what I wanted, even if I hadn’t yet admitted it to myself.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Molly asked, nudging my shoulder.
We were in the back seat of the Jeep, heading to the gym for practice. June sat on the other side of Molly with her headphones in place, tuning us out. Lexi was driving like a madwoman, and Rosie sat next to her up front, trying to ignore Lexi’s “sexual lesson of the day”, as Molly and I had dubbed them.
I shook my head and brushed Molly off, too aware of June listening in on the other side. Her music wasn’t that loud; she could have easily heard every word I said. Does it matter though? She’d probably seen my little display by the hot tub last night.
There it was again.
The fire.
I inhaled a shaky breath and turned toward the window, trying to get a grip on my fantasies before we pulled up to the gym. Practice would be hell otherwise.
“So most girls forget about the balls,” Lexi said from the front seat. “If you want to know the difference between a good blowjob and a great blowjob, just go ahead and cup those bad boys. Keep ’em warm. Don’t let the shaft get all the spotlight.”
I stifled a laugh.
Rosie fidgeted in her seat. “It’s okay. I don’t really need to know…I mean, I can’t imagine wanting to—”
Lexi held up her hand to stop her. “Oh please. I used to think the same thing—blowjobs are misogynistic, blah blah blah, NPR—but believe me, oral isn’t about feminism, it’s about driving each other wild.”
Molly shook her head. “So what do you do after you, uh, cup them?”
Lexi smirked. “It’s up to you, but when I really like a guy, I’ll lick my thumb—”
Rosie turned the dial on the radio up loud so Lexi’s last words were cut off.
Lexi turned it back down. “—and at the last second I’ll stick it right in his—”
Rosie flipped the dial up so loud I had to hold my hands up to cover my ears.
June yanked her headphones off. “Jesus! What are you guys doing? Just leave the radio alone.”
“Speaking of tight-asses, no one asked for your input, June,” Lexi said, eyeing her in the rearview mirror. “You can go back to ignoring us.”
Fortunately, the gym came into view over the horizon before June could escalate the situation. Lexi whipped into a parking spot, not even close to being in the lines. June hopped out and ran for the door, and the four of us sat in silence for a second, absorbing the last few seconds.
“Do you think we should ease up on her?” Rosie asked, turning back to stare at Molly and me in the back seat.
“How can we?” Lexi asked. “She’s the one being a twat.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, we’re not exactly going out of our way to be nice to her either.”
Molly nodded. “I think we should try harder to include her. Maybe she thinks we don’t want to be friends with her.”
“Not after what she pulled on Brie!” Lexi argued. “Of course we don’t want to be friends with her!”
I frowned and shook my head. Something told me not to count June out. Sure, she wasn’t the nicest girl I’d ever been around, but she was stressed and away from home with no one to lean on.
“I think we should ease up on her as well.”
Rosie clapped from the front seat excitedly. “Maybe we could do something fun to make her feel included!”
Lexi eyes widened. “Should we take her to a strip club?”
“No.”
“Gentlemen’s club?”
“Definitely not,” I insisted.
“You’re right.” She clapped. “We bring the strippers to us.”
I groaned. “No strippers, Lexi.”
Rosie perked up and clapped excitedly. “When I was younger, the older girls in our gym kidnapped us from our houses in the middle of the night and took us to IHOP.” She beamed. “All-you-can-eat pancakes.”
Lexi leveled her with a glare. “How has life failed you so miserably?”
“It was fun,” she said, defending herself. “I had whipped cream on mine.”
Oh Rosie.
Molly held up her hands to cut the two of them off. “Okay, how about instead of some crazy plan, let’s just try to talk to her a little more, maybe offer her a smile every now and then, yeah?”
Lexi groaned as she hopped out of the driver’s seat. “Suit yourself, losers. Keep your bottomless pancakes. I would have picked bottomless strippers.”
I tossed my t-shirt and shorts into my bag and rooted around for my pre-wrap and athletic tape. The