Muffin Top

It was Frankie’s fault. He kept getting distracted by Lucy’s voice.

And by distracted he meant turned on. It was damn hard to listen to her and not picture those cherry red lips of hers forming each word. What could he say, he was a walking, talking billboard for pent-up sexual frustration after being around her for the past few days. Add in what they’d done last night, and he was a lost cause.

However, all he had to do was to hold out until tonight, and then he was going to turn on the potent Hartigan charm that had been getting him laid since forever. She wanted him. He wanted her. There was no reason why this couldn’t work. It was just what both of them needed.

Really, as far as the relationship tools he had in his arsenal, good sex was pretty much the best thing he had going for him.

“Oh, too bad about how things are turning out,” Constance said after sidling up to him as he stood in the lemonade line. “There’s just one more event this afternoon, and Bryce and I have it locked up.”

“The obstacle course?” He glanced over to the other side of the park, where that event had been set up.

There were tires contestants had to hop through, a section where they’d have to army crawl under ropes, a water balloon firing squad, and more. Lucy had taken one look and dashed home to change so she wouldn’t have to deal with all of that in a skirt.

“There’s a climbing wall,” Constance said, pointing to the wooden structure at the end of the course. “It’s a tough one.”

There was nothing in her tone that was a callback to her bitchy greeting the other day, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was an underlying animus. “What is your problem with Lucy?”

She smoothed her palms over her blond hair, held back in a ponytail, and looked around as if to make sure no one overheard him. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You have to admit this attitude of yours is extreme for someone who’s not fifteen and a hormonal wreck. Hell, it’s extreme even for that.”

Something flickered in the woman’s blue eyes, something that looked a lot like the kind of old hurt that had been picked at for so long it was just layer after layer of scar tissue. “Let’s just say she brought it on herself, coming into school with those expensive clothes and fancy jewelry her mama bought her when most folks barely had enough money to put food in the fridge after the Pacifica Company plant shut down.”

Bingo. Insecurities didn’t skip over the pretty people. “So you were jealous?”

“No.” She narrowed her eyes at him, her entire body practically sparking with fury. “I was pissed.”

“Seems like you still are.” And that was the understatement of the year.

Constance marched off right as he spotted Lucy making a beeline straight for him. Gone was that sexy skirt, replaced with a pair of cropped yoga pants and long, flowing sleeveless shirt.

“Cavorting with the enemy?” she asked once she got to him.

He handed her a lemonade. “Just trying to work some shit out.”

“Well, do it from the starting line. We’ve got to win this one if we’re going to stay in the race. Good thing I do the Waterbury charity color run obstacle course every year. Now let’s go do this.”

And they did. It wasn’t easy, that was for sure, but Lucy was in great shape. The woman would kill it on the fire department obstacle training course.

He and Lucy were celebrating with drinks in a corner booth at the only bar in downtown Antioch before heading back to the house to get ready for the Antioch town carnival tonight. Then, there was one more day of activities and the reunion   dance, which was set up to be a repeat of Lucy’s senior prom, complete with the Under the Sea theme.

“Who did you go to your prom with?” he asked, handing her a beer.

“I didn’t.” She gave him a look that just about screamed duh. “I was the fat girl and designated class punching bag, no one was going to ask me.”

“Not everyone could have been like Constance.” Just the idea of it had him grinding his teeth.

However, he’d seen her today talking with people at the park, giving old friends hugs. Surely all of those people couldn’t have been complete assholes.

She seemed to think about it for a second, taking another drink. “You’re right. Really it was just Constance and her friends that were total jerks”

“Did you wear a lot of expensive stuff to school?” he asked, thinking back to the conversation he’d had with Lucy’s archnemesis.

“Oh, you mean the mommy guilt gifts?” She chuckled, the rough-edged sound not even hinting at amusement. “Yeah, my mom left us for a rich tycoon when I was a kid. But she’d visit whenever they were on the outs and she’d feel guilty, remembering the daughter she’d left. So she bought all these ridiculous clothes. They weren’t really me, but she’d convinced my dad that if I just dressed in a certain way—basically the way she did—that I’d have more friends.”