Page 67 of Lone Star Longing
But before Con could toss, Hailey came out with their order of wings, so they took a break to gather around the table. Lacey was craving spicy foods, so she dived into the pile of wings, dragging her bottle of water closer before her hands got all greasy.
As a rule, she avoided wings because they were messy and not a lot of food. But since last night, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking of them, and she closed her eyes in pleasure as she bit into the first wing.
When she opened her eyes, Beck was standing across from her, hands on his hips, grinning. Her heart skipped a beat, which surprised her
“Good?” he asked.
“So good.” She put the wing down on a brown paper towel and took a sip of water to cool her tongue before she gestured toward the basket. “Help yourself.”
“Con’s eyes are watering, so maybe I’ll go order something else,” he said with a crooked smile.
She had to admit that the inside of her nose was burning, and her throat, but her tummy was happy, and her taste buds, so she smiled anyway. “Suit yourself. They’re good.”
He disappeared for a little while, and by the time he showed up to sit beside her, she had quite a pile of bones in front of her. Maybe more than her fair share, to be honest. Then again, her friends had drifted away, many toward the bar for another drink.
She reached for another wing. “What did you order?” she asked Beck when he returned.
“Ribs.”
Her tastebuds, burned and battered, sprang to new life as she thought about the sweet taste of barbecue sauce coating the grilled meat. She didn’t eat ribs, either, for the same reason she avoided wings, but now that was what she wanted.
Man, was she going to go through four and a half more months of this?
“Hey, y’all,” Beck said when everyone was back at the table. “Lacey and I were talking about us all taking a day trip up to Fort Clark Springs this summer. We could take a picnic and play in the water, and just hang out.”
“We’d have to go early,” Poppy said. “We went up there last month and the park was full, so they wouldn't let anyone else in. So we’d have to aim to be there before it opens. Or we could try to go on a week day.”
“We can do that. Come on, it will be a blast.”
“Not everyone can just take a day off to go swimming,” Con said, his tone a little bitter.
“Just one day. We can come and help you do whatever it is that needs to be done so you can come with us. Come on. It’ll be like old times.”
“I’m not sure,” Javi said. “Not much of a swimmer. I heard it gets pretty deep.”
Lacey gave him a smile of commiseration. He had been pretty traumatized by the bus accident. She could imagine he avoided water at all cost. But at the same time, she didn't want him to feel excluded from their trip.
“So just hang out on the side. I’ll probably just float around on a tube. You should have seen me on that lazy river in San Antonio. Beck thought he’d never get me out of the water.”
“So what happened in San Antonio last week anyway?” Javi jumped on the chance to change the subject. “I thought you were going to leave her up there, and the next thing I hear, you’re both back in town a day later.”
Lacey lowered her head. “Yeah, well, Jesse and I broke up.”
“I should never have pushed you together,” Ginny said. “Never. You didn’t have anything in common, and I just wanted to be with Josh. And you see how well that worked out.”
“Yeah, yeah, Jesse was an asshole, we all knew that,” Con said. “I want to know what happened in San Antonio.”
“Well.” Lacey looked at Beck. “I called Beck when Jesse didn't show, he picked me up, we checked into a hotel room, we went swimming, we ate, we shopped the next day, we came back.”
“A hotel room.” Javi lifted both eyebrows. “Are y’all together now?”
“Yeah, I went right from Jesse to Beck. Because that’s who I am.”
Javi lifted his hands in surrender. “I’m just asking. Because you act like you’re together.”
“We’re just friends,” Beck and Lacey said together.
Okay, maybe that synchronization didn't help their argument, so Lacey turned back to Fort Clark Springs. “We can pack a picnic, and caravan out there.” She would have to make sure she didn't ride with Beck, at least not alone, on the way.
