“You okay, baby?” I whisper.
She nods. “Yeah.”
I lean down and kiss her. I swipe the lip gloss off with my lips. It tastes like vanilla. I run my tongue against hers, and she moans. I hold the back of her head and kiss her relentlessly.
“Bens,” she says, Camdenthless. “Let’s go help with dinner.”
I shake my head and gently press my body against hers until she’s against the wall. “Dinner can wait.” I kiss her neck, my hoodie getting in the way. I run my hands underneath it and touch her bare stomach.
She inhales sharply. “Benson,” she chuckles. “The door’s open.”
“Nobody’s coming up here,” I whisper, licking her neck.
“What you guys doing?” Stanley says from the door with a stupid grin on his face. “Hi, Lucy. You alright?”
She nods as I laugh. She pushes me as I follow Stanley out.
“It’s not funny.”
I shrug.
All the guys sit at the table, and Rowan plates the food family-style. The fish is on a wooden cutting board in the middle of the table with a wedge of lemon on it. The chicken on a separate platter. The salad in Blue’s wooden bowl. A pan of roasted vegetables Stanley has, in the time it took Rowan to plate the fish, stolen a carrot from already.
“Fuck, Stan,” Rowan barks. “There’s a girl here. She eats first.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” Lucy mutters.
I shake my head. “Have some manners, man. Using your fingers is gross.”
Blue turns to Lucy. “Ladies, first.”
Lucy stares at the guys like she’s never done this before, and if I’m not mistaken, I don’t think she has, so I start plating her plate for her, starting with the fish. After her plate’s made, the guys dig in. We start chowing down, and I’m starving. Rowan’s such a good cook, I could kiss the fella right now.
The Madison trip comes up because Stanley brings it up. He’s already complaining about the road trip. The bus ride is six hours each way, and Stanley does not, in his words,dosix-hour bus rides.
Rowan says, “Bring a pillow and a blanket.”
“I always bring a pillow.”
“Maybe some tissues since you’re going to cry the whole way,” I add.
Stanley looks up at me. “I’ll bring extra since you’ll be crying about leaving Lucy for two days.”
I grin, pulling the fork out of my mouth when I glance down at Lucy. Her eyes are bright as she looks back at me.
Percy shakes his head. “I don’t want to hear about the road trip, let’s talk about Blue.”
Blue shakes his head. “We’re not speaking of practice.”
I shrug a shoulder at him. “We are now. Tuesday. The rush drill. You missed your coverage.”
Stanley says to him, “You were standing in the slot like you were waiting for a bus.”
Blue scratches his face and shakes his head.
“You were. I thought we talked about this. You got it down, and then it went back to shit. You’re just in your head too much.”
This is true. I take another bite of food and say, “I don’t know why Coach keeps pushing it on you.”
