Chapter 27

Lucky glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was almost midnight. “Last game?” he asked as Elizabeth prepared to break.

“What, are you getting tired?” she teased. They had been playing pool all night, and were tied, both having three wins each.

“Not really, but it’s kind of late,” he said, motioning to the clock.

Liz looked up and was shocked to see how much time had passed. “Wow, I didn’t realize how long we’d been here. Okay, last game. This one’s the tiebreaker anyway.”

Liz stood at the end of the table, and leaned over to make her shot. The balls went scattering across the table, a few falling into the pockets.

Lucky made his shot, sinking the 9-ball. “I’m stripes,” he said with a smile as he moved around for his next shot. It was a tricky one, but he decided to try to sink it normally. He had been using magic too much to win, and was afraid sooner or later, she would catch on.

“Damn,” he cursed softly as the ball completely missed the pocket.

Liz grinned and walked around to where the cue ball had come to a stop. “Aw, too bad. My shot!”

Lucky rolled his eyes at her gloating and stood back. She didn’t have any clear shots, either, so he waited patiently for her to miss. She studied the table for a minute, chewing on her lower lip in contemplation, then brought up the cue stick and took aim. The cue ball sailed across the table, squarely hitting the 4-ball and sending it off of the bumper and straight for the pocket.

‘Wow, no magic that time, either!’ she thought proudly as she walked around to find her next shot. She glanced up at Lucky, who was silently fuming at being one-upped again, and smiled. “Don’t worry,” she whispered as she passed him. “I won’t tell your dad you were beaten by a girl.”

Lucky folded his arms across his chest and glared at her. “Just shoot, all right? Just because you had a lucky shot doesn’t mean you’re going to win!”

“Okay, if you say so,” she teased, setting up her next shot. Lucky stood behind her, waiting for the right time to screw up her shot. The 2-ball headed for the corner pocket, and Liz turned to him, grinning. “Maybe you should go sit down over there,” she said smugly, nodding towards one of the chairs against the wall. “It looks like I could be here a while.”

Lucky just smiled and looked over her shoulder as the ball suddenly veered away from the pocket. “Um, maybe you should look again.”

“What?” she asked, turning back to the table. “Hey! What’s going on? It was going straight for the pocket, there’s no way it could have missed!”

Lucky shrugged, trying to keep a straight face. “Maybe you should have kept your eye on it. Looks to me like it curved away.” He brushed past her and leaned over the table to take his shot. Sure, messing with her shots was playing dirty, but he couldn’t take her smugness any longer. His Spencer pride was just too strong to pass up the chance to knock her down a few notches, no matter how cute she was.

Liz grumbled to herself as Lucky shot. He sunk his ball and studied the table, then walked around to shoot again. When he missed, Liz smiled and took her place in front of the table. She only had one ball left to sink before the 8-ball, and she was determined to win. Lucky watched as she sent the 7- ball careening across the table for the pocket in the far corner. He wandered around to get a better look, holding his hands behind his back. Suddenly, the ball curved off of it’s track. He chuckled and walked up to her. “Looks like you keep putting a spin on them today,” he said.

Liz frowned at him, but saw his distraction as a perfect chance to fix whatever damage had been done. He was so busy rubbing in her error, he had turned his back to the pool table. She clasped her hands in front of her and smiled over his shoulder as the ball curved a little more and fell into the side pocket.

Lucky heard the ball fall and spun around. “Hey! What just happened?”

She shrugged. “Like you said, it curved. I guess I just got lucky, and it curved so much, it went into the other pocket.” She chuckled and moved past him to figure out her next shot. There was no way she was going to lose this game. After studying the table, she straightened up and looked at Lucky. “Side pocket,” she announced, readying herself for what she hoped would be the winning shot.

Unfortunately, Lucky had the same idea about winning, so as soon as she shot, the cue ball spun off to the side, hitting one of his balls instead. Liz frowned at it, but figured her hand must have slipped while she was shooting.

“Tough break,” Lucky said, making his way to her side of the table. Liz rolled her eyes and stood back to watch him sink his last ball. Now they were even, both only having the 8-ball left, and both determined not to let the other win.

“Corner pocket,” he said, pointing to the one in question as he leaned over to make his shot. It was a pretty straight shot, but Liz didn’t care. She wasn’t letting him win. The ball made it’s way to the pocket, then, with no apparent reason, slowed down and stopped inches away from it.

“What?!” Lucky shouted. Liz chuckled and pushed past him.

“Excuse me, I think I have a game to win,” she said smugly, leaning over to make her shot. Lucky stood back and grumbled to himself. The ball was too close to the pocket to mess with, she was going to win.

Liz sunk the 8-ball and turned to Lucky. “That was fun, we’ll have to do this again sometime.”

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered, going to the wall to return his stick. “Why do I get the feeling I’ve just been hustled?”

Liz laughed. “You can’t be hustled unless there’s money on the game. Okay, so I used to play back in Boulder, I might have left that out before.”

“Oh, sure, now you tell me!” he said, walking to the door. “Come on, let’s get out of here. It’s late.”

Liz followed him out of the room, still smiling at her victory, however unfairly she had won. They made their way back out into the club, surprised to see how crowded the place still was.

“Hey, you guys are still here?” Luke asked from behind the bar as they passed by. “What were you doing in there, anyway?” He wiggled his eyebrows, causing Liz to blush.

“We were just playing pool, dad, get your mind out of the gutter!” Lucky said, rolling his eyes.

“That’s all, huh?” He asked, still not convinced. “Well, who won?”

Liz grinned, knowing Lucky was going kill her. “I did!”

Luke laughed and looked at his son. “You let a girl beat you? Will wonders never cease?”

“Hey, he didn’t let me do anything!” Liz said, trying to defend herself. “I won all on my own, thank you very much!”

“Yeah, dad, she did. Come on, I’m a Spencer, why would I let someone else beat me?’

“What about those tricks your mom taught you?” Luke asked with a grin.

Lucky shot him a look, telling him to knock it off, but Luke was having too much fun.

“Tricks?” Liz asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Oh yeah, that wife of mine’s a regular pool shark,” Luke said, winking at Lucky. “She knows all sorts of tricks.”

Lucky sighed and took Liz’s hand. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, dragging her to the front door before Luke could say anything else. “Just ignore him, he likes to hear his own voice, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“Okay,” she said, following him outside. He was still holding her hand, and she found herself hoping he wouldn’t let go anytime soon.

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