“No argument from me. I’ve never slept better in my life than when I’m cuddling with you.”
“Did I hear that right?” Skye scuffed the dirt as she sprinted up beside them. “Kayla suddenly likes spooning? You never did with me.”
Skye’s arrival sent a jolt of discomfort through Kayla. It was like being yanked out of a warm tub and thrust into the chill of a snowy December morning. The sensation was so strange when paired with Skye that she couldn’t make herself form words. Where had she come from and why hadn’t Kayla been looking for her? She had every morning that she and Mack had gone jogging, and she’d never been there. Now here she was at the worst possible moment, splashing cold water on their teasing, flirty exchange.
Mack’s mood shifted instantly and predictably to annoyance. “Maybe that’s because she never had a good cuddling partner in the past.”
Rather than responding with equal grumpiness, Skye laughed and winked at Kayla. It had none of the stomach-flipping charm Mack’s did. “I have some excellent memories of snuggling with Kayla. Or at least the things that happened right after the snuggling.”
Now that did bring some memories to mind, and not ones Kayla wanted in her head right now. Not when she just realized that she had, in fact, been flirting with Mack before Skye’s arrival. She hadn’t meant to. Had she? They had always teased each other, and sometimes there was a suggestive slant to it, but they had never really flirted before. Yet here she was, wishing Skye were anywhere else but here so she could go back to enjoying flirty banter with her best friend. The Plan of Seduction must be spinning her head.
Mack’s words came out biting and spitting. “Well, my embraces are about comfort and intimacy. I’m not just copping a feel. Maybe that’s why she likes cuddling with me rather than you.”
“Why am I not surprised to hear that women wrapped in your arms are more likely to fall asleep rather than be seduced?” Skye said.
Mack lunged, but Kayla hip checked her back onto her side of the path. “Okay, you two, that’s enough. While it’s flattering to have two hot mascs fighting over me, I don’t want to break up an actual fist fight this morning.”
Skye flushed deep red and hung her head as she ran. “I’m sorry. I was being a jerk.”
“Thank you,” Kayla said.
They jogged in silence for a long moment before Skye looked over at Mack. “Aren’t you going to apologize?”
Mack kept her blazing eyes fixed on the trail. “I don’t have anything to apologize for. I wasn’t the one flirting with someone else’s fiancée, was I, Skye?”
The toe of Kayla’s shoe scuffed on the ground, and she nearly faceplanted into the trail. Mack’s ire was pointed at Skye, as usual, but the words hit a little too close to home. All sorts of terrible things happened to Kayla’s insides at the thought Mack might think of her with the same venom in her voice when she spoke to Skye. God, she really was a terrible person, wasn’t she? It took everything in her power to keep jogging along when the edges of the trail blurred.
“Shit. Hang on a second, both of you. Please?”
Skye’s outburst startled Kayla out of her spiral. It took a long moment for her to remember Mack hadn’t actually yelled at her, so when Skye stopped dead on the dirt trail, Kayla took another few awkward steps. When she did stop and turn around, she found Mack and Skye facing off again, but this time, only Mack looked angry.
Skye said, “Look, I was being an ass just now. It was way out of line. I really wasn’t flirting. Well, I guess I was, but it was meantas teasing. That doesn’t make it okay, though, and I sincerely apologize.”
She held out her hand, but Mack didn’t shake it. She crossed her arms over her chest and continued scowling down at Skye. It wasn’t until this moment that Kayla really looked at them, side by side. Mack’s rigid form rippled with muscles, and her jaw was set in a sharp, rather attractive angle. She was almost a foot taller than Skye, who was so much leaner it was comical. It looked like Thor scowling down at Loki.
Skye held her hand out for a long time, but Mack never took it. Eventually, she shrugged and turned her attention to Kayla with the same shame-filled expression. “I’m sorry, Kayla. I didn’t mean to flirt, and I shouldn’t have teased.”
It took a moment for Kayla to realize why this scene was so strange to her. In their nine years together, she could never remember Skye apologizing to her. Not once. Not even when it was clear their fight, wrong turn, or forgotten appointment was clearly Skye’s fault. She was always full of excuses but never took the blame. In fact, the only time Kayla ever saw her admit that she was the cause of anything was the day she broke Kayla’s heart. When they were together, it had infuriated Kayla to no end that Skye would never apologize for anything. Now, here she was apologizing for something Kayla wanted her to do. Life had a shitty sense of humor sometimes.
Kayla put on a winning smile. “It’s okay.”
Skye was all smiles again, but Mack was giving Kayla the most confusing look. She kept lifting her eyebrows and shooting her eyes over at Skye. It was the weirdest thing. Almost like she was trying to tell Kayla something with her eyes. Mack rolled her eyes, then shot a look at Skye and made a kissing face, and it finally made sense. The Plan of Seduction! Kayla had almost forgotten while stuck in her frustrating memories.
Smiling sweetly and looking through her eyelashes at Skye, Kayla said, “After all, old habits die hard. Especially when two people who care about each other so deeply are concerned.”
Mack gave her a little wink before turning away to lean against a tree while she stretched her quads.
Skye said, “Yeah. I guess so.”
Kayla took her hand and squeezed it, then made a show of scrunching together her eyebrows and putting a note of pain into her voice. “It really is okay. I promise. I’ll get over it.”
When she looked up again through her eyelashes, Skye was swallowing hard, staring at their joined hands. “Thanks. I, um, I should go.”
She moved to step around Kayla, who let their hand holding linger. Then Skye leaned over and pressed a kiss to Kayla’s cheek. She was so close, Kayla could smell that unique Skye scent mixed with sweat and dirt. Her lips were chapped—as always—but her cheek was smooth against Kayla’s. The feel of their skin—even just their cheeks—pressed together after so long apart was dizzying. Kayla caught her breath and leaned in as far as she dared. It wasn’t much, but she had been so desperate for some connection between them, and this simple touch sent a pang through her body. Interestingly, it wasn’t the full body need that the kiss with Mack elicited, but something far more painful. Loss and regret, and the ghost of so many nights of longing for her old life. But it was always like that with Skye. Their relationship had been half boundless passion, half bottomless pain.
Kayla didn’t turn as Skye jogged off. She stood there, her back to the path ahead, her eyes on Mack, until the sound of shoes on dirt was long since gone.
“You okay, LaLa?”
