December Prompt: Rainy Days (Patreon)

December Prompt: Rainy Days

Notes: So I kinda had this scene in mind for a long time, and I'm happy that it got requested and voted for :). The developing relationships here are something I'm really excited about, and it seems like you all are too since it got voted for, so I hope you like it :)

Kyla was sat next to me on the couch in the living room of the Pack house, lounging upside down with her legs tossed over the back. Abby was curled up on the opposite side with a blanket in her lap and playing on her phone. Luna was sprawled out in an armchair nearby similarly to Kyla, legs tossed over one arm with her head resting on the other. She wasn’t doing much other than lying there, but it was one of the first days she’d come out of her room without being dragged to hang out with us for an extended period of time, and I was glad she was at least present, even if it was just physically. Palmer was on the floor across from us, sitting by the blazing fireplace with his back leaned against the wall and a book in his hands.

I was staring wistfully through the massive window to the outdoors, watching the heavy rainfall gray what would’ve otherwise been a beautiful sunset. Three days of it… Icy currents that kept us locked up inside, because while it was cold enough to freeze if it drenched us, it wasn’t cold enough to snow. Three solid days, and I was reaching the point of restlessness where I’d suggest a run anyway. The only thing that kept me from requesting one now was Luna. She hadn’t run since the accident at the lab two months ago – as far as I knew, she hadn’t even Phased – and the last thing I wanted to do was make her regret leaving the isolation of her room.

The feeling of being watched finally tore my eyes from the window, and I looked across the couch to lock glances with Abby. I followed her gaze to Luna, and when we looked at each other again, she gave a sad smile and finally dropped her phone into her lap. “We need to find something to do,” she said aloud.

Kyla hummed her agreement and let her arms fall past her head to the floor. “I’m so bored.”

“Me too, and no offense,” Abby added, “but you’re the only ones at this house who want me here.”

“Let’s go to the mall and get manicures,” Luna suggested, but the enthusiastic humor was missing from her voice. “Think they’ll give me a fifty percent discount?”

She glanced around like she was waiting for one of us to laugh, but the edge to her humor made it the kind of thing I was afraid to laugh at, and she rolled her eyes when she saw that on my face.

“Oh!” Kyla shot up, swinging her legs off the back of the couch and narrowly missing my head. “Let’s go to the Orchid!”

“Yes!” Abby agreed.

“Dancing?” I murmured, and they both nodded at me. “I don’t dance.”

“Luna?” Kyla asked.

“Sorry,” Luna said with a shrug, “not in the mood to scour the place for a dance partner when I’m…” She stopped, glanced down at her knees, and shrugged again.

Abby looked over at Palmer, who’d lowered his book to listen to us. “You can dance with Palmer,” she said.

Luna looked his way too, and he nodded at her. “No thanks,” she said anyway, “I don’t need you to be my pity partner.”

“I love to dance,” Palmer said. “I’m going with or without you, but you’d spare me the work of finding a partner.”

Luna considered that for a long span of seconds before her gaze wandered to Abby, and then to Kyla, and then to me. It was obvious on her face that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go, so she said, “If Camille goes, I’ll go.”

“Cami?” Kyla prompted without pause, shifting on the couch to look at me, eyebrows raised and furrowed in plea.

“I can’t dance,” I whined.

“Sure you can,” Abby encouraged.

“No,” I insisted, “I can’t.”

“We’ll teach you,” Kyla said, hopping off the couch and reaching for my arm.

“Kyla,” I protested.

“Come on.” She dragged me out of my seat, and motioned eagerly at Abby for her to join us in the middle of the floor. “What do you want to know?” she asked, and then both she and Abby watched me, waiting expectantly.

Palmer was pretending not to watch, but when I glanced over at him, his eyes were higher than the book in his hands. Luna wasn’t even pretending not to look. She’d sat upright in the chair and folded her legs beneath her, and was watching with more interest than she’d done anything all day, already looking amused.

“Well,” I said, feeling a warmth spread in my cheeks, “how do you and Abby dance when you go?”

“We mostly dance silly,” Kyla said. “Like this.”

She and Abby started dancing, throwing arms and legs in rhythm to nonexistent music, twirling each other by the hand and shaking their hips. But even though they were playing around, they were decent at it, in rhythm despite there being nothing to keep rhythm to, moving in ways that actually looked good. I was too shy to even try.

“But I want to dance with you for real,” Kyla said.

I tossed a nervous gaze in Luna’s direction as I asked, “What does that mean?”

“Close,” Kyla said easily. I just stared at her blankly until she realized she was going to have to show me. Only, she didn’t show me herself. “Okay, here.” She grabbed Abby and turned her around, nudging her backward until she was standing right in front of me. Right in front of me, with her back pressed against me. My face burned hotter. “Hands here,” she said, reaching past Abby and grabbing my hands to set them square on Abby’s hips.

“Kyla,” I squeaked, trying desperately to ignore the fact that, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Luna suddenly grinning.

“Don’t worry,” Kyla said, moving around behind me, “I’ll show you.” She set her hands on my hips. “You just gotta move. In a figure eight.”

“I don’t-”

“Follow Abby’s hips,” she said.

Then Abby started moving, in a way I imagined people danced all the time but a way that no one had ever danced with me. Because I didn’t dance. Ever, and especially not now. I stood there stiff while the back of Abby’s hips circled against the front of mine, my face flushing hotter while the pressure of Kyla’s hands on my waist did its best to encourage me to move. I couldn’t. Abby was close and Kyla was close and my senses were being assaulted with things I should not have been feeling, while Luna watched the spectacle with her grin growing wider.

“Camille,” Kyla laughed, “you have to try.”

My whole body was burning. “Nope.” I yanked my hands off of Abby’s hips and slipped out from between them. “Nuh uh, nope, I can’t do it.” Not in the middle of the living room floor with everyone watching and Abby listening to my thoughts and Kyla feeling exactly what I could.

Luna snorted with laughter. “Can’t take the heat, huh, Cami?”

“I will end you,” I muttered over my shoulder. My eyes were glued to a spot across the room. Kyla was almost as amused as Luna, but I didn’t dare look at Abby to see on her face what she was thinking or feeling. Not while I was desperately attempting to keep from thinking about the smell of them, or the feel of them, or the way Abby moved.

“Will it help if there’s music?” Kyla asked.

“Her brain isn’t even functioning,” Luna snickered.

I turned to shoot Luna a glare, but Kyla said before I could, “If we go to the Orchid, you’ll feel less self-conscious because nobody will be looking at you.”

That helped only slightly.

“Also,” Abby added, “the music is too loud for me to hear thoughts.”

I met her eyes for the first time. She was doing her very best to conceal a smile. “Fine,” I said desperately. “Yeah, done, let’s go.”

“I’ll get the keys!” Luna jumped out of her seat, all too eager compared to how unsure she’d been a minute earlier.

“I’ll go put this book away,” Palmer said, and followed Luna out of the room.

By the time they were gone, Kyla and Abby were no longer hiding their smiles, and I rolled my eyes. “You two are the worst, you know that?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Abby laughed.

“Says the mind reader,” I mumbled.

“This was supposed to be an innocent dancing lesson,” Kyla said, flashing an equally innocent tight-lipped smile.

I couldn’t help laughing just a little as I said again, “You’re the worst.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what they were both doing, but I’d noticed the change. Ever since the lab, and the things that had happened with Abby, they’d both been testing at the subtle ways our relationships were changing. Pushing boundaries, or letting me know without words that they were both okay with it if I pushed boundaries, or maybe just figuring out what they were comfortable with… whatever it was, I noticed. And I didn’t mind. Except when Luna gave me that beaming, teasing grin like she knew it too.

Kyla’s smile widened as she moved forward, swaying her hips. “You’re gonna dance with us,” she sang, grabbing my reluctant hips and swaying them with hers.

“Maybe,” I emphasized, trying to keep my amusement at bay.

“You’re gonna shake that thing,” Abby sang in the same voice, hopping forward to dance behind Kyla in an exaggerated way.

“Never mind,” I teased, “I’m not dancing with either of you, ever.”

“Work it, Cami,” Kyla said, giving a push with her hand.

“God, fine,” I sighed, and gave my hips an unmeasured waggle, at which Abby hooted and I couldn’t hold my laugh back any longer. “You two are the worst!”

Luna came around the corner at that exact moment and stopped in the doorway. “Don’t start the party without me!”

“Party’s over.” I sidestepped around them and paced to Luna. “Keys?”

Her hand tightened around them. “I’m driving.” She met my gaze with a firmness that challenged me to ask if she was sure she could, but I didn’t dare. Luna could do anything she was determined to, I knew that, and the fact that she wanted to try was comforting.

I let her keep the keys and turned back to Kyla and Abby. “You two ready for me to be awkward as hell?”

“Dance party!” Kyla exclaimed, skipping past Luna and me while throwing her arms up one at a time, and Abby followed her out with laugh.

“Palmer!” Luna called as we trailed after them.

He’d already been halfway down the hall, but he hurried to follow the rest of us out the front door. The Jeep hadn’t been fixed since the accident and was still totaled, so Kyla, Abby, and I climbed into the back of one of the Pack SUVs while Luna and Palmer hopped into the front. The sun had gone down completely by the time we reached the Orchid, and we parked in the darkened lot and got out to head toward the music pumping through the brick walls of the building. We filed through the doors beneath the neon pink sign, into the dimly lit dance hall already crowded with bodies.

Luna gave a casual salute and grabbed Palmer by the wrist, hauling him into the crowd. I was glad she wasn’t intent on dancing near us – that was one look I desperately wanted to escape during this experience, and a part of me thought Luna knew that. Kyla barely spared a glance back as she grabbed Abby’s hand to lead the way, and Abby grabbed mine just in time not to lose me. I followed the hand in mine as we weaved through people and the bassline of the music reverberated in my bones, realizing that Kyla had been right about one thing – nobody so much as looked at us when we passed by.

Once Kyla had led the way into the middle of the crowd, she stopped and turned to face Abby and me. Her mouth formed the question, “Ready?” And I inhaled a deep breath to steady my nerve, nodding. She glided into the space between Abby and me, pressing her back to my front and beginning to move in rhythm with the bass vibrating in my ears. Abby took a step forward to start dancing the same way, face to face with Kyla, and they were off, leaving me to catch up.

Only, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I mean, I knew that I was supposed to do what they were doing. Shake my hips, move my body, maybe put my hands on Kyla’s waist, but even though nobody was looking at us, I couldn’t get myself to do it. I was too shy and afraid that I wouldn’t be good at it, or someone would look and it wouldn’t look good, or that it would seem silly to Kyla or Abby, or that it’d be obvious if I enjoyed the sensation too much. I was embarrassed, and so I stood there stiff, hoping the familiar feel of Kyla’s body against mine would lull me into some comfort deep enough for me to at least try.

An entire minute went by before Abby glanced past Kyla to meet my gaze. She flashed her hands at me and wiggled her fingers, making a deliberate look down at Kyla for instruction. Right, hands. I set my hands on Kyla’s hips, and Abby gave me a smile and an encouraging nod. Try. I had to try. Using Kyla’s rhythm as a guide, I pressed myself a little nearer, and even though I didn’t make much effort to actually dance, I let the close cadence of her body push mine along with it.

That was a little better. I wasn’t so stiff. Next step was to try on my own, so I gave myself another minute to get comfortable and learn the rhythm, and then attempted to follow Kyla’s hips with my own. She noticed instantly. Her head bobbed with approval and her movement deepened to accommodate me and her hands set on the backs of mine. Even Abby moved closer, as if my increasing comfort made them both more relaxed, and it only succeeded at making me enjoy it more. They weren’t amused by my lack of experience, or impatient with me while I figured it out. They were nothing but happy at every attempt that I made.

So I tried a little harder. I relaxed my shoulders and let more of my upper body move against Kyla’s back. My hands slid up her waist, and hers followed lightly as she responded to the touch with a roll of her body. And it felt… good. It still wasn’t the kind of thing I’d want to do all the time, but I could see the appeal in it. I understood the allure of the lack of space, of moving in a viscerally synchronized way like we only ever did during a fight, or during sex. It was a type of intimacy. A type that I could savor if I only let myself.

And I did let myself. I stopped worrying about everyone else in the venue and about being self-conscious. I let my body do what it was built for – reacting. To the rhythm Kyla and Abby set, to the music, to the heat, and even to the budding sensations in the connection.

It was subtle for the first few songs, while it took a backseat to the other things I was focusing on, but the more I noticed it, the more it grew. The kindling of sparks in Kyla’s lower belly, and the kindling in mine. I liked the way Kyla was moving against me. The way the press of her varied by the sway of her body, the way her hips matched that reverberating bass in my bones, the way her scent changed with the heat of the dance floor and the igniting of attraction. I liked the way Abby looked, too. I liked watching her hips grind out the same rhythm as Kyla’s, against Kyla’s. How her eyes traveled over Kyla’s face, and then over mine, and how her lips pulled into the faintest of smiles. How her hands accidentally skimmed my fingers when she resisted the urge to set them on Kyla’s hips, and how they fluctuated from resting on Kyla’s shoulders to swaying easily in the air.

Those feelings were so easy to get lost in that I stopped paying attention to how many songs passed, and how many minutes we danced. All I knew was that I’d just gotten as comfortable as I could when Kyla slid out from between Abby and me. She swiveled around behind me and nudged me forward, pressing herself as close as she could against my back. But it left me face to face with Abby. The kind of face to face that made me falter.

The only hesitation from Abby was in her expression as she took in the way my body stiffened – her body didn’t stop moving – but I wasn’t sure where to go from there. Was I supposed to keep dancing the same way I had been with Kyla? Kyla hadn’t stopped. Was I supposed to put my hands on Abby’s waist too? Was I supposed to be just as loose and comfortable as I had a few seconds ago? Surely that’s what Kyla wanted, right? Or else she wouldn’t have switched our positions, and she hadn’t held back when it was her.

I wasn’t confident enough in my boundaries to touch Abby’s hips, but I did my best to regain the rhythm I’d had before. The rhythm Kyla had continued to set while she ground against my back. While her hands journeyed over my hips, and ribs, and stomach, more comfortable to explore than even I had been. And it wasn’t hard. Not when I remembered that spark. Not when I focused on the feeling of having them both against me, or when I recalled that Abby couldn’t hear what I was thinking.

It was the first time ever that I could process what was happening in the moment, as it happened, without fear or holding back. I could think about how I enjoyed the way Abby’s body moved just as much as I enjoyed Kyla’s. How her thighs brushed mine, or how she got close enough for her hips to be in constant contact, mirroring the sway of my own. How the roll of her chest pressed just beneath mine, and how she was so near to me that I was almost completely encompassed by her scent.

She smelled like Kyla felt. Hot because of the stuffy air of the club, excited by the thrumming music, aroused by the intimacy. She wanted this as much as Kyla did. As much as I did, if I was being honest with myself, and the darkness of the venue and the encouragement in their scents and in the connection, and the fact that Abby couldn’t hear what I was thinking, it made me want to try. To try giving more of what they’d both been hinting at.

I reached out to test the waters and set the tips of my fingers on Abby’s hips. If she didn’t like it, or if Kyla didn’t like it, it was a chance for either of them to say it. But while Abby finally glanced up to meet my gaze and gave a tiny smile, the backs of Kyla’s fingers traced down the back of my bicep with an easy pressure. It was all the permission I needed from either of them, and so I set my hands fully on Abby’s hips and braced myself against the warmth that spread from the touch.

It seeped into my chest and stomach in a way that I knew Kyla would get echoes of, and just when I knew it hit her, her teeth sank into the back of my shoulder. It was something she never did unless it was deliberate. Something she did when she wanted a reaction, and she got one. Because the nip shot straight to my core, causing my fingers to clutch and unintentionally draw Abby closer. Kyla got closer too, so that all I could feel was burning heat and building stimulation in every cell of my body.

And that encouraged both of them. Kyla’s hands traveled past my hips to set on top of mine, tracing up Abby’s waist and then returning to my stomach, rounding the curve of my hip to travel up my back, and then making the rounds again. Abby’s hands set on my shoulders until she was sure of my acceptance, and then her arms slid around my neck. She reached beyond me to touch Kyla, let her fingers drift down the back of my shoulder where Kyla’s teeth had bitten down, dropped them forward to set briefly above my collarbone.

Their hands were everywhere. So confident and familiar that sometimes I couldn’t tell if a touch was Kyla’s or Abby’s, and more significantly, I didn’t care. I liked all of it. Every graze. Every push. Every grasp. It was all forward and easy, and it all stirred me more and more with every minute that passed by. I felt in the connection that it did the same for Kyla, and I could smell the similar effect seeping from Abby’s pores.

After a while, Kyla danced around again to get behind Abby, and we traversed the new position until Abby turned around to face her. Songs played and transitioned seamlessly into the next. It was like the only way I could keep track of time was by the tension. By the way my thoughts wandered beyond my control to thoughts of more explicit intimacy, and by the way I had increasingly less resistance to them. It grew until it ached. Until I recognized a similar ache in Kyla, until I felt like I’d break even though I refused to be the first.

In the end, it was Kyla who broke first. She met my eyes over Abby’s shoulder and gestured her head toward the exit, and I nodded that I was ready. Ready to go home, to be somewhere more private, where this ache wasn’t just a pressing but irresolvable restlessness. Kyla grabbed one of my hands and one of Abby’s to lead us toward the doors. The icy air outside the Orchid did nothing for the unbearable heat that had consumed me, so I pulled out my phone while we paced to the SUV to text Luna that we were ready to go.

Abby climbed into the back of the unlocked vehicle and slid all the way across, Kyla followed, and I got in after them and pulled the door shut. And we sat there. The tension that had been palpable on the dance floor was thick in the air. It hung in the silence between us as we waited to see Luna and Palmer walk out to take us home. But an endless two minutes passed without any sign of them, and for those lengthy minutes, my mind never stopped.

I didn’t know how long it would take Luna to even noticed that I’d texted her, but the heavy silence in the car and my preoccupation with sitting still only allowed me to feel exactly how much I ached for relief. I didn’t know if I could wait until we were home and alone, and more than that, I didn’t know if I wanted to. Because I couldn’t stop thinking about the first time Abby had been there when Kyla and I were together. About how Kyla liked it, and how I liked it, and how it would be so, so easy to do it again. But not at home this time. Not without someone knowing, and what was there to know? What did it mean, and how would I explain it? How would I explain that it wasn’t just the scent of Kyla’s arousal swirling around the car that was driving me up the wall? How would I explain that I wanted Abby there because I wanted Abby?

Because I did. In ways that I’d never wanted to admit, and ways that I wouldn’t act on and that were still emotionally confusing, but ways that I could no longer deny to myself. Not after having let myself feel it so freely. Not after Kyla let me feel it so freely.

“Please,” Abby whispered, a strained sound that barely left her lips. It was the first time after so long of thinking without reserve that I remembered Abby could hear me, and as Kyla and I looked over at her, my face flushed. “If you’re both going to think about it so much… just do it. You’re killing me.”

There it was – the acknowledgement of exactly what was on each of our minds. Kyla looked at me, and I at her, and the sheer absence of hesitation on her face was what tipped my control. I grabbed her hips and pulled her sideways and down the seat so that she was sprawled out across it. It made her head drop into Abby’s lap, but the hard breath that left Abby’s lungs only encouraged my lack of restraint.

It was the same lack of restraint that Kyla had as she reached up, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me down into a hard, desperate kiss. I kissed her openly, but as much as I wanted to take this in and enjoy it, I didn’t know how much time we had. I braced my forearm against the edge of the seat while I reached between Kyla and me for the button of her jeans, but there was so little space that I didn’t know what else to do with my unused hand. I let it rest on Abby’s knee so I could brace myself comfortably, cherishing the burn of her skin through her jeans and every way her breathing changed just as much as I cherished the same shifts in Kyla.

Once I’d undone the button of Kyla’s jeans, I pulled on the hem, and she lifted her hips and reached down with her hands, helping me push her garments just past her knees and then letting her head fall again into Abby’s lap. I didn’t waste any time in reaching between her legs, using the abundant moisture there to slip one finger into clinging heat. Her back arched as a relieved moan left her lips, but she hadn’t forgotten about Abby. Neither of us had, and neither of us wanted to. She reached up as I pushed into her again, grabbing Abby’s hand and guiding it to the button of Abby’s jeans, letting her know that this should be her relief as much as it was ours.

The moment Abby took the cue, Kyla let go and reached between us, undoing my jeans and sliding one hand inside, finding my clit and immediately circling in a rhythm that made my head drop onto her shoulder. My hand clutch at Abby’s leg, too, and there was no more thinking critically. There was nothing but sound and scent and sensation.

Every other time I pushed into Kyla, she moaned and ground into the touch, and every time she did, it translated into a burst of pleasure at my core. My hand grasped tighter at Abby’s knee while that burst washed through me, and her breath stuttered as her hips gave the slightest rock into her own hand. It was an endless and euphoric flow of give and take, because every sway of Abby’s hips seemed to remind Kyla of just how close we were to her, and that sent a jolt of need through her that made her tighten around my finger.

The humid air of the club had made each of us so hot that we were drenched in scent. In our own. In each other’s. My face was buried near Kyla’s shoulder and beside Abby’s leg, and the desire was strong enough that I could taste it. I was gaining on the edge so fast, torn between not wanting to rush through it and being afraid that if I didn’t let it take me, I wouldn’t get to finish at all. All I could do was lie there on top of Kyla, pulsing into her touch and breathing heavily into the nook between her neck and Abby’s thigh. I was breathing too hard to kiss her, I was too weak and overwhelmed to sink my teeth in, I was too distracted by the sounds she made or the way Abby’s breath hitched every time my fingers clutched at her.

The next time Abby’s chest tightened, she stifled a whimper as her free hand landed on my shoulder. I felt a tremble go through her thigh at the same time, and Kyla must’ve felt it too. Must’ve realized right when I did exactly what it meant – that Abby was doing everything she could to hold back. To not finish first. But that realization sent a mutual and powerful surge through Kyla and me, and I don’t know who tipped over the edge first, but that was it.

Kyla threw her head back as the arch in her spine deepened and her other hand grabbed my hip, finally letting out a cry of ecstasy when my own climax allowed my teeth to find purchase in her neck. My fingers gripped harder at Abby’s knee at the same time as her nails dug into my shoulder, her own head canted back while a deep moan vibrated through her pursed lips. It was a relief so staggering that I could barely get air over the waves of pleasure that seized my body, but I rode it out against Kyla’s fingers while their combined sounds sent pulse after pulse through my core.

It lasted a long, astonishing minute before the peak of it was over, but Kyla’s finger kept stroking between my legs as she brought me down from it, and I shuddered with aftershocks until my body was so spent that I couldn’t even hold myself up. I pulled out of her and moved my hand while she did the same, and then let her go with my teeth and collapsed on top of her. I was gasping for breath as desperately as both she and Abby were, too tired to say anything, or to take my hand off Abby’s knee. Abby also seemed too exhausted to take her hand from my shoulder, because even though her grip had loosened, it stayed there lazily while Kyla panted beneath me.

At least a minute passed before Abby let out a soft laugh, and Kyla hummed curiously. “Can’t see a damn thing out these windows,” Abby said.

I managed to pick my head up just enough to see that condensation had fogged all the back windows, and begun to creep up the front ones. My head fell back onto Kyla’s shoulder as I chuckled and thought that this entire thing had cured my restlessness far better than I ever expected it to.

But I’d just gotten relaxed again when Abby muttered, “Shit, Luna.” When Kyla and I didn’t react fast enough, her hand swatted repeatedly at my shoulder. “Luna, Luna, Luna, Luna, Luna.”

I sprang off of Kyla as Kyla shot upright, and regained my seat near the passenger window while she scrambled to pull her jeans back up her hips. All three of us fumbled frantically with the buttons of our jeans, managing to get them done again and sit with our hands in our laps like that’s what we’d been doing the whole time. The fact that Luna and Palmer weren’t close enough yet to even see us didn’t matter, I could hear each of our hearts racing.

Luna and Palmer weren’t even paying attention to the car as they strode across the parking lot. They were talking about something, and Luna laughed and shoved Palmer in the shoulder, which sent him staggering a step off-balance and with a grin. It didn’t seem it was until they actually reached the SUV that Luna glanced through the foggy windows with a furrowed forehead. She opened the front driver’s side door, one eyebrow shooting upward, and I knew exactly why. She could smell it. Even if she didn’t know the extent of what just happened, the sexual tension in the back was absolute and undeniable.

She reached up to grab the handle above the door and haul herself into the seat as she said, “I take it Camille had a good time.”

“We kept her from getting too restless,” Kyla volunteered as Palmer climbed into the passenger side.

“I’m sure you did,” Luna laughed.

“Did you have fun?” Abby asked in distraction.

“Palmer could actually keep up,” Luna answered, shooting a teasing look at him, “I’m impressed.”

“Excuse you,” Palmer said in feigned offense, “I could keep up? Next time I won’t hold back, then we’ll see if you can keep up.”

“Oh, was that holding back?” Luna asked, and I tuned them out as they started a playful argument up front.

I glanced across the bench at Kyla, who was holding back a mischievous smile, and then at Abby, who gave me a quick wink and then swiped her fingers through the condensation on the window. All things considered… dancing wasn’t so bad.