Page 71 of Tequila Tuesdays

Olivia shook her head. “Nope. And he’s kind of hairy. I think they’d planned to wax his entire back along with his butt crack.”

I winced, and my bottom clenched in sympathy. “Is he okay? It seems like the skin is sensitive down there.”

Olivia shook her head. “I don’t know. They were planning a trip to Mexico over the winter break. That’s why they were waxing.”

Ava picked up her wine glass and pointed at us. “This is a good lesson. You should leave beauty treatments to the professionals, ladies.”

Ava didn’t bring up Gary, and I didn’t complain about her drinking, so everyone got along at dinner. Olivia and I went home afterward and watched a Scottish zombie Christmas musical calledAnna and the Apocalypse. It was one of the strangest Christmas musicals I’d ever seen, and Olivia didn’t hate it because it had zombies in it.

Besides Ava’s overcooked fish, it had been an enjoyable night. I had to work tomorrow, but there was a rec volleyball game on Saturday morning against Damien’s team, and we were going camping on Saturday night with Damien and my friends. I was confident Olivia and Damien would get along just fine.

On Saturday morning, we played Damien’s volleyball team. It should have been our second match against them, but we’d officially forfeited the first one because of Frankie’s death.

The match reopened fresh wounds, and my competitive spirit was gone. I just wanted to get it over with. But halfway through the first set, Kevin of all people called for a time-out.

Then he chewed our asses out. “What in the fuck are you all doing? Are we just going to give up? Huh? Is that what we learned from Frankie? And from treatment? We just give up?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “And you, Harley. Do you think Frankie would have wanted you to just roll over and let those self-righteous assholes win?”

“I’m not a self-righteous asshole,” Zeke called from across the net. “Just a regular asshole.” I stuck my middle finger up without looking over at Zeke. He laughed.

Kevin lowered his voice. “I fucking hate to lose. But I’d rather lose knowing we didn’t just give up, bend over, and let them dry-fuck us in the ass.”

We waited for Kevin to continue, but he looked at us expectantly.

Jaime cringed. “Dude, that’s gross.”

“Really?” Tiana stared at Kevin. “That’s how you’re going to end your speech?”

Kevin shrugged. “Yeah.”

I held up my hands. “Okay, Kevin. We get your point. You may have gone a little too far with that last visual. But we get it.”

Kevin nodded and stepped back.

I studied my team. “Kevin’s right, and I’m sorry. This isn’t what Frankie would have wanted.” Leaning in, I lowered my voice. “We’re all going to have to hustle. And don’t shank your serves, for Hell's sake.” I went on to give a few more pointers and even went over some strategy with Kevin and Josh.

“Just get the damned point if you can. It doesn’t have to be pretty.”

We lost the first set. But during the second set, Kevin and Josh started working together, and we scraped out a win. By the third set, a switch seemed to flip in Kevin, and he was on fire.

He still fed most of the bumps and sets to me, but for the first time I was able to focus more on offense.

After Kevin gave me a particularly well-placed bump off one of Zeke’s serves, Damien glanced incredulously at me. I just shrugged because I didn’t know what was going on either.

We won the third set by four points, which was a huge margin for us. The team erupted, and both Jaime and Josh slapped Kevin hard on the ass. He was still mean, but he seemed happier than I’d ever seen him.

Damien shook his head and walked over to me. He grabbed my waist and pulled me into him. “That was the strangest, most disturbing pep talk I’ve ever heard.” He studied Kevin. “Did he really say something about getting dry-fucked in the ass?”

I grimaced. “Yep. Instead of motivating us, I think he scared us into winning.”

Chapter 23

Afewhourslater,Olivia crossed her arms and tried to stare Damien down through the rearview mirror as we drove to Joshua Tree.

Damien met us at my house after the volleyball game so we could drive together. Brock and Zeke were going together as well, and Sebastian would bring Laurel and Martina. We planned to meet at the trailhead, and Zeke had gotten our overnight camping permit.

Damien looked down at my tight black yoga pants and grinned appreciatively. I’d texted him to let him know I was now officially on birth control.

He wrapped an arm around my neck, then pulled me in for a quick kiss. I pressed against him, and he rubbed his thumb across my lower lip.

---