Page 46 of Puppy Love

“If I win, you have to admit you like me.”

I look at her, unimpressed. I can work with that. “Really? That’s your prize? I thought bets were supposed to be high stakes,” I taunt.

Violet frowns. “You have a short list, and I want to be on it. What, do you have a better one?”

I lean forward, tapping the empty space on her forearm where the tattoos suddenly stop.

“That,” I say confidently. “If I win, I get to choose what goes there.”

Violet tugs her arm away, faster than I’d expected.

“You want to pick my tattoo?” Her eyes are wide and round. “No way!”

“Fine,” I say shrugging. “No bet.”

Cam: One. Violet: Zero.

Violet’s brows furrow, then turn pleading. “Can’t you pick something else? Something less permanent?”

I shake my head.

“Sounds like the pleas of someone who’s scared to lose,” I tease. But the second I say it, I know I made a massive mistake. She clears her throat, sits up straight, then stretches out her small, calloused hand.

“Deal,” she says firmly. I choke.

“What?”

“Let’s do it. If you win, you get to pick my next tattoo. But—” She looks at me earnestly. “It can’t be some stupid, random thing. It has to tie into the sleeve. I don’t need a fucking transformer or some shit ruining thousands of dollars of work.”

My lips part, my mouth agape. This wasn’t part of the plan. My hand trembles as it grips hers and gives a meaningful shake.

“Deal,” I say. Because I’m fucking fun.

sixteen

Lucifer in Levi's

Violet

Didn’t Satan used to be an angel or something? 8

Not to compare Cam to the actual devil, but sometimes… I thought I was going to win this one. I even wore the only shirt I own that sits a little too low for comfort to distract her. It’s red and fitted and perfectly work-appropriate, but shows more than anything else I’d ever even consider wearing.

I planned on making this as hard as possible for her. But when I walk into Pacific Pins Bowling Alley, my body turns to Jello.

The jeans are one thing. Dark, mid-rise beauties that hug her hips in a way I wish I could. Even the rips on her thighs exposing that soft, pale skin underneath aren’t what makes Cam absolutely evil, no matter how taunting. What forms a pretzel inside of my stomach is the fact that Hayden fucking Ayers has his hands wrapped around her waist, her ass pressed firmly against his pelvis.

I know I said fuck already, but fuck, fuckity-fuck.

Obviously, Cam is her own woman, and what she does with her body is frankly none of my business. But that doesn’t cool my simmering blood. I know she’s doing this on purpose. I know she just wants to throw me off my game. Still, I can’t help but wonder how on Earth she got him to agree to it.

I look around at the group. It seems everyone is already here getting the lanes set up. Even Malcolm is entering names into the computer, and the dude is late for every shift. Leave it to the boss to be the last one to arrive.

“Size seven please,” I say with a strained smile when I approach the shoe booth. The teenager behind it eyes my chest with a smirk, and even though this makes my skin crawl, it boosts my confidence that this isn’t going to be easy for Cam either. He hands me a pair of shoes that look like they were previously owned by a baby clown. Like a homicidal baby clown, given the strange orange stains all over them. I put them on in the hopes that I’m not contaminating evidence for a twenty-year-old cold case.

After tying laces that I swear are disintegrating in my hands, I look toward the lanes, blue, red, and yellow lights beaming across the room. Something about the neon-patterned floor and scent of greasy food feels so nostalgic to me.

Dave, our neighbor from the trailer park in Clarkston, worked at a bowling alley for a couple years. He was a really nice guy, and even let us tag along sometimes, so long as Ruthie agreed to stop blabbing to her friends at school that she got to bowl for free. If it weren’t for Dave, the only outings we’d have were trips to the local park, which was really just an empty field. Dave got new jobs a lot, so after the bowling alley, we went to the movie theater, and then the aquarium, then the Martial Arts Academy, all for free.

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