Page 35 of The C*ck Down the Block

She introduced me to the women, but there was no way I was going to remember even half their names, because my head was still on the other side of the yard staring into Chris’s eyes and having a swoony moment.

Marie cleared her throat, and I realized I was staring at him and not paying attention to her. Every eye in the circle turned on me. A woman, whose name was maybe Kelli, waggled her eyebrows. “Girl, we bow down to you for landing yourself a hot Kingman.”

Oh. Ha. That was not what I expected the wife or girlfriend of one of the other players to say. I was almost always on guard in a new group of people, but these ladies weren’t reserved or restrained. I loved it.

And at least half of the women were big girls like me. That was surprising and unusual for fitness fanatic Denver. I full well knew that the average American woman was a size sixteen, and that size didn’t equal athletic ability or health, but it felt like most of Colorado didn’t get the memo.

But these women, they were everything my mother had taught me to be. None of them were holding themselves back, which, more than anything, made me feel comfortable. Sometime in the last few weeks, basically since I’d had to confront Rachel and the Queen Bees again, I’d reverted to those old insecurities I’d thought I’d packed away a long time ago.

It helped seeing other confident, curvy women out in the world and reminded me who I was.

The woman sitting next to Kelli, whose name I had no clue of, smiled so big I could see all her teeth. “You have to tell me if he’s as well hung as we’ve heard.”

She was clearly teasing, but so many of them looked at me and I could see they actually wanted an answer. I took a long, long sip from my bottle of water. They waited. They. Waited. I swallowed and carefully set the bottle down, all nonchalant like. “Oh, we, haven’t…”

“Are you kidding me?” Another woman, maybe named Elisha, basically squealed. “With the way you two were just looking at each other, I thought for a minute there he was going to haul you upstairs right now.”

I mean, I don’t think Chris and I had gotten that crazy making eyes at each other. Besides, he was just faking it, because we weren’t really together. I needed to remind myself of that. Here I was catching feelings for him, and he was just being fun and flirty.

Right?

“Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband,” another woman whose name I didn’t know said and put her hand over her heart, “but I would drop him like a bad habit to be a fluffernutter cream filling in a Kingman sandwich.”

The ladies all erupted it into squeals and giggles. They were clearly all super comfortable in each other’s company, and every worry I’d had on the car ride over here of feeling intimidated was gone like Donkey Kong. I sort of felt like part of the cool kids’ crowd. And that hadn’t ever happened to me in my life.

Fluffernutter woman gave me a wink and what could I do but nod my head in agreement? The Kingman boys were hot. There was no two ways about it. Although, I couldn’t actually imagine being with more than one. That one in particular who’d kissed me yesterday. In front of the known universe.

“Since Chris is now attached and off-limits, the women of Denver will be crying themselves to sleep,” Marie said sagely.

All the ladies nodded and hummed their agreement. I wouldn’t be a little surprised if a few of them shed some tears into their pillows later. Elisha pursed her lips and raised a finger. “Until of course, they decide to make Declan or Everett their new most eligible bachelor.”

Kelli scoffed. “What about Hayes?”

Fluffernutter—gah, I really needed a refresher on names—I think it was actually Fern, shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Girl, he’s like twelve years old.”

Not that I thought it mattered, but that was a little too much of an exaggeration. Besides, Hayes was a cutie patootie and deserved to be lusted after just as much as his brothers. Which was a really weird thing for me to think right now. “I’m pretty sure he’s twenty.”

“He’s like that kid from that musical high school movie.” Kelli glanced over to where the boys were standing together having a beer, and then lowered her voice all conspiratorially. “Adorable, sure. But in a few years, he’s going to be so fine that the shes, theys, and gays around the world are going to be in love with him. I wanna set him up with my niece.”

“Okay, okay, that’s enough lusting over the Kingmans.” Marie looked at me, took my hands in hers, and said, “Now, Trixie, how serious is this thing between you and Chris? Like, are we saving you a seat in the box at the games? Or is this a summer fling?”

Gulp. My mouth was suddenly very, very dry and I wanted to reach for my bottle of water again. I could be confident, cool Trixie, until we had to talk about my fake relationship with the man I may or may not be newly crushing on.

Was it new? Yes. Right? No. Gah. I was confused and was going to fuck this all up, wasn’t I?

“Ooh, Marie going in for the kill from the get-go,” Kelli said and gave a little snap-snap of her fingers.

“I’m a little protective of the boys.” Marie sat a little straighter and looked a couple of the ladies dead in the eye. But not once did she let go of my hands. I wasn’t getting out of this, and the right answer was not forthcoming. She turned that killer gaze back on me. “And I don’t want to see anybody’s heart broken. I’m all for some fun times, but that boy is in love with you, and I wanna know if you’re in love with him too.”

“Geez, Marie,” big toothy smile lady said and fanned herself. “Initiation by fire.”

“She did the same thing to me,” Elisha offered.

Another woman nodded and said, “And me.”

At least four more women, maybe five, raised their hands and nodded too.

I wasn’t prepared to examine the weird feelings I was doing my best to pretend didn’t exist. If I couldn’t handle these questions from women who clearly liked me and who I felt more comfortable with than ninety-nine percent of my graduating class, I wouldn’t have a chance at the reunion. Chris was right, we did need to practice. More than just kissing. I chose my next words really carefully. “He and I have been really good friends for a long time.”

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