Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Stace

"She'll be here. Won't she?" I asked Buck as we waited for Hunter to meet us near the playground. I'd managed to secure a bench to myself and had brought drinks along with clementines, cheese sticks, and two brownies that one of the other moms had made. She always added something extra to them, this time in the form of butterscotch candies, and they were going to be delicious.

Buck sat next to me and twitched his ears, ignoring me in favor of glaring at squirrels. He wanted to bolt and chase every single one up a tree, but he was a good boy and wouldn't move unless I gave him permission.

"There you are," said a familiar voice and I turned my head to find Hunter walking toward me. Her hair was twisted back in a clip and she wore a long skirt with a soft slouchy sweater, since the air was a little chilly today. The leaves had begun their transition and soon it would be peak foliage. I couldn't wait. Fall was my favorite season.

She had a paper bag with her.

I stood up to greet her and Buck was distracted from the squirrels by the new arrival, wiggling with excitement.

"Hey," I said, feeling so much relief that she was here. She was here .

"Hey," she said. "I know you said not to bring you anything, but technically this isn't for you."

She held out the bag and I was intrigued. I pulled out two balls and a rope toy.

"They're for Buck. The lady at the store said these were the most popular ones," she said, shuffling her feet a little bit.

I was touched at the gift. "These are perfect, thank you. He's going to love them." Buck had seen the toys, so I hastily put them away so he didn't get too excited.

Hunter came close and crouched down.

I took Buck's leash and led him over to her.

"Sit," I told him. He did, even though he was vibrating with excitement to meet someone new.

"Hello," Hunter said, reaching her hand out.

Buck leaned forward with eagerness to get close to her.

"He's happy to see you," I said. It was obvious from the tension in Hunter's body that she was nervous. Her fingers were hesitant, as if she was afraid that Buck would bite her.

I got down on her level and took her hand, guiding it so Buck could sniff her. He did so with enthusiasm before butting his head against her fingers in an effort to get her to pet him.

She let out a little giggle when he licked her hand.

"Buck, that's not very polite," I chided him, but he was ignoring me and creeping closer to Hunter.

"It's okay," she said in a soft voice and there were so many thick emotions clogging my throat and inflating in my chest while I watched Hunter pet my dog and my dog falling absolutely in love with her.

"Yes, you're a good boy," she said as she stroked his head and he gave her the biggest heart eyes I'd ever seen.

"It's safe to say he likes you."

Hunter looked up at me and there was such a delighted smile on her face.

"I like him too. I didn't think that I would." At least she was honest.

"He has a way of winning just about everyone over," I said, stroking the other side of his head. Buck was in heaven right now. He flopped to the ground and rolled on his back, demanding belly rubs.

"Shameless," I said as I gave him a few loud pats and he rolled back and forth.

"Are you hungry? I have snacks," I said, standing up. Buck rolled to his feet and shook all over.

"Oh, sure." We sat on the bench together and I pulled out the clementines and cheese sticks.

"I hope you didn't swipe these from some hungry kids," she said, taking a cheese stick.

"Nah, there were extras."

Buck sat at our feet as Hunter and I ate.

Since we saw each other on Thursday, we'd been talking in messages. Nothing serious, just random questions here and there.

I asked her about her million jobs, and she asked me about being a firefighter and about my brothers. I couldn't help but be delighted that she wanted to know about them. The urge to gush about each one of them was strong, so I had to hold back a little.

"Are you missing the game?" she asked, frowning at her sticky hands from peeling the clementines. I pulled a disposable wipe out of the fanny pack on my waist and handed it to her.

"Thanks."

"It's okay, they just started. It's not like he's on the Olympic team or anything. It's peewee." He already had a cheering section with the rest of the family.

"Still," she said, playing with the edge of her sweater cuff.

"Hey."

Hunter looked up at me. "I'm right where I need to be right now."

She looked away and shook her head. "How do you just say things like that?"

"Like what?"

Buck sighed and rested his head on his paws, apparently giving up the search for dropped crumbs.

Hunter waved her hand. "You know what I mean."

"I'm not sure I do, actually." I rested my arm on the back of the bench. It was almost as good as putting my arm around her. We'd get there.

She let out a sound of frustration. "Never mind."

"Staceeeeee." I turned and found Eli jogging over.

"What is it?" I asked, only slightly annoyed that he'd interrupted us. Guess Hunter was going to meet at least one member of my family.

"Mom wanted to know if you're still coming over for dinner after the game," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Why didn't she just send me a message?"

Eli shrugged his bony shoulders. He was still in that awkward gangly phase, all elbows and knees. I wondered how tall he'd end up being. If he would end up like me and Torrin.

"Yeah, I'm coming over for dinner," I said and turned to Hunter, who'd been pretending she wasn't watching the interaction.

"Hunter, this is my brother Eli. Eli, this is my friend Hunter."

I gestured for him to come closer and watched as his eyes got a little wide when he saw how pretty she was.

"It's nice to meet you," Hunter said, putting out her hand.

I gave Eli a look and he uncrossed his arms and gave her a shake. "Uh hey."

Eli looked at me and crossed his arms again, suddenly getting shy.

"Hey, can you take Buck back over to the game for me? I'll be there in a little while."

That made Eli brighten up. He adored Buck.

"Yeah," he said, grinning and taking Buck's leash from me.

He bolted off with Buck and I turned my attention back to Hunter.

"How old is he again?"

"Twelve, and in full tween mode. He's a good kid, but junior high is really hard." Anytime Eli told me that someone was mean to him I wanted to march into that school and physically fight some children.

"I remember," Hunter said, nodding.

"Were people mean to you?" I asked.

"Compared to my parents, dealing with a few childhood bullies was nothing," she said and then ducked her head, as if she hadn't meant to tell me that much.

I'd only gotten out little bits and pieces about her parents, but my assessment so far was that they were complete assholes.

"I had a bully, but then I broke her nose and most people stopped teasing me after that," I said.

"You broke her nose ?"

I nodded. "Yup. And I'm not sorry about it. She was being a homophobic bitch and she got what was coming." Holding grudges wasn't my thing, but if I saw her again, I might ask if she remembered what happened when we were thirteen. And see how her nose looked.

"Wow. I'm a little in awe and a little scared," Hunter said, but she was smiling.

I flexed my hand. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"I was too scared to do anything about my bullies," she said, and I didn't think she was talking about mean girls in school.

My phone went off and I looked down to find a message from my mother.

Eli says you're sitting with a pretty girl and I'm going to need some more details.

Of course. I knew that sending Eli over was just a ruse to find out where I'd disappeared to. Mom wasn't slick.

She's a friend and you need to stop sending your children to do your dirty work. How's the game?

"I should get going," Hunter said, getting up from the bench.

"Sorry. My mom is asking for more details about the pretty girl I'm with. That's you, by the way."

Hunter ducked her head and blushed. Surprising. I couldn't wait to give her more compliments and see how many it took to get her to beg me to stop.

"And what are you going to tell her?" Hunter asked, one hand on the bench as if she wasn't ready to leave quite yet.

"A friend. She doesn't need to know more than that," I said. Hunter's shoulders relaxed a fraction. Just enough for me to notice.

"Are we? Friends?" The question was tentative.

I smiled up at her. Shit, she was beautiful. "Yeah, we're friends, Hunter. I don't share pie with just anyone, you know."

She nodded. "Okay."

Hunter

I really didn't want to take Stace away from her family, so I left before I wanted to, even though I'd gotten cold sitting on the bench. She'd put her arm across the back, and I'd been able to feel the warmth radiating from her skin. Stace was one of those people who was always warm, even in the dead of winter. Like a human heater. It made me want to snuggle closer, and I had never been a snuggler. Never in my life.

But Stace was just…soft. Not her body, necessarily. Her body was all muscles, but something about her told me that she'd be an excellent cuddler. That when she hugged you, she really went for it. She'd probably pick me up and hold me so close that I couldn't breathe. That kind of thing.

Not something I'd ever fantasized or considered, but after I saw her at the park, I couldn't stop wondering.

Cade and Reid even noticed when we went out for dinner. Eloise was under an intense writing deadline, and Reid didn't have to work so it was perfect. I'd missed both of them. The three of us had been so close and I couldn't help but feel like we were drifting apart. Just a little.

It was only natural that our friendships would ebb and flow as we got older, but if I stopped having them in my life altogether, I didn't know what I'd do.

Cade had hugged me tight, as if she had missed me as well.

"Hey, you seem sad," she said, pulling back to look at my face.

"I'm fine," I said, swallowing back a few uncomfortable emotions.

Reid hugged me too, but it was brief. Reid wasn't much of a hugger or a toucher, and I understood that.

We ordered our first round of wings, cheesy fries, and chips with spinach artichoke dip. The beer was pretty weak, but that was fine.

"How's the deadline going?" I asked Cade.

"I think my girlfriend is starting to crack. She keeps waking up and making notes in the middle of the night and she's actually started talking in her sleep. I keep telling her that the book doesn't have to be perfect, but she's been agonizing over every single word. I wish there was something I could do other than to bring her food and force her to eat and drink enough water so she doesn't get dehydrated."

Cade had circles under her eyes so it seemed that the deadline was taking a toll on both of them.

"And then you have the tour coming up," Reid said after she gulped some beer.

"Yup. Still freaking out about that, but I bought a bunch of clothes and a new suitcase. I don't know. It's going to be a lot."

I wanted to ask if she'd talked with Eloise about what they were going to say to the public, but I kept my mouth shut. I wasn't going to interfere or continue to bring it up.

"You'd better give us all the behind-the-scenes content," Reid said.

"Oh you know I will. Is it bad that I'm most looking forward to staying in the nice hotels and the room service?" Cade asked.

"And the hotel sex. Don't forget about that," Reid said, grinning.

"Oh my god, Reid. We're probably going to be too tired and busy for sex," Cade said, but her face was scarlet.

"If you don't have any sex on tour, I'm going to be disappointed in you," Reid said, pointing at Cade with a fry.

"Have sex, don't have sex, it doesn't matter to us," I said, nudging Reid.

"Listen, one of us should be getting regular sex," Reid said.

I turned in my seat to look at her. "What about you? What's stopping you from getting regular sex?"

Reid let out a grumpy sound. "My job? My sleep schedule? My…personality?" The last one made Cade snort.

"Those sound more like excuses to me," I said. "You literally work in a bar where people hook up in the bathroom and you can't get laid? Seems like a skill issue."

Reid gave me a viscous look. "You know I can't hook up at work. That's how I get fired."

Cade scoffed. "I have seen several other bartenders getting laid at Sapph."

So had I.

Reid growled and downed the rest of her beer. "Listen, if I knew you were both going to gang up on me, I wouldn't have come." Reid was the kind of person you could tease only so far before she got seriously pissed and then you might not hear from her for a few days. She blamed her prickliness on sleep deprivation all the time, but it really was just her personality. Once you got past that, she was loyal and truly kind and talented at most things she tried.

"We're sorry. We're not ganging up on you," Cade said, reaching across the table to squeeze Reid's shoulder. "Do you want us to help, or do you want to just bitch without judgment?"

Reid settled back in her chair. "The second thing."

Cade gestured. "Go ahead."

The three of us had a few too many drinks, but I didn't care. I'd be hung over tomorrow, fine. Laughing with my friends and soaking up time with them was more important.

"I need dessert," I said as we stumbled out of the restaurant.

"Me too. I need cake," Cade said, pouting.

"You always need cake," Reid pointed out, but she wasn't that steady on her feet and crashed into me. I managed to keep us both upright as we meandered down the sidewalk.

"Pie," I said. "I want pie."

"So we get pie and cake," Reid suggested. "Piecaken is a thing."

Cade and I shared a disgusted look.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, that sounds awful," Cade said.

"Agreed."

"Fine, shit on my ideas. Go ahead," Reid said, gesturing wildly with her arm. "I'll stop suggesting things then."

As we walked, I realized we were only a short distance from the diner where I'd had pie with Stace.

But I didn't want to bring my friends there for some reason. I didn't know why. It wasn't like a secret or anything, but what if one of the servers recognized me and asked about Stace? Or what if Stace was there now?

It wasn't that I was hiding her from my friends, exactly. More than I didn't want to introduce her to them yet. I would, eventually. If we stayed friends.

Stace seemed to think that we were officially friends. That wasn't a word I used liberally. But Stace had pretty much claimed it for herself. Just took it from me and made it hers. Like she'd picked me up during the fire.

"Cakeeeee," Cade wailed, and we took pity on her and hit up another place that was known for having fantastic burgers and ludicrous desserts. Like those milkshakes that had piles of cookies on top and whipped cream and brownies and way too much to actually call them a milkshake.

Cade got the red velvet cake shake, of course, which came with an entire piece of cake on top. I got the chocolate chip cookie dough that had an entire ice cream sandwich on top, and Reid went with the brownie, which had not one, but two double chocolate brownies on top.

The shakes arrived and the three of us rushed to suck down the shake part before everything melted. It wasn't easy, but we made a mess and had a good time.

"This was exactly what I needed," Cade said, finishing the last bite of her cake slice.

"I think I may have over done it," Reid said, rubbing her stomach. "Let's just sit here for a little bit before we go anywhere."

"Sounds like a plan," I said, leaning back in my chair. The chill from the air and the ice cream in my stomach made me shiver.

What was Stace doing right now? She'd had dinner with her family, but what would she do after? Did she hang out with her firefighter friends? I could so easily picture her at a bar, slinging darts with precision and laughing with a group of her friends. No doubt she had dozens of them. Stace was just one of those people that everyone liked. Even if you didn't want to like her.

So I still haven't gotten the details from Tor about Micah. It's very frustrating. If you see him before I do, see if you can do some recon. I have a family thing so I won't be at the gym tomorrow.

Why did her telling me she wasn't going to be at the gym fill me with disappointment? It didn't matter, really. I'd probably see her at yoga on Monday. Probably.

I'll do what I can I responded.

"Who are you talking to?" Cade asked.

"No one." I kept my face neutral.

"You're talking to someone," Reid said.

"Great, now you're ganging up on me ." I glared at both of them.

"With love," Cade said. "We gang up on you with love."

"Whatever. Am I not allowed to have any secrets from you two?"

Reid nodded. "Yeah, you are."

"We just want to know what's going on in your life. You know, that's part of this whole friendship thing."

"Jesus Christ." I was about to get up and leave, in spite of all the food sloshing around in my stomach.

"Cade? Lay off," Reid said, her tone a little sharp.

"We were having a good time. Can we just forget this happened and go back to complaining about our families?" I asked.

"Yes, please," Reid said and then she let out a breath. "My mom tried to reach out through my aunt. Again."

Shit.

"Why did you wait this long to tell us?" Cade asked as we shared a look.

"Because I didn't want to bring the mood down. Like I'm doing right now." She gestured to the table and rubbed her eyes. "It's fine. I'm just going to ignore her. Just…I'm so tired of this. So tired of so many things."

"I know you don't do hugs much, but can I give you a hug right now?" Cade asked and Reid huffed before she nodded. We ended up in a little group hug and Reid put up with it.

"Okay, that's enough," she said eventually, back to her grumpy self. She had to head to work, so we all headed to Sapph.

"Don't let me get wasted," I told Cade as we walked in.

"No promises," she sang.