Lacey bit her lip to keep from asking the question that burned in her mind as they walked back down to the control room. Sure, she’d bitched about the frustration of having to build a dungeon out of bubblegum and bailing wire, but she hadn’t meant it. Lacey liked it. She liked the challenge and the complexities, and yeah, she even liked that it hadn’t been handed to her on a silver platter. As they walked down the steps, she admired what they’d carved out together.

The problem was Colt. Did he feel the same way? He had a family to go back to who actually liked him. It was nice and all to know they weren’t going to die in here, but it was more than a game to Lacey. She didn’t know why, but it was. They’d spawned goblins and taught them to lay stairways out of limestone. They’d built a beetle battle arena. They’d even gotten to throw in a few escape room puzzles like Lacey had been dreaming of doing. She didn’t want to ask, because she didn’t want to know.

“No, I don’t want to go home,” Colt stopped in front of her on the step, and Lacey was so brooding that she almost ran into him. As it was, she tilted precariously off the edge of the steps so that Colt had to catch her like he always seemed to have to do. “At least not for more than Sunday dinner with Mom.”

“But,” Lacey blinked back tears that were stupid, chiding herself for being too emotional.

“I didn’t want to go home the night your dad almost caught us sneaking into your old room for that library book you couldn’t leave behind,” Colt cut off her protest, and Lacey scowled to hide her emotions. “I didn’t want to go home when they threatened to have me arrested at the college. I didn’t want to go home when they fired you for showing up late four days in a row because you were shaking so bad that you couldn’t run an automatic cash register. Just like I didn’t want to go home after they suspended us both for fighting Jacob Timbers and I don’t want to go home now.”

Lacey pressed her lips together and cocked her head at him, her throat too tight to do more than pretend to scowl some more.

“You always do this,” Colt threw up his hands and glared at her. “You think that because we get into some scrapes together that I’m out the door and ready to run. I’m not your mom or your dad and I don’t scare easy. I’m just as invested in this dungeon as you are. The only difference is that my family aren’t assholes, so I might like to see them once in a while. Now, are you staying or going?”

“Me?” Lacey goggled at him, surprised that there was anything he could say to shock her anymore. Her lips twitched. “What do I have to do that’s any better than this shithole of a rock pit? Home is a shitty apartment that has hot water a little more often than here, but this place has a tiny bit more potential.”

“Good,” Colt grunted, turning back around before she could see his smile.

“Good,” Lacey grunted back at him, stomping down the stairs behind him so he wouldn’t turn around and see her smile.

“And I’m not interested in Helluna,” Colt sneered out, not looking back. “What kind of name is that anyway?”

“Uh-huh,” Lacey shook her head. “That’s great because she had the mental capacity of a lug nut.”

“I know, right?” Colt looked back and Lacey was glad that she had her game face back on.

“Nice that she came out to warn us, though,” Lacey’s eyes sparked with mischief as Colt walked backwards through the last goblin level and into their control room.

“I’d rather date Ginger than Helluna,” and he said her name like it was tar on his tongue.

“Did Ginger oversleep?” Ginger popped her head up.

“No, that’s okay Ginger,” Colt flinched and lowered his voice, turning back to give an unmanly giggle at Lacey. “You go back to sleep.”

“Did Ginger miss red light?” Ginger asked.

“No, no, darlin’,” Colt snickered at himself. “You didn’t miss a thing.”

“Okay,” Ginger nodded and went back under her furs.

“Okay, maybe not Ginger,” Colt admitted sheepishly.

“Helluna was a little smarter than Ginger,” Lacey held up two finger close together.

“A little,” Colt agreed and pinched Lacey’s finger a tiny bit closer together. “Helluna?” He grimaced comically and Lacey finally gave him the smile he’d been working on.

Lacey knew why she was with Colt, but she had no idea why Colt was with her. He could be the Clyde to anyone’s Bonnie. Why he’d chosen her, she couldn’t fathom. It was such a good thing that they hadn’t blown their friendship with love all those years ago. When he finally did fall for someone, Lacey would step aside like a good best friend, because when he fell, she’d probably fall for that person too. He’d have great babies with the gal and Lacey’d be a wonderful crazy aunt that sneaked them candy and pop rockets when Colt finally got all tight-laced in his old age.

“Now that that’s settled, and we have a whole week…” Colt started.

“Probably a whole week,” Lacey corrected him with a wagging finger, then tucked her finger away at the memory of the “finger wagging” Helluna had suggested she was going to give Hughe.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“Definitely a few days at least, though,” Colt agreed, heading straight for bed, one leather boot already halfway off his foot.

“Okay, but that’s not a lot of time,” Lacey headed for the pedestal, her spirit of adventure renewed even if her eyes still burned a bit from exhaustion.

“Ah, come on, Lacey,” Colt tossed another boot in a totally different direction, knowing that Ginger would take care of it by the time he woke up. “You need sleep too. Just lay down. Ginger will wake us up.”

“We have a week, not a hundred years,” Lacey objected, but her heart wasn’t in it. She wanted to take off her boots too.

“Just one night?” Colt whined, flinging off clothes even as he flung himself onto his bunk. “Sleep with me. It’s too late to argue and I’m too tired to con you into it. Come on, Lacey.”

“You want Hughe to own our dungeon?” Lacey objected, resisting a giggle, but it sure looked good to lay back like Colt was doing.

“You’re the only woman who can say no to me when I beg them to sleep with me,” Colt teased her, rolling onto his side and sending her a heart-stopping leer, his head propped on one hand.

“I’m the only one who’s gone into a bathroom after you’ve spent half an hour in it,” Lacey teased back, but she pulled off her boots.

“You’re killing me, babe,” Colt complained, his tone almost hitting a whine.

“Ginger will wake us up?” Lacey took a deep breath and chucked off her jeans, striding toward Colt’s prone figure like every woman learns how to do from movies like Top Gun, Dirty Dancing and Flashdance.

“Ginger will wake us up,” Colt assured her.

“Then saddle up, partner,” Lacey drawled and took a running start. “I’m sleeping with you, but you better make it worth it.”

“I will, baby,” Colt gave her a smoldering look.

Lacey gave a laugh that Colt echoed as she vaulted up into her bunk instead of on top of him.

“Finally,” Colt sighed out and he was asleep within moments.

Lacey lay on the top bunk, a grin on her face, listening to Colt’s light snores. It was shit like that the made Colt’s girlfriends crazy. He only did it when he was ready to let go of them though. Lacey wasn’t sure why Colt hadn’t fallen for anyone yet, but that was something for another day. Tonight, Lacey needed sleep, knowing her best bud was right there with her in this mess.

She wasn’t sure she’d fall asleep. She was still pretty sure this was a very bad idea. She didn’t dream of slimeball. She dreamt of horseback riding on a beach at sunset with a guy like Colt, but not Colt. She dreamt of bouncing baby Colts and sneaking them into dungeons that their mother approved of wholeheartedly, but that Colt had forbidden. Those twin baby girls had their mommy’s brown eyes, and their daddy’s blonde hair done up pigtails that only increased the Colt charm. It was a dangerous combination, but Lacey woke wondering who she knew with brown eyes. Lacey didn’t have brown eyes. She had blue eyes, so they weren’t her baby girls. The thought didn’t hurt at all. It was a relief more than anything else. Then again, it was all silly dreams anyway.

The first thing Lacey noticed was that the dungeon pedestal was not glowing red. Lacey stretched and took a good long breath. Was this the first time since they’d gotten here that she’d woken up all on her own? She smelled eggs, and possibly bacon. Lacey rolled over to see Colt at the pedestal, a half-eaten breakfast burrito in his hand.

“We can’t afford breakfast burritos,” Lacey growled at him with sleep-rusty vocal chords. Her arms stretched up over her head. “But if you get one, I want one too.”

“Actually, we can afford it,” Colt looked up with a slow smile and took another large bite of burrito. “Come get yours. I figured the smell would wake you.”

“Speak slowly and in words that make sense until I’ve had enough sustenance,” Lacey rolled off the bed with a happy groan.

“And there’s a pot of coffee on the table,” Colt drawled out in the sexiest of tones.

“For a minute I thought I heard you say coffee,” Lacey bent to put on her boots. “It was enough to make my mind think I can smell it. Don’t tease me.”

“Not teasing,” Colt replied with a smug look and pointed at the table where there was indeed a pot of something. The idea that it was actual coffee seemed too unrealistic.

Lacey followed her delusional nose until it poked right into the pot of what could only be coffee. “Now I know I’m still asleep and dreaming.”

“Reasonable assumption, but untrue,” Colt grinned and took another huge bite, chewing slowly. “Probably.”

“The dungeon is blue instead of red,” Lacey ticked off the facts on her fingers. “There is actual, honest-to-goodness coffee on the table. I feel well-rested like I’ve slept far later than I should have. And you are saying we are not broke. You add to that that I’m being flirted with by a sex god while my breath still smells of sleep and if even half of those things are true, we are better off than most of our lives together, so I’m going to wish myself a cup of coffee with a sidecar of rocky road ice cream and a shot of Irish whiskey and call this a wonderful dream.”

“I can’t get you rocky road,” Colt laughed at her bemused look, “or whiskey, but the coffee is real and I’m still saying we’re not broke.”

“Just let me wallow in my delusions,” Lacey held up a hand as she took a good long sip of rich, bitter coffee from heaven itself. “And order up a burrito for me.”

“Bacon or sausage?”

“Since I’m dreaming, how about both?” Lacey replied, taking another long sip of coffee and sitting at the table that was still looked like it had been hammered together by goblins.

“Done,” Colt took the burrito out of the air in front of him and walked it over to her.

“This is normally when I wake up,” Lacey admitted, taking the burrito from him and savoring a big bite.

“I have good news and bad news,” Colt told her, cocking his hip onto the table next to where she was sitting in the chair. He took a blasphemously large sip of her coffee.

“I’ll bite,” Lacey gave him a skeptical look. “What’s the bad news?”

“How did I know you’d want the bad news first?” Colt stalled, his smile unwavering. “Fine, if you must know, you were right in that Ginger did not manage to wake us up before time passed again.”

A pit formed in Lacey’s stomach, but the dungeon was still blue, and they had coffee so something had to be less messed up than that bit of news.

“In fact, enough time passed that we have received our password reset,” Colt seemed to be holding back from the worst of it. How bad could it be if they had coffee?

“That’s good,” Lacey said, cautiously, taking another bite of burrito. It was warm and chewy with the cheese, with just the right amount of spice from the sausage and just the right about of salty from the bacon.

“It does mean that the guildies are coming sooner than we might have liked, which is more bad news,” Colt delivered the news like it was a mere inconvenience. “But it also means that our credits have been replenished quite a bit.”

“How much?” Lacey gave Colt a side-eye.

“A lot,” Colt leaned forward, his palms gripping the edge of the table to keep his balance.

“Enough to reset the moonshine trap?” Lacey perked up, taking another larger bite of burrito and sloshing it around her mouth with a gulp of nice hot coffee.

“Yes, but,” Colt said as she rose to go look at the pedestal, not that it would show a number that she could read, or would it? The password reset?