“Still hoping to win the World Cup?” I said drolly.
“The what? You mean the World Series.”
“No, the World Cup. Soccer.”
“How can you not love baseball? It’s the great American pastime!”
“Not for me. I was too busy having sex.”
“Fine, rub it in. You’re better with women. I get it. I’m doing okay, though. I’ll have my own harem tonight, same as you.” He glanced at the group and tried to figure out how to one-up me.
“Never gonna happen,” I chuckled.
“What? Brooke? Yeah, no. Wren made that perfectly clear.” His tone explained his pissy mood from earlier. “I’m still the man and all,” he added, “but… you know. Anyway, next order of business. I’m supposed to ask—”
“Remember to let the burgers rest!” Wren called on her way from the clubhouse to the table. She carried a pitcher of sangria, and Mark trailed her with a pitcher of the pink stuff.
“Whatever the hell that means,” Trip said under his breath. “Meat is meat. It doesn’t get tired.”
“Yes, chef!” I called back. It was another dig—Wren was the boss, no matter her gender—but it was too subtle to register.
“I’m s’posed to ask about tomorrow,” Trip continued. “Are we still… you know?”
“We? Are you and Wren coming with us?”
“You know what I mean,” he said. “Are you still gonna do it?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Well, good luck. You don’t need it, but still…”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Anyway, let’s eat. I’m starving. All that sex really takes it out of ya, doesn’t it? Ha! You’d know! You were a fat kid, weren’t you? And look at you now!” He meant it as a compliment, but I bristled anyway.
“I wasn’t fat. I was pudgy.” I sounded petulant, but Trip had never been shy and self-conscious, much less gawky. He’d been popular, handsome, and athletic his whole life.
He was probably a good-looking sperm, the little head said.
The fastest, at least. The strongest, too.
But not anymore. Look at us now. I’m bigger and you’re better-looking.
I dunno about that, I hedged.
You are. Besides, we’ve always been better with the ladies.
That’s true.
I mean, while he was King of the Prom, we were in a hotel room…
Having an orgy…
With three hot women.
Top that, Mr. High School Popularity Contest!
I laughed aloud and immediately felt better.
Trip misunderstood, mostly because his natural talents didn’t extend to mind reading. He gave me a cocky grin. Then he raised his voice to the table.
“Hey, babe! You ready for some hot meat?”
Wren rolled her eyes but smiled fondly.
“C’mon,” he said to me. “Let’s give it to ’em.”
* * *
Later that evening, Leah arrived as a bit of a surprise. I’d been expecting her, but not furtive and out of breath. She closed the door behind her and rested her back against it. She looked like an artfully mussed supermodel, except that she was nude and several inches too short to be a part of that Amazon tribe.
I wasn’t about to complain, though, and I knew better than to snicker at her strange behavior. I closed my book instead and used it as an excuse to compose my expression.
“Everything all right?” I asked.
Brooke called from the bedroom, “Is that Leah?”
“Shh,” she hissed.
I stood, and Brooke appeared from the hallway, silent and slightly confused. Christy joined her, equally nonplussed.
“Sorry,” Leah said. She swallowed to moisten her mouth.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I don’t want anyone to know I’m here. I don’t think they saw.”
My brows knitted. “Why not?”
“’Cause I hid in the shadows and ran.”
Her bungalow was thirty feet from ours, not even ten meters. Heh, ten meters. I chuckled but kept it to myself.
“Okay,” I said slowly, “and why don’t you want anyone to know you’re here?”
“Oh, right! That’s what you meant in the first place. Yeah, sorry. I don’t want Erin to know, ’cause I don’t wanna hurt her feelings.”
All of a sudden I realized that Erin hadn’t said anything about spending the night with Trip and Wren. They were planning to do it on the sly, like Leah was doing with us.
“Everything okay?” I asked. “I mean, things were fine at dinner.”
“Yeah, it’s just that I’m not in the mood for a big production. I’m not in the mood for Trip, either, and his muff-diving jokes, like he’s God’s gift to pussy-eating. Not to mention his snide little comments about how he likes ‘a little grass on the field.’ Ugh! I don’t do it for him. Besides, it’s my body!”
She sounded so much like Christy that my eyes crinkled in amusement. Brooke bit her lip, and Christy herself had to physically cover her mouth to keep from laughing.
“I’m serious,” Leah said. “He’s normally pretty cool, especially when it’s just them and us. But lately he’s a macho jerk. It’s annoying. And I’m tired of his BS.”
“You don’t have to tell us,” Christy said. “We completely understand.”
“I think he’s fine,” Brooke said.
“You don’t have to live with him,” Christy shot back.
“Neither do you.”
“Whoa,” I said before the argument could escalate. “Trip might not be perfect, but he isn’t so bad. He’s better than Vaughn, Todd, or Fletcher.”
Each of the girls grimaced at the names from their past.
“Oh, God,” Leah said, “I hadn’t thought about Todd Zachary in years. What a fucking asshole.”
I blinked in surprise, not at the sentiment, but her language. She usually didn’t swear like that. She suppressed her emotions by switching into journalist mode.
“Vaughn was yours?” she said to Brooke. Then she thought back. “No, Fletcher.”
Brooke frowned, and she switched into scientist mode.
I stifled a laugh at how their personalities suited their chosen fields.
“How’d you know?” Brooke said. “Did Chris tell you? Sorry, Christy. Did she tell you?”
“No. It’s just that I know Paul.”
“He didn’t say anything.”
“She knows I’d mention Christy first,” I explained.
“For real?”
“I told you,” Christy said to her, “he’s very precise.”
“Evidently.”
“So, this Fletcher guy,” Leah said into the silence. “Did he rape you, too?”
Brooke’s eyes widened. “What? No!”
“He was just a loser,” Christy said. “A lying, cheating loser. Oh, and he was bad in bed.”
“Is that all?” Leah laughed.
“Is that what Todd did?” Christy asked. “Rape you? For real? Rape-rape?”
“Close enough,” Leah said. “I’d rather not talk about it, though. I take it that Vaughn was gentler with you?”
“Oh my gosh, yes. He was fine.”
Brooke snorted.
“He was,” Christy insisted. “Yeah, he was a jerk, but I learned a lot.”
“So?” Brooke said impatiently. “You didn’t need him to— um… you know.”
Leah’s eyebrows rose with a dozen questions, but she kept them to herself. She looked at her watch instead.
“You’d better get going,” she said, “or Mark’ll think I got caught.”
“I’ll get my things.” Brooke disappeared into the back and returned with her overnight bag. She’d packed her toiletries and some lingerie, but I’d overheard her and Christy talking about her butt plug, lube, and a blindfold. Mark was in for a fun night.
“If you don’t mind,” Leah said, “stay out of sight. I’d rather not answer questions tomorrow about ‘midnight liaisons’ or ‘secret rendezvous.’”