Page 4 of Just Past Two

Now, though, three drinks into an increasingly laughter-filled conversation with Zach, she was back to the confident self he’d remembered. They hadn’t actually told any stories of the past yet, just stuff about their current lives. Zach told them about his years in the Coast Guard, living down in Florida, and moving back to the area just last year.

“Western Mass, can’t stay away.” Zach shrugged. “My company offered me a relocation deal too good to pass up. I’m on the road almost a hundred nights a year, but I don’t mind.”

“The hospitality industry suits you,” Abby said with a smile. “You certainly seemed hospitable enough to our entire dorm.”

Zach threw back his head and laughed. “Okay, that’s fair, that’s fair.”

Sam still couldn’t tell if Abby had slept with Zach. He wasn’t going to ask, not yet, anyway, but couldn’t stop the curiosity. It wasn’t jealousy. It was something else, something totally different from jealousy, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Zach was a handsome man, and thinking of him with Abby, for some reason, wasn’t unpleasant at all. Maybe he’d secretly been hoping the stories would go there, a tantalizing hint of a wild Abby hidden inside the familiar Abby he loved.

They moved on to talking about Sam’s career, and then how he and Abby had met. She told the story better than he did, about him losing control of his vase in the middle of the class and hitting her with a chunk of clay just as she was coming over to compliment him on his progress. It was a funny story, one he didn’t mind even though he came off looking a little silly, and hearing Abby tell it was always a delight.

Zach laughed. “Did you tell him it would take a few more drinks to get you into mud wrestling?”

Abby wobbled her wine and snorted. “I did not.”

Zach put a hand to his head. “Do you remember that time?”

“What time?” Abby giggled.

“Mud wrestling in the quad for the Orchard Games. Freshman, sophomore year?”

Abby held up her glass. “I was motherfucking Orchard Mud Champion. Of course I remember.” She toasted herself and drank.

“You mud wrestled?” Sam stared, trying to wrap his mind around it. Mud wrestling? Who actually did that? Abby, apparently. His Abby. Sure, she was playful, but that…was a whole different level of playful.

Zach jumped in before she could answer. “You should have seen it. She was like an Olympian.” He paused, expression going thoughtful. “Your hair was blue back then, right?”

“Blue?” Sam turned more fully in his chair. He couldn’t picture Abby without her long, beautiful red hair.

“Don’t remind me.” She finished her glass of wine. “Bleaching it almost ruined it. Part of my wild, rebellious phase.”

“You mean, the one that lasted all four years of college?” Zach teased, nudging her with his elbow.

“Please.” Abby threw her napkin at Zach, but her smile wobbled a little. “Don’t exaggerate.”

“You should be proud of your legacy.” Zach’s expression was earnest. “I think you’re the only person to accomplish the full Campus Twenty.”

Abby’s normally pale skin went white, her freckles standing out even more, and she covered her face with her hands. “Oh God.”

Sam shouldn’t ask. She was clearly embarrassed, but underneath her hands, was she…laughing? She pulled her hands away, and yeah, she was laughing even as her pale skin flushed red.

So he had to ask. “What’s the Campus Twenty?”

Zach raised an eyebrow to Abby. “You want to tell him?”

Abby tipped her head back to stare up at the ceiling of the ballroom, then looked over to Sam and said the next words all in a rush. “Twenty public spots on campus to fool around without getting caught.”

“Oh.”

What was he supposed to say, other than “oh”? So she’d fooled around in public before. That wasn’t even such a big deal. It wasn’t something he had ever done, but Abby was always more adventurous than him. It wasn’t like that was a surprise. He’d followed the straight and narrow all the way through college, and she’d had some…indiscretions.

“It wasn’t anything,” Abby insisted. “Just some hand jobs, maybe a blow job, some stupid shit we did when we were young and dumb.”

Zach raised his glass to her, then looked her up and down once more. What must Abby look like through his eyes? All soft curves, the plunging neckline of her dress revealing the generous swell of her breasts, as tantalizing as she had been ten years ago. “Well, not we,” he clarified. “Not you and me.”

Zach and Abby hadn’t slept together. For some reason, that disappointed Sam, which was weird. He could nearly picture it, though. Abby and Zach, laughing together, getting caught up in breathless kisses, fooling around somewhere on campus where they might get caught…

It was enough to get him half hard, an unexpected reaction. He wanted to know more. “So you hit all twenty?”