Pucked Up

“I have meetings in the morning.” I regret already that I didn’t plan to stay the night, and that I didn’t call her before I came.

“I could drive you to the airport,” she offers shyly.

“That might work.”

“Only if you want me to, though.”

“Sure. That’d be good. Then we can talk.”

“That’d be nice.” Sunny bites her lip and takes a step closer. “Can I hug you?”

“I guess. If you want to.” I open my arms, and she moves into the empty space, clasping her hands behind my back and pressing her cheek against my chest.

I’m already sporting a semi—maybe a third of the way hard. She can’t feel it yet, but if we stand here long enough, she definitely will. She smells like sunshine and that mint shampoo she uses.

Another door opens somewhere below us, and we break apart. Why don’t people use the damn elevator?

“We should go get those snacks.” I open the door and usher Sunny out ahead of me. The jeans look fantastic on her ass. I wish she wasn’t so easy to look at and I didn’t care about her so much.

We spend the next two hours hanging out in Michael’s room, talking about camp and the upcoming fundraising game. Sunny’s quieter than usual, but Lily has all sorts of questions, and she offers to help out however she can, especially since we’re holding it in Guelph, I think my Dad must have used some of Waters’ connections to make it happen. It’s nice that she and I finally seem to be okay with each other. When I tell her Randy’s going to be playing with me in the game, she gets all blushy and flustered.

Once treatment is over and Michael’s mom has taken him home, we all pile into Lily’s beat-up Honda civic.

“Can you take Miller and me to Alex’s condo?” Sunny asks.

“Sure.” Lily smiles from the front seat.

“You talk to Randy lately?” I ask as we crawl through the streets of Toronto toward the lakeshore.

Her fingers tighten on the steering wheel and a flush creeps up her neck to settle in her cheeks. “He called me a few days ago.”

“He did!” Sunny shrieks. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I missed the call. He left a message.”

I keep my mouth shut, but when I get back to Chicago I’m definitely going to mention something to Randy. I think he’s way more hung up on Lily than he wants to admit. I don’t want him to pull his usual crap where he gets involved and then bails. And not just because it’ll cause problems for me and Sunny—that ex of Lily’s seems to be a big douchey problem. She doesn’t need any more.

After forty-five minutes, Lily drops us at a huge condo building. It’s not the distance but the traffic that made the ride take so long. Since traffic always sucks here, we’ll have to hit the road right away. At least we can talk and drive.

First Sunny takes me up to Waters’ condo on the top floor of the building. The space is massive, boasting a sweet view of Lake Ontario. It’s not a lake anyone wants to swim in, according to Sunny. Apparently pollution means going for a dip could result in extra arms growing out of funky places. I’m not sure if she’s serious or not, but I’ll take her word for it.

She lifts a set of car keys from a hook by the door. “I wish you didn’t have to go so soon.”

“Yeah. Me either.”

“You could catch a later flight.” She peeks up from under blond lashes.

“Is that what you want me to do?”

She flips the keys over in her hands. “Only if you want to.”

We’re here now. We might as well have the conversation I’ve been stupidly avoiding. I call Amber. She checks into alternate flights. There are only two options, and neither gives me a whole lot of extra time.

“Hold on.” I cover the phone. “I can either fly out at nine thirty or ten ten.”

“That’s the latest you can stay?” She doesn’t look happy.

“That’s all they’ve got for tonight. I have meetings in Chicago in the morning.”

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