Page 81 of Buzzer Beater

Lucy and I got up to get food, and by the time we were back with full plates the topic had changed.

I leaned over and whispered in her ear. “We’re already old news.”

She stifled a laugh. “I’m completely okay with that.”

“I’ve taken it easy on you guys. You’re just getting weak.” Chloe was glaring at her brother.

“I can’t twist at all, Chloe. My abs are destroyed.”

Her lips twisted. “You guys need to up your training then. If you can’t handle a little Pilates I’m really concerned about this season.”

Hartman seemed to take offense at this. “Excuse me. Our training program was developed by experts.”

Madeline snickered, and Hartman turned his attention to her. “What’s so funny?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Just that you don’t want to take advice from a woman half your size.”

“If she knew what she was talking about—”

“Don’t you dare say what I think you’re about to, Hartman.” Chloe was waving her finger at him.

“Should we break them up?” Lucy whispered and I shook my head. No way. One, this was entertaining, and two, this was normal.

“You’re the marketing director, Chloe. Not a personal trainer.” Erik shot back.

“But she does have one.” Reese pointed out but quickly went back to eating.

“You think you’re so tough because you’re better at your form of exercise? When we get back how about you try to train with us for one day and see how high and mighty you are.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes at Hartman. “I’ll have my skates ready.”

“Fine.” He huffed as Kendall tried to get him to calm down. He wasn’t normally one to get upset or let Chloe get to him, but when someone challenged his ability as captain he fought back.

“Well, that was fun.” Emma said, and the rest of the group laughed.

Noah pointed at me and Lucy. “So, how is this going to work?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“Oh boy. Colby, I thought we told you to have that talk with him months ago,” Erik joked, making us all laugh.

Noah rolled his eyes. “I mean, you live in California, right?”

Lucy nodded. “We’re going to try the long-distance thing.”

“Oh.” Noah sounded doubtful. I would have kicked him under the table if I could, but the idiot was too far down the table.

Lucy turned to me. “I guess us deciding to get back together was only one obstacle.”

“Hey, don’t let that ruin your day.” Kendall tried to sound optimistic, but it was like a dark cloud had taken residence above our table.

I put my arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “Yeah, we’ll make it work.”

Lucy nodded. “But for how long? We can’t do it indefinitely.”

I looked around the table for help, but everyone was magically minding their own business for the first time in their lives.

Thanks for the help, guys.