A Husband of Her Own by Brenda Novak

Author:Brenda Novak
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: mom 03/21/2014
ISBN: 9780373711307
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2003-05-01T05:00:00+00:00

WHY COULDN’T HE be Rebecca’s friend?

Josh watched her chalk her pool cue in the basement of her parents’ home. What made him so different? She was obviously good friends with Billy Joe and Bobby West. And Perry Paris. And Booker, of course. Sometimes Josh wondered if there wasn’t potential for something more to exist between her and Booker, but neither of them acted like it tonight. Booker had spent most of his time hustling Katie; Rebecca had spent most of her time hustling pool. And she was taking all comers. When had she gotten so good?

“There you are,” Mary said, coming up behind him and slipping her arms around his waist. “I wasn’t sure where you’d wandered off to.”

Josh took another sip of his beer and wished Mary would leave him alone for fifteen minutes. He wanted to see this game, and he wanted to do it without a commentator.

Rebecca studied the table, leaned low and banked the nine ball off the side into the left corner pocket. It was a tough shot, but she made it look easy, and now only two striped balls remained. Billy Joe, who had twenty bucks riding on the game, still had four solids.

“What’s up, man? You’re getting your butt whupped by a girl,” his brother taunted.

“Shut up,” Billy Joe snapped. “She’s gonna whup you next.”

“No, she ain’t,” Bobby replied. “I got fifty bucks says I’m gonna take her.”

“You getting the itch to play?” Mary asked, her fingers moving in irritatingly small circles on his abdomen.

“Yeah.”

“You’re not thinking about playing Rebecca, though, are you?”

“Actually I am.” Stepping away from her, he put his quarter on the side of the table behind Bobby West’s to save his place in line. He hadn’t played Rebecca since they were in high school. It used to be that he could beat her easily enough. But she’d obviously improved a great deal, and these days he played only occasionally.

If Rebecca saw that he was there, she gave no indication. He hadn’t been able to get her to acknowledge him since she’d shoved that damn gift in his face and walked away.

“We could stop by the Honky Tonk and play a game if you’d rather,” Mary offered, slipping her arms around him again. “Then we could go on over to your place.”

He heard the innuendo in her voice, but for some reason the thought of winding up at his place with Mary didn’t tempt him tonight—at least not as much as playing pool with Rebecca. He missed the challenge she provided, wondered if he could still best her. “Not right now,” he said, intent on the game. “It’ll be my turn soon.”

Billy Joe scratched and had to bring out another ball. Rebecca sank one of the two remaining stripes, and Billy Joe knocked down two solids before Rebecca made her last shot. But she missed the eight ball. Billy Joe missed the five, and it was Rebecca’s turn with another chance at the eight. She studied the angles, took the shot and smiled as the eight ball fell neatly into the side pocket.

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