"How could you?" I exclaimed the following Saturday before the tournaments began. Pacing a track up and down the worn rug of the bowling alley, various geometric shapes twisted and turned along my way. I related to their randomness; my mind bounced from one thing to another as I tried to figure out how to deal with this new development.

"Jacky, he's my grandson," Jack explained calmly. "I didn't think I'd have to warn you ahead of time."

"Oh, Jack," I turned and whispered softly while scrunching up my apron in my hands nervously.

"Well, what can I say?" Jack asked, shrugging his shoulders non-challantly. "He takes after his grandsire. Of course he's handsome. I think that'd be a given."

"But you could have told me he was coming," I tried to reason. "I wasn't expecting to turn around and walk, literally, right into him like that last week."

Laughing at me, Jack sat back in his seat and used a limp napkin stained with a beer ring to wipe his mouth. "You don't say?" While he continued sarcastically, my hands moved to fiddle with the charm necklace I had on. A tiny bowling ball dangled from the thin silver chain around my neck. "I couldn't tell."

"Ms. Jane, tell him," I whined, trying to gain empathy from the barkeep's wife. She was 89 and still had all her wits about her. There wasn't a man or woman in the place who could think faster on their feet than Ms. Jane.

"Girl," she chimed in, wiping down the register with an old t-shirt she had torn into strips for cleaning. "I'm right there with you. Jack's grandson is one fine specimen, if I do say so myself."

"Hey now, Janey," Jack interrupted, pointing a burly finger in her direction. "Don't you go fixin' your eyes on my grandson. You're a married woman!"

"Oh, fiddlesticks, Jack," she retorted, tossing her dust rag behind her into the wash bin on the floor. "And don't I know it. But just because my Kingpin is the only man for me, don't mean I can't appreciate some passing kindling wood. Mmm-mnn. Though, come to think of it, that man don't seem like he'd fall too easy. Nah. I think he's made of finer stuff than that. No cherry pickin' that boy. Why, getting a guy like that to look at you, Honey, will take some real hook work on your behalf."

"Hook him?" I asked. "I'll be happy not to blurt out anything embarrassing again. I made such a fool of myself last week. Good grief, the humiliation. I-"

"Aw," a newly familiar voice chuckled from behind me. "It wasn't that bad."

Stopping dead in my tracks, I scrunched my eyes closed and froze momentarily. Opening one eye, I looked over at Jack as if to confirm that I'd heard what I thought I did.

Grinning for a second before standing up, Jack stretched out of his chair to reach around me and shake his grandson's hand before pulling him in front of me to offer the man a bear hug in greeting. "How are you, Leif?"

"Doin' good, Gramps," Leif replied turning towards me. "And you, Jacky; how are you? We didn't get a chance to properly meet last week, though my grandsire has told me all about you. I hear you play a good game."

Offering me his hand, I bit my lip and extended my own. "Nice to meet you. I'm good. And, thanks."

A heated blush was rising across my chest and for once I was grateful to be wearing the cheesy bowling alley shirt the company required of its employees. Leif couldn't tell how worked up I felt if he couldn't see the red blotches I knew were forming across my skin.

"Sorry about last week," I stuttered quietly as I looked up at him to try and explain. "I wasn't myself."

"That's ok," he said with a smile. It was so easy to lose myself in his smile. Just look at those soft lips. And those eyes. Mmm. What a crazy shade of gray they were. The way his hair falls in a messy heap makes me want to reach up and-

"Stop it," I mentally admonished myself, biting my lip again to come back to the present.

"The foot's all better, too," he continued, his grin now full-blown. At his comment, I stole a glance at his feet and dammed if I couldn't feel the heat rise in my cheeks.

He knew just how to fluster me!

I turned my head in irritation and snapped out of it. Putting a concentrated effort into taking on a cooler demeanor than I felt, I realized that Leif thought he had me all figured out.

Do you, now, buddy?

Well, we'll just see about that.

"That's a shame." I said.

Taking him by surprise with my comment, Leif took a step back. "What?"

"Because now you have no excuse," I teased him confidently.

"No excuse?" he asked, confusion evident.

"Yeah, for losing the next game."

"Wait, are you challenging me to a round of bowling, Jacky?"

"Uh, Hun, I don't think-" Ms. Jane tried to interject, but was cut off by Leif before she could finish.

"No, it's ok, Ms. Jane," Leif started in with a smile, holding his hands up to ward her off.

"Son, to be fair-," Jack joined the fray before I stopped him this time.

"Yes!" I replied to Leif's original question. "Yes, I am. Later tonight, before we close for the night, I'm challenging you to a game." I stood tall professing a sense of bravado I didn't possess. "And I'm going to win, too."

"But, Jacky-" Jack tried again. "My grandson is-"

"I can do it, Jack," I insisted, digging my hole deeper by the second. "And when I win, Leif here has to take me out for ice cream." How good could he be? I never saw him in our alley. It's not like he was here all the time playing. I was sure I could beat him.

Now it was Ms. Jane's turn to laugh at me. I should have been a comedian. It seemed I was full of good laughs these past two weeks.

"What's so funny?" I stammered turning to Ms. Jane seriously. "I can win."

Picking her hands up from the counter she tossed them in front of her chest as if to say, "I give up, you win."

"Well, you got guts," she said shaking her head in merriment. "I'll give you that."

Before anyone else could comment, Leif stepped forward and grabbed my hand again. "It's a deal."

"Good," I replied, shaking his large, firm hand in response.

"And when I win, you'll be the one buying me the ice cream," he teased before turning to walk towards the other side of the alley. Watching his retreat, I scratched the back of my neck.

"Where does he think he's going, Jack?" I asked, turning to my good friend. "Only the top league players are down that end of the alley tonight."

"Leif is the captain of his league. Their team has won the last 5 championships in a row. Leif bowls a solid 300 about eight out of every ten games he plays."

"Wait, he does what?" I squeaked with all the realization of a person sentenced to their imminent doom.

"That's right, sweetheart," Ms. Jane explained while organizing the disinfected shoes for the coming night. "He's a regular over at Hank's other alley, but with the renovations we've been doing there, we moved some of the other leagues to this location for the last few months. Haven't you been paying attention to the charts? You didn't notice the building excitement going on these past few weeks?"

"No!" I replied, caught off guard. "I've been more focused on other things, like...like...uh...well, dang-it." Just what I get for trying to focus on my school work every chance I got. This whole summer I've been using my work breaks to study for my Pharmacology class. The course is a bear and it's taken all my focus to keep my GPA up.

Just my luck, the one guy I pick a match with bowls perfect games like they're candy taken from a baby. Serves me right for not paying better attention to current events at work. "Now what am I going to do?" I huffed, flopping into a plastic seat next to Jack. He just smiled and ruffled my hair affectionately, while sipping his drink from a frosted bar mug.

_________

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