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“Right,” she told herself sternly. And then, with a wry grimace, she added, still out loud, because if she was going to be a huge gay disaster, she may as well put her whole gay ass into it, “I really need to get the fuck out of here.”
Because the entire week had been like being thrust back into boarding school, with friends constantly underfoot and the only privacy existing inside her own room, she wasn’t terribly surprised to find Kit and Jack playing catch with a bright orange frisbee when she stepped onto the street backing the cottages. It was something they’d do constantly in the green at Stonebridge, claiming that keeping their hands busy helped them think.
“Yeah…” Kit leapt into the air, her navy blue and white striped quarter-zip lifting with the effort as she stretched to her full length to grab the flying disc before it got away. “But if we recalibrate the modulator so it doesn’t—” she broke off as she dropped back to the ground and spotted Zann. “Hey, Zee. Wanna play?”
That, too, was a familiar invitation, and Zann smiled at the nostalgia of it all. She really needed to make more of an effort to get back to Massachusetts to see them. “I wish I could, but I need to show Imani and her wife around the venue a bit before we need to meet Aspen.”
“They’re your friends who’re gonna do the pictures?” Jack asked.
Zann nodded. “Depending on how long you’ve been out here, you probably saw them when they got here. They’re going to stay in my cottage.”
“Ah,” Kit said, nodding to herself, “that’d explain the stupid hot black woman that was giving major assassin vibes and the pretty Persian that went into what should’ve been your cottage.”
Zann laughed. “That is possibly the most accurate description of Imani that I’ve ever heard. I’m totally stealing that.”
“Just don’t tell her where you got it,” Kit replied.
“I won’t. See you at Aspen’s in, like”—Zann checked the time on her new watch—“an hour or so?”
“Yeah.” Jack gestured toward Aspen’s cottage. “She was actually playing catch with us earlier, but then Alder stopped by and stole her away for some super-secret-sister-time or something, but we were told to be there at one.”
“Do you need help with whatever you’re doing?” Kit asked. “We’re just fucking around; we can totally help if you need it.”
“I don’t think so,” Zann said, smiling at the offer. “I’m just gonna show them the beach and the dining room and stuff, and we’ll need to go over angles and shit.” Kit’s shoulders slumped, and she added, “I mean, you’re totally welcome to tag along if you want, but I can’t promise it’ll be interesting.”
“I’m always game to be bored learning something new,” Kit said, grinning at Jack. “Jackie?”
“Why not?” He clapped his hands and held them up in a throw-it-here gesture. “I’ll just stash the frisbee on our porch.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go grab ‘em,” Zann said as she started for their cottage. She smiled at the way Kit fell in beside her and threw a playful elbow at her side. “Y’know, I’ve really missed you guys.”
“We are very missable,” Kit quipped. “But I’ve missed you, too. This week has been fun. Jack and I were talking earlier about how we need to try to get all of us in the same place more often.”
“We totally should.”
“We totally should, what?” Jack asked as he joined them.
“Schedule more shenanigans and fuckery with the old crew,” Zann said.
“We totally do,” he agreed.
“Well, it’ll be a little easier when you’re back East again,” Kit said, slapping lightly at Zann’s shoulder. “I give it six months before you’ve moved to New York.”
“Shit, I’m taking the under on that one,” Jack sniggered.
“Oh, fuck off,” Zann grumbled, though she couldn’t quite stifle that tugged at her lips.
Kit smirked. “Anyway, with you in the Big Apple and us in Beantown, it’d be easy to arrange something. We’ll just have to get Aspen to come… Or I guess we could all fly to her, or just meet up somewhere random like this if she’s not feeling the whole city thing.”
“Yeah, I think we can work around that,” Zann agreed as they came up to Imani and Yasmine’s cottage. “I’ll be right back.”
“Sounds good,” Kit and Jack agreed as they stopped at the edge of the walk.
Imani answered the door almost immediately, already dressed in her professional photog blacks. Her smile was blinding against her flawless, ebony skin as she teased, “About damn time.”
Zann chuckled softly as Imani’s keen, obsidian eyes that never missed a single detail, looked past her. “Yes, because it’s been, what? Not even five minutes since I got off the phone with your wife?”
“Sure, we can go with that,” Imani agreed, her attention still focused on the end of the walkway. She cocked a perfectly sculpted brow. “They’re not Wikipedia. But they are doing a fucking terrifying impersonation of those creepy-ass twins from The Shining just standing there like that.”
