Now it’s just me and Riley, one on one, and she’s in short shorts, a sports bra and lose tank that barely covers said bra. She’s sweating though. Not because it’s hot, but because she’s down 12-2. She doesn’t like losing. It helps I’m almost a foot taller than her and my arm’s almost at a hundred percent again.

“Who you calling old?” I ask, dribbling around her for another lay up.

She narrows her eyes at me, just for a moment before she pouts.

“Don’t think you can distract me with your hotness. That shit won’t fly on the court.”

The pout turns to a smirk as she makes her way over to me, taking the ball from my hands. She drops it to the ground, then stands on it, using my neck for leverage. “Next score wins?” she asks.

I roll my eyes.

Lucy shouts, “Use the girl card!”

“What girl card?” I ask.

She smirks. “No sex for a month.”

“Pshh. You can’t live without sex for a month.”

She quirks an eyebrow. “Want to test me?”

I remove her arms from around my neck. “Nope.”

Her head throws back with her laugh. “I didn’t think so.”

She scores.

She wins.

I get guaranteed sex for the next month.

I win.

I’d call that a win-win.

I sit back down with the rest of the guys while Riley gets us drinks. “You let her walk all over you,” Cameron says.

Lucy glares at him.

He apologizes.

“Where does she hide that whip she’s constantly beating you with?” I ask him.

“In her magical pussy,” he says, earning him a slap on the back of the head from Lucy.

We all laugh as Riley returns with drinks. She hands the waters out to all of us and takes her seat on my lap. Then she places her bottle on my shoulder. “How is it?”

“Fine,” I tell her, kissing her neck. “I’ll rest it when we get home.”

She smiles. She loves it when I say home.

“So, do you know what the deal is, Dylan?” Amanda asks, her hand shielding the sun as she looks up at us. “Like, any idea when you go back?”

“Not sure.” I shrug. “I have a check up next week and we’ll go from there.”

Riley adds, “They’re really happy with his progress, though, so that’s a good sign.”

“And what? You go back to your unit?” Logan says.

“Yep. If everything goes to plan.”

“I can’t believe we’re all home for the summer,” Micky chimes in.

“It’ll be good,” Jake says. “We haven’t all been together like this in forever.”

“Minus Heidi,” Lucy says.

There’s no awkwardness at her statement. Not anymore. Riley and Heidi seem to have formed a weird only-a-girl-would-understand mutual respect for each other. We’ve even hung out as a group. They don’t say a lot to each other, but they don’t claw each other’s eyes out either. Granted, if it ever got to that, I’d put my money on Riley. Every single time.

I tune them out as the girls go back to talking books, the guys go back to talking about Cameron’s inability to score a free throw and I go back to looking at the girl I love, watching her smile and join in on both conversations.

She faces me, her smile still in place. “You okay?”

I nod.

Then, for some random reason, I shout, “Yahoo!” Weird, I know. But Dad used to say it and… dammit, I guess I am Grandpa Banks.

“What the hell was that?” Riley says through a fit of laughter.

“Did you just Yahoo?” Jake asks.

Next to me, Cameron’s holding a hand to his chest like I just scared the shit out of him.

I laugh with them. Then loudly exclaim, “It’s a beautiful day, boys!”

Now they’re all looking at me like I’m crazy. I am. Riley—she bakes me crazy. Okay. That didn’t have the same effect as bacon but whatever.

Down on the court, I see two teenage boys eying me like my friends are. “What?” I yell. “It is a beautiful day! The sun’s out… everyone’s on break. I got a beautiful girl in my arms.”

“Well,” one of the kids says. “You do have a beautiful girl.”

“Watch your fucking mouth,” I shout, getting up to go to him.

Riley grabs onto my neck with one hand, the other covering my mouth. “He’s sorry,” she tells them, before looking back at me, a laugh bubbling out of her. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I’m happy,” I tell her.

“You’re crazy,” she retorts.

“You bake me crazy.” Nope. Still not the same effect. Maybe this is why I kept silent for so long.

We leave the guys at the park and I drive Riley to work. She’s on the afternoon shift for now, but she’ll be taking over the nine to five next week. Most days, I drive her there and pick her up because even though she has her own car, she prefers I drive. Reminds her of how dreams can become a reality. I don’t mind. But I do get lonely. Some days I just go over to Dad’s house and mess around with Eric. Other days I work on our house. It’s old, but the bones are good, and with enough work we can get it to where we want. That’s what I’m doing—replacing the air-conditioning unit—when I get an unexpected phone call.

Dr. Garvis is on the other end, his tone a mixture of hopefulness and something else I can’t quite decipher. He tells me he’d like to fast forward my appointment to tomorrow and that something has changed with his scheduling. I agree, even though I know Riley can’t get the day off and she likes to go with me to all my check ups. He ends the conversation by saying, “Hopefully your shoulder’s still where it was and I can sign off on the paperwork sooner rather than later.”