Braydon (Alluring Indulgence #6)(61)
Author: Nicole Edwards

At least not yet.

“WOW! IMPRESSIVE!” BRAYDON laughed as he moved toward Jessie, stepping over the small bumpers that outlined the miniature golf course.

“Why did you pick this game again?” Jessie asked, her eyes laughing, her sarcasm evident.

She had just hit the ball and missed the hole for probably the fifteenth time on this one, and it was a par three. After that, she’d stood up straight, held her hands up in victory, and then dropped her club. Jessie had never stopped smiling, although he knew, despite the fact she had mentioned it, she wasn’t particularly fond of playing the game.

“Hold on, I’ll help you out,” he offered, stepping away from her to retrieve the colorful golf ball. Once he had it in hand, he took a step over to the left and dropped it into the little cup.

“Yay! See, I can play this stupid game!” Jessie exclaimed, pretending victory again. “And technically, I think the rules say that if the other player hits the wrong ball into the hole, I win.”

Braydon laughed as he reached for her, pulling her into his arms and swinging her around once. “Whatever you want. I’ll give you all of my points if you really want ’em.”

“But?” Jessie asked when he put her back on her feet. “I hear a ‘but’ in that statement.”

“But you’ll owe me,” Braydon told her, leaning down and kissing her on the lips. “Come on, let’s finish this up so we can head inside. It’s too damn hot out here.”

Thirty minutes later, Braydon was leading Jessie back toward the main building that housed the arcade games and the food center. “You suck at miniature golf,” he informed her as he held open the main door to the huge air-conditioned building.

She laughed and punched him lightly in the arm. “If I remember correctly, someone cheated.”

“How do you cheat at miniature golf?” he asked, feigning innocence.

“You make up the rules as you go along,” Jessie challenged, moving a little closer to him.

Braydon purposely bumped her arm, keeping her close without actually putting his arm around her. It was a family place, and there were hordes of kids running around, but he had a sudden urge to be closer to this woman. For now, touching her arm was going to have to be enough.

“What rules did I change? You hit the ball into the hole. It’s as simple as that.”

“With my eyes closed? Or what about when you made me putt backwards?”

“Semantics,” he teased. “Fine. I’ll give you extra points for the difficult shots. You still lost by at least fifty.”

“Nuh-uh. I took all your points because you hit my ball into the hole.”

“Technically I didn’t hit anything, I dropped it in,” he told her.

Jessie put her hands on her hips and looked up at him. “I forgot about that. You’re right. In that case, you owe me another fifty.”

Braydon cocked an eyebrow, waiting to hear her new made-up rule.

“That’s what the rules say.” Jessie laughed, and the sight of her face all lit up made him grin like a fool. He wanted to put that smile on her face for the rest of his life.

Strange thing to be thinking on a first date, Walker.

But it was true. And technically this was a first date, but it really wasn’t. Which made it so much better.

“How about air hockey?” he suggested.

“Skee ball first,” she said quickly, glancing beside them.

Braydon followed her gaze to see that they were standing beside a row of skee ball machines. “You’re on.”

After retrieving the tokens, way more than they probably needed, Braydon returned to find Jessie talking to a mom who was watching her kid play skee ball. When Jessie noticed him, she excused herself to the woman and made her way over.

“You ready to lose?” she asked him seriously.

“Want to place a wager on this one?” he asked playfully.

Jessie glanced around them, and Braydon realized she was checking to see if there were kids listening in.

Braydon laughed. “Dirty girl. It’s an innocent wager.”

“Bray, I’m not sure you’re capable of innocent,” she teased him.

Braydon pretended to be hurt by her comment, but then moved over to the end and dropped tokens into two of the machines.

“So what are we betting?” Jessie asked as she stepped up to the machine.

“Foot rub,” he said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

“You wanna rub my feet?” she asked, grinning.

“If you win, yes. If I win, you get to rub mine.”

“Fine. You’re on.”

They shook hands and then turned to the machine. Braydon watched Jessie roll the first couple of balls, and he realized then that she didn’t suck at skee ball.