The beeper started counting down and, much to my surprise, so did the little crowd around us. The three guys next to him kept throwing the ball up, but were failing miserably. Mostly because they were enthralled with Drey.
Hell, their girls were, too.
They were watchingmyguy. A ping of hope bloomed inside at the idea of really doing this with Drey. As in, being with him…long-term. I’d never even considered it…with anyone.
No signs of Nicco. So that was good.
Drey’s brother was off the grid again, unfortunately, but his mom wasn’t. For once. We had our jobs, warm places to live, and each other.
My heart swelled as I thought about the future. It was finally bright. Brighter than it’d ever been.
Screams erupted with the final buzzer and Drey turned to me. His eyes narrowed as he turned to me with that same intensity he had on the basket. As if he didn’t even notice the crowd. Hell, the guys were slapping his shoulder.
It didn’t matter, he was looking at me.
I stepped in to Drey. Nudging his forefinger beneath my chin, he touched a kiss to my cheek. “How’d we do?”
“I think the ticket machine is empty.” I pointed to the pile on the floor. “How the hell…?”
“Didn’t know I was an athlete, huh? I used to spend all my time here as a kid. And…well, hanging around the park, shooting hoops.”
Made sense. No mom or dad and sometimes no place to sleep. Wonder what he would have been like had he gone to college, or had some official training.
“Okay, let’s get these gathered up. How’d you do on the zombie shootout?”
I held up my five tickets. “Pretty much sucked.” I’d never been to a place like this before. No practice at shooting a gun. The noises and all the images were moving so fast I couldn’t track crap, let alone kill the creatures coming at me a mile a minute.
Drey laughed as he knelt down to gather his stash. I spied an empty tub on the shelf along the half wall on the far side of this area. “I’ll get you something to put those in.”
I walked over and dumped my tickets in, then pulled the tub from the pile of seven it was on top of.
“Hey,” someone said from beside me.
I turned around, to find a guy, maybe five-ten or eleven, standing way too close to me. He had brown hair and blue eyes. Looked vaguely familiar. His crooked grin grew in size as he eyed me from head to toe.
“Ogle much?” I stepped to the side to pass him, but he mirrored me.
“Sarah. It’s me, Jeff.” He reached for my waist as his tongue jetted out. “Remember?”
Shit.
I batted his hand away, working through my foggy memory from before I started hanging out with Drey. I didn’t exactly remember this guy, but he obviously remembered me and thought we could pick up where we left off. Which evidently was of the touchy-feely nature.
“Hey, Jeff. How are ya?”
“That’s all I get after—”
“Yep. Told you. One night only. No strings. Have fun.” At least that’s what I’d hoped I’d told him. It had been what I always told them.
I was able to get around him, but a hand gripped my elbow. Nothing too rough, but the hold was strong enough to slow me down. I knew how to dislodge it fairly easily after all my self-defense classes with Hunter, but I didn’t want to make a scene. Plus, Drey was almost done picking up his pile of tickets less than fifteen feet away from me.
And Drey wouldn’t hesitate to knock him out in front of everyone.
“Please let go.” I turned slightly.
“How have you been? Want to get a drink later?”
“No thanks.” I gestured to his handful of tickets. “Looks like you’re doing okay with the games. Good luck.”