by Vivian Ward
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Lucas,” I say. I don’t know how Mason will react if I go over there, and I’m almost afraid to find out.
“You have to, Penny. Please, I’m begging you. We can go back to the way things were. It’ll be good, I promise.”
Opening the door, I say,“I think you should go, Lucas.”
Walking toward the door, he reaches out and cups my face with his hands. “Please, Penny.” Lowering his face, he presses his lips against mine, kissing me before disappearing into the hallway.
I’m so torn, I don’t know what to do. Maybe I’ll go, maybe I won’t.
Chapter Eighteen
Mason
After visiting my dad, I feel bad that he’s still asking for Penny. You’d think that he would’ve forgotten about her, given his mental state, but I have no such luck. It’s been a couple of weeks now, and every time I see him, he asks, “Where’s my pretty Penny?”
He’s completely crazy about her, and I can see why. They spent a lot of time together and had so much fun. She must’ve told him a lot about herself while the two of them were hanging out because he remembers that she’s going to school to become a nurse and that she’ll graduate in the next few years. I’ve been lying to him, telling him that she has exams because it’s better than saying she split.
I miss her and what we had, but it would never work: the two of us being a couple and me sharing her with my best friend. That’s never been how we operate. I can’t stop myself from wishing I would’ve met her sooner, before that night at The Impulse. Things would be so much different because, in my eyes, she’s the perfect girl.
Turning the knob on the washing machine, a cold gust of air whips past me as I hear the front door shut and see Lucas tossing his keys on the table while he blows warm air into his hands. This winter has been so cold, which has really sucked for work. It’s been flurrying off and on all day, and they’re calling for snow tonight. The meteorologist said we might get up to seven inches, but I doubt it. It’s the only job where you can consistently fuck it up and never be fired. I’m guessing we’ll have more like three to four inches.
“Fuck, is there any coffee left from breakfast?” he asks.
“No,” I shake my head. “There was only a little in the pot, so I dumped it before it had a chance to dry up and burn to the bottom of the glass.”
“Then I’m starting some,” Lucas says. “You want any?”
“Nah, I got something,” I say, holding up a beer bottle. “Unlike you, I know how to keep my ass inside when it’s below zero unless I have to go out.”
He scoops some coffee grounds into the pot and hits the button to turn it on. “Well, I’m not going out tonight, so that’s got to count for something, right?”
“Whoa! Did hell freeze over? Did I just hear you say that you’re staying in for the night? That never happens.”
“Don’t be a smart ass,” he says. “There are no concerts, and the only party that I know of is going to be lame. Besides, I figured I’d hang out with my best friend. I have a surprise for you,” he adds.
My eyebrows perk up; this is entirely uncharacteristic of himself. I love Lucas like a brother, but he’s completely selfish. “A surprise? What is it?”
“You’ll see,” he says, walking into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
I don’t know what he’s got up his sleeve, but it’s probably dumb. Knowing him, it’s a couple of girls that he met somewhere, and I couldn’t care less.
As evening falls, the snow begins to pick up. Sitting on the couch, I can hear tires spinning out, so I pull back the heavy blue curtains to look through the window. Surprisingly, there are about five inches of snow, and an old Camaro is turned sideways before it finally rocks itself out of the tire tracks it’s stuck in and starts sliding down the street. Maybe the weatherman finally got it right, I think to myself.
Plopping back down on the couch, I continue watching The Voice when Lucas comes out of his bedroom and looks through the window. “It’s coming down pretty good out there, isn’t it?”
I nod, taking a sip of my beer, and continue watching TV. “Was that your big surprise? You knew it was going to snow?”
“No,” he says. “You’ll see, just wait.”
Ignoring him, he finally leaves and goes into the kitchen. I laugh to myself thinking about what his surprise could be. For all I know, he’s got a couple of babes coming over, but I’m not interested. I haven’t been interested in any girls since Penny.
When Lucas comes waltzing back into the living room, there’s a knock at the door, and a grin creeps across his face.
“I believe that’s for you,” he says, nodding toward the door.
Rolling my eyes, I sigh, “I’m not—,”
“Go on, open it,” he cuts me off.
Reluctantly, I get off the couch and open the door. Penny’s standing on the porch with snow lining the shoulders of her brown coat as she rubs her hands together in an attempt to warm them.
“Hi,” she murmurs, looking into my eyes. It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve seen those topaz gems of hers, and it’s like a sight for sore eyes. “Lucas said—,”
“I said come on in,” he blurts out. “It’s cold as hell out there, and you’re letting all the cold air in.”
Stepping aside, I let her in the house. How he got her here is beyond me, but I’m so glad she’s here. “Did you drive over here?” I ask, glancing at the street before shutting the door.
“Yeah,” she says, sliding her coat off. “The roads are getting bad, but I saw MODOT salting the streets, so it should be fine.”
“Would you like some coffee?” Lucas offers her. “I made some not too long ago, and it’s still hot.”
“Sure, that’d be great. Thanks.”
Taking a seat on the couch, she sits right next to me, and I can’t keep my eyes off of her. Her skin is paler than the last time I saw her and she looks like she’s lost a few pounds. Maybe the last couple of weeks have been as hard as her as they were on me.
“How’ve things been going?” I ask her.
“Good, just been going to school and I’ve been hunting for a job at one of the hospitals so I can get my clinicals in. You?”
“I’ve just been freezing my ass off, working in the cold.”
She nods, “How is your dad? Has he been doing okay?”
“He asks about you all the time,” I laugh. “He calls you his ‘Pretty Penny,' and thinks you’ve been buried in studies.”
“Aww, yeah, he was calling me that right before….you know,” her voice trails off.
“You know what?” Lucas asks, returning with her coffee.
“Nothing, thank you.”
Sipping her coffee, I realize how much I’ve missed sitting here talking to her. I’d be lying if I said our feelings weren’t mutual, but I know how much Lucas likes her, too. He might not act like it, but he shows it in his own way and I could never throw away our friendship over a girl.
“Let me grab you a blanket,” he says to her. “You’re still freezing.”
“I’m fine,” she calls after him, but he throws his hand up in the air as he disappears to get a blanket for her.
I want to tell her how much I’ve missed her, but I know that now is not the time, so I keep my mouth shut.
Chapter Nineteen
Penny
“It’s okay, Lucas. Really,” I say as he fusses over me.
He brings out a fuzzy tiger-print blanket and lays it over the three of us as he takes a seat next to me on the couch. Just like old times, I’m sitting between the two of them on the couch. It feels awkward, yet familiar at the same time.
“We can’t have our favorite girl getting cold, can we?” he says, winking at me.
“I don’t think I’m a favorite,” I say, looking toward Mason.
Instead of confirming or denying, he turns his glance back toward the TV. A few seconds pass by before Lucas blows the lid open and confronts th
e two of us.
“Come on, you two,” he slaps his knee. “I don’t know what’s going on between you because neither one of you will say a damn word, but I’m going to fix us something to eat while the two of you talk. I don’t want what we had to go to waste so get your shit straightened out. Okay?”
Without another word, he gets off the couch, leaving me to face Mason all alone. I have no idea what we’re supposed to talk about, so I don’t say a single word.
“I know things aren’t ideal, Penny, but he’s right: we did have a good thing, the three of us, and if he invited you that must mean that he misses you as much as I do.”
Hearing that Mason misses me makes my heart skip a beat. I never thought I’d listen to him say those words, even if he’s not entirely confessing how much or little he’s missed me.
“Lucas? Missed me?” I laugh. “He’s the fastest bed hopper in the Midwest, there’s no way he could ever miss anyone.”
“Believe it or not, Lucas doesn’t chase girls so if he came after you, it meant something. We meant something, and he’s right. I missed you, too. We had an awesome thing going with the three of us.” He pretends to watch TV for a moment before continuing. “I know I’d like to have you back.”
I can’t stop myself from smiling. “You would?”
“Of course, I would,” he puts his arm around me and kisses me. “We had a lot of good times together, and the sex was mind-blowing.”
We both laugh because we know it’s true. Sitting on the couch, we continue watching The Voice until Lucas comes back into the living room, covered in red pasta sauce.
“Did you two have a good talk? Dinner’s ready.”
“What the hell did you make?” Mason asks, pointing to Lucas’s shirt. “A volcano?”
“No, I made spaghetti. Come eat.”
Mason and I shoot each other sideways glances as we get off the couch. Following Lucas into the kitchen, it’s a complete mess, and it doesn’t smell like spaghetti; it doesn’t smell good at all. I take a peek inside the pot, and it looks like spaghetti. Neither of us wants to offend him, so we scoop a pile onto our plates and have a seat at the table.
The noodles are undercooked, and it tastes bland. Nobody talks for the first few minutes until Lucas pipes up.
“This doesn’t taste very good, does it?” he asks.
Mason and I look at each other and shake our heads no. “What did you put in it?” I ask.
“Hamburger, noodles, and sauce.”
“And what else?”
“That’s it,” he says, pushing it around on his plate with his fork.
“I think that’s the problem. You didn’t season the meat,” I say.
“Season the meat with what? Doesn’t it get its flavor from the sauce?”
Laughing, I put my hand on his. “No, that’s not how it gets its flavor. Do you have any more sauce or noodles? I can whip up something in about 30 minutes.”
“Yeah, I only used half of what we had,” he says.
“Okay, I’ll make dinner. You two get out of here.”
The guys head out of the kitchen, leaving me to clean the horrendous mess that Lucas made, but I don’t mind. I’d rather be here with them than at my apartment by myself. I can’t believe how easy it was to talk to Mason. He didn’t dwell on the past or the last conversation that we had, and made it so easy to start over new.
About a half an hour later, I’ve got spaghetti made—real spaghetti, not the shit Lucas tried feeding us—so I call them into the kitchen.
“Oh, it even smells better in here,” Lucas says as he walks in. “What did you do differently? How come my spaghetti didn’t smell like this?”
I roll my eyes and laugh. “Well, if you’re as good of a cook as Mason, it’s because you don’t know how to cook.”
“What? What’s that supposed to mean?” Mason jumps to his own defense.
“Oh, nothing,” I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “It’s just that I remember making your eggs and asking how you wanted them. Your answer was: can you make the yolks runny?”
“In my defense, I’ve never been given options,” he says. “But I definitely like the way you cook.”
While the three of us eat, we make light conversation about nothing in particular, and I love every minute of it. When we’re done, we scrape our plates and toss them in the dishwasher.
“How about a game of dirty Scrabble?” Lucas suggests as we head back into the living room.
“I’m game,” I shrug. “But just so you know, I’ll probably kick ass and beat both of you.”
“Ha!” Mason exclaims. “You haven’t played with us before. We’re really good at it.”
We gather around the coffee table, and I go first. My letters completely suck, and I end up having to make the word ‘bunt.'
“If that’s all you’ve got, you’ll be naked in no time,” Lucas says, grinning as he arranges his tiles on the board. Using the u from my word, he makes the word ‘uncle.' Mason’s up next and makes the word ‘lemons.'
Within 45 minutes, the guys are kicking my ass as the snow outside continues to accumulate on the streets. We’ve all had to remove at least two articles of clothing, and I lose again.
“I think she should lose the shirt,” Mason says. “Let’s see what you’ve got under there.” Grabbing my shirt, he gives it a slight tug.
“Nah, I think she should ditch the pants,” Lucas grins. “I’m more interested in what’s under them.”
“I’ve got you both beat! Ha!” I say, sliding off my bra from under my shirt. “I’ll keep my pants and my shirt.”
The guys look at each other as they crack up laughing. “That’s cheating!” Lucas says.
“Hey! The rules are you have to remove an article of clothing, there are no rules in which article.”
“She’s got you there,” Mason says, toasting our beer bottles. “Besides, I like her braless.”
I look down at my chest and see my nipples poking straight through the thin material of my shirt. “Oh, you guys are bad!” I laugh. “You should turn the heat up in here.”
“No, I like it better this way,” Lucas agrees with Mason. “Gives us a nice view.”
Oh god. I put my head in my hand. This is precisely what I’ve missed, and I’m so glad I decided to come over tonight. I almost didn’t, but I wanted to because I was hopeful that Mason would be his usual, and he didn’t fail.
Another half an hour goes by, and now I have to decide: shirt or pants? I didn’t think the guys would be this good, but they are. I thought I was so smart taking my bra off, but now I see the errors in my ways; I didn’t think I’d lose this much.
“What will it be now?” Mason asks. Both of them have a smug look on their face like, “I told you so,” but neither of them says a word because I already know.
“You know, you’re not as slick as you’d like to think; neither of you are. Both of you are shirtless!” I’ve been staring at their sculpted chests for the last 20 minutes, and god do I miss touching them. They’ve both lost quite a bit of their tan since it’s been winter, but they’re still stunning.
“Yeah, but we weren’t the smart-ass who decided to remove our bra. I vote shirt,” Mason says.
“I would’ve voted for pants like I did earlier, but knowing that she doesn’t have a bra on makes me want to vote for the shirt, too,” Lucas grins.
“The hell with both of you,” I huff. “I’ll take off my pants, and then that will be the last piece that I remove because I’m making a comeback!”
“Right,” Lucas says, waving his hand. “A comeback,” he mocks me with air quotes. “Just take those pants off so we can see what pretty panties you have on tonight.”
Sliding my jeans over my hips, I push them down and step out of them, exposing my lacy g-strings.
“Nice!” Lucas whistles. “Can’t wait until those are on the floor, too.”
Pursing my lips, I make a sour face at him, but, honestly, I can’t wait either. I’ve been und
ersexed for weeks now, and these two are looking really damn good.
Chapter Twenty
Mason
I can’t stop staring at her. She’s even more beautiful than I remembered. Her long, wavy blonde hair is flowing over her shoulders, and her pouty lips are begging to be kissed, but first, we’re going to make her lose this game of dirty Scrabble.
We’re almost finished with the game because Lucas is down to his last four letters, and I’m down to my last two. Penny has the most out of all of us. I don’t know if she just had shitty luck tonight or if she purposely didn’t use as many letters as she could, but we’ve been mopping the floor with her.
“And that means you have to lose either the shirt or the panties,” Lucas says, scoring an insane amount of points with the word ‘vacancy’ because he got a triple letter score.
Penny looks to me for help, but I hold my hands in the air. “Don’t look at me. A loss is a loss.” She sticks her tongue out at me, mocking me as she mouths the words. “Although, I can help you remove one of them if you like.”
Lucas catches on and joins in. “Yeah, me too.”
The two of us stand up, enclosing her between us; Lucas is behind her, and I’m facing her. Closing the distance between the three of us, Lucas and I each step toward one another until there’s no more space.
Reaching down, I grab the hem of Penny’s top and begin slowly lifting it over her head as we stare into each other’s eyes. It’s like unwrapping a Christmas present on Christmas morning. I want to take my time and go slow, appreciating the gift, but I want to tear into it and finally have it. Lifting her shirt over her head, I toss it onto the couch, exposing her bare breasts.
Breaking eye contact, I look down and see her panties hit the floor as Lucas slides his hands back up her thighs, grabbing onto her hips as he kisses her neck from behind. Swallowing the sigh that escapes her pouty lips, I press my lips against hers and kiss her deeply. My cock instantly goes hard as she wraps her hands around the back of my head, pulling me closer to her.
