Page 71 of The Genius
“Sure,” I muttered. “But I would never sign up for the Matching Program.”
“That’s a shame. Did you know that some of the girls had a secret crush on you back when we were in school?”
I scoffed. “Yeah, right.”
“It’s true. Archer was always the serious one but you were fun and you would play games with us kids. Sometimes you’d help us girls when the boys were being mean to us.”
I looked over at Hunter and Storm. “It’s the job of an Nman to be protective of females. They were just too young to understand that.”
“Oh, come on, we were just having a little fun; it was innocent,” Storm exclaimed.
Willow held out her hand to silence him. “You put spiders and frogs in our beds, and you kept turning the lights on and off to annoy us, not to mention that you blocked our door so we couldn’t get out. It was traumatic.”
“I don’t remember any of that,” Tristan said.
“That’s because you only came to the school after Solo became my boyfriend. He made sure no one messed with me.” Willow bit her lip and frowned before she returned to her rant. “But before that, Marco was our hero. One night you put your mattress on the floor outside our room and told the boys that you’d beat them up if they messed with us again.”
“It wasn’t a big deal,” I insisted.
Willow laughed and flashed her white teeth. “Marco, we loved you for it. Just like we loved you the time you helped us out at that survival camp in the forest where we were freezing and starving.”
“What about it?” Tristan asked. “What happened?”
“We couldn’t get a fire going and ended up sleeping together in one big bundle of sleeping bags to keep warm. We were miserable and a lot of the girls were crying because of the cold and the fear that wolves or bears would come and eat us. When we woke up the next morning someone had made a fire for us.” Willow looked at me. “That was you, wasn’t it?”
I smiled. “No comment.”
“I don’t believe you. There were footsteps and Nicki said she recognized your pattern.”
“She must have been wrong.”
“Admit it, Marco. We were your girls and you didn’t want us to be freezing.”
I laughed. “I’ll admit that you girls were never as alone in that forest as you thought you were. But it wasn’t just me. Magni, Archer, Boulder, and I all patrolled the area and made sure you were safe.
“Did you make the fire?”
“I can’t remember.”
She grinned up at me. “You did, I know you did. You were always kind to us, Marco. It was a sad day when you left.”
“Thank you.” I raised my glass to Willow. “It’s nice to be appreciated.”
Willow took another sip of the whiskey and gave a grimace again. “We should go to a dance bar. I have a friend who lives around here; she knows a bar that’s safe.”
“We’re not going to a bar,” I said firmly. “It’s a pain going anywhere with Hunter to begin with and with you and Shelly, the chance of us men getting into fights is too big.”
“I’m with Marco,” Tristan exclaimed. “I don’t need to be caught in another bar fight.”
“But I want to dance.” Willow pouted and moved to the edge of her seat.
“I’ll dance with you,” Tristan offered and the two of them began discussing what music to put on.
“The Butterflies made this upbeat song called ‘Dance with your Eyes.’”
“The Butterflies?” I asked. “You mean those three guys we saw perform when we went on a field trip to the Motherlands?”
“Yes. They were so good. Remember?”
