Chapter Five #3
“I don’t know how to respond to that,” I laugh. “Are we going to play or are we just going to sit and enjoy the sun?”
“I’m enjoying the sun,” Del says. Todd is looking at his phone, perks up, and looks around.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“I have someone for you guys to meet,” he says happily as he stands. “You already know her, but… you’ll see. Come on.”
We all stand up and follow him to the parking lot, where a white Corolla just pulled up. I gasp when I see it is Stacy Hamilton. She is probably the one girl I got close to, but we lost touch after college. “Are you dating Stacy?” I ask.
“I am,” he smiles. “We’ve technically been dating about a year,” he says as he opens the driver’s door. When she gets out, he wraps her in a hug and holds her tightly. She buries her face in his chest. It makes me absolutely giddy to see him close to someone.
“Hell yeah, man. Congrats,” Billy says.
“Why did you hide her from us, asshole?” I frown.
“We just didn’t know if long distance would work until she could finish her contract and move out here,” he says after kissing her gently.
“Sadie!” she says happily as she hugs me.
Stacy Hamilton is a few inches taller than I am and has platinum-blonde hair. “I’m your escape plan,” she whispers in my ear, and I giggle.
“I’ve missed you,” I say.
“I hear you and Angie get along pretty well,” she cackles.
“Oh… Yeah… Like two peas in a pod,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Well, I am going to steal you from the guys, and we are going to have a little girls’ afternoon,” she says. “You need a break from the testosterone.”
“Oh, yay! That sounds… Not as manly,” I say, and she laughs.
“Feed her. She didn’t eat breakfast,” Mason says.
“I will. We are going to go get birria tacos,” she says.
“Aw. I want some,” Todd says.
“You don’t have a vagina, and this is a vagina-only hangout,” Stacy grins.
“Oh… Oh, no,” Dean says. “What have you done, Todd?”
“What?” Todd asks, confused.
“You just paired two brats,” Dean says.
“I’m not a brat,” I say with a frown.
“Yes, you are,” Mason laughs.
“Well, unless you plan on punishing her, it doesn’t matter. Can’t do shit,” Stacy says to Mason with a smile.
“Let’s run away before they find a way to prove you wrong,” I laugh.
“Just ride with Sadie, and one of us will get your car to you later,” Todd says as he kisses her. “You two be good.”
“We won’t,” I say as Todd hugs me.
“The four of us need to sit down and talk tonight. Okay?” Lance says when he hugs me.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. It’s just getting increasingly harder to not kiss you, and we want to talk about your comfort level,” he says.
I grin at him, and he looks confused until I grab his shirt and pull him down some so I can kiss him softly.
He immediately grabs my face and deepens our kiss, taking my breath away.
“That’s my level of comfort,” I say when I pull away from him. Mason and Dean kiss me, but it’s a small and gentle kiss compared to Lance.
“Interesting development,” Todd says.
“Okay. I’m taking you before one of them does it first in this parking lot,” Stacy says, pulling me away from the guys who are staring at me. I can’t tell if they are in shock, but they are completely unreadable.
“Take me? What?” I ask, but then laugh when it clicks. “Oh. Right. We should go.”
Todd, Mason, Lance, and Dean walk with us to the truck. Todd goes around to say bye to Stacy while the guys back me against the truck. “I hope you know what door you just opened,” Lance says.
“Hopefully it’s the door that leads to finding out why you three are looking at me like that,” I say.
“Oh, it does,” he smirks. “As much as I’d love just to take you home, I want you to be able to have time away from us. Go have fun with Stacy.”
“Okay,” I smile. He hugs me tightly before kissing me again. Mason grabs my face and kisses me hard before Dean does the same.
I get into the truck with Stacy, and we get onto the main road before she talks. “So,” she says.
“So,” I laugh.
“Todd showed me the dress you bought, and I’m super excited to see what Mason, Dean, and Lance are going to say,” she says.
“I don’t know why I kissed them. It just… felt natural. It would’ve been really unfortunate if I got rejected,” I laugh.
“Those boys have loved you for ages,” she says. “Todd said you two joked around a lot, but it was harmless, and he liked watching the guys get possessive of you.”
“I didn’t really realize how possessive they were until last week,” I laugh. “Todd sat me on the end of one of the tables and was just standing close to me while we were talking to prove the guys would get weird. It took less than three minutes for them to all come over.”
“That sounds like some smart ass shit that Todd would do,” she chuckles.
“So, how long have you guys been dating? Like officially?”
“Officially? It’s just always been assumed that if we made it to the point where I could move here, then we would be dating. It just hasn’t been spoken aloud, I suppose. That’s why we didn’t tell anyone.”
“That makes sense. Todd is pretty private about that kinda thing,” I say, and she nods in agreement.