Page 21 of Riding the Pine

I nod.

“I suppose now is a bad time to give you a lecture?” Artemis’s serious voice is much lower in tone than his brother’s when he’s being a burly, surly buzzkill.

“Don’t.” I hold up a hand. “I’ll wash your bottle and return it as soon as possible. It’ll be like it never left your side.”

He arches a brow like he has no idea what I’m talking about. “I guess I borrowed one of your protein shake cup things for water last night?”

I look between them as they share one of those twin-stares that feels like they’re sharing information from one brain to the other. “Athena,” they say in unison.

What about Athena? She bought him the protein shaker? It’s a weird gift for Bright Eyes to have given to her brother, but maybe as a stocking stuffer or an emergency something on her way home if she forgot a birthday… I almost laugh, there’s no way on earth Athena de la Peña forgets her brothers’ birthday.

“What about her? It’s her cup?”

Artemis rolls his eyes and groans. Apollo laughs, shaking his head. “She must have gotten it for you last night after she put you to bed.”

My stomach lurches, threatening to bring up the granola bar and twenty-four ounces of water I just consumed. “She… what?”

My fingers and toes go numb.

“You don’t remember?” Artemis’s judgy McJudgerson face is in full effect as I shake my head.

“Athena.”

They nod.

“Your sister?”

Another nod.

“Was here.” I point at my crotch but that’s not what I mean.

A third nod. Artemis’s expression is concerned, like I drank so much alcohol last night that I’ve washed away my memories. Apollo, on the other hand, stares at my face like he’s waiting for the penny to drop.

A flash of her gorgeous face giving me an epic eye roll standing over two towers of plastic Solo cups breaks through my headache. Oh, she was here.

We sit in silence for another moment, and in that time, I recall taking shots right there in front of Athena, whose “stop fucking around” look is seared in my mind. I guess I should thank her for saving me from myself with her angry death glare. If she hadn’t intervened, I may have continued.

Drunk-Scott clearly doesn’t know when he needs to stop.

Another flash from last night comes to mind, Athena swooping in to save me from falling on my face. If it was me, I’d have let me fall and learn a lesson, but she didn’t. And the reminder she was so close to me sends a shiver through my body.

“You okay?” Apollo tips his head.

I nod, slowly so I don’t wake the monkeys back up again. “She hauled my ass up the stairs?”

It’s not really a question because bursts of memories of leaning on her as she dragged us both up the stairs by herself. Why didn’t one of the guys help?

Bet she told them she was fine, not realizing how much of a dead weight I could be.

“She did, indeed. She ordered us to clear out the house and get started on tidying up. Just as well, because August got home from a date and missed the explosion of bodies.”

What he doesn’t say was that he missed seeing me drunk off my face. If the captain saw me acting out like that, I’d be in big trouble, maybe even bigger trouble than if Coach had busted my ass.

Fuck.

“Fall in line, Scottie.” Apollo claps a hand over my shoulder.

My head bobs up and down, but my stomach falls out of my body as a memory sparks something in my brain. Getting tangled in my shirt. Dropping my underwear to the floor. Climbing into bed and staring up at Athena like some kind of backlit Florence Nightingale as she tucked me in.

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