As we stepped off the porch, a white SUV pulled into the driveway beside my car, and his mom stepped out, as immaculately put together as the first and only time I’d seen her in Reid’s hospital room. She lifted one of those reusable grocerybags, packed to the brim, out of the back seat and then started up the walkway, and when she saw me, she startled.
“Oliver…hello,” she said, shifting the bag to her hip as a polite smile crossed her lips. “How are you?”
“Hi, Mrs. Valentine. I’m just fine, and yourself?”
“Hey, Mom. We’re going bowling,” Reid informed her before she could answer. “I’ll be back in a little while.”
“Oh. That’s nice.” She looked curiously between me and Reid. “Just be careful.”
Reid kissed his mother’s cheek and reached for the bag she carried. “Will do. Can I take this inside for you?”
“What? No, no, I’ve got it. You boys go have fun.”
“Goodbye, Mrs. Valentine,” I said, pulling my keys out of my pocket. “I’ll guard him with my life.”
“Of course.” Her brow furrowed, but she managed another small smile, but all the way down to my car, I could feel her questioning gaze on my back.
AFTER CHANGING INTO the ugly shoes that seemed to be required by all bowling alleys across the country, Reid and I picked out our bowling balls and, seeing as there was no one in the lane beside us, commandeered the two chairs behind the monitors.
“I’m guessing you don’t want Ant-Man,” I teased, as I set up our user profiles. Reid had listed my name as Superman, of course, but in my mind, he didn’t need a made-up name. Valentine was as perfect as it got.
“What about Bluebird?” he suggested.
I whipped my head around to face him, my mouth falling open.Where did that come from?“How do you…” I said, ata loss for words. When had I even told him— Oh. In the ambulance, when I didn’t think he could hear me.Way to word-vomit, Ollie.
“Isn’t that what you called me?” Reid said, and then frowned. “I didn’t dream that, did I?”
“Uh, no. No, you didn’t dream that.” I could feel the hot flush of embarrassment spread through my body. Why was it that this man had that effect on me? I’d never been the kind of person who got self-conscious over anyone, but Reid? He reduced me to teenaged Ollie status; I only hoped it wouldn’t show.
“I like Bluebird,” Reid said, a smile slowly spreading across his face. He’d healed so well on the outside, his skin smooth and not bearing a trace of the glass that had been embedded only weeks earlier. “Ollie?”
“Hmm?” I shook myself out of my stupor. “Sorry, what’d you say?”
“I said, why don’t you put that down?” Reid gestured to the monitor.
“You want to be Bluebird?”
“I thought I already was.”
Damn. Stomach. Flip.
“Right,” I said, typing in the nickname I’d thought up for him all those months ago.
Reid swirled his straw in his soda, his gaze falling past me. “That guy’s watching you.”
“Who?” I said, looking around at the lane closest to ours.
“No, over there in lane eight, in the red shirt.”
I turned around and immediately locked eyes with an attractive dark-haired guy, maybe mid-thirties. He smiled my way, but whereas I’d normally give him the signal to come on over, I spun back around to the monitor to finish setting up.
“What?” Reid asked. “Is he not your type?”
“I’m not here to meet guys. I’m here to kick your ass,” I said, getting to my feet, and then I picked up the ball I’d chosen from the rack earlier. After lining up my shot, I sent the ball speeding down the alley, the impact knocking all ten pins down in one fell swoop.
I sauntered back to Reid with aneat my dustsmirk on my face and took the seat beside him.
“Oh, we’ve got a pro on our hands. Okay, then.” Reid stood up and stretched his body from side to side in exaggerated movements that had me grinning.