Chapter 11 Ours to Name #3
She sent it, locked the screen, and placed the phone beside her thigh.
I held out my hand. She took it.
"You good?" I asked.
"Yes." Her fingers threaded through mine. "He keeps mistaking access to my social circle for access to me."
"Common condition," Jessa said. "Terminal in lake boys."
Bristol's mouth twitched. "He'll survive."
Kit stayed against her other shoulder. She didn't praise the reply or explain Bristol to the room. She simply stayed, and Bristol let her.
Bristol looked down at our joined hands, then turned hers until our palms met fully.
"He wanted me to defend my choice," she said. "That would've meant accepting his right to put it on trial."
"You didn't," I said.
"No." Her thumb crossed my knuckles. "I answered the only part that belonged to me."
Kit kissed Bristol's temple. Bristol closed her eyes for a second and leaned into it, accepting the affection with the same quiet certainty she'd brought into breakfast.
Lucy looked toward the main dock where the three men had disappeared.
"They see seven women near Nash and decide he collected us," she said. "Jake sees Bristol choose something he doesn't understand and decides she's proving a point. Same move. Different outfit."
"Then we stop letting them do the naming," Luna said.
Vina grinned. "Finally, a plan with teeth."
Poppy sat straighter. "We take the name."
"Nash's Girls?" Jessa asked.
"Why not?" Poppy said. "We're his girls. He's our guy. The problem isn't the affection. It's everybody acting like we woke up assigned to him."
Bristol squeezed my hand. "So we show the choice."
Kit glanced toward the reclaimed Brewster Bay sign where the evening light had started turning the wood gold. "A picture."
"Two," Poppy said, already reaching for her phone. "One that says exactly who Nash's Girls are, and one with everybody who's helping turn this place into home."
Jessa raised her bottle. "I volunteer as tribute for the hot-girl photograph. Behind the camera," she added before anyone could turn the distinction into another conversation. "I have range."
"And an eye," Bristol said. "You framed the Kappa dock shot last month."
Jessa brightened. "You noticed?"
"I notice good composition."
"One we arrange," Lucy said.
"One we caption," Luna added.
"One where I look devastating behind the camera," Jessa said.
Poppy kissed her cheek. "That's my J."
Jessa pressed a hand to her heart. "Now I might cry."
"Humidity," Vina reminded her.
"Brutal today."
Poppy checked the lowering sun, then rose and pulled Jessa with her.
"We have forty minutes before the light gets rude."
Lucy stood. "Then let's decide what the lake sees."
***
Golden light spread across Brewster Bay's reclaimed-wood sign and turned Sapphire Lake into hammered copper behind it.
Poppy held her phone up like a starting flag.
"No recruitment-brochure lineups," she said. "No one looks like a prize somebody won."
"And no duck faces," Jessa added, taking the phone from her. "I have professional standards."
"You took a topless selfie on a wakeboard last month," Luna said.
"Professionally."
Jessa backed toward the rail and lifted the phone. "Show me the first idea."
We tried something too neat. Kit and Poppy stood at my sides, Bristol in front, and the other three filled the edges. Everybody looked good. Everybody also looked like we'd been arranged by a resort photographer selling engagement packages.
Jessa lowered the phone. "Absolutely not. You look expensive and emotionally unavailable."
"That's Luna's brand," Vina said.
Luna pinched the back of Vina's arm.
"Ow. See? Customer engagement."
Lucy stepped out of the pose and looked at the group instead of the camera. "We're still arranging ourselves around Nash."
Kit nodded. "Then we start with us."
The six women built the pose around one another before they built it around me.
Kit took my right side and Poppy my left, both warm against me.
Bristol stepped into the space just in front of my shoulder and folded her hand over mine at her waist. Luna tucked beside Kit with one arm around her.
Vina drew close to Poppy and looped an arm across her back.
Lucy closed the front edge of the group, one hand linked with Bristol's free hand and the other resting at Vina's hip.
Every woman touched at least one other woman. Nobody stood alone waiting for my arm.
Jessa looked through the phone screen and frowned with great authority.
"Closer. You're hot, but you're leaving emotional daylight between you."
Poppy pulled Vina in until Vina bumped my shoulder. Luna shifted behind Bristol and rested her chin briefly on Kit's hair. Lucy stepped back until her side met mine and kept Bristol's hand.
Kit's fingers slipped beneath the hem of my shirt at my waist. Poppy pressed a quick kiss to my jaw. Bristol leaned back far enough for me to feel the full line of her body. Vina's nails moved once over Poppy's bare arm. Luna and Lucy exchanged a grin across the cluster.
The picture hadn't been taken yet, and my body already understood the claim.
"There," Jessa said. "Try to look like you all chose this voluntarily."
"I was promised snacks," Vina said.
"You ate the snacks."
"Then the contract has been fulfilled."
Poppy laughed. Luna tried not to. Kit gave up first, and the rest of us went with her.
Jessa caught the moment.
She took two more, shifted a step toward the lake, then lowered the phone. "Got it."
"You say that like you didn't just take thirty," Bristol said.
"Twenty-seven. I believe in restraint."
The women crowded around her. I stayed behind Bristol with my hands at her hips while she leaned into me and looked over Jessa's shoulder.
The first image was polished. The second was hotter. The third had all seven of us laughing, bodies folded together under the warm bulbs, the six women connected to one another as clearly as they were connected to me.
"Third," Lucy said.
"Third," Bristol agreed.
Poppy enlarged the picture and moved it around the screen.
Kit was laughing into Luna's hair. Vina had turned toward Poppy, their linked bodies making the group feel connected even at the edge.
Lucy still held Bristol's hand. Bristol's head rested against my shoulder while my mouth curved against her temple. Nobody looked placed. We looked caught.
Jessa returned the phone to Poppy.
Poppy opened the post and looked around the circle. "Words."
Vina answered first. "Nash's Girls. Keep the name."
Lucy nodded. "We did the choosing."
Bristol looked up at me, then at Kit, Poppy, Vina, Luna, and Lucy. "He's ours, too."
Poppy typed the full caption and turned the screen toward the women.
*Nash's Girls. We did the choosing. He's ours, too.*
Kit read it once. "That's us."
Luna nodded. Lucy's smile sharpened. Vina said, "Post it before somebody tries to add a hashtag."
"I had options," Poppy said.
"That's what scares me."
Poppy posted it.
My phone buzzed almost immediately. So did three others. Nobody reached for them.
Kit caught the back of my neck and kissed me, warm and sure. Poppy pressed in against my side. Bristol kept my hand at her waist. Vina leaned over and kissed my cheek with a loud smack that made Luna roll her eyes. Lucy stayed close enough that our arms remained pressed together.
The lake could argue with a caption. It couldn't change who had written it.
Poppy looked over at Jessa. "J, you're in the next one."
"Obviously," Jessa said. "I didn't sand half that bar to spend the whole night behind a phone."
"Big Papa!" Poppy shouted toward the lodge. "Family picture! Bring Bella and everybody with a pulse!"
Frank appeared in the doorway. "That invitation needs work."
Bella came out behind him, followed by Jeremy and Grace. Sally and Sam walked up from the main dock holding hands.
Poppy directed them toward the sign. Jessa slipped between her and Luna without ceremony. Frank and Bella took the center. Jeremy stood beside Grace with his hand at her back. Sally hooked an arm around Sam's waist before he volunteered for camera duty.
Jessa reached for the end of the group as if she intended to leave herself an easy escape route. Poppy caught her belt loop and pulled her between herself and Luna.
"Center-ish," Poppy said.
"That's not a position."
"It is in my heart."
Luna hooked an arm around Jessa before she could argue. Jessa settled between them, grinning like she'd been standing there for years.
Poppy passed him the phone. "Timer. Then get in here."
Sam propped it securely on the broad deck rail, checked the frame, set the countdown, and ran. Sally caught the front of his shirt and pulled him into place as the phone flashed.
"Again," Lucy ordered.
Sam reset it. This time Vina whispered something to Frank two seconds before the shot. His dry expression broke, Bella laughed at him, and the reaction rolled through the entire group before the timer fired.
Fourteen people filled the frame: Frank and Bella, Jeremy and Grace, Sally and Sam, Jessa, me, and the six women who had just claimed our romantic shape in public.
Poppy retrieved the phone and showed the second image to Bella.
Bella touched two fingers to the screen. "Send me that one."
"Already done."
Jessa leaned into Poppy and Luna while Kit drew Bristol and Lucy closer to see. Sam kept his arm around Sally. Grace rested against Jeremy. Frank stood behind Bella with both hands on her shoulders, pretending he wasn't still smiling.
Poppy's phone buzzed again.
She turned it face down on the temporary counter.
"It can wait," she said.
Vina lifted a bottle of water. "Let them talk."
Bristol came back to my side and threaded her fingers through mine.
Night settled around all of us before anyone thought to move.
***
The unfinished bar became our table after dark.