Hilly full-on laughed as their bodies collided in a huge, jumping-up-and-down kind of hug with Nel barking and whining, doing circles around them to join in. “Listen Buff-stuff. You may not call me that nickname in front of anybody here,” Hilly admonished her bestie with a snort.
“Or?” Buffy, a gorgeous brunette, always well-put together, returned impishly, giving both Hilly, then Nel, some more love.
“Or I’ll feed you to the sharks.”
“Right.” Buffy pulled back out of Hilly’s arms, although not letting go altogether while she bent down and buried her nose in soft fur. She finally stood upright again and rolled her eyes. “I may be from Massachusetts, but even I know your Maine lakes don’t have sharks.”
“Okay then,” Hilly teased. “How about big-ass sturgeon? They’ll ugly you to death.”
Buffy gave a raised, dark brow. “You have those here?”
Hilly couldn’t keep it up. Her joy was too great. “Nope. Just kidding. Feel free to immerse yourself in our beautiful lake any time you want without fear of losing any digits.”
“Thanks for that,” Buffy groaned hilariously. “Now, on a serious note, I know you have errands to run, but is there time for you to give me the tour before you take off? And I reeeeally have to pee!”
“I think we should take care of your emergency first, then give you the look-around.”
“Deal,” Buffy agreed easily. “Then you can be on your way.”
Hilly had let Buffy know about the things she needed to do in town, but had promised she’d accomplish her errands quickly so they could spend the afternoon together. Hilly was going to have to ‘fess up to her friend that something else had come up; that she’d possibly be back later than expected. Just a smidge later. Of course, once Hilly disclosed the reason for her tardiness, Buffy would be all over it, squealing that Hilly was taking time out of her busy schedule to feed a wounded SWAT guy.
“Let’s get you and your bags into my cabin,” Hilly offered, putting off the moment.
The two of them—three if you counted Nel—would be sharing a space since there were no free bunks anywhere else to place Buffy, but it wouldn’t be the first time they’d lived together in close quarters, and killed it with how well they got along.
They schlepped two big suitcases, a stuffed backpack, and a small duffel into the cabin, placing them on the neat, twin bed that Hilly had made up in her tiny spare room. Then Hilly pointed to the bathroom they’d be sharing.
“Have at it,” she grinned.
“You’re a lifesaver.” Buffy sped off into the small room, coming out a few minutes later looking far more relaxed. “Now that I can think again,” she giggled, “I’ll take another look at my room.”
“It’s pretty small, and I’m sorry your bed’s not a queen,” she apologized, shooing Nel off the comforter and back onto the floor. “But anything larger than that mattress wouldn’t fit.”
“It’ll do just fine,” Buffy assured her. “I’m imagining there’ll be so much going on, I won’t be aware of anything but z’s when my head hits the pillow each night. I expect the fresh air to knock me out, cold.”
“It does have that effect,” Hilly agreed, looping her arm through Buffy’s. “Now let’s do the ten-cent tour, then will you watch Nel so I can get into town?”
“Of course. Nel and I will have a great time catching up. Or playing catch,” she teased. “But Hill, you seem pretty excited about heading into your little burg for supplies,” Buffy returned astutely.
Hilly should have remembered how well her ex-roommate could read her. Dare she…?
Hilly took in a deep breath. “I’ll be picking up some stuff for camp, but I’m also delivering lunch to…a friend.”
“A friend, or a friend-friend?” Buffy prodded, knocking Hilly’s ribs playfully with her elbow.
“No. It’s not like that…,” she responded a little wistfully. “I mean, maybe it is. In my own mind it might be. But… I’m actually visiting our self-defense expert who ran into a bit of trouble while he was out on a call yesterday with his SWAT team, and needs my delivery services.”
“Oooh.” Buffy’s brown eyes grew wide. “SWAT as in a smoking hot guy decked out in sexy gear who runs around saying hut, hut, hut?”
Hilly laughed, thoroughly amused, and shook her head. “Seriously? You watch way too much TV, Buff.”
“Oh really?” She postured. “Tell me then. What part do I have wrong?”
“Uh… The hut, hut, hut part?” Hilly gave back weakly.
“Aha! So the smoking hot description and the sexy gear is correct?”
“Uh, yeah. Cisco is pretty attractive,” she admitted.
“Mmm. Cisco,” Buffy repeated, then stabbed Hilly with a pointed look only a good friend could get away with. “Wait. Speaking of TV. This isn’t the guy who took down the bad dude at the bank, is it? The blood-soaked white-shirt guy?”
“One in the same,” Hilly admitted.
“OMG, Hilly. That man… Does this mean you’re ready to end your self-imposed dry-spell?”
Hilly sighed. “It’s…complicated.”
“Seriously?” Buffy snorted. “How tough is it to remember that when you’re with a guy who does it for you, the big sausage goes in the snug little bun?”
Hilly broke up laughing. “Please! I’ll never get rid of that picture, now. You are so bad, Buff.” She somehow managed to catch her breath. “Now cut it out. I’ll give you the tour and introduce you to our counselors before I head into town and feed Cisco. Then I’ll come back and dish you the entire sad story about why me and Mr. Kielbasa can’t be a thing.”
“Deal,” Buffy agreed. “But, just saying, I might try to talk you into it anyway.”
They walked out into the bright sunshine with Hilly feeling more optimistic about, well, everything.
An hour later, Hilly stood in the deli section of the supermarket where they sold a variety of foods to go, and impishly ordered a sausage sub for Cisco. So what if she’d have to choke back her snorts while they ate. It would be highly worth it to be able to reveal her irreverent purchase to Buffy later.
