I have had a rough couple of days with my pain so I have not updated or been in touch, please be patient with me. Thanks for everything.
Nighttime at the Manor. Everyone was exhausted, partially from two beach days and also from the night before. They were all gathered in the large living room, most of them with wine or whiskey in their hands.
"So is it water sports tomorrow then?" Will asked.
Mark nodded. "Matt and I have all sorts of stuff reserved for tomorrow."
"Amanda is going to take Hank, Michael, and your Mom to the tea party place in town." Kristy told Spencer.
"That place is awesome. They give you your own teapot to paint," Layla said while stuffing cheese into her mouth from a plate on the table in front of her that was also supporting her feet.
"Layla, get your feet off the table. Other people eat there," Luke said angrily.
"I'll sanitize it," she said dryly.
"What about those of us that are less water sport inclined?" Rossi asked.
"There's a V.I.P. area. It has a hot tub, lounge and a swim up bar. It sits high up on the deck, so you can look out over the ocean," Phil explained.
"So I'm hearing that we can sit on a shaded deck with drinks and dip our feet into a fancy pool and not touch seawater. I think I'll like this," Hayden told them.
"So is it all for us tomorrow?" Emily asked.
"Yeah you can pay individually, but, after you hit ten, it's cheaper to just rent out the place for the day." Matt shrugged.
"The deck and lounge are expansive, and there's a quiet area with puzzles and a t.v.," Penelope added.
"Well, we're all set then. I don't know what I will feel like doing. I might have the energy to learn to stand on a surfboard, or I might build a puzzle. I am a mystery, ladies and gentlemen." Tara raised her eyes.
Phil laughed. "Don't worry, puzzles are all the rage nowadays."
"We can team up like last time and beat these two at the rowing challenge they have." Kelsey was speaking to Penelope shyly.
Penelope gave her a sad smile. "I don't think I'm going to do anything, I like the idea of relaxing. Plus, I really don't feel that good." She shrugged.
Kelsey furrowed her brow, glaring at her with distaste. The whole room seemed to go quiet again, so Luke spoke, "Maybe we should turn in if you're not feeling well." He rubbed Penelope's back softly.
Penelope nodded getting up, with Luke right behind her. "Good night, everyone," she said quietly.
After they were gone, Layla of course broke the silence. "For fuck's sake, I'm going to punch them both in their eye sockets."
"Layla, lay off okay?" It was the first time any of the group heard Kelsey say anything that wasn't shyly muttered with a smile behind it.
"Kelsey, you don't have to worry about them." Layla let her feet drop to the floor.
"Don't I? Isn't that exactly what I'm supposed to do?" Kelsey stood up from her spot on the floor. She had screamed at Layla, but she took a deep breath and turned to the others. "I'm going to bed too. Goodnight," she said quietly to the room.
Layla rolled her eyes and glanced to Phil for support. "Layla, let all three of them sulk if they want to. Penny and Luke can sort out their own lives."
"Yeah because they've been doing a bang up job so far." She rolled her eyes again and returned her feet to the table. "Anyone want to scheme with me? I've got lots of ideas to get them back together for real, but I've got no energy for follow-through," she asked with a mouth full of cheese.
"Actually can't say that I haven't been scheming myself, but we don't know what we're even trying to fix," JJ answered.
"Yeah, I'm getting more confused everyday. I want to help my best friend, but, for the first time in fifteen years, I don't know how to do that." Derek informed her.
"They're going to confide in all of you soon enough. They just aren't there yet. I'm on board with encouraging them to work it out, but I think they're doing just fine on their own." Phil gritted out the last part directed at Layla.
She let one eye glance up at the ceiling while directing an evil glare at Phil. "Fine, whatever. Can I watch the new Doctor Who on your tv?" Layla was already walking in the direction of Phil's room.
Phil rolled his eyes this time. "Sure, be my guest." He began rolling himself to follow Layla. "Night, everybody."
Once again leaving everyone else without a clue. "I don't like this. Kelsey seems nice and all, but she had something to do with this, and I don't understand how I should feel about that." JJ ran her hand across her forehead.
"Me either. I'm not going to be mean to the girl, but seriously what is she doing here if she upsets Penelope?" Derek asked.
"We don't know what is happening still. Let's just let them all be. Phil is the most rational out of all of them, and he seems to think everything will be fine, okay? So let's just wind down in our own rooms and enjoy tomorrow." Emily got up from her seat. She may not be in charge of them in the real world, but hell it was close enough.
….
"If you're not feeling well, mi reina, you should really let Layla, Kelsey, or even Savannah look at you." Luke was curled up next to Penelope, holding her close. Their legs intertwined, they could hear the faint sounds of the tv coming from the adjoining room.
"Luke, I don't need a doctor every time I have a little tummy ache. I'm supposed to have my period any day now. Ever heard of pms?" She laughed. "Besides, I feel really good right now. I don't feel bad at all actually." She ran her hands under his shirt and up his chest.
"Penelope, do not play with fire, mi amor. I don't want both of us to get burned," he gritted out through clenched teeth.
"But I thought we were back together?" she questioned innocently as she placed a couple of kisses on his chest where she held his shirt up high.
Luke growled and grabbed her by the arms, holding her at arm's length as he examined her face. "Penelope, we are, always were, are again, whatever. But this, are you ready for this? Are you back in a place where you want me to touch you and not feel all the bad negative things that can go along with that?"
Penelope's eyes softened. "Yes, actually I am. The past few days have done nothing but made me remember everything I was trying to forget, but I realized it's not about suppressing everything. It's about knowing who we are right now, who we have promised to be going forward, so I'm done hiding, Luke. Let's be in this again, for real."
Luke pulled her roughly to his body and initiated a kiss much like their kiss earlier on the pier. He put both hands on her butt and pulled her hips to his, letting her feel how much he wanted her already. "I love you," he gasped out as he let her push his shirt up and helped her throw it aside.
"I love you, too." He pulled the borrowed shirt off of her, leaning in immediately to kiss and lick her nipples, making her moan instantly.
"Fuck, I missed you," he said in between licking and sucking her now very hard points and using his hands to massage them, feeling them all over again for the first time.
"Me or them?" she teased making him laugh.
He abandoned her chest to loom over her face. "Everything. Nothing I haven't missed even though you've been right next to me the whole time." Penelope lifted her hips and pulled off her own shorts while Luke flung his sweats to the floor, returning to the bed on his knees.
"Damn, I missed you too." She was staring at his naked from, letting her eyes linger on the erection she was tired of just feeling through shorts. She reached for him and, when her mouth engulfed him, she heard a loud moan tear through him. She pulled back, smiling at him. "Your sister is going to hear us."
"Good, let her. Serves her right. Plus, you know she's probably going to throw a party anyway." He shrugged before pushing Penelope back and pinning her down with his body. "Are you expecting me to be creative because I've been waiting for you for months, so I'm going to disappoint."
"No, just do me. I need you." She let her hand guide him to her center and lifted her hips to allow him in.
Both of them moaned loudly. She almost wanted to cry at the physical relief she felt, having him inside of her again. "Damn it, you just had to be this wet, didn't you?" He was frozen above her as he tried to maintain some composure.
"You should know that by now."
"How could I forget?" He put his hands on the pillow on either side of her face and leaned down to kiss her as he began to glide in and out of her.
"Luke, seriously just go fast and hard, and forget all the other stuff. I'm on the verge of coming already. My body has been denied for too long to need to be coaxed into anything."
He let a huge grin with a disbelieving scoff come to his face. "Whatever you want." He held onto her thighs, forcefully pushing into her at a rapid pace.
They had moved up the bed as he did, so she reached behind her, holding onto the headboard for stability, as she squeezed her internal muscles, making him growl at her. "Oh my God, Luke!" She screamed, and he immediately let himself go, probably coming as loudly as she had.
When he felt semi recovered, he leaned into her, kissing her forcefully again. "Baby, I can't ever go without this again. Do you hear me? Not ever. I need you. I need you like this forever."
"I know, me too. I swear, me too." She leaned up to capture his lips this time.
"Well, you've unleashed the beast. You're going to be on your ass, on your stomach, on your knees, face first into a pillow, against the wall, balancing on every piece of furniture in this room. Hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight," he said to her matter of factly.
"Who needs sleep when there's orgasms?"
He growled and rolled them over so she was straddling him. "Damn right."
….
Mostly everyone was in the kitchen and scattered amongst the living room like the night before, all of them chatting and joking.
"What time do we need to-" Tara's question was cut off when she saw Layla trudge in from Phil's room, walking like a zombie. Tara tried to hide her momentary disappointment.
"Frack, I'm tired," Layla announced as she yawned and made it to the oversized refrigerator, pulling out a half gone bottle of juice and drinking from it. She earned a few befuddled looks.
Phil was right behind her, a loyal Lou right by his side. "Layla, you didn't wipe off the table last night, and now you're drinking from the juice bottle, not everyone is okay with your germs." Phil scolded her as he smiled politely at the curious faces around him. Luke was right, these people were in everyone's business.
She let one eye close in annoyance. "Fine, you can share this juice with me since you love my germs." She gave him a cheshire grin, but it was less menacing than she would've liked since she had sleep in her eyes still. She handed the bottle to Phil and then grabbed a cleaning wipe to scrub the area that her feet had been on the night before. "Look, good as new." She propped her hands up like a model on a game show.
Phil half laughed- half sighed. "Morning, everyone," he said by way of greeting the masses that were seated, finishing their breakfasts.
"Hey, where are those three tightwads?" Layla asked as she started cutting a grapefruit.
"None of them have come down yet," Spencer answered her from his spot at the kitchen island.
"Oh good. I hope they're all up there having a three way, bang it out of their systems. Everyone's happy again." She set the knife down and reached for the cream cheese she saw abandoned in the middle of the counter.
Phil put his hand over his face. "I'm really very sorry about her."
"Hey, you don't get to apologize for me." She stomped her foot.
"Somebody has to." Kelsey's voice echoed as she landed on the bottom step.
"Where were you, late riser?" Layla put a hand on her hip.
"Uh, better question is where were you?" Kelsey gave her the same attitude back.
Layla rolled her eyes. "Fine. Where are the other two?"
Kelsey yawned and came to lean her elbows on the counter, taking the juice from Phil as he came up next to her. "God, I hope they're sleeping. I don't know what they're trying to play at, about not being together. I heard them together at least seven times last night." Kelsey rolled her eyes. "They're definitely together enough."
Phil and Layla were both unamused by the information. They expected as much. Everyone else seemed to be taken aback. Once Derek processed the information, he addressed Kelsey. "I don't think it's your right to have an opinion on that," he said coldly.
Kelsey turned frantic eyes to the group. She had been more laid back with the lack of sleep, but she realized she very much didn't know these people. "Right, uh, yeah, sorry." She dipped her head and focused her eyes in on the half a wrap Layla put in front of her.
Layla rolled her eyes. "Do you ever stand up for yourself?"
"We're not all assholes like you. Don't listen to her, Kelsey," Phil instructed.
"Ugh, that's enough out of you. You talk in your sleep. I'm so over you right now," Layla said as she leaned over the kitchen counter and waved a hand in his direction.
Luke came down the stairs casually. "Who are you over?" he asked, standing directly behind Kelsey, reaching over her shoulder and stealing crackers from her plate.
"Phil. He talks in his sleep, woke me up like three times."
Luke saw everyone in his peripheral vision cautiously wait for him to react. He couldn't help but laugh. "You should have shared a tent with him in Kabul. The bombs were more soothing," he said dryly. He grabbed the bottle of juice that had made its way back to Phil. "I assume this is the one Layla laid claim on with her mouth this morning?" he said before he drank from the bottle as well.
"I'm sorry, are any of us concerned with the germs we pass to each other?" Kelsey's voice was distinct again.
"I'm sorry. This is where you worry about where your mouth has been?" Luke asked amused, making both Layla and Phil laugh loudly and earning him a glare from Kelsey as he rested back on the fridge.
"I'm sorry. Maybe I'm not as discerning when I've been kept up most of the night," she growled at him. "Did you two even sleep?" She ran her hands over her face, losing the angry steam she'd had at the beginning of her statement.
Luke stared at her, unamused. "No," he said dryly, also earning him another guffaw from both Layla and Phil. He tried to see out of his peripheral vision what the others were thinking, and, from what he could tell, there was surprise mixed with annoyance. Yeah, that was his sister. "She figured Layla would be the one to announce it to everybody, but I guess if you slept with Phil that means it's Kelsey's fault." He glared at her.
Kelsey rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I'm sorry was I supposed to wait for the two of you to write it on a sheet cake and announce it at the gathering later?" She snatched the juice from him, making him push off the fridge and steal food from Layla.
Layla stuck half of a hummus wrap in her mouth and began talking. "Where is Penny? Couldn't walk?" She laughed loudly.
"She didn't want to come down here and deal with this shit," Luke announced, gesturing to the whole room and the people who were quietly taking in the exchange in front of them.
"I thought you all were up each other's assholes all the time? You're trying to keep them in the dark again?" Layla washed down her mouthful with the juice she'd stolen back.
"No, I think she didn't want to come down, get the inquisitive looks and questions all while everyone watched her trying to avert your shitty commentary," Luke said loudly. "Also, she's asleep," he added quietly.
"Oh good. I'm going to take a shower, not that you two banging in there this morning wasn't a delight as well," Kelsey huffed and then took a handful of crackers and the rest of the cream cheese with her upstairs.
"So are we one big happy family again, because honestly, if you made me choose sides, you weren't going to win, bro."
"Wow, now you tell me. I could have had something positive to focus on for the past few months." He handed Phil half of his own wrap without glancing over.
Layla let her full mouth drop open as she brought her hand to her chest. "But how would you live without me?"
"Anyway, we'll meet you down there later, is what I came to tell you. Also, please stop taking advantage of Phil. You're no bed of roses to sleep next to either." Luke snatched the juice bottle back and headed upstairs with it and a handful of half eaten wrap.
"Fuck him. I'm a fucking delight."
