma asked.

“Uh …” Harlan said, and looked, for some reason, at me.

“Wait,” I said. “What is this bet?” I wasn’t laughing anymore.

Harlan rubbed his nose, and Sebastian said, “Kinda embarrassing to explain.”

“Now I really need to know,” I said. I had my hands on my hips, too.

Sebastian sighed. “Here you go, then. I told Harlan I was wearing jeans to this thing, and he thought it was because you’d saidyouwere wearing jeans. Which, OK, it was.”

“Oh, I get it,” Dyma said. “This was Harlan’s patented understanding of women.”

“I guess,” Sebastian said, and turned a laughing and slightly apprehensive gaze on me. “He said you wouldn’t actually wear jeans. Bet me fifty bucks. I thought you’d be—” He stopped.

“What?” I asked.

“Uh …” he said.

“Oh,” I realized. “You thought I’d be making a point, continuing to plumb the depths of unattractiveness because … Why would I be doing that? I’m stuck here.”

Harlan said, “I rest my case.”

Dyma said, “Of course she’s not going to go out with you looking bad! Excuse me? Why are men so dumb?”

“Hey,” Owen said.

“Well, you are,” she said. “I practically had to tie you down to get you to have sex with me.”

“That is information,” Harlan said, “that Jennifer and I do not need. Scrubbing my brain now.”

I was laughing again, and somehow, I had my arm around Sebastian’s side and was reaching up to kiss his cheek. Three and a half inches of heel lets you do that. His arm went around me like a reflex action and tightened there, and I smiled into his eyes and said, “That’s our cue to leave, because I have to be at work at seven tomorrow. Now I want a ping-pong table, though.”

“You should get one,” Dyma said. “They’re not expensive, and you can even buy outdoor ones.”

“Except that I live at a KOA,” I said, reckless with the truth now. “In a travel trailer. Free and easy down the road I go.” I smoothed my hair. “Merry Christmas, everybody. That was awesome.”

Sebastian

Back in my car again, Alix beside me, talking about the evening. Her hand in her hair as she laughed about Owen breaking the table, and I sure wanted not to be driving this car so I could look at her. Could touch her, too. She looked even better now that she was a little messed up, and I wanted to feel that heat for myself.

But “Free and easy down the road I go”? The same thing I’d thought not two weeks ago. Somehow, it didn’t sound quite as good coming from her.