“So beautiful,” Kappy murmured, staring straight ahead, his eyes filled with lust.
Colt shifted his weight to make eye contact with me. Knowing exactly what he was thinking, I gave him a nod and tried my best to school my face into a grave look.
Colt narrowed his gaze on Kappy. “You better be talking about Piper.”
“Wha—?” Kappy startled, like he just then realized he spoke aloud. He shook his head. “No, I didn’t mean—”
“You’renottalking about Piper?” Colt asked in a harsher voice.
“No,” Kappy said, putting his hands up.
“Then who are you talking about?” I demanded, scowling just as hard as Colt.
All traces of humor dropped from Kappy’s face as he looked between the two of us. He was fully stuck and knew it. If he said Mer, he’d be risking Colt’s wrath. If he said Ali, he’d be in trouble with me. His face turned a ghostly shade of pale. “Guys…”
I was the first to break, covering my face to laugh.
“Oh, fuck off,” Kappy said, shoving me away.
“Why don’t you just admit you like the girl?” Colt asked.
Kappy shook his head. “I have my reasons. Why aren’t you hounding him about Lil Al Pal? It’s not like they’re going out.”
“Because he’s gonna straighten things out with her tonight, right?” Colt gave me a hard look.
“Yeah, I plan to.” I nodded.
“Good man.” Colt slapped me on the back. “Now, if you can’t admit you like Piper, can you at least promise not to argue with her tonight?”
“Ah.” Kappy dropped his head back, a telling grin on his face. “No can do, that’s our love language,” he said before striding toward the girls.
As soon as we reached their section, Colt took the stairs by two to reach Mer’s side of the aisle. “Been looking all over for you three. I called you about five times, baby,” he said, his eyebrows pinching together in concern.
Mer tried her best to keep a straight face, but it was like when a teacher reprimanded best friends in class, and as soon as the girls made eye-contact, theyall busted up laughing.
“Baby?” He stared down at her with concern. “Are you okay?”
Kappy mimicked him in a whiny voice. “Baby? Are you okay?” He laughed. “They’re fine. They’re wasted.”
Colt’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
Piper stuck her nose in the air. “We’re not wasted, Richard. We were simply over-served.”
“Ha!” Kappy exclaimed, his face brightening with a laugh.
I came up the other side of the aisle closer to Ali and scrubbed a hand over my damp hair, probably making it stick up at a million angles. “Looks like you girls got into the alcohol, eh?”
“I’m eighteen, I’m allowed,” Ali said, but her voice slightly wavered.
My face broke into a grin. “’Course you are. It’s good to see you, Al. C’mere.” I strode forward to give her a hug. She popped out of her seat to greet me, but then tripped on a step. I immediately lunged to catch her around the waist. “There’s my clumsy girl,” I said with a deep chuckle while setting her back on her feet.
Her face fully relaxed after that, and a bubble of happiness started growing in my chest. Looking around our small group, I think the other guys were feeling it too. We were back with our family.
“Well boys, I think it’s time to play a little catch up,” Kappy said with a wicked grin. He shook out his dark wet hair before smoothing it back.
I groaned while pulling a beanie over my damp hair. “Let’s get food first. That new place, Trivoli’s, looked good.”
“We’ve got food at home, guys. We just went to the grocery store yesterday,” Colt argued.
