I looked at Ellie and raised a brow, too, daring her to say “cushion.”
She smiled like she could read my mind.
“Our three words are bed, chocolate,” she listed off on her fingers, my lips twitching at the second one. She paused to think, biting her lip. “And, um…crab?”
I stared at her, dumbfounded. Of all the words in the English language…
“Crab?” Madison echoed my thoughts, cocking her head. “Like the animal?”
Ellie hesitated and looked to me for help, but I had nothing for her. She was the one who’d started this.
Lovejoy gently cleared her throat. “Do you feel comfortable expanding on that last word for us, Ellie?”
“Oh, of course.” Ellie’s eyes widened—looking even more like a deer caught in the headlights—while she absently scratched her thigh. “It’s a—It’s a…position.”
I fought to keep my face straight at the blatant lie. The crab was actually a toy she’d made for her cat, and a sense of foreboding crept in. This would end badly.
“Oh?” Lovejoy tilted her head forward, and her glasses slid down an inch. “I don’t recall any crab-related ones in my pamphlets?—”
“A friend told me about it,” Ellie blurted, her face only reddening further. Her scratching grew more frantic, making my fingers flex. The panic was clear in her eyes. “It’s called the, um…the Slippery Crab.”
I stifled a quick laugh, and Lovejoy’s brow furrowed. “The Slippery Crab?”
“Yep,” Ellie squeaked. “Highly recommend it! Just be sure to stretch beforehand.”
A fake coughing fit barely saved me from snorting into my coffee. …Where had that even come from?
“Sounds pretty lame to me,” Candace drawled, watching a crewmember replace her empty champagne flute with a full one.
“I don’t know. I mean, ‘slippery’ seems like it could be fun,” Madison said, then frowned. “Or dangerous.”
“Oh, it’s both,” Ellie assured her, going on with her lie. “That’s why it’s so effective.”
More like nonexistent.
“It can’t bethateffective if no one’s heard of it,” Candace challenged, and Ellie stiffened.
My gaze lingered on Candace’s little smirk. What the hell was her problem?
“Now, now.” Lovejoy lifted her arms, her many bracelets clanking as they raced against gravity. “This isn’t a competition. Ellie, please continue. Tell us more about this crab position. I’m intrigued.”
“Well.” Ellie hesitated, and her blushing grew even worse before she tilted her chin up. Her eyes narrowed at Candace. “Let’s just say…I give itsixthumbs up.”
Brows flew up around the table—while I wanted to face-palm—and Madison choked on her orange juice.
“Six times?” she rasped, setting down her glass. “From one position?”
Harrison rubbed his hand over her back, looking just as surprised. “I’d still rather not know anything about my brother’s sex life, but is it weird I’m strangely proud of you?”
“Yes. Extremely weird,” I answered, deadpan.
This was a mess. Everyone looked way too impressed, and I needed to stop this before Ellie made up some new fantastical story about me having two penises.
Ellie started scratching again, and I grabbed her hand, pulling it into my lap to stop her.
She opened her mouth, but I squeezed her hand hard enough to cut her off.
Leaning down close to her ear, I murmured through a clenched jaw, “That’s enough selling it.”