DAKOTA

"Goodbye, Mr. perfectly fi-ine! How's your heart after breaking mi-ine?"

Leaning forward in my seat, I grab Parker's shoulder and continue singing into my closed fist, acting as my microphone.

In the rearview mirror, he shakes his head watching Brooks, Ellie, and I screaming our hearts out in the back seat. The same as we've been doing for the past two hours.

It's the first week of March, meaning it's also spring break. Normally, we'd just hang around campus, but the NHL announced a change in rules, allowing teams to call players up starting this Wednesday in order to give them an extra week to prepare for their move.

So, to de-stress the guys, Ellie convinced her parents to go on a trip this week so we could borrow their lakehouse. Then she called Nate and guilt-tripped him into taking the week off of work to join us. We also decided to take one very full car, not wanting to spend the few hours drive away from eachother if we could help it.

Parker has been driving with Connor in the passenger seat, then the three fun people took the back seat. This car has a third row, but we had to put the seats down to make room for our bags and Birk's crate because we obviously couldn't stand to leave him behind.

Both of the guys up front let out a sigh of relief when the house comes into view, putting an effective end to the concert happening in the backseat.

Nate is waiting out front when we pull up and is quick to grab Birk's leash and get him inside, excited to introduce him to Ryke.

We all head inside to our rooms, and Parker steals my small suitcase away when we reach the stairs.

I roll my eyes. "I can do it myself, you know."

"No offense, love, but do I look like I care?"

Giggling, I slap his ass as hard as I can, running around him to show him the way to the guest room but also so he won't give me a five-star in retaliation.

We're staying together in one room, Brooks and Connor are sharing Nate's room, Ellie is getting her actual room, and Nate is taking his parents' for the week.

Parker has never been here before, so he looks at me with a wild expression when I start to strip the second he closes the door. Ignoring his questions, I rip my bag from his grip and start tearing through it, pulling on the first bathing suit I see.

It's become a tradition to race and see who can be the first to get in the water, and I'm a four-time champion. Pushing past a still-confused Parker, I race down the stairs, Brooks hot on my heels, and sprint as fast as my legs can take me through the back door.

When my feet hit the dock, I hear Connor scream expletives way behind me, obviously mad that he has no chance. Right as I leap off, Brooks wraps his arms around my torso, spinning our bodies so that he breaks the surface first.

"No!" I splash at him when we reach the surface. "You're such a fucking cheat," I laugh.

Ellie and Connor are close behind us, jumping in and bobbing back up only a few feet away.

"That was dirty, Brooks, I liked it." Connor fist bumps him, starting to swim back to shore.

As we all walk up the small beach-like shore, lightly pushing and shoving, Parker and Nate make their way outside. He looks a little less confused now, and I'm guessing that Nate filled him in on everything.

I've obviously seen his bare skin many, many times, but seeing him stroll towards me in his bathing suit is making my body tingle. It doesn't help that his biceps are flexing as he finishes rubbing sunscreen over his tattooed arm.

Everyone hops in the boat, but I hang back and wait for Parker to reach me.

"I think you just lost by default," I smirk.

He chuckles, throwing an arm around my neck and kissing the side of my head. "I really thought I was about to get lucky up there."

"You've gotten lucky the past four nights," I pat his butt once again, unable to help myself.

"That I have." He jumps on the boat first, picking me up by the waist and lifting me over the edge right after.

Since Brooks technically won the race, he gets to tube first and picks Parker and Connor to join him. They strap on lifevests quickly as the rest of us set everything up. Nate is the permanent driver, this boat too expensive to trust anyone else to take the wheel. After Parker's birthday incident, he has good reason.

Ellie and I let them go a few times because they continue to try and shove eachother off, meaning they don't even stay on the tube long enough for Nate to get going.

As Nate circles around to pick all of them up, I start to put on my lifevest, but Brooks takes over. "Alright, babydoll, this is the year. I can just feel it."

"Damn straight," I chest-bump him. "This is the year, El!"

"The year for what?" Parker stands close behind me.

Nate calls out to him. "Full speed, man."

"As in, you're gonna push this thing to the max while they hang onto the raft?"

"Yep," I turn around and tap a finger against the tip of his nose. "Watch and learn, pretty boy."

Parker looks less than thrilled, always worried about my safety, but Ellie and I waste no time jumping in and swimming out to the raft. Nate doesn't even give us the chance to adjust ourselves, letting the motors go as fast as they can. We both scream giddily, hanging onto the ropes for dear life.

Up until now, he's never been able to go this fast without us slipping off within five seconds, so this is the year that changes. All of the guys start cheering loudly, letting us know that we've reached our goal, and I let my hands slip slowly.

The raft tips forward, sending me flying high up into the air, and I flail around until I hit the surface. I bob back up with a smile on my face, Ellie not too far in front of me. We swim to eachother and hug, laughing happily.

When the boat comes back around, Connor grabs the buckle on my front, yanking me back up as Brooks does the same to Ellie.

"How the fuck did you two get so jacked since last summer?" He chuckles.

For the next few hours, we all take turns playing around, and Nate drops the anchor so we can swim for a while. Not the biggest fan of swimming in the dark, I settle back into the plush seats when the sun starts to go low.

Parker is close behind me, pulling my legs over his and draping a towel over our shoulders.

I run my fingers through his hair, making him face me. "Do you ever think about how different things would be if you hadn't transferred?"

"Yes, but I don't like to." He squeezes my leg. "I never had friends like this at Wisconsin, but I didn't realize how lonely I was until I came here."

"Well, we're all really grateful to have you a part of our little group, especially me."

Parker presses a loving kiss against my forehead. "Trust me, Dakota. Nobody is more grateful to be here than me. Especially with everything going on this week, I'm happy to have people around that I can talk to."

I can't stop the bright smile from overtaking my face. "It's going to be a great week, no matter how things turn out. Even if I have to sugar mama you for the rest of our lives."

"Can't say I'd be opposed to that." He pushes the stray damp hairs away from my forehead, eyes turning serious. "But it's all going to work out, love. Just the way we planned it."

"What if-" I'm cut off.

"No." He shakes his head. "Don't even put that out there. This time next year, we'll be eating pizza on our balcony in Nashville and I'll be saying I told you so."

"Sounds perfect," I breathe out, staring into his reassuring eyes.

He holds me tighter, tucking my head into the crook of his neck as we watch the sun go down.

~

"I can not believe you just did that," I hiss at Parker as we head down the hall. "I told you to keep it PG."

He scoffs. "You could've stopped me at any point and you know it."

Flipping to him, I pinch his arm. "A PG shower, Parker. Then your fingers accidentally slipped between my legs."

"Just like you accidentally reached down and started rubbing my dick?" He counters, effectively shutting my mouth.

I hurry down the stairs and feel caught by Connor who stands at the bottom, pizza hanging from his mouth.

"I was coming to grab you two, and now my ears are bleeding." He grimaces at me as I shove past.

There are five huge pizza boxes on the counter, and while the guys all grab beers, Ellie and I opt to stick with lemonade tonight. Even if I only drink one, I always wake up with a slight headache, and I don't feel like dealing with that tomorrow.

We all decide to eat on the couch while we watch a movie, but not even ten minutes into it, our plates are empty and the boys are dead asleep. The sun took it out of them, I guess.

Ellie nods towards the kitchen, a silent sign to sneak out of here, and I spend a good three minutes muscling Parker's big body off of my lap.

"Are we thinking ice cream or fruit and chocolate?"

Reaching around her, I grab the tub of chocolate chip cookie dough. "El, what a stupid question."

Laughing quietly, she grabs our spoons and we head to the patio, dogs following close behind us. We snuggle together on their huge outdoor couch, and Ellie lays a thick blanket over our legs.

"I love it here," I speak softly.

"Sometimes I wonder why I ever moved out, honestly." She spoons up a big bite. "How are you feeling about this week?"

"Nervous," I admit. "We haven't talked about what will happen if Nashville isn't the first to call."

"Why not?"

"Every time I've tried to bring it up, he immediately shuts down the conversation. He's so convinced that they're gonna be the first and only, he won't consider any other possibility." I huff out a big breath, leaning my head back on the cushion in hopes of gathering my thoughts.

"I'm sure they will be," she grips my hand. "But, if they're not, at least I'll only be a few hours away."

Ellie has always been good at distracting me when I'm overwhelmed.

"I don't think I've truly expressed how happy I am that we'll be so close." Gasping, I hold her tighter. "You can be my taste tester."

"Don't tempt me. I'll be calling you for study snacks."

For the next hour, we finish off the ice cream and talk about all the things we're planning on doing in Tennessee, being kept warm by the blanket and dogs who have now found comfort over top of us.

Since it is pitch black out here, we both jump in fear when the back door opens.

"Kota, you out here?" Parker's rough voice calls.

"Nope, I killed her and dumped her body into the lake," Ellie responds.

Chuckling, he comes over and climbs on the couch next to me. "Thank god, she was getting clingy as shit."

"I think you're getting us confused," I look down to his head that's now smack in the center of my chest, arm draped over my stomach.

"Agreed," Ellie chimes in. "Why did you come out here and interrupt girl time, anyways?"

I can see his cheeks turn pink in the moonlight. "Uh, I was ready to head up for bed and didn't want to go without her," he whispers.

"Parker Cadell," Ellie chastises. "You really are a big softie under all that hockey-player toughness."

"Yeah, yeah," he smiles at her. "Come on, Birk."

The blanket is suddenly pushed off of me, and I'm being held in a front piggyback as Parker walks us back inside.

When we make it back to our room, Parker gets me and Birk settled under the covers before undressing and joining us. And yes, he gave up on the whole 'not wanting to sleep with the dog' thing a while ago when I started to withhold sex.

Worked like a fucking charm.

______

See y'all Monday!