I stepped up to the bed, tapped Cy on the foot. When he didn’t stir, I did it harder.
He snorted, then turned his head to look at me. “Dude,” he groaned.
“Wild night?”
He sniffed, scratched his balls through his boxers, then turned on his side to face Hailey. “You have no idea.”
“Yeah, I have some idea,” I countered, thinking of all the things they
could do together.
He pushed up on his elbow, rubbed his eyes. “No, you have no fucking idea.”
Hailey woke, then sat bolt upright. She blinked, looked around. Her hair stood out every which way. “I still smell it.”
I frowned. “What, the skunk? I smelled it downstairs. The critter’s long gone now.”
Hailey turned her head, looked to Cy, clearly not amused, still half-asleep. “I think my nose is broken.”
“Yeah. I know, sweetheart,” Cy murmured, his voice taking on a quality I hadn’t heard before. Somewhat… cherishing?
“Lucas, do we smell?” she asked.
“If you’re wondering if I can smell sex all over you two, no.”
“Get your head out of the fucking gutter, asshole,” Cy said. “Do we smell like skunk?”
This was a weird-ass conversation. “Why would you smell like skunk?”
“Because we got sprayed last night!” Hailey yelled. “Naked.”
She burst into tears, Cy pulling her into his arms to hold her as she cried. Jesus, I’d never seen her like this before. Hell, I’d never seen Cy comfort a woman before either.
I just stared at them, wide-eyed. “You got sprayed by a skunk?”
“Naked,” she repeated on a wail.
Cy wasn’t rolling his eyes or challenging the words, only pulled her in closer, stroked up and down her back.
“Holy shit,” I murmured. How had they been sprayed by a skunk… without clothes?
“I’m so fucking tired,” he muttered. “Dude, we were up all night getting the scent off us. We came up here so we don’t get the smell into my room, on my bed. This bed we can burn if we have to.”
“I think I’m going to have a bald spot,” Hailey said into Cy’s bare chest, lifting her hand to her head.
Her hair was all there, but I wasn’t sure if it would be after she tried to brush it. The only thing I’d heard to get rid of skunk smell was tomato juice… or ketchup.
“All night. Scrubbing with a mixture of shit in places that shouldn’t have any kind of scrubbing.”
“You put ketchup on your crotch?”
Cy glared at me. Seriously, we’d gone through some serious shit together and this was the look that should have killed me.
“What the fuck are you talking about? Hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. It’s like rubbing a bubbling, abrasive paste into your skin. I think my sense of smell is gone,” Cy grumbled. “Please tell me we don’t reek.”
“You don’t smell,” I said honestly. There was a hint of skunk, but I never suspected they’d been sprayed.
Hailey lifted her head, looked to me with tear-filled eyes and a splotchy face. “Really?”