Chapter 46

“Not anymore,” David grinned, waggling his eyebrows. “Vicky Mallard’s coming tonight and I am gonna get some.”

“What? Picky Vicky?”

“Old Ducky’s coming?”

“Get what, burned?”

David sneered at the chorus of disbelieving voices, and shrugged off his tinsel hat. “You’ll all see,” he pronounced loftily. Luca grinned, his face wild in the firelight, and Tav’s heart tugged towards him a little bit. So under cover of Emily demanding how David was supposed to get a snog off Picky Vicky, Tav leaned close and whispered into Luca’s ear.

“You’ve not been practising kissing, have you?”

Aaron looked up; the other two kept bickering.

“Once or twice,” Luca said, stretching out on his back and grinning at Tav. “You’re safe, though. He’s not as good.”

“Hey!” Aaron protested. The protest—and Luca’s dismissiveness—eased the flare of jealousy in Tav’s chest, and he smirked.

“Suck it up, Kowalski, you’re an inferior specimen.”