Team Player

by Adriana Locke

  Before I can knock, Mollie opens the door, pulling me inside, out of the cold.

  “Merry Christmas Eve.” She smiles, and she looks extra happy, considering the conversation we’re about to have.

  “Who spiked your eggnog?” I tease.

  “I’m just relieved. Regardless of how everyone reacts, it’s going to be such a huge weight off my chest.”

  “I can imagine.”

  Mollie leads me through the stereotypical River’s Edge vacation rental. The walls are always either green or tan, and the décor is almost always bears or pinecones. This one opted for bears. And there is always a bearskin rug. This place is no exception. Mollie leads me through the house and to the kitchen, where everyone sits at the impressive dinner table that’s packed with food.

  “Everyone, this is my friend, Camden. Camden, this is my mom, Sarah, my dad, Nick, and my brothers, Craig and Andrew. You know Tucker.”

  Mollie’s mom smiles warmly at me; her dad gives me a wary look, assessing, but he gives a polite wave. Tucker appears to be mildly peeved about my presence. I give myself a mental reminder not to fuck my chances with Mollie by beating his ass.

  “Dude, you’re friends with Camden Hess?” one of Mollie’s brothers—don’t ask me which one—asks, disbelief written all over his face.

  “Nice to meet you, man,” I say, bending over to shake his hand from where he sits.

  “What does that mean?” Mollie’s mom asks, a confused smile plastered to her face.

  “It means Mollie’s been holding out on us,” the other brother says.

  “He’s a professional snowboarder,” Mollie clarifies, rolling her eyes. “I met him when we were here over summer.”

  “And yet, we’re just now finding out about it,” one of them says. I still don’t know which is which, but I’m going to go with Andrew.

  “I didn’t even know who he was then!” Mollie exclaims.

  “You know what they say,” he says. “Excuses are like assholes—”

  “That’s enough, Andrew,” their mom warns. The one with the dark hair is Andrew. Light hair is Craig. Got it.

  “All right, all right, leave the guy alone,” Mollie’s dad says. “Can we eat now, or are we still waiting for someone else to join us? The Prince of Wales, perhaps?”

  “Let’s eat,” her mom says, shaking her head. “Camden, please, have a seat.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I say, rubbing my palms together. “This looks delicious. Thank you for having me.”

  “We’re glad to have you,” Sarah insists, and Mollie gives me a secret smile. Maybe this won’t be so bad.

  Dinner was officially a success. To her family’s credit, no one made any shitty, passive-aggressive remarks about my tattoos or asked me thirty-seven questions about each one. After we were all stuffed to the brim, I helped Mollie and her brothers clear the table before they all sat back down to play games. When Mollie said they wanted to play games, I pictured fucking Monopoly. Nope. Craig busted out Cards Against Humanity.

  After we sat through an awkward five minutes of Andrew trying to explain bukkake to his confused, slightly horrified mother, Mollie squeezed my knee and motioned for me to follow her. And that’s how we ended up heavy petting in the downstairs bathroom.

  “I can’t help it,” Mollie says, playfully nipping at my lip. “I’m always horny now.” She lifts her dark green dress, revealing her smooth pussy, and grabs my wrist, pulling it toward her.

  “No underwear?”

  “It gets in the way,” she says, and then she drops her head against my shoulder as I push two fingers inside her.

  “Lift your leg,” I instruct. “Let me see that pretty pussy.”

  She complies with a moan, leaning her palms against the sink behind her before bringing her right heel to rest on the edge. This position puts everything on display for me, from her tight cunt that’s swallowing my fingers, to her rounded belly, to her perfect, swollen tits.

  Unable to resist, even though I know her entire family is out there, I drop to my knees and bury my face between her legs. I tug her clit between my teeth as I continue finger fucking her. Another moan, this one a little too loud, and I know I need to make this quick. I pull my fingers from her, ignoring her whine of protest, and smear her wetness to the tight ring of her ass.

  “I’m going to fuck this ass one day,” I tell her quietly. “But for now, I’m going to use my fingers. I remember how much you liked it.”

  “Yes,” she breathes, and then my mouth is on her again. I slide my middle finger inside her asshole, and she jerks against my face. Anchoring her thigh to the sink with my free hand, I suck her clit into my mouth, batting at it with my tongue. I work my finger in and out of her as her breathing becomes erratic, and then her foot slips off the ledge and her thighs squeeze me, keeping me in place as she comes apart.

  “Jesus, fuck,” I say as her thighs continue to shake. “You’re beautiful.”

  Mollie pulls me up and kisses my face that smells of her. I pull her dress back down as she wraps her arms around my neck. I lift her by her hips and plop her back onto the counter. Her legs lock around my waist, and I’m about to say fuck the consequences and take my dick out when the door opens and Mollie’s mom walks in.

  Fuck.

  “Mollie!” she gasps, and I whip around to face her, making sure to shield Mollie’s body in case anything is still hanging out.

  “What, did you find another spid—dear God! My eyes!” Andrew yells, attracting the attention of everyone in a ten-mile radius.

  “Mom! Get out!” Mollie snaps.

  “You have two minutes to get your lie together and get out here.” She slams the door, and Mollie jumps off the counter.

  “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” Mollie rambles, her bare feet pacing the tiles of the bathroom floor.

  “Relax,” I tell her. “We need to look at the positives here.”

  “Positives?!” she shrieks. “There aren’t any positives in this situation.”

  “Well, I wasn’t eating your pussy like dessert, for one thing. She could’ve come a couple of minutes earlier and got an eyeful. Plus, we were planning to tell them, anyway. That’s one way to do it.”

  “Oh my God,” she says again. “This is real. This is happening.”

  “It is, so buckle up, Buttercup, and let’s go tell them the truth.”

  Mollie takes a fortifying breath and opens the door to face the music.

  Chapter 8

  Mollie

  Six sets of eyes are on me, each with varying degrees of horror plastered to them.

  “What were you thinking, Mollie?” my mom asks, throwing her hands up.

  “I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have done that,” I say.

  “Ya think?” my dad says, as if I just informed him that murder is bad.

  “Why aren’t you upset about this?” Craig says to Tucker, who looks like he wants to melt into the wall and disappear.

  “I, uh…” Tucker trails off, not knowing what to say. “Molls?”

  I don’t know how to do this, so I decide ripping the Band-Aid off is the best way to go about it.

  “I’m not with Tucker,” I admit, and no one looks surprised except for my parents.

  “We never really were,” Tuck chimes in. “I’m sorry. I love you guys like family, and we didn’t mean to lie to you. This whole thing just kind of got out of control. My dad thought we were together, and he started giving me clients at work, talked about making me a partner at Hastings. And then it just kept getting harder to come clean.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense, Tucker. Why lie to us?”

  “I didn’t want you to slip up around my parents.”

  “This is bullshit. I’m going to bed. Merry Christmas, you’re all crazy,” my dad says, before heading upstairs.

  “Wait, Dad,” I say, before the courage leaves me completely. “There’s one more thing.”

  “Jesus Christ, Mollie. Are you trying to kill your old man?”

>   “Tucker isn’t the father. Cam is.”

  My dad throws his hands up as if to say of course, he is, and then he’s upstairs, hiding from the crazy.

  “You guys just assumed—” I start, but my mom cuts me off.

  “Because we thought he was your boyfriend!”

  “I know, I know. I don’t know what to say, besides I’m sorry.”

  We go around and around again, until all of us are yawning and seeing through half-closed eyelids. Mom grills Cam, but Andrew and Craig are pretty much just hyped that they’re essentially going to be related to him now. Tucker is the first to bow out. He offers to leave, but my mom insists he stay here. He’s still family.

  I can tell she isn’t comfortable with Cam being here, but honestly, I’m not comfortable being without him right now. I only have a few more days in River’s Edge, and I want to get to know him as much as I can. To soak him in and drown in him. So I decide to stay with Cam, leaving her with a promise to come home first thing in the morning, being Christmas and all.

  Once we’re back at his house, I’m too tired to function, which is unfortunate for the case of blue balls he’s been nursing since the bathroom incident. Cam curls up behind me in his bed, wrapping an arm around me. We talk about everything. He explains his injury to me and how he ended up teaching at the ski school. How he went off the rails for a bit. I tell him my fears about being a parent, and he tells me we simply need a plan. That he isn’t going anywhere, no matter what.

  His hand ghosts across my bare belly in a rhythmic, soothing manner. Just as we’re drifting to sleep, I feel it. It starts with the familiar flutters, but then it turns into more of a roll and then a sharp jab.

  “Holy shit, was that—”

  “The baby kicked,” I say, exhausted but excited, and then I press his hand against the right spot.

  “I like you, Mollie, but I already love this baby,” he says, his voice thick with sleep.

  “Me, too.”

  Epilogue

  Mollie

  Aspen, one year and one month later…

  “Dada!” eight-month-old River babbles from my Ergobaby carrier. Cam picked her name, and when he suggested it, I instantly fell in love.

  “Yes, I know, baby girl,” I say, bouncing in place, trying to keep her happy. “I want Dada, too.”

  I’m a nervous wreck. I’ve seen Cam compete before, but this is his comeback. His chance to win back his King of the Mountain status and snag another medal. He’s going to attempt some trick—that I won’t even try to remember the name of—that’s never been landed in an event before.

  “Craig” I shout over the mass of spectators and family members watching next to us. “FaceTime Emersyn. She’ll kill me if I forget.”

  He nods, taking my phone and letting her watch via video chat. Cam is still Emersyn’s coach, and someday soon, she’s going to be better than him. He knows it, and I know it.

  Once I left River’s Edge, I realized I didn’t really have a good enough reason to stay in San Francisco. Cam kept his word, attending every doctor appointment and coming down almost every weekend, all the while I made plans to relocate to River’s Edge. I illustrate children’s books now, and I can pretty much work anywhere, plus I get to put my art degree to work—just not in the way I thought.

  By the time I was nine months pregnant, we were living together. My parents still think we’re batshit, and maybe we are. But that’s what happens when you’re in love. Love doesn’t wait until you have your shit together. It just happens, and you have to decide how badly you want it. I’m majorly, totally, butt-crazy in love with Cam and River, and I wouldn’t change one moment of this crazy road we took to get to this moment here and now.

  I hear Cam’s name over the speaker, but the blood is rushing through my ears, making it impossible to hear what they’re saying. Before I can ask one of my brothers, I see Cam. I see him flying down the mountain, and when he hits that jump and is launched into the air, I fight the urge to cover my eyes with my hands.

  I count his flips, the moment seemingly in slow-motion, though it’s actually probably only about four seconds.

  One…two…three…four…five.

  “And he lands it, ladies and gentlemen! Camden Hess is breaking records here in Aspen again, and I think it’s safe to say, the King is back.”

  Cam slides down the hill, cutting through the snow, coming to a stop directly in front of us. He rips his helmet and goggles off and kisses River before smashing his lips to mine.

  “You did it, baby!” I squeal, so unbelievably happy for him. I know he’s missed it. Being Emersyn’s coach and dragging River on a mini snowboard around the living room floor just isn’t the same.

  “Hey, Mollie Mabey!” he shouts over the chaos. “What are you doing for the rest of your life?” He holds out his hand, and Andrew reaches over to drop a little box into Cam’s palm before he goes down on one knee.

  “Oh my God,” I gasp, completely taken aback. Cam pulls my hand away from my shocked expression and slides the ring on.

  “You know, when a snowboarder or skier goes down hard, and their gear goes flying everywhere, and they’re completely laid out? We have a name for that. It’s called a Yard Sale, and baby, you’re my fucking yard sale. Dare and Cordell called it from the start. You knocked me on my ass, and I was never the same again. And I never want to be, because this life with you and River is more than I will ever deserve. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes!” I scream, and River mimics the sound, throwing a little mitten-covered fist up. “I love you,” I mouth, as the crowd bursts into applause. My eyes fill with tears—I’m starting to think I’ll be an emotional sap for the rest of my life at this point—and Cam leans over the barrier, giving me a kiss far too indecent for public. But I let him, because he’s my yard sale, too.

  “I love you, Mollie Mabey,” he says against my mouth.

  “I am majorly, totally, butt-crazy in love with you, Camden Hess.”

  The End

  Other books from Charleigh Rose

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  Copyright 2017 Rochelle Paige

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  Chapter 1