The Game by Vi Keeland by Vi Keeland

“Of course.” She turned to us. “Duty calls. I’ll be back. Your brother is running a little late. He should be here in about fifteen minutes. Tyler, come help me with the seating chart, please?”

“Sure, Mom.”

I let out a sigh of relief as they walked away.

Christian lifted a brow. “Was she that bad?”

“No, not at all. She was very sweet. I’m just…nervous.”

Christian took my hand. “Come on, let’s go get some air before Jake gets here, or someone else cramps us, and you wind up high-tailing it out of here.”

We walked down a hall at the back of the restaurant, and Christian opened the door at the end. He slipped something out of his pocket and stuck it between the lock and the doorjamb to keep it from closing, and suddenly we were in a small, covered courtyard.

“Is that the card you brought your brother stuck in the door?” I asked.

“Yep.”

“It’s getting all wrinkled. Why don’t we find a rock or something?”

Christian waved me off. “He won’t give two shits if it’s wrinkly with a little lock grease. At least not after he sees the gift I got him. Knowing what a wuss he is, he’ll probably cry.”

Christian hadn’t brought a present or anything with him from the plane that I’d noticed. “What did you get him?”

“A dollar.”

I chuckled. “A dollar is going to make your brother cry?”

“It’s a special dollar.”

“What makes it so special?”

“It’s our victory dollar. When we were eleven or twelve, we were number one and two on the middle school track team. Any given week, we’d beat each other’s records. We’re super competitive and physically pretty similar, so the number-one spot flip-flopped a lot, based on heart. One day, when we finished track practice, we both saw a buck on the grass at the same time. We dove for it and wound up ripping it in half.”

I smiled. “I could see you two doing that today…”

“Oh, no doubt.” Christian shook his head. “Anyway, we fought over who should give who the other half of the dollar for a few days, until I came up with the brilliant idea to race for it. The victor gets the loser’s other half. I won, and he had to sit at the table and watch me tape the two pieces back together that night. But I never spent it. We both played volleyball in the spring, and Jake won team MVP at the end of the season, so I gave him the dollar back. It’s been going on twenty years, and that buck has been passed a few times. Neither one of us is very good at complimenting the other, so giving the buck is our way of saying, I’m proud of you. You done good. But until now we’ve only ever given it to each other for sporting events.”

“Awww…that’s so sweet.”

Christian tried to play it down. “Eh. I’m just cheap.”

I put my arms around his neck. “You are not, Christian Knox. You might be a man of steel on the outside, but you’re a big mush on the inside.”

He rubbed my arms. “Lara’s a great girl. Definitely out of that numbskull’s league.”

“Mush,” I teased.

“I’ll show you mush…” Christian pressed his lips to mine in a hot and hard kiss. His hand cupped my cheek as he deepened it, and by the time he pulled back, my brain was mush.

He looked back and forth between my eyes. “You want to get married and have kids someday, boss lady?”

My heart did a somersault. “I honestly never gave it much thought. My relationships don’t usually last long enough to start daydreaming about dresses and what we’d name our kids.”

“Not sure the length of the relationship is what makes you think about a future with someone. Seems it’s more about when it feels right.”

His words and the look on his face hit me hard, and when I swallowed, I tasted salt.

After a moment, Christian smiled. “I want a tribe of them—kids, I mean.” He winked. “Since you asked.”

“How many are in a tribe?”

He shrugged. “Maybe six or eight?”

My eyes bulged. “You want to have six or eight kids?”

He grinned. “Nah. Two or three should do it. But now that doesn’t seem so scary, does it? You see? I’m learning how to manage you.”

I play-smacked his abs. “You’re a jerk.”

Christian laughed. “Come on. We’d better get back inside so we don’t miss when they get here.”



***



Jake Knox’s hands shook as he got down on one knee. There was something so endearing about seeing such a big, tough guy nervous. Toward the end of dinner, he’d called Lara up to the front of the room to make a toast to the birthday girl. She was clearly shocked when the moment became something more. But she jumped into his arms while he was still down on one knee and knocked the large man over. The ring went flying, and he had to scramble to find it. Everyone hooted and hollered and laughed, and I looked over to find Christian’s eyes watery.

“You’re crying!” I said.

He swiped at his eyes. “No, I’m not. Too much fresh pepper on my pasta.”

I chuckled. “Sure.”

He put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed. “He did good.”