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“This Wednesday works for me.” Her nose wrinkles and her eyes squint as she looks at me. “Is this a date?”
“Based on the look on your face, I hope not. God, Lucy, way to make me feel pathetic. I didn’t know a date with me sounded so terrible.” I frown. I hadn’t thought of it as a date, but it doesn’t feel good to know that she wouldn’t want it to be. Talk about hitting my ego.
Lucy gasps. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she apologizes quickly.
“Oh, you so did.” I laugh at her response. “Don’t worry, Lucy. I want to take you as my new friend. Unless,” I drag the word out to tease her, “do you secretly want this to be a date? I mean, you do take an awful lot of pictures of me.”
That seems to loosen the tension for her as she giggles softly. “I don’t even know how to recover from that.”
The front door opens, causing us both to turn and see Neil and Bo walk in. They stop when they see Lucy.
“Guys, this is Lucy Kennedy. Lucy, that’s Neil and Bo, though I'm sure you knew that already.”
She waves her hand in hello. They walk into the living room, and Neil sits down next to Lucy. A little too close, probably. He gives her a big grin.
“You are the photographer girl, little sister to the Kennedy brothers, right?” he asks.
Lucy nods and smiles. “Do you know them?”
“No, I don’t,” he answers. “If I had known that you looked like-”
“Neil, I’ll kick your ass. Don’t start that shit with her,” I interrupt suddenly. They both look at me surprised.
“Yeah, her brothers are fucking crazy. You should have seen them confront Grant the other day,” Bo says, shaking his head at the memory.
“Hello,” Lucy waves her hand in a circle, “I’m right here. And my brothers aren’t crazy.” Her lips fall into a frown. “What did they say to you?” she asks me. “You said they didn’t force or intimidate you.”
“They didn’t. They were half pissed, half concerned, and they tried to be intimidating, but they weren’t. Maybe you should tell them that I am not stupid, though.”
Lucy looks confused, but Bo laughs. “Yeah, they talked to him slowly at first like he had taken too many hits.”
“I’m sorry,” she mumbles. “They can be crazy, I guess.”
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“Don’t worry about it.”
A horn honks from outside, and she groans. “That’s probably Patrick.” She takes her memory card from my computer and puts it back in her camera. “Thanks for today,” she says, looking back up at me. “I’ll see you Wednesday, then?”
“Yeah, I’ll text you.”
Satisfied, she stands and is out the door in seconds. Both Bo and Neil are watching me, waiting for me to explain further. I don’t make any move to do so. Lucy is none of their damn business. They seem to be the opposite of her, and that makes me want to keep her safely away from them for some reason. I start looking for good seats, but Neil can’t handle the suspense.
“Well?”
“Well, what?” I answer without taking my eyes away from the screen.
“What was she doing here? What’s Wednesday?”
“He’s teaching her about hockey,” Bo answers. The mention of that makes me realize that we didn’t even watch the end of the game. “I’m assuming that’s why she was here anyway.”
“Yeah, that was why,” I confirm.
“And Wednesday?” Neil pushes.
“When did you get so damn curious?” He stares at me and waits for me to answer. “I’m taking her to a game. As her friend,” I clarify as I purchase our tickets.
UNFORTUNATELY, I DON'T run into Paula anymore, and I'm above texting her just to have sex. She was right. That doesn't need to become a habit. After the horrible loss, I spend most of the weekend at the gym exercising since I'm not getting laid. The entire week has been shit with dirty dreams I don't want to have, the loss, and completely forgetting about an assignment. It's made me cranky. I'm still in a pissy mood when Dave FaceTimes me Sunday evening as I'm leaving the gym. It doesn't help at all that he looks so cheery.
