“Move,” I whispered.
His eyebrows dipped and his hand dropped to my knee and squeezed. “Look, maybe this isn’t a good idea. You don’t have to do this.”
My eyes flashed to his in surprise. “What do you mean?” Did he mean us—if there was an us—or the Countdown?
“You’re not from here. I don’t want you guys getting lost and …” He lifted his hand to rub the back of his neck as his voice trailed off.
I nudged him again. “Are you worried about me, Laird?”
His hesitation was answer enough.
“No special treatment,” I reminded him. “And, seriously, how hard can this be? We do five miles at practice regularly.”
“Yeah. It’s five miles maximum if you go in the right direction on your first try.”
“She wimping out? What’s taking so long?” Marco’s taunt interrupted our conversation.
Laird stepped back, and I climbed out of the Jeep. “Nah. You’d miss me too much if I wasn’t around.” I kept my voice light.
Before I could round the corner of the vehicle, Laird’s hand snaked out and hooked the back pocket of my denim shorts, stopping me. Using just his fingertips, he turned my hips partially to the left. His touch seared me right through to the skin. “Start that way.” His words were barely audible, but I heard him.
Whipping around, I glared at him. “Stop it. I can do this.”
He still looked troubled as he nodded at me, then glanced at his phone. “You two have about an hour and twenty minutes of light left. If you haven’t found campus by then, you fucking call me.” He muttered the words against my temple.
“That’s against the rules.” We weren’t allowed to have electronics for this, because it was too easy to cheat with GPS. Your vet was supposed to hold onto your phone until you made it to the party. Except, when he blindfolded me earlier, Laird had refused to take mine, and had instead tucked it in the back waistband of my shorts when no one was watching, where it was hidden by the hem of my loose tank top.
Internally, I was conflicted. On one hand, his concern was sweet. On the other, I wanted him to have a little more faith in me that I could handle this on my own.
We had a stare-off until Marco and Smith joined us on our side of the Jeep. He looked away first.
Marco eyed the two of us suspiciously, while Smith gave me a shit-eating grin. “Problem here?” Marco asked.
“Just wondering what’s taking so long for y’all to leave,” I answered flippantly. “We have a party to get to, don’t we?”
“Fucking hell,” Laird muttered.
“We’ll see you suckers later. If you make it.” Marco punched Smith on the shoulder and wrinkled his nose at me before shouldering past us and climbing back into the Jeep. He pounded on the roof. “C’mon, Laird. It’s time to get our drink on while these two wander around like lost sheep. I’m thirsty.”
Smith flicked his eyes at me, and dropped to one knee to re-tie his already perfectly tied shoe, giving me a minute with Laird.
He lifted his hand like he was going to reach for me again, but I stepped back. “I’ll see you soon. Have a cold beer ready for me.”
With a final searching look, those full lips of his pressed tightly together, he stepped back. “Yes. I will see you soon. Because you’re my fucking NAD and you will not disappoint me.” And then he winked before he disappeared inside the Jeep.
“That’s more like it,” I muttered, and Smith snorted.
We watched in silence as they drove off, the Jeep bouncing over the overgrown grass down a barely visible path to a black swath of road about five hundred feet away.
We each had a water bottle, and I had my contraband phone, but other than that, we had nothing to help us on our way.
“Do you know where we are?” I ventured, looking around. I wasn’t sure if I should mention my phone or not.
“Yup. I know exactly where we are.”
“Really?” My voice was bright with surprise. This area looked vaguely familiar. Did I pass it on the way to the hospital?
The Jeep had turned right onto the road as it disappeared from view. Smith pointed left instead. “Campus is about four miles down that way.” The same direction Laird had pointed my hips. I started walking, but Smith grabbed my elbow and stopped me. “Or it’s two miles around that lake over there if we keep going down this path.”
I looked behind us, where he was pointing. “For real? That’s so much shorter.”
“Considering they went right and must be taking the long way back to campus, if we hustled, we could probably even beat them. But what’s the fun in that?” He started toward the lake at an easy pace, and I fell into step alongside him, matching my stride to his out of habit. “Know what else we pass between this lake and Bubba’s house?”
“What?” I watched my feet so I wouldn’t trip over any loose rocks.
“Pizza. We have plenty of time. Want to stop for a slice, Batman?”
I pretended to consider it. “Only because I don’t want you wasting away, Robin.” I patted his perfectly flat stomach. “You’re looking skinny these days.”
He tugged up his shirt, flexing his abs. “Girl, you don’t need to come up with an excuse to touch me. Just ask and I’m happy to let you cop a feel. Especially if I get to return the favor.”
“I don’t think you watched the same Batman and Robin I did growing up.” I rolled my eyes.
He laughed. “A pair of grown-ass men in tights who hung out in a cave together? I think the general public is avoiding making some very obvious conclusions about the two of them.”
My eyes got big as I thought about his words. “But what about Catwoman?”
Smith slung his arm around my shoulder. “A hot woman in latex to join in the fun? I’m telling you, Batman is absolutely my kind of hero. He didn’t even try to hide his kinky side.”
We dissolved into laughter and spent the rest of the hike speculating about the sex lives of various superheroes while sucking on a pair of grape lollipops Smith had brought along.
An hour later, we were settled at Antonio’s with a giant cheese pizza propped between us, and the sun was saying its colorful goodbye.
I took a long drink of my Cherry Coke Zero before pulling a hot, melty slice onto my plate, the mozzarella cheese stretching and drooping as it tried to hold itself together. “Oh hey,” I started. “I meant to ask you the other day, whose dorm room do you have to clean? Since I got Marco, did you get Laird?”
Smith took a huge bite of his own slice and looked at me quizzically. “What do you mean? I don’t even clean my own dorm room.”
“You mean one of the vets doesn’t have you…” I trailed off, nibbling on the tip of my slice while I thought it over. Fucking Marco. He made that shit up about NADs cleaning the vets’ rooms. I’d bet money on it. I took another bite absently. I could complain. Pitch a fit about how it wasn’t fair and refuse to do it. But that’s what he wanted. Technically, a NAD had to do what a vet asked. The fact that I was the only NAD being asked was beside the point, I was sure.
Smith tipped his head. “You’re cleaning Marco’s room? How’d he get you to do that?”
“He told me I had to. But you know what, it’s fine. If that’s the worst thing he can think of to do to me, I can handle some housework.”
Smith chewed thoughtfully. “I wonder if it’s a gender role thing. If he’s trying to put you in your place symbolically. Like, you know, traditional-ass shit where the woman cleans the house and the man goes to work.”
I laughed so hard soda dribbled down my chin, and I pressed a handful of napkins to my mouth to mop up the stray drops. “Jesus, Smith. You give him too much credit. You think Marco thinks symbolically? Seriously? Are we talking about the same guy?”
He shook his head. “You’re right. My bad. More likely he’s just lazy and saw an easy way to con you into doing it. You gonna stop now?”
“I’ll handle it. No worries. But for real, what’s his deal? Is it just me? Or does he have something against women in general—when he’s not trying to fuck them?”