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“Keely was handing out gloves. Grabbed you a pair.” I wasn’t sure why I was persisting in trying to cheer him up other than a vague sense of guilt. Maybe he’d finally had enough of how tense I got after every hookup. Any weirdness was totally on me, but I was also tired of my freakouts and wanted to do better.
“Thanks.” He accepted the gloves, which had the unintended consequence of making me aware of how big his hands were and how damn much I wanted them all over me again. I swallowed hard.
“You…um…want food?” Jesus. I sounded all of fourteen. It was no wonder Malik thought I had zero game. Before he could answer, Tiffany came striding over on her long, perfect legs
“Avery!” She tapped me on the left shoulder. “You said you’d help with my heater.”
“Yep. You heading back to your room now?” I shot a look at Malik, who glanced away.
“You go on.” He made a shooing motion with his hand. “I’m not that hungry. Think I’ll go check a few more locks before I crash.”
Well, hell. That was a dismissal, but now I was even more convinced he was upset. Lieutenant Foodie didn’t easily skip meals or chances to share them. I wanted—needed— to do something more than gloves to make things right with him, but Tiffany was already motioning me to follow her.
Her room was far larger than ours, with a giant tub in the corner. “This used to be the honeymoon suite,” she tittered as we entered, continuing to talk a mile a minute. “Can you believe that? They said I could stay somewhere nice, in another nearby town like Melissa’s doing, but I wanted a real feel for this place, even if it meant roughing it.”
Typical sheltered Malibu girl, like all of my sister’s friends. For all I’d complained about having to share with Malik, this was nowhere near the worst I’d had. I headed to the wall heater unit, not wanting to waste time hanging out by the drafty door.
“Try being deployed if you want to really rough it.”
“Sorry.” She came closer as I examined the heating unit. “Forgot you were ex-military. I always think of you as a football family.”
“Everyone does.” Even after I’d gone to lengths to separate and prove myself, but I wasn’t going to whine about that to her.
“Must be fun. Tickets whenever you want them, especially with your dad doing commentary now.”
“I wouldn’t know.” I shrugged. “I go when my mom makes me, like once or twice a year. I’m not much of a fan, sorry. But if you want the hookup on tickets, talk to Megan. She just got engaged to her big-shot star boyfriend. She can get great seats for the LA team, probably let you join her in the family section if she’s not cheering that week.”
“That’s an awesome idea.” She offered me a toothy smile as I took out the multi-tool I’d stashed in one of my pockets because, for all my joking, I didn’t actually have a screwdriver attachment on the prosthesis. “Look at you, coming prepared.”
“I try.” With Malik, I’d admit how hard it had been to figure out things like tools with my left hand, but with Tiffany, I felt more locked into pretending things were no big deal. “You a big football fan?”
“Not exactly. I’m up for a role in a football biopic. I’ll need to do lots of research this fall if I get the role. It’s based on a book about the true story of a quarterback who loses his sight. Super inspirational.”
“Uh-huh.” Actually, it sounded boring and depressing as hell, but I focused on tightening several loose screws in the heating unit. If Malik were here, I’d give him a look because I knew he shared my views on how disability didn’t exist for other people’s inspirational memes. Sometimes you got shit luck and dealt with it any way you could. “Good luck with that. And there. I think the heater should work now with less noise.”
“Let’s turn it up and see.” After I slid back, she spun the thermostat dial and made a delighted noise as it hummed to life. The sound should have turned me on, but instead only reminded me of Malik’s pleased noises the night before, all his groans and gasps and praise. Was it possible to miss someone you’d spent most of the day with?
I sighed, which made Tiffany’s mouth purse. “Was that a hard job?”
“Nah.” No way was I telling her what was really on my mind. “No problem at all.”
“Well, you’re a lifesaver anyway.” Removing her coat, she tossed it over the back of a nearby faded chair. “Now I can sleep tonight. But it’s too early for that. You want to hang out a while, maybe watch some TV?”
