Duke stuck his tongue out at me, and quick as a cobra, I snatched his tongue between my fingers.
“Hey!” Duke complained, though even as simple a word as that sounded garbled when he had his tongue trapped. “Give it back!”
Lucy gasped. “Knox!”
I turned back to Lucy, who looked scandalized. It made sense, given the environment he’d grown up in, but all the more reason to bring him. He could use some time away from it all.
“Lucy, this is Duke. Duke, this is Lucy. Play nice.”
I released Duke’s tongue, and he flashed me a scowl before turning back to Lucy.
“It’s nice to meet you, Lucy. Can’t believe you volunteered to spend more time with this douche.” He jerked his thumb at me, only to retract it when I made to snatch that, too.
“You’re Knox’s friend?” Lucy checked, glancing at me before turning his attention back to Duke, who, frankly, didn’t deserve it.
“His bestest friend, right Knox?” Duke threw his arm around me and squeezed, pulling me off balance again.
We might not have a huge height difference, but it was enough for him to use it to his advantage and pull me off my feet if I wasn’t thinking about it.
Duke ignored my flailing. “But his other, less important friends are already inside. We were just waiting on you two.”
Lucy glanced at me, his movement swift and searching. It was the same thing I’d seen whenever Lucy’s sister and father had called him or visited his apartment this week. He wouldn’t push against them verbally, but if this adorable scowl was what he could do, I would take it. “They are?”
I nudged Duke to release me, which he did. “Yeah. I thought this would be a fun thing for you. Get out, have some fun, ignore that painting for one day.”
Lucy frowned. “The exhibit is Saturday.”
“Exactly. And it looks finished to me. How close is it to actually being done?”
Lucy winced. “I mean, it’s finished technically.”
It was my turn to frown. “Then why have you been stressing so much?”
“Because it’s not right.” Lucy crossed his arms, curling in on himself.
Duke cleared his throat and nudged Lucy, much gentler this time. “Well, it’s a good time to take your mind off it then, yeah? Do something fun and physical for a while. We don’t mind bringing you into the fold. We’ve been coming here for years. Knox has missed out for the last two, but now he’s back, and we can force him to come back to these again.”
Lucy glanced at me again, questioning.
I shrugged. “I’ve been away at school. I’m finished now and back here, so back to laser tag I go. I thought you might like to come, too.”
Lucy took a deep breath before nodding. “Okay. Laser tag it is.”
9
LUCY
Laser tag. What the hell had I gotten myself into?
Knox led me inside the old building and only released my hand when three people leapt out of seemingly nowhere and tackled him in a hug.
They collapsed into a pile, and I felt my jaw drop.
“Don’t mind them,” Duke chuckled. “They’re just excited to see him.”
I startled, but he easily slid his arm around me and guided me out of striking distance from the mess of limbs on the floor.
“Oh, right. That makes sense then,” I offered, even if I’d never seen people react this way to their friends, even if it had been years since seeing them.
