“Shit, Rand, you never sent me to your secret makeover store.”
Rand snorted. “As if you needed it.”
“Hey, you kidding? I didn’t know miracles were on sale.”
Sean looked between them as if he wasn’t sure if he was being complimented or made fun of. To tell the truth, I wasn’t sure either.
A high female voice called, “Bubba. Hey, Bubba.”
I glanced over the heads of the crowd and saw Mindy’s blonde hair coming toward me. She was pulling on Woozie Ann, who was herself pulling on some tall slim guy in a tight T-shirt under a letterman’s jacket. For a second, I had a little panicky feeling and wanted to run, but why should I? I raised my hand and waved.
Mindy pushed through the crush and about bumped into me. She grinned up. “Hey there, big man.”
“Hi, Mindy.” Funny, I felt like my skin was burning, and I looked up to see Sean staring—no make that glaring at me. “Uh, Mindy, you know Rand and Tray.”
She waggled her fingers.
“And this is my, uh, client, Sean. Sean, this is Mindy.”
“Oh, hi, Sean.” She gave him a huge smile and yanked on Woozie’s arm. “This here is Woozie Ann, and this—” She shoved the tall guy, so he took a couple steps toward Sean. “—is Jonathan. He wanted to meet you.”
Jonathan wasn’t exactly smiling at the manhandling. Make that woman-handling. And Sean looked like a deer that wasn’t in the headlights because the car had already hit him, so I said, “Hey, Jonathan. You’re a diver, right?” I recognized him because there’d been a feature on the diving team in the Badger Herald recently. They’d been kicking ass.
“Uh, yeah. And you’re Bubba Merkofsky.” He gave a quick smile to Rand and Tray, obviously recognizing them too. They both nodded their chins at him, and Rand added a “Hey, man.”
I said, “Sean, have you ever seen competitive diving? Like on TV and shit? Jonathan’s one of Madison’s star competitors.”
Sean just shook his head. “My housemate, Dustin, was on the team. But now, he’s not.” His face grew pink, which really stood out given his red hair.
Woozie Ann giggled. “Aw! He’s so cute and shy.”
Sean frowned.
Uh-oh. I could feel a storm brewing. Before I could interrupt, Sean said, “While I’ve never seen the Madison diving team, I do know something about the sport because of Quiz Bowl. Diving first became a competitive sport in the early nineteenth century in Europe and was included in the Olympic Games in 1904. Competition includes springboard and platform events. Many divers were originally gymnasts and then—”
Oh jeez. Jonathan looked glassy-eyed, and Rand and Tray were about to bust a gut. The girls just seemed confused by the lecture. I barged in. “What events do you compete in, Jonathan?”
Jonathan blinked as if he were coming out of deep water, and said, “Oh, I do both springboard and platform.”
Woozie gave me a big-eyed stare. “It’s awfully warm in here. Why don’t we all get our coats and go outside?”
Tray waved a hand. “Rand and I have to be somewhere. Have fun, yo.” And just like that, they disappeared into the crowd.
Woozie said, “Funny. Me too. Mindy, you take Bubba and Sean out for some fresh air, okay?” She gave Mindy everything but a big wink and then ran like a rabbit. Mindy picked up the cues with inter-girl radar and slid her arms through both Jonathan and Sean’s. Come on, you guys.” She glanced back. “You too, Hercules.”
Neither of the guys protested, which was pretty surprising, and amazingly, it turned out that Patty was some master of logistics and managed to find all four of our coats in seconds. We were outside in record time—breathing fresh air.
After a second’s uncomfortable silence, Jonathan said, “Want to get something to eat? I’ve got my car.”
Mindy shook her head. “I can’t. I need to be back at my house in half an hour.” She looked at me and kind of blinked a few times. “Will you walk me, Bubba?”
I glanced at Sean whose eyes were wide, and my heart jumped, but I swallowed and said, “Sure.”
Jonathan glanced at Sean. “Are you hungry? We could grab something, if you want.”
Sean stared at me. For a second, he seemed angry or betrayed or something. Hell, wasn’t this what he wanted? To be alone with a good-looking guy? Wasn’t that his freaking goal? Then his chin lifted, he gave Jonathan a smile, and said, “Yes, I’m very hungry. I’d love to get something to eat.” He didn’t even