“It’s not bedazzled,” I murmur. But I don’t care. They all know about it already. I got mine right after Paul got his. Only Pete and Logan don’t have them. Even Sam is pierced. Logan has a bar through the base of his dick. Chicken shit. “And stop talking about my junk.” I grab Friday in a headlock and pull her against me. She squeals and bats at my hand.
“Don’t mess up the hair,” she warns, blocking me. “It’s not easy to look this beautiful.”
Truly, Friday is drop-dead gorgeous in a fifties-pinup sort of way. She wears vintage clothes and red lipstick. Sometimes I think she gets tips just by smiling at people. Both men and women love her. But sometimes…sometimes this aching sadness steals across her face. I’m not even sure anyone else notices it.
Pete types into his phone really quickly. He finally looks up. “Reagan says she’ll meet us there.”
Great. I get the whole family going with me to spend time with Sky. Woo-hoo. You would think at least one of them would have an appointment for a tat. Lazy bastards.
We take the subway to the school and get there just as the boys are warming up. They’re running circles around the mat as I go and sit down beside Sky, who is in the bleachers with Mellie and Joey at her feet. They’re both using crayons and coloring in a coloring book. They look up and grin when they see me, though. I lean over the bench and remark about their drawings, and they go at it even harder. That’ll entertain them for about five minutes. I hope she brought more tricks in that big bag of hers.
I sit on the bench near her and then shove myself against her side very gently, until I’m pressed up along her from shoulder to knee. She grins and shakes her head, her cheeks turning red.
“Hi,” I say quietly. I look into her eyes.
“Hi,” she returns. She looks so damn beautiful. She must have come from home because she’s wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. There’s a balled-up sweatshirt on the seat beside her. “How was your day?” she asks.
“Better now that I get to see you,” I admit. She smiles and leans into me. I lean toward her face and whisper, “Kiss me?”
She shoves my shoulder. “Not here,” she whispers. She looks around.
“Please,” I say, putting my palms together like in prayer.
She leans forward really quickly and touches her lips to mine. Last night’s kiss with our tongues touching and her body pressed against mine was pretty f**king amazing, but this quick touch has it beat by a mile. “Thanks,” I say. I can’t hide my grin, so I don’t even try.
She bumps me, rolling her eyes.
“I missed you today,” I tell her.
She looks up. “Thank you for the note on my pillow,” she says quietly.
I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. Most of it is pulled up into an adorable ponytail, except for one piece that has escaped. “I really wanted to climb into bed with you.”
Her eyes meet mine. “You should have.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t want Seth to think I spent the night.” That shit is important to kids.
She nods slowly.
“You felt pretty damn good, though, lying on top of me on the couch.” I’m getting hard, so I had better cut this shit out.
“You make a nice pillow,” she whispers.
“Just a pillow?” I pretend to pull an invisible knife from my chest.
She pokes me with her index finger. “A nice, hard pillow,” she says.
“Hard is about right,” I say. I look at the mat where the boys are warming up so I can look at something that’s not her. I want her so bad I can barely stand it.
The boys are stretching their backs and their necks, and doing some pretty impressive rolls. Seth teams up with another boy close to his weight class, and they do some drills together. Seth flips the other boy onto his back, and I want to walk out there and show him how he should have handled it. But he’s not my kid, and I’m not his coach.
Reagan and Pete sit down on the other side of Sky, and Reagan starts to talk to her. I’m glad someone is intervening because I want to drag her into a stairwell and kiss her senseless.
Pete makes a motion at me like he’s threading a needle really close to his dick and then gives it a tug like he’s leading it around. I glare at him, and he laughs. Paul sits down behind us, with Friday beside him, and he laughs, too.
“Shut up,” I grumble.
I turn to watch the practice. Seth is really very good at what he does. But I like to watch all the kids in every weight class. Logan and Emily make their way toward us. Logan waves, and they sit down in front of us. Now Sky has Reeds on every side of her. Mellie and Joey are getting a little restless, and Joey makes her way down the bleachers without Sky noticing. She’s not used to this mom stuff yet. She sees it just as Joey gets to the bottom step and gets up to go retrieve her.
“I’ll get her,” I say. I stand up and tromp down the steps. Joey looks sheepishly up at me. She knows she wasn’t supposed to sneak off.
I scoop her up in my arms and carry her back up to Sky. She stretches out, and I blow a raspberry into her shirt-covered belly. She giggles and sticks her belly out like she wants me to do it again, so I do. She laughs, and the sound is so damn happy it takes my breath away.
I sit down and tuck her into my lap, then pull out my phone and turn on some Angry Birds. I show her how to play it really quickly, and she starts launching birds. She moves off my lap to sit beside me, and Mellie comes to lean against her and watch. That should last them for a while.