Muffin Top (Page 32)

“Oh, too bad about how things are turning out,” Constance said after sidling up to him as he stood in the lemonade line. “There’s just one more event this afternoon, and Bryce and I have it locked up.”

“The obstacle course?” He glanced over to the other side of the park, where that event had been set up.

There were tires contestants had to hop through, a section where they’d have to army crawl under ropes, a water balloon firing squad, and more. Lucy had taken one look and dashed home to change so she wouldn’t have to deal with all of that in a skirt.

“There’s a climbing wall,” Constance said, pointing to the wooden structure at the end of the course. “It’s a tough one.”

There was nothing in her tone that was a callback to her bitchy greeting the other day, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was an underlying animus. “What is your problem with Lucy?”

She smoothed her palms over her blond hair, held back in a ponytail, and looked around as if to make sure no one overheard him. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You have to admit this attitude of yours is extreme for someone who’s not fifteen and a hormonal wreck. Hell, it’s extreme even for that.”

Something flickered in the woman’s blue eyes, something that looked a lot like the kind of old hurt that had been picked at for so long it was just layer after layer of scar tissue. “Let’s just say she brought it on herself, coming into school with those expensive clothes and fancy jewelry her mama bought her when most folks barely had enough money to put food in the fridge after the Pacifica Company plant shut down.”

Bingo. Insecurities didn’t skip over the pretty people. “So you were jealous?”

“No.” She narrowed her eyes at him, her entire body practically sparking with fury. “I was pissed.”

“Seems like you still are.” And that was the understatement of the year.

Constance marched off right as he spotted Lucy making a beeline straight for him. Gone was that sexy skirt, replaced with a pair of cropped yoga pants and long, flowing sleeveless shirt.

“Cavorting with the enemy?” she asked once she got to him.

He handed her a lemonade. “Just trying to work some shit out.”

“Well, do it from the starting line. We’ve got to win this one if we’re going to stay in the race. Good thing I do the Waterbury charity color run obstacle course every year. Now let’s go do this.”

And they did. It wasn’t easy, that was for sure, but Lucy was in great shape. The woman would kill it on the fire department obstacle training course.

He and Lucy were celebrating with drinks in a corner booth at the only bar in downtown Antioch before heading back to the house to get ready for the Antioch town carnival tonight. Then, there was one more day of activities and the reunion dance, which was set up to be a repeat of Lucy’s senior prom, complete with the Under the Sea theme.

“Who did you go to your prom with?” he asked, handing her a beer.

“I didn’t.” She gave him a look that just about screamed duh. “I was the fat girl and designated class punching bag, no one was going to ask me.”

“Not everyone could have been like Constance.” Just the idea of it had him grinding his teeth.

However, he’d seen her today talking with people at the park, giving old friends hugs. Surely all of those people couldn’t have been complete assholes.

She seemed to think about it for a second, taking another drink. “You’re right. Really it was just Constance and her friends that were total jerks”

“Did you wear a lot of expensive stuff to school?” he asked, thinking back to the conversation he’d had with Lucy’s archnemesis.

“Oh, you mean the mommy guilt gifts?” She chuckled, the rough-edged sound not even hinting at amusement. “Yeah, my mom left us for a rich tycoon when I was a kid. But she’d visit whenever they were on the outs and she’d feel guilty, remembering the daughter she’d left. So she bought all these ridiculous clothes. They weren’t really me, but she’d convinced my dad that if I just dressed in a certain way—basically the way she did—that I’d have more friends.”

“It didn’t work out that way.”

She shook her head and sighed. “Not even close.”

“Constance mentioned the clothes.” He had no clue why he was getting involved in all of this. It would be easier just to chalk up Constance as a class-A bitch and move on, but he couldn’t let it go. It was a sore spot for Lucy, one he could tell she couldn’t stop poking at—and she wouldn’t until she worked it all out, and that was as bad for her as it was for Constance to hold on to a stupid high school grudge. “She said you thought you were better than everyone else in high school.”

“She couldn’t have been more wrong. I thought everyone—and I mean everyone—was better than me. My insecurity was legendary.”

“You don’t seem like that now.” If anything, she was the kind of tell-it-like-it-is, stand-up-to-anyone woman who could kick someone’s ass without chipping a red-tipped nail. God knew, she loved giving him shit all the time.

She raised her bottle and clinked it against his. “It’s amazing what a thick, defensive layer of fuck-you can hide.” Taking a short pause, she eyeballed him. “Now are you just avoiding talking about last night, or are you really into years-old gossip?”

That was his Lucy, getting straight to it. Really, she’d held out longer than he’d expected, considering how direct she usually was. Of course, that didn’t mean he was ready to lay all of his cards out on the table.

“You want to talk about last night?” he asked, taking a drink of the super hoppy local IPA.

“I know I said we shouldn’t, but it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.” She took a deep breath, a V of worry creasing the space in the middle of her forehead. “I don’t want to be the person to make you break your word to yourself.”

“About being on the sex bench?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“It’s okay, I’m back in the game.” Oh, was he ever.

That little break had shown him one very important thing. It wasn’t what he was doing that was the problem, it was who he was doing it with. The time he’d spent with Lucy was different than with other women because of his need to compartmentalize coming back to bite him on the ass. He’d put Lucy in the friend zone, but she wouldn’t stay there. Their whatever-it-should-be-called was about more than just physical satisfaction. Hell, up to this point it had been all about physical denial. She made him laugh. She made him think. She made him wonder how in the hell he hadn’t figured all of that out before their little what-is-sex conversation last night.

The truth of the matter was, she was right. Sex was different when you cared about the other person in more than just the general humanitarian sense.

“Don’t make a joke of this,” she said. “Consent is important, and I don’t want to put you in a position where you don’t think you can say no because you’re a nice guy, or because you’re just really horny and I’m willing.”

Fucking A. Lucy had no clue what she did to him. He dropped his hand to her knee, skimming it upward. Thanks to their booth’s location, no one could see what he was doing—which was basically nothing because she’d switched from a skirt to yoga pants. However, it was enough to remind her of exactly what had happened last time he’d had his palm on her thigh.