Chapter Six
Little Nike Shoes
Livia
An evil smirk painted my lips as I tucked my phone away after firing that last text off to Carter, turning my focus to where Chloe was holding up a new outfit option for her elopement trip with Will.
She’d called an emergency girls’ night when she’d discovered Grace would be in town, and now here we were, gathered in her living room around various mountains of clothing.
“What about this one?” she asked, pinning the multi-colored dress to her hip with one hand and her shoulder with the other.
The bright hues of fabric clashed a bit with her red hair, but her creamy pale skin and the curves that girl had made her a knockout in anything she wore.
She turned to look at herself in the full-length mirror. “I made it with leftover fabric from a craft I did with my class for Easter.”
“Well, nothing says fuck me brainless like an Easter dress,” I teased, sipping my white wine with a grin before I picked up the bracelet I was crafting.
I’d brought over my travel jewelry kit so I had something to do with my hands during this little girls’ night other than drink myself into oblivion.
Currently, my project was a delicate tennis bracelet peppered with round briolette cut moonstones.
I planned to give it to Chloe as a wedding gift, but she didn’t know that yet.
Chloe Knott was a kindergarten teacher and fiancée to our grumpy goalie, Will Perry.
We’d been bugging them since he popped the question for wedding details, only to find out recently that they planned to elope.
And though we all were bummed that we wouldn’t be there to sob all over them as they exchanged vows, it made perfect sense.
I couldn’t imagine a world where Will Perry would be excited to share something so intimate with a crowd of two-hundred people watching.
They were indulging us with a little close friends and family party when they returned, at least. That was the only reason we all hadn’t rioted.
“I mean, if we’re talking pagan origins, Easter is the goddess of fertility, so…” Grace shrugged, tilting her bottle of beer toward Chloe. “I guess it depends on what your goals are for this wedding trip.”
Grace Tanev was our little adventurer in the group, a Coppertone tan ball of sunshine with platinum blonde hair who was always on the go.
She was only in Tampa for a week before she was bolting off to do a cruise to Antarctica, stopping by long enough to give Chloe fashion advice and steal a few nights with her beloved Jaxson Brittain — who just so happened to be her brother’s best friend and teammate.
That hadn’t been at all scandalous.
Chloe’s phone rang before anyone could tease her further, and she lit up at the name on the screen before running to her laptop to answer. She set it up to face all of us before accepting the call.
Mia Love’s smile filled the screen in a dazzling flash.
“There she is!” Chloe sang. “How was night two in Kansas City?”
“Incredible,” she breathed, peeling off her fake eyelashes. Her bronze skin was glowing, long brown hair wavy and sweaty at the roots. “I surprised them all with a guest appearance from REX.”
“The rapper?!”
“Who else?” She laughed. “I think they were all very confused when I started an acoustic version of ‘Barbie Q’, but when REX came out, they lost their minds. It was epic.”
“You’re epic,” I shot back.
She blushed, like she didn’t already know it, like she wasn’t the biggest pop star in the world.
Mia was the newest addition to our group, married in a flash to our stubborn asshat winger, Aleks Suter.
It had been a surprise to all of us, how quickly they’d started dating, got engaged, and then married — but they’d been friends since they were kids, and apparently crushed on one another that long, too.
Whatever miscommunication kept them apart, I was glad they figured it out — because I already loved her fiercely.
She was a girl’s girl, through and through.
The fact that she was rushing to her hotel to video chat her girlfriends after playing a sold-out stadium show was the perfect example of that.
“Well, you’re just in time,” Chloe said. “We’ve picked two outfits so far, nixed about seventeen, and now we’re debating this dress.”
Chloe stepped back so Mia could take in the full view of it, and when Mia’s smile took on an awkward tilt and she blinked a little too much, I couldn’t contain my laugh.
“It’s… colorful!” she said, too much teeth in her grin.
Chloe deflated but was smirking when she started to hang the dress back on the hanger. “Not exactly the vibe I’m going for.”
“Is the vibe you’re aiming for more like rip this thing off me and rail me into next year? Because I might have a few things you could borrow, if that’s the case,” I said.
“Oh, God. If we take this party to Liv’s place and dive into her closet, I have a feeling we’ll send you off to the Seychelles in nothing more than fishnet,” Maven teased.
I shrugged. “And this is a problem… how?”
“To be fair, I’m pretty sure Daddy P would rail you even if you wore a burlap sack,” Grace said to Chloe. “Never seen that man turn to putty until he met you.”
Mia offered up her closet next, but I missed out on the glitter and sequin jokes when Maven pinched me just above my elbow.
“Ouch!”
“Who were you texting just a minute ago?”
“That hurt,” I said, rubbing the spot she’d assaulted.
She sucked her teeth. “Please. You don’t fool me. I’ve seen your top dresser drawer, and that pinch probably felt like a tickle in comparison to the contraptions you’ve got in there.”
“Touché.”
“Who were you texting?”
“No one.”
My best friend leveled me with a glare then.
She was so beautiful I sometimes wondered if she could have been a model, had she not chosen the life of plant lady and community do-gooder.
Her hair was natural at the moment — tight coils that framed her face like a crown, soft and full of life.
Her skin was a rich, glowing brown that seemed to drink in the sunlight, radiant in a way that made you stop and stare.
She wore a wrap skirt and a loose, off-the-shoulder blouse like she’d just wandered out of a bohemian dream barefoot, grounded, and completely at ease.
Maven didn’t ever have to try to be gorgeous.
She simply was. Earthy. Ethereal. Unshakably herself.
Before she started dating Vince Tanev, she’d been quite prickly, too. She still had that edge about her, but her now-husband had given her warm, strong arms to relax in. He’d made her feel safe enough to put down her sword.
I envied what they had, even if I pretended like it was the last thing I wanted for myself.
“You are such a little shit,” she whisper-yelled, pinching my elbow again.
“Ow-ah-chuh!”
“You had a goofy grin on your face and if there’s anything to make me suspicious, it’s that. So, who were you texting? Tell me right now.”
“It was Carter! You sadist.” I rubbed my arm. “Now stop assaulting me so we can help our friend pick her wedding wardrobe.”
“Carter Fabri?” She scrunched her nose.
“Do we know another Carter?”
“Why is he texting you?”
“Why else but to be an annoying fly buzzing around my face?” I feigned indifference and nonchalance, shrugging as I looped another moonstone onto the delicate fourteen-karat chain with my pliers. “You know him and his corny pickup lines. Apparently, I’m his favorite victim to test them on.”
Maven relaxed a bit at that, all the suspicion leaving her eyes as she settled her back against the couch again.
She knew as well as anyone else in this room that Carter had been a flirt toward me since we met.
It wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to text me or trip over himself whenever we were all together.
And it wasn’t a lie — he had been texting me lines, although the one about wanting to make me moan again had been anything but corny.
Still, my best friend didn’t need to know that I’d taken on the role of Sex Professor.
At least, not right now. She also didn’t need to know that I had an impenetrable grin on my face not just from the glorious deposit that hit my account earlier today, but because I was excited to see Carter this weekend, to give him another lesson.
That part surprised me — so I knew it would make Maven fall out on the floor.
I was remiss to admit it, but I’d gone into that first night with Carter thinking this whole arrangement would be like a second job to me, something that took my time and energy in exchange for a paycheck.
What had surprised me was that fun was included in that exchange, too.
I’d thoroughly enjoyed it — bossing Carter around, discovering his muscled body and thick cock, coaching him through all the ways to please me with that mouth of his.
I was just as eager for round two as he was, even if I’d never admit it.
Maven smirked. “Ah, well — that tracks. Did you tell him he may want to make an appointment with an eye doctor after that shot he missed?”
I barked out a laugh. “You chirp almost as well as your husband now.”
“Who do you think taught him?”
We turned our attention back to Chloe as Maven slid her arm under mine with a smile, cuddling me as we voted yes or no on the next round of outfits. When we transitioned from dresses to swimsuits, Grace brought the conversation full circle.
“I know we were joking about the whole goddess of fertility thing earlier, but on a serious note… where do you and Will stand on the whole baby thing?” She drained the last of her beer before setting the empty bottle on the coffee table.
“You can totally tell me to fuck off, too. It’s none of my business, and I know it’s an invasive question.
But also… I’m nosy, and you two are hot as fuck, and I think you’d make really cute babies. If you want to, of course.”
Chloe’s skin turned a lovely shade of pink as she held up a white one-piece that we all immediately vetoed.
“Too virginal,” I said.