Just a Little Bet (Smokejumper #2) - Tawna Fenske Page 0,3
set the glass down, Kayla was watching him. “You good?”
“Yeah. Thanks for that.” He looked away, fumbling for words to fill the silence so she wouldn’t read too much into it. “Did you know ‘whisky’ is spelled without an ‘e’ when it’s from someplace with no ‘e’ in it?” He glanced back to see her eyeing him oddly. “So Scotland, Japan—no ‘e’ in whisky.”
Kayla cocked her head. “America, Ireland—that’s whiskey with an ‘e.’”
“Bingo.” He nudged another shot glass with the tip of his finger. “But Fireball’s from Canada, so—”
“Whisky with no ‘e.’” She grinned and nodded at the glass he’d just touched. “You want the rest? I can drive you home.”
He looked at the shot glasses. Four more, each teeming with spicy liquid. He really shouldn’t have any more.
But the date on the calendar behind the bar had his heart wadding itself up in a tight ball. “How about a drinking game?” he heard himself say.
Kayla cocked an eyebrow. “A drinking game? Do you want to pretend we still have fake IDs, too?”
“Humor me. I need to earn those shots fair and square.”
She laughed, and Tony’s chest warmed at the sound. That was…different.
But it didn’t mean anything. Just some laughs with his best friend, plus the beers and cinnamon whisky he’d had already. What was that rhyme from college—beer to liquor, never sicker? Maybe the Fireball was a bad idea.
“Sure,” Kayla was saying. “What did you have in mind?”
“One of the rookies told me about this new one—did you ever play Flip, Sip, or Strip in college?”
Kayla surveyed the bar, and Tony noticed how blue her eyes were. Bright, like the sky as he pitched himself through the door of the aircraft. He thought about that breathless free fall and felt dizzy.
“Not that I’m opposed to public stripping,” she said, “but let’s not get kicked out of this place.”
“No, that’s not it—the clean version is called Flip, Sip, or Post.”
Kayla sipped something that looked suspiciously like water. “How does that go?”
Tony combed his brain to remember. “You start by flipping a coin. You can go first, since you’re a lady and all.”
She rolled her eyes. “Such a gentleman.”
He grinned, pretty sure she was kidding. “I call heads or tails, and if I’m right, it’s my turn to flip. If I’m wrong, you flip again. This time, if I get it wrong, I have to answer any question you ask me.”
“Any question?” Kayla lifted a brow. What did that mean? It’s not like they hadn’t bared all their secrets to each other.
Okay, not all his secrets. Maybe this was a bad idea.
“Wait, no,” he corrected himself. “You answer the question if I get it right.” Or something like that. He was definitely messing this up. “Anyway, on the third flip, if I guess right, I take a shot.”
“And if you guess wrong?” she asked.
“You get to pick any social media platform or person and choose what I have to post or text.” Yeah, definitely a bad idea. But he trusted Kayla and knew she wouldn’t have him do anything too mortifying. “Like you tell me I have to text the third name in my contacts and say, ‘I like the smell of my own armpit.’ Or post to Facebook about how Mariah Carey is my favorite recording artist. That sort of thing.”
Kayla laughed, blue eyes flashing. “Take the booze out and the clean version sounds like a middle school game. This should be interesting.”
He’d been starting to think this was dumb, but that spark in her eyes had him thinking twice. Damn, she was pretty. No, not pretty—fun. Fun to be around. That’s what he’d always loved about her.
Kayla rummaged in her purse and pulled out a quarter. “You ready?”
“Yep.”
She curled her fingers into a fist and tucked the coin onto her thumb. “Call it in the air.”
“Tails,” Tony said as the coin flipped and spun, landing easily in her palm.
Kayla looked at it and grinned. “Heads.”
Damn. “Flip again.”
She did it, and he called out, “Tails.” Might as well stick with it.
The coin landed with a smack in her palm. Kayla looked at it and shook her head. “Nope. So now I ask you a question?”
He wasn’t positive but nodded anyway. “Yeah. Yep, go for it.”
She rested her hand on her chin, studying him a moment. “Why do you think you burn through girlfriends quicker than most guys change socks?”
“Geez, are you my shrink?” It wasn’t a bad question, though.
Kayla shrugged, seemingly unfazed. “No, but one of my sisters just did