Summer Fling (Players of Marycliff University Book 1) (20 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY

"So you're going to Lance's tonight?" Megan stood in the doorway to Abby's room watching her get a few things together. It was Monday evening and Abby had had a long day putting together review worksheets for her language lab students. It was the last week of the last summer session, which meant her students all had a final coming up this week and then she would be done with her summer job.

Abby straightened up, putting her backpack over her shoulder. "Yeah. I told you that already."

"Doesn't he usually pick you up?"

"Yeah, but he's working late tonight finishing up a project."

"So he's not even home yet?" Megan still stood in the doorway, arms crossed, leaning against the doorjamb, not letting Abby leave.
 

Abby was getting impatient. "No, but he just texted that he'll be leaving soon. Do you have a point, Megan?"

Megan stared at Abby for a moment before responding. "Isn't he leaving this weekend?"

"Yeah. That's why I'm going over now, so I can see him as much as possible before he leaves. Are you getting bored being home by yourself in the evenings? You can come, too, if you want. I'm sure Chris and Matt won't mind if they're home. You guys seemed to hit it off well enough at the Fourth of July party."

Megan nodded slowly, dropping her arms and straightening up. "Yeah, all right. That sounds better than staying here."

Abby nodded. "Good. You drive, that way you can come home whenever you want and Lance will take me to work in the morning. You can also help me plan his going away party."

Megan rubbed her hands together. "You know there's nothing I like better than a party."

Abby grinned. "That's what I'm counting on."

* * *

"There you are. What are you doing?" Lance found Abby in his room, carefully placing the last few books from his bookshelf into a box on the floor.
 

She straightened up and smiled when she looked at him. "I was just helping you pack a little. I needed a break from the party."

He closed the door and went over to her, kissing her and pulling her against his chest. She relaxed into him, and he laid his cheek against her hair. "Are you okay?"

He felt her head move against his chest and pushed her back a little to make sure she was nodding. At the look on his face she nodded again. "Yeah. I'm fine. It's just loud out there."

She was right. Lance could hear the thump of the bass through the walls and occasional voices shouting cheerfully at each other in the living room and kitchen.
 

"Do you want me to stay in here with you?"

Abby shook her head. "No. I'll be fine in a minute. You should have fun and enjoy your going away party. It's your last chance after all." She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. He tugged on her hand and led her to the bed, sitting with his back against the wall and Abby between his legs, leaning back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, wanting to imprint the feel of her in his memory. He was leaving on Saturday. He only had one more night after this to spend with Abby.
 

"I can't believe you found time to plan a going away party for me without telling me."

Abby chuckled. "It wasn't that hard, Lance. You've been working late a lot lately. And Megan, Chris, and Matt helped." She turned her head back to look at him. "They all wanted to give you a proper goodbye."

He smiled. "Thank you for putting it all together, though. I doubt the guys would've done anything except give me a case of beer if you hadn't."
 

She smiled back. "You're welcome."
 

"So you're done with the language lab for the summer?"

Abby nodded. "Yeah. The final was today. I finished grading their homework, so I'm all done." She grew thoughtful. "I don't know what I'm going to do with myself next week. You'll be gone and I won't have to go to work."
 

Lance felt a sharp pang in his chest at her words. He kissed her, not wanting her to dwell on him being gone right now. Not wanting to think about it himself. Pushing away thoughts about what came next and just enjoy this, here, now, with Abby.

She broke the kiss. "What about you? Did you get your project finished?"

"Yeah. The client was really happy and so was my supervisor. In fact, he even showed his boss. They took me out to lunch today to congratulate me on how well I did."

"That's great! That's so cool that your supervisor's boss was impressed." Abby's face had finally lit up, chasing away the undertone of sadness that had permeated the rest of their conversation. Lance smiled watching her. A real smile.

"Yeah. It was pretty cool. He actually offered me a job." Abby's face froze, but not before he saw the flicker of hope in her eyes. It was gone almost before he noticed, but not quite.

"What did you say?"

Lance looked away. Unable to bear the sight of her neutral expression so quickly after she was genuinely smiling. "I told him thanks, but that I already have a job lined up."

Abby turned, leaning back against him once more. "Yeah. Of course. That's cool that he offered, though. They must have really liked you there." Her voice was soft and wistful.
 

"Yeah." His tone mimicked hers. He couldn't help it. He'd much rather have the job at the Forester Group. But he'd made a deal with his parents. Because of them he hadn't had to take out any loans. In exchange for that, he was to come home and work for his dad, eventually taking over the garage. He'd thought turning down the job had been the hardest thing he'd ever done. He'd almost choked getting the words out over lunch. But telling Abby was even harder. Watching the hope die on her face and hearing the regret lacing her voice almost killed him.
 

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Abby sat forward, starting to get up. "We should get back to your party. They'll think we're in here having sex if we stay much longer." Her tone was overly bright with forced cheerfulness.
 

But he didn't argue with her. He just smiled. "Yup. You're probably right." He pulled her back down to him before she could climb off the bed and kissed her hard. Then he let her go and followed her into the living room, back to the party.

* * *

Lance and Abby decided to spend Friday at the lake in Coeur d'Alene. They left in the morning, leaving Chris and Matt to handle the cleanup from the party the night before. They stepped around a few stragglers sleeping on the floor in the living room on their way out.

They set up on the beach near the resort downtown where they had dinner after getting groceries for Abby's mom. Abby kept her flip flops on to keep from burning her feet on the hot sand and rocks as she picked her way to her favorite spot, Lance following close behind.
 

She plopped down their bag with towels and extra clothes, stripped off her shorts and tank top and ran into the water.

When she was waist deep she turned to watch Lance splashing in behind her. He stopped when the water was hitting his upper thighs. "Holy shit! This is cold!"

Abby laughed and aimed a splash at him, but he was just out of range. "The lake's fed by ice melt from the mountains. It's always cold. Be glad it's almost August. It's practically warm by now."

He narrowed his eyes at her as she stepped closer to him. Cupping her hand, she skimmed it across the surface of the lake, sending a burst of water straight at his chest.

He jumped when the icy water made contact, then lunged for Abby, catching her around the waist. She laughed as he picked her up and then tossed her into the deeper water. Breaking the surface she splashed him again, and dodged his next attempt to grab her, causing him to go under.
 

He stood up, running his hands through his hair and then over his face to get the water out of his eyes. "I'm going to get you for that."
 

She splashed again and squealed when he caught her by the ankle as she tried to swim away. Instead of tossing her in the water again like she expected, he pulled her in close and kissed her. The warmth of his mouth on hers was shocking compared to the icy temperature of the lake. When she was completely relaxed in his arms, he pulled back and smiled down into her face. Then placed his hand on her head and pushed her under.
 

They spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon playing in the water. Splashing, dunking, swimming, kissing, flirting.
 

Abby deliberately avoided any mention of the next day. They hadn't set a specific plan for the day, just taking things as they came. That had been how their relationship had gone from the beginning—no plan, just going with it and seeing where it led. She noticed that Lance didn't say anything, either. But there were moments when the smile would slide off his face and he'd look at her like he was trying to capture the moment in his memory. She felt herself doing the same. Every time she noticed one of them doing it, she'd splash him or try to make a joke to dispel the underlying sadness that pervaded the day.
 

Finally, after they'd had enough of the water and were starting to get hungry, they waded out. Abby spread out their towels and they lay in the sun, letting the heat of the summer dry them and warm their skins. She'd put their towels so they were touching, and Lance had pulled her in close to him, one arm under his head, and the other wrapped around Abby with her head pillowed on his shoulder. His hand idly stroked up and down the skin on her side left bare by her bikini.

They watched a group of children playing in the water. They had inflatable toys, snorkels, and masks and were pretending they were deep sea explorers. Abby smiled. "I used to do that."

Lance turned his head so he was looking at her. "Do what?"

She gestured at the kids. "My brother and I had masks and snorkels and we'd swim underwater the whole time when we were kids. We'd have to come up every so often and wave to our mom so she wouldn't worry. But we always tried to find the best rocks underwater. They seemed more special because they weren't up near the beach where anyone could get them. We pretended the rocks were treasure."

The expression on Lance's face was soft and tender. "What happened to your treasures?"

Abby smiled a little. "They got left on the shore to be boring rocks for someone else to find. Mom didn't want a bunch of rocks in the house."

Lance kissed her. It was a soft and tender kiss, matching his expression. It was unlike any kiss he'd given her before.
 

When he pulled away he gave her a small smile that didn't disguise the sadness in his eyes. "Hungry?"

Abby sat up. "Starved. Let's go to Huddy's for burgers."

She finally got to buy a meal for Lance, since Huddy's only took cash. He narrowed his eyes at her when she pulled her wallet out of her bag and handed over enough to cover their burgers, soda, and slices of pie that made up the whole menu at the tiny hole in the wall restaurant. She just smiled back. It wasn't by accident that she had enough cash on her to cover their meal.

They spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around downtown and walking on the boardwalk. Abby even took him up Tubbs Hill next to the lake, where they jumped off the cliffs a few times each.
 

They went for dinner at Dockside again. It was busier this time on a Friday night at the height of tourist season. They weren't seated next to the window, though they still had a view, and their conversation was overshadowed by the sounds of the other diners.
 

It seemed somehow appropriate to Abby that their last dinner together was there, where she felt like their relationship really started. That was the day she'd first let herself trust Lance, and the night that she'd agreed to keep seeing him.

Lance was making a valiant effort to keep the conversation going, keep things light and fun like they'd managed to do all day. But Abby was finding it harder to do as the sun drew closer and closer to the mountains in the west.
 

Lance's hand on hers drew her attention back to him and away from the view out the window. "Hey. None of that yet." He laced his fingers with hers.
 

She searched his face and nodded, forcing a smile. She could see the sadness in his eyes mirroring her own. But there would be time for that later.
 

They drove home in silence into the golden light of the late evening sun. The spell of the day that allowed them to keep things light and carefree had broken. The goodbye that would come the following morning hung like a pall over them, stifling conversation, only allowing communication by touch.

Lance dropped Abby off at her apartment, walking her to her door one last time. Abby pulled out her keys and unlocked the door. "I'm just going to take a quick shower and then I'll head over to your house."

Lance nodded and kissed her before leaving without saying a word.

That had been the one thing they had planned. That she would drive herself to his house that night so she could take herself home in the morning.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Lance, Matt, and Chris were loading the last few boxes in Lance's car when Abby arrived at their house. She parked and got out just as Lance made a couple adjustments in the trunk, and then closed it.

She stood on the lawn while Matt and Chris each gave Lance one of their typical man-hugs and said goodbye. She noticed that they held on to each other slightly longer than normal. Chris and Matt nodded at her and left.

Lance walked over to her and kissed her. He led her by the hand up the front stairs into the house. It seemed strange to her that the living room looked the same as always. But it was only Lance that was moving, not the other guys, so it shouldn't be too surprising. He was leaving all the furniture behind and only taking his things. He'd be living with his parents for a while once he got back to Texas until he found a place of his own.

"Where did Chris and Matt go?" Abby asked once they were inside.

Lance continued leading her into his bedroom. "They're going to a party or something. They said they'd stay out tonight and let us have some privacy."