Page 26

TWENTY

lorenzo

“Want to race?” I ask Ruby Wednesday morning, eyeing the rubber track a few dozen yards from where we’re parked.

“Race? Take it easy, L. We’re here for a leisurely stroll. Let’s stick to the paths.” Ruby looks at the gravel footpaths that wind in and out of the trees at Cooper’s Park, a huge, multipurpose space just a few minutes from Shafer’s campus.

“I’ve been taking it easy for weeks. Come on. Scared to lose?” The morning’s thunderstorm has cleared off, and I breathe in the raw, mineral scent of rain-soaked soil that’s left behind. My muscles prime with the memory of hundreds of practices spent breathing the same air.

“Lose to someone who’s not allowed to walk faster than one mile per hour?”

“Doc cleared me to get my heart rate up a little bit.”

“You didn’t tell me that. Though it explains your good mood.”

“I was thinking of keeping it to myself and then watching you have a heart attack when I started power walking.”

She crouches to retie a loose shoelace. “I’m not that overprotective.”

“Yes, you are. Total mother hen energy ever since I got out of surgery.”

“Yeah, well, this mother hen’s about ready to disown you if you don’t start showing some appreciation.”

I throw my good arm around her shoulders and pull her tight to my side. “I appreciate you,” I say just as I catch the scent of her shampoo from her ponytail settling on my shoulder. She looks at me and I add, “And if I ever regain full mobility, I’ll make it up to you.”

Ruby holds my gaze, her eyes wary, but there’s a playfulness there, like she’s trying to decide how she wants to interpret this.

I push her gently away before she can see how much I want her to interpret it in the dirtiest way possible.

I swear a switch got flipped over the weekend in Lakeside, and now no amount of willpower can stop the thoughts I’ve been having about her.

“All right, let’s go.” I take off toward the track. “Time for me to beat your power-walking ass.”

Ruby jogs to catch up with me. “So what else did Dr. Halpert say?”

“He said no reason to think I won’t be in peak condition in time for the Combine.”

I feel her hesitate, but by the time I look at her, her face is unreadable. “That’s great. Not that I didn’t know that already.”

“Long way to go between here and there. But yeah, it is great. Now let’s race.”

We make it a mile around the track before I realize how much fitness I’ve lost in the weeks since surgery. It’s a bummer. Not that I’m winded, but a mile doesn’t feel like nothing the way it should.

“So ... we racing or what?” Ruby asks as I slow down. Her smile is teasing.

“Yeah.” I take a big step over the finish line. “And I just won.”

“Cheater.”

“You want a rematch?” Thank god I kept up a lower-body routine. At least my legs feel strong.

“In a minute. I need to stretch a little.” She steps off the track into the grass. I have a feeling she’s doing this for my benefit, not hers, but I’m grateful for the break. “I’m so tight since that stupid dance class I did.”

I try to fight off the sexy image that conjures and stretch out my neck while Ruby starts some kind of disjointed stretching routine of her own.

It takes work not to stare at her. Ruby isn’t really a leggings-and-T-shirt type of girl, so seeing her in tight spandex combined with memories of her bare skin on the boat and the weight of her straddling me in bed is .

.. well, toxic for a man halfheartedly trying to fight his attraction to his beautiful best friend.

And then she bends over and I have to turn my head away because her leggings definitely aren’t squat-proof.

I position myself in front of her to avoid the amazing view.

“You’re doing it wrong,” I say as she moves into a forward fold that unfortunately gives me a perfect sight line to her cleavage.

“How?”

“You’re looking at me. Let your head hang down.”

She drops her head.

“And don’t bounce.” I need her tits to stop jiggling, because I’m literally powerless to look away.

“Jeez, you’re annoying!” She stands back up and puts her hand on her hip. “Okay, Coach. Why don’t you take me through a proper stretch routine?”

“Fine. Get down on your knees.”

She drops her chin, looking up at me through her eyelashes, warning me.

“What? It’s a hip flexor stretch.” I move closer and put a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her down.

She traps her bottom lip between her teeth, restraining a smile. “Lorenzo.”

“Better do what Coach says.”

She obeys, but her eyes catch mine as she lowers herself onto her knees.

“Move into a kneeling lunge and lean forward.”

“Are you going to join me?”

I take my phone out of my pocket and toss it onto the grass, then lower myself down. “Now squeeze your butt.”

“You squeeze your butt.”

“Okay, if you’re not up for it, I could ...” I pretend to reach for her ass.

She laughs. “What is with you today? You’re supposed to be a cranky old man.”

“Can’t a cranky old man get frisky?”

She watches me, a smile still on her lips. She has to be thinking what I’m thinking—the silence between us is anything but silent. What would she do if I leaned over and kissed her? Open her mouth for me? Climb on top of me like she did in bed? I think she would.

She turns her head forward. “Okay, what next?”

“Glute stretch.”

“The grass is wet.”

“Get over it. You’re here to sweat anyway.”

We lie in the grass, and Ruby unties her ponytail, letting her hair loose.

I help her reposition her hands around the back of her thigh instead of her knee, a hands-on approach that’s totally unnecessary, but I can’t help it.

Seeing her on her back with her hair splayed out around her head isn’t leaving room for any thoughts that aren’t a little dirty.

The feel of her soft fingers under mine, wrapping around her thighs, makes my dick come alive alarmingly quick.

I lie back into the stretch, taking a quick detour at my shorts to reposition myself.

We switch legs and Ruby turns to look at me.

She’s smiling like doing glute stretches on the damp grass in a public park is her idea of a perfect day.

And honestly? It’s mine too. It’s just more proof that maybe I was right the other day, that Ruby is everything I want in a woman.

Trust. Loyalty. Fun. Check, check, and check.

My eyes linger on the curve of her ass as she brings her knee to her chest. Hot sex.

And if Ruby fucks anything like she kisses, that won’t be a problem.

My dick stirs again as my mind conjures up an image of her kissing me the way she did that night in bed, but without any clothes.

Ruby sits up, and I’m jerked out of my fantasy. “What’s next, Coach?”

“Um.” I try to get my mind right. “Hamstrings.”

We’re reaching for our toes when my phone beeps in the grass next to Ruby. She glances at it and then leans over to get a better look at the screen.

“Are those . . . nipple rings?”

I groan. I know who’s texting me. “Give it to me.”

“I can’t look?”

“You just did. Give it,” I say shortly.

She rolls her eyes but hands me the phone. I swipe to clear the text and shove the phone in my pocket.

It’s not the first time Ruby’s spotted a nude land in my texts, and after all the years we’ve spent hooking up with other people, it’s never been a big deal. But somehow, without her saying anything, I know today it is.

“All right, hammies loose enough?” I ask, getting up. “Let’s hit the track for round two.”

“Hold on, I’m still stretching. Look how far I’m getting!”

“Your fingers don’t even reach your ankles.”

“Like you could do better?”

“A good six inches better.”

She scoffs. “Surgery has made you cocky, L.”

“Fifty bucks?”

“For six inches? You’re on.”

I grin and lower myself back to the ground. “Easiest fifty bucks I’ve made in my life,” I mutter to annoy Ruby. I stretch my legs in front of me and reach my good arm over my toes. Ruby’s jaw drops like she’s insulted by my flexibility. “Want me to go deeper, babe?”

She laughs. “You’re unreal.”

“It’s not that hard to reach your toes.”

“I wasn’t referring to your flexibility, asshole,” she jokes.

“Come on, just try. Reach a little harder.”

I expect her to ignore me, but Ruby has a mean competitive streak if you can drag it out of her. She gives me a determined look and then stretches, trying to get her fingertips to her toes.

“That’s it?” I pretend to be shocked. “You’ve got the flexibility of a corpse!

” My phone beeps again, but I ignore it.

“Come on, I’ll give you that fifty bucks back if you can just graze your foot with one finger.

One fingernail, even.” I lean over her legs like I’m watching a high-stakes horse race. Then comes another beep from my phone.

“Nipple rings again?”

“Don’t try to distract me, get to work! You can’t afford fifty bucks right now, remember?”

She groans, reaching dramatically for her toes—just as another text comes through.

“Better check it out. Could be a clit ring this time,” Ruby says, but the lightness in her voice sounds forced.

“It’s not.” I take out my phone reluctantly. My stomach drops when I see who it is. Bring back the nipple rings. When I look at Ruby again, she’s given up on stretching and her eyes are on her lap. “So you’re working after this?”

“Uh-huh. Time to inhale some secondhand smoke.”

“That place really doesn’t bother you?”

“I didn’t say that, but it’s okay. It’s quick cash, and I basically choose how much I want to make on any given day by adjusting the height of my heels and the padding in my bra.”

I stare straight ahead and nod, trying to cool the sharp mix of heat and jealousy. “As long as it’s worth your time.”

“We’re still going to Reeve’s party tonight, right? What time?”

I turn away, remembering with dread what I committed myself to tonight. “Yeah, I might have to text you when I’m on my way if you want me to pick you up.”

“It’s going to take you that long to do your hair? No offense, Elvis, but you have no shot at achieving better hair than Reeve at his own birthday party.”

I swallow. “It’s not my hair. I have dinner plans.”

“With who?”

A nearby lawn mower powers down, leaving my silence even more silent. “Allison.” For a second her face is pure, unmasked distress, and I feel like the world’s biggest asshole. “She’s pissed I didn’t go to her exhibit on Saturday.”

“Did you tell her you would?” she says flatly.

“I said I might, but that was before you and I had plans.”

“She wants to get back together.”

Why the fuck does everyone think they know my relationships better than I do? “I already told her that’s not on the table.”

“And yet ...” She shoots a meaningful look at my phone.

“It’s complicated.”

“Is there a reason you haven’t just shut her down?”

I want to argue that I did. I told her I have no time for a relationship.

But maybe I did leave her a seed of hope, and that had nothing to do with Allison and everything to do with me not knowing how to say what I really want.

I stare at the grass for a hard minute. Maybe this is the moment to change that. Tell Ruby you want her.

Ruby’s eyes snap to me. “Maybe you should get back together with her.”

I stare at her. “Come again?”

“There must be some reason you left the door open.” She forces a pleasant expression but can’t help adding, “Despite the fact the semester she spent abroad was the happiest I’ve seen you since before you met her.”

“Then why would you want me to get back with her?” It takes hearing my own cold voice to realize I’m annoyed.

“I don’t. I just think maybe you do.”

What the fuck is this about? She hates Alli. And that night in her parents’ kitchen, I swear we were six seconds from fucking and ... I don’t know, maybe acknowledging we want to be more than friends. Maybe turning this into something real.

Or maybe I’m deluded. Maybe Ruby would never let herself get involved with me. Maybe it was never anything more than a drunken kiss.

Fuck. An unexpected flood of anger hits me.

Heart pounding, I push myself up off the ground and don’t bother extending a hand to Ruby.

What the fuck are we doing to each other?

Her climbing into bed with me and me fantasizing about doing everything from fucking her to marrying her as though it could ever be that easy.

We don’t know how to be anything other than friends.

How fucked up am I that two minutes ago I was about to tell her I wanted to be with her? I was smarter as a drunk high schooler.

Ruby stands up. I feel her eyes on me but I don’t look at her. “What?”

I turn for the track. “I hate when you act like you know what I want.”

“Come on, Lorenzo, you guys broke up six months ago, yet here you still are, in limbo.”

“We’re not in limbo. We’re broken up. Full stop.”

“I bet she doesn’t see it that way.”

“She can see it however she wants.”

“If you didn’t want to be with her, you would have made that clear.”

“Am I allowed to care about her without wanting her back? Am I allowed to be a fucking pussy about hurting her feelings?”

“You’re allowed to do whatever you want.” She looks forward, her jaw set.

“Then what are you pissed about?”

“We’re best friends. You don’t have to downplay whatever it is that’s going on with you and her. You wouldn’t do that if I were Cash.”

If you were Cash, I also wouldn’t have been fantasizing about rolling around on the grass with you. “I’m not downplaying shit. I told you how it is. What do you want me to do?”

“Go out with her, Lorenzo. I don’t care. Work your shit out and do what makes you happy.” For just a second, her voice takes on that rich, quavery tone that warns me she might cry. But when I look at her, her face is impassive. I imagined it. Maybe I just wanted her to.

It’s quiet enough I can hear my heart pounding. I was an idiot to start giving in to my attraction to Ruby when I don’t even know what she really feels for me. All I know right now is she’s pushing me away, and she’s right; I do need to work my shit out, and I need to start with Allison.