I glance down and cock an eyebrow. “You comin’ onto me finally?”
The naked teammates around us laugh.
Mott mutters, “Very funny. We’re startin’ off strong but the Dolphins are a good team. I say we throw ‘em to the sharks.”
“Can’t fuckin’ wait,” I tell him as the hot streams and his talk of our competition, wash thoughts of Wren away. “Hey, Sooks, you rocked it out there. Bring that to Miami?!”
“I plan on it!” he says, soaping his pectoral muscles and under his arms. “You think the coach saw?”
We all eyeball the rookie. Nobody gives him an answer. Just that look.
He throws up his hands, “Okay! I get it!” The bar of soap goes flying and skitters across the wet tile. “Coach sees all.”
Tony jokes, “And we’re about to see all when you pick that up!”
Everyone cracks up, and keeps showering. Mott eerily hums, “Better watch out, Sooks. Be verrrrrrrry careful.”
The rookie chuckles but takes no chances, bending with his back to the wall, an act that makes us laugh harder.
Dion mutters out of the corner of his mouth, loud enough for everyone to hear, “Who the fuck brings their own bar of soap anyway?”
“I don’t like the bath wash,” Sooks shrugs. “Been using this since I was a kid.”
Sticking my head under the stream, suds sliding down my naked body and feeling so good. “Don’t shower much, eh?”
“Not the same bar! This is a new bar!”
“Sure it is.”
“I bought this a month ago.”
“I smelled your stink, Sooks. Don’t feel bad.”
“Hey, I smell good! All the time!”
We eyeball him, before exchanging amused looks all around.
Mott smirks and announces to the team, “I think we found our boy’s weakness.”
Sooks’ eyes get real wide. “Nah, I don’t care about cleanliness.”
“Cleanliness!?” Tony shouts, “Oh dayum, someone’s getting dunked in a steaming pile of shit by the end of the season!”
Sooks freezes, head pivoting to check every face in eyesight. “You’re fuckin’ with me, right?”
Nobody says a word.
One after the other we turn off the faucets and take our dripping bodies to the stacks of freshly bleached towels.
“You guys are messin’ with me, right? Right??!”
One after the other, we file out and leave him wondering.
CHAPTER 15
WREN
P eter greets me with a peck kiss, “Hey babe, sorry to keep you waiting.”
Rising from a mossy, stone bench outside the gift shop and ticket booth for the Botanical Gardens, I shrug, “It’s okay. Such a pretty day I didn’t mind sitting out here. Especially with this fountain.” I wave my hand to the enormous pots, “All these flowers.”
You’re overdoing it, Wren. Just be quiet. It’s okay to be angry, you’ve been waiting for a half hour. Text or no text, this date has been planned for a while. And you were on time.
“I’ve been busy reading on my phone,” I add with a shrug, not listening to my own advice. I notice something is different and tilt my head. “You streaked your hair.”
“Yeah,” he grins, raking his fingers through blue and purple woven into black. “You like it?”
“Love it.”
“Nice enthusiasm, Wren.”
To cover my lack there-of, I take his hand and start walking with him to the ticket booth. “I’m just surprised. You didn’t tell me you were going to.”
He stops. “Do I need permission?”
Quieting my voice and hoping he will, too, I reassure him, “No, that’s not what I meant. But it’s fun…so it just seems like you might want to share things like that.” Sighing I glance away and back to him. “Is it just me, Peter, or are things weird between us?”
“What? No!” He takes my face in his hands and plants a proper kiss on me, murmuring, “Maybe I wanted to surprise you. Ever thought of that?”
I slip my arms around his neck, happy for the attention. “I love the streaks.”
“Yeah?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Cool. You smell good.” He gives me one last kiss and takes my hand. But instead tugs me in the opposite direction toward Piedmont Park, its border ending here at the Botanical Gardens. And it’s free. “Thought we’d just hang out in the park since I don’t have that much time today.”
My heart plunges into my feet. “But I said I’d never been here—”
“The park is really beautiful, too.”
“Yeah, we’ve gone there a bunch of times. And that’s why today we were here, to finally see inside the—”
“Wren, why are you making a big deal out of this?” Since I’m speechless, he softens a little and offers, “We’ll go another day when I have more time.”
“What came up?”
“Work. One of the baristas didn’t show. Can you believe it? I told them I’d come as soon as I could. I knew you were waiting so let’s just make the most of this time, have fun, okay? I’ve got like forty-five minutes, tops. And that’s stretching it.”
“Oh.”
I let him lead me away from the pretty gift shop with colorful crafts, books on flora and fauna, seeds with easy how-to instructions, hand-made bird houses by a local artist, large glass dragonflies for your yard, and countless other things I won’t see now. I glance behind me, sad I hadn’t browsed while I waited for Peter to arrive. I was saving it for after, a kind of frosting on the cake of a lovely day I dreamt of having.
God, listen to yourself Wren.
Suck it up.
Stop being such ‘a girl.’
But…but…
“You’re quiet,” he says as we stroll hand-in-hand down stone steps that date back to 1895. To the right is what used to be a horse racetrack, and it’s now where runners like to get their miles in.
“I’m just tired I guess,” I lie as a grey squirrel dashes up the grassy hill to our left. “Why didn’t you say that you had to cut our day short when you texted me?”
“Too long to type all that.”
“Oh.”
As we silently choose the path that will take us to the pond, he adds, “Besides, I really want to get my credit cards down, so I told them I need extra shifts.”
Frowning I blink at him. “Wait, so
