by Linda Kage
“Who is she?”
“Who?” I asked as Ten kept drooling.
He pointed, and I followed the direction of his finger with my gaze as he said, “The only one not in a bikini.”
I instantly scowled, not liking his attention as I took in the girl he was ogling. She was scrubbing a soapy sponge over a sleek black truck with her back to us.
When she bent over to dip the sponge into the bucket by her feet and soaped it up again, Ten groaned and set a hand over his chest.
“Damn, and the ass is just as sweet as those long, lean legs.”
I shrugged his hand off my shoulder and glared at him. “That’s Zoey,” I told him, my pointed glare demanding he back off.
He blinked, the name making him wrench away. “Who?”
I sighed and rolled my eyes toward the sky. Really? I’d only told him a dozen times that Cora’s friend from her hometown was moving in this weekend. “I introduced you two. You met her last night.”
He shook his head. “No, we most certainly did not. I would remember those legs.”
“She was wearing jeans,” I said dryly.
“Hmm.” Ten scratched the stubble growing at his jaw. “Still don’t remember her.”
I shoved him in the shoulder, unable to control my irritation. “Stop staring.”
“Huh?” Ten blinked and finally tore his gaze away to arch an eyebrow my way. “Why?”
“Because.” I ground my teeth together. “She…she’s Cora’s friend.”
My clueless roommate shrugged. “So? I’ve boned all of Cora’s friends. Which means…” His gaze heated with even more interest as he turned back to stare across the parking lot again. “It’s pretty much required for me to get into her panties, too.”
“No,” I ordered, grabbing his arm and physically turning him away so he could face the car we were supposed to be washing. “Not this one. She’s a good girl.”
Way too good to go anywhere near his man-whore ways.
As if being sprayed with ice-cold water, the lust faded from his eyes. “Good girl?” he echoed in horror. “Eww. Way to waste a perfectly hot body. But…” He sent one last longing glance toward Zoey, “the moment she turns slutty, I’m warning you, I’m going to be all over that, no matter what you say. Because, dayum, those legs…” He sucked in a breath. “I’m even digging the clothes. Covered up like that, she makes a guy wonder what she’s hiding under all those layers. Makes you just want to tear off the wrapping and unveil the surprise inside. You know what I mean?”
When he grinned and jabbed his elbow at me, I scowled hard in return.
I didn’t want to agree with Ten, but he did have a point. Zoey looked good in that outfit. But ogling Cora’s roommate felt all kinds of wrong. With a sigh, I shook my head and turned away. “Just get back to work.”
He did, but he didn’t shut up. Picking up the water hose to rinse off what I’d just cleaned, Ten kept talking, irritating me even more. “And she’s blonde too. I’ve been craving blondes lately something fierce.” Just as he spoke though, his gaze caught on something in an entirely different direction than where the girls were working. “Shit,” he hissed.
I glanced over and saw another blonde co-ed walking our way. Like Zoey, she was also wearing a shirt and shorts, no bikini in sight. It was the guy walking next to her that had my stomach tightening into knots.
I looked up to the quarterback of our team more than any guy I’d ever known. But today, I wished he was anywhere but here.
Spinning toward Ten, I lowered my voice, “You’re not going to tell him about the picture of Aspen on Belcher’s phone, are you?”
Ten glanced at me incredulously. “Fuck, you think I’m insane? Gamble would flip his shit if he knew people were spreading around topless snapshots of his woman.”
Noel spotted us, and he—along with the girl beside him—veered our way.
“So who’s winning so far?” he asked, obviously clueless about the picture Ten and I had deleted from the baseball player’s phone last night, “Women or men?”
I expected Ten to answer because he was always so willing to talk, but he was too busy staring at the blonde next to Noel, while trying to make it look like he wasn’t. So I cleared my throat. “I, uh, I think it’s a dead heat so far. Hi, Caroline.” I tried to offer a pleasant greeting to Noel’s sister since Ten was being no help at all. He’d gone radio silent. “Are you here to help the competition?”
She smiled back briefly. “I guess so.” Then she shot Noel a brief scowl as if he’d forced her to come with him.
“Which means, I should probably stop talking to the enemy and I head over to Team Girl.” Slapping at her brother’s elbow, she added, “Hope you aren’t a sore loser.”
Noel cracked a grin. “Oh, you’re going down, little girl.”
“Cora’s over there,” I told her helpfully as she started off. “She can help you get set up.”
“Thanks, Quinn.” She smiled at me, glanced briefly at Ten, and then kept going.
The three of us stared after her before Noel grabbed Ten’s arm and whirled him away, back toward the car we were cleaning. “Seriously, we need to work on your staring problem.”
“I can’t believe you brought your sister,” Ten said, sneaking another peek at her.
Noel snorted. “Well, we were supposed to invite a girl to help compete on the female side, and Aspen wouldn’t be caught dead at a campus event. Besides, I wouldn’t let her come. All you assholes would never be able to take your eyes off her legs, and we’d definitely lose to girls, then.”
As if on command, Ten’s gaze went straight to Caroline’s legs as he snorted. “I didn’t invite a chick.”
Noel muttered a curse and pushed Ten about a foot backward. “Eyes in your head, fucker.”
“What?” Ten cried, stumbling along behind Noel. “Why’d you bring her if you didn’t want anyone looking at her?”
I flushed because I’d been looking too, but Noel didn’t scold me. He must’ve known I wasn’t having any dirty thoughts about his sister.
“I brought her because she needed to get out of the house. She closeted herself up all summer long and with classes starting Monday, I was hoping she’d make a friend or two over in girl camp.”
Glancing after Caroline again, I hoped that Cora took her in and befriended her. I wasn’t sure what had happened to Noel’s sister to cause him to uproot her and his two younger brothers from their hometown and move them all to Ellamore at the end of the last school year, but Ten knew about it. I’d caught him and Noel discussing her, worried about how she was healing. The few times I’d met her, she’d seemed fairly quiet and reserved, except I don’t think that was her usual behavior. I think something had beaten her down, and she was still working through whatever haunted her.
When I saw her approach Cora, I smiled. My girl was bright and bubbly. She’d take care of Noel’s sister, no problem.
I got back to work, and Noel joined Ten and me at our station. Other members of the team would float over to greet him, and sometimes Ten. I would occasionally get a head nod or brief, “Hey,” but no one said much else to me except maybe how good Cora looked in her bikini, which perplexed me. Why were they telling me, like I owned her or something? They should tell her if they thought she looked nice. And if they wanted to make me jealous, they were wasting their time. I wasn’t the jealous type.
But I nodded at their praise and kept on in my silent way. I’m pretty sure my quietness skeeved people out. Noel and Ten seemed to be about the only two members on the team who didn’t care that I rarely talked.
Actually, we worked well together on the field and off, since we all three worked at the same nightclub as bartenders. Noel had actually been the one to get me the job there, for which I’d be eternally grateful. I’d been living in the dorms my freshmen year, but I hated dorm life. I was so not the communal resident type. So many people, crammed into one building, parties all night long, no privacy—it’d been hard for me to h
andle.
But with the money I made at my new job, I’d been able to rent an apartment off campus as soon as the semester had ended. This summer had been nice, having my own space to myself. It didn’t even matter that Ten had invited himself over and moved in with me a few months ago when he’d given up his apartment with Noel, after Noel had moved himself and his siblings in with Aspen at her place. Ten was loud, obnoxious, and annoying, but he wasn’t a bad roommate. He respected my privacy, didn’t mess the place any more than I did, and he didn’t treat me like a freak. He was actually a pretty great friend, and had a way of making me feel like a normal person whenever I was around him.
Happy that I’d been able to form such a good relationship with both Noel and Ten, I glanced toward both of them working on the opposite side of a little red car as me. I had more than just friendship and a place to live to thank them for. If it hadn’t been for Noel getting me my job, I probably never would’ve met Cora. And I’d no doubt still be a hopelessly shy virgin to this day.
“Shit,” Ten muttered, glancing across the car lot. “The chicks are getting more business than us.”
I looked up and yep, the line on their side was growing. “We need to step it up, boys,” Ten called as he made a show of slowly peeling his shirt off over his head and tossing it aside before shaking out his damp hair.
One car full of women waiting in line with their windows rolled down hooted in approval. Noel followed suit and lost his shirt, but Ten took it to extremes by not so accidentally getting soap suds on his chest and blatantly staring at the women as he wiped them clean. “Oops. I’m such a mess. Oh, damn. There I go again.”
Then he made sure to flatten his entire front against their window as he reached across the roof of their car to wipe it down. They got right back in line to get their car re-cleaned as soon as we were finished with them.
“Come on, Ham,” Ten called to me. “Lose some clothes. Help us out here, man.”
I just smiled and shook my head no. So Ten felt compelled to give me a “wetter look,” as he called it, right before he sprayed me with water.
The cold water actually felt good in this heat, but I scowled and told him he was dead. Cheers of approval rang out as I charged after him so I could wrestle the hose away and spray him back. The girls waiting for their cars to be washed urged us on. In moments, the line on our side of the lot had doubled.
Soaking wet, we eventually returned to business. When we were at our busiest, Noel’s cell phone rang. He checked the screen and moved off, saying it was from home.
As he stepped to the side to answer it, Ten called for more help at our car. So another player on the team, K.C. Jennings, stepped over.
“So either of you know who the new chick is over there?” He picked up a sponge and started scrubbing. “That blonde? The sweet tall drink of water?”
Ten gave a low whistle. “You better not be talking about Gamble’s little sister or he’ll skin you bald, man. And I’m not talking about the hair on your head.”
K.C. shuttered and pointed. “No shit. That’s Noel’s little sister? Damn, she’s hot.”
Ten glanced over as well before his eyebrows shot up. He sent me a mischievous grin before patting K.C. on the shoulder. “Actually, no, not that one, but apparently you need Ham’s approval before even looking at her.”
My gut tightened when I realized they were referring to Zoey. I refused to respond, or look, or even acknowledge that I heard them, but K.C. whirled toward me, lifting his eyebrows up into his hairline. “No shit. You already traded Cora in for a newer model? Sweet, man.”
As Ten burst out laughing, I scowled and straightened. “What! No. I didn’t. That’s Cora’s new roommate.”
“Cora’s new roommate whom you warned me to stay away from,” Ten was a little too gleeful to add.
I sent him a murderous scowl. “Only because she’s not like that.”
A grin spread over K.C.’s face. “Well, hell. I can make her ‘like that’ if you need her broken in.”
I just stared at him with the sudden urge to break in his face. How dare he speak about Zoey that way? How dare he even look at her? She’d done nothing to garner that kind of talk. She hadn’t even dressed provocatively. All she was doing was innocently cleaning cars, and the horny guys were panting after her like freaking dogs in heat. Couldn’t they look at all the other girls over there, with their boobs hanging out and butt cheeks on display? Those ladies actually wanted guys ogling them. Not Zoey.
“Just look at those perky tits,” K.C. went on, staring some more. “I bet they’d fill a palm to perfection.”
I cracked my knuckles without meaning to, imagining how they’d feel against his jaw.
Ten took notice and bumped his elbow into K.C.’s. “Dude, if you value your life, you might want to shut up right about now.”
“What? Why? Oh, fuck yeah. Looks like she’s headed to the storage shed for fresh water. I think I’ll go accidentally bump into her and...introduce myself.” When he went to reach for Ten and my soap water bucket, I went to reach for him.
Over my dead body would he be introducing himself to Zoey.
But Ten intervened.
“Hey, sorry, Jennings, but Ham already volunteered to do that job.” Ten snagged the bucket from K.C. and shoved it into my chest. My mouth opened to argue with him. I didn’t want K.C. to trap her alone anywhere for any reason, but I didn’t want to get caught alone with her either. The feelings she’d made me experience last night were still too fresh in my head.
“I don’t mind doing it for you,” K.C. offered, reaching to retrieve the bucket from me. But I held it away.
Like hell, buddy.
I’d rather suffer through another encounter alone with her than let K.C. get anywhere near her. I was half tempted to send Ten. Except, God, I didn’t trust him around her either. I gritted my teeth.
I guess I was stuck heading toward the shed where I knew Zoey was inside. Alone.
As soon as we arrived at the car wash, Cora was immediately surrounded by a horde of other girls. I hung back, not sure what to do. In high school, we’d been loners together, outcasts who’d made a club of two and become inseparable because her parents had been almost as strict with her as my father had been with me.
Watching her now, I guessed she hadn’t been quite as lonely without me this past year as I’d been without her. Cora had moved on. Realizing that made my heart ache, made me feel abandoned and pathetic for hanging on to the only friendship I’d ever had. But then I reminded myself she hadn’t told anyone else about her kidneys. She only trusted me with that information.
I knew it was a selfish thought, but it still made me feel better.
The gossiping commenced around her, each girl more eager to dish the most recent events with my best friend. They treated her like the queen bee of the group. It took her a minute of gasping about so-and-so being caught cheating on what’s-her-face before she remembered me.
As our gazes clashed, her eyes widened. “Oh, you guys totally have to meet Zoey.” Peeling herself away from her friends, she grinned at me and hooked her arm through mine. Tugging me forward, she beamed proudly. “This is my new roomie. Isn’t she just the sweetest thing ever?”
“Ohmigod, I just love your hair color. Who do you have dye it?”
“Look at that tan. Which salon do you use?”
Cora laughed. “Save it, guys. This,” she displayed a hand over me, “is all natural.”
More gasps followed, making me blush.
“No way.”
“Oh, honey. You are blessed.”
“Bitch, I hate you,” another teased, and everyone laughed.
I smiled uneasily, wondering if it’d really be this easy to make friends. But a microsecond later, one of the girls remembered another piece of hot gossip she wanted to tell Cora...in private. As she dragged my best friend away, the other girls wandered off too, leaving me standing there like an idiot. I guess I could’ve followed, but I knew I just wo
uld’ve felt more awkward and left out if I tried to fit in.
So, when I spotted all the supplies piled up for the car wash with a list of instructions, I got to work, hooking up the hoses and filling all the buckets with soapy water. There was a small warehouse storage building shed close by that had given us permission to use their hot water for the soap buckets. It took five trips, but by the time I had everything set up, cars driving by caught on that we were open for business.
The girls who’d had shirts on suddenly lost them, and I discovered I was the only female in the parking lot sans bikini. Half of Cora’s crew took up the promotional end of the sale, standing out by the highway and waving signs at the passing traffic.
On the other side of the huge parking lot, the guys had set up camp as well. But more of them were cleaning cars than actually trying to lure in customers.
I spotted Quinn along with his roommate he’d introduced to me last night. The two of them had teamed up together on cleaning until a third guy arrived to work with them. And that’s when the new girl joined our ranks.
She went to Cora for instruction, but Cora didn’t have a clue what was going on. She was busy being one of the sign holders.
When no one was very forthright about giving her any duties, I hesitantly called, “You can help me.”
She turned, and I was bowled over by how pretty she was. Her hair was a tad bit darker than mine, but it looked, I don’t know, better. Shinier. It had this natural wave that curled perfectly around her heart-shaped face. And her eyes were a bright jewel blue while mine were more washed-out green. But she grinned at me as if I could be her new best friend.
“It looks like the guys over there are teaming up and having two or three people clean each car,” I said.
“Sounds like a good plan to me.” She bounded forward and grabbed the hose. “I can rinse.”
“That’d be great. Thanks.”
We easily set up a workflow, and before long, we were able to talk and clean at the same time. She moved closer to scrub on the same side of a bright orange SUV as me when I couldn’t keep up, and spoke low as she leaned in to ask, “So, are we the only two who didn’t get the memo that we were supposed to wear bikinis to this thing?”
