Page 13 of Pinkie Promise

Great. This is exactly what his two-hundred-and-twenty pound ego needed.

Hunter laughs at whatever he reads in my expression and I thump his door closed extra hard.

He winks at me through the window and mouthssee you Saturday.

Letting out a shaky breath I turn on my heels and run across the road, heading for cover from the rain under the car wash canopy. I don’t give Hunter the satisfaction of watching him drive away but when the wash is over and I’m shot-gunning in Ash’s car I do unravel my paperback and flick to where I’d last left off.

Something warm and tingling stirs in my belly when I notice the fact that I now have two bookmarks.

One is the receipt from when I purchased the book.

And the other is a scrap of paper with Hunter’s number on it.

Chapter 4

Hunter

“Well,” I growl through gritted teeth as I smash the puck into the top corner of the net for the tenth time this practice session. Our goalie, Austin, gives me acome on, manlook from behind his helmet and he drops his arms dejectedly to his sides. Tanner snickers as we reposition ourselves on the ice, already knowing where I’m going with this. “I gave her my number.”

“And she’s clearly been blowing you up all week,” he says dryly, his eyes sliding over to mine. “What’s her name, again?”

I give him ago fuck yourselfsmirk because, yeah, I don’t know her name yet, and then Coach sounds his whistle – the worst thank you gift that a player ever got him – and we shoulder-bump it out as we make our way off the ice.

I’ve managed to keep my mouth shut about my one-sided cheerleader situation but it’s been five days since I slipped my digits into her cute romance book and the silence is starting to make my quads tense up. If she liked me she would call. It’s as simple as that.

We clip on our blade guards and trudge down the narrow corridor to the locker room, pulling off our helmets and shaking out our hair. I drop down onto the bench and splay my thighs, giving myself a second to recoup before I start stripping for the shower.

“Do you know what classes she takes? ’Cause I don’t recommend stalking her at cheer practice,” Tanner says as he rotates the combination into his locker and pulls it open.

I let out a low groan and mumble, “Don’t give me ideas.”

“Did you invite her to the Halloween thing tomorrow?” he continues, pulling off his jersey and unfastening his shoulder pads.

I nod as I begin to take off my boots. I played way too hard during our rink-time today and this time it had nothing to do with defending the players on my team. I’m just stressing the hell out about a chick who isn’t interested.

“Maybe she’s playing hard to get,” Tanner offers, pulling out his phone and scrolling through a very, very,verylong list of contacts. He finds the one that he’s looking for and taps on her photo, turning the screen in my direction. “Like this one. I’ve been waiting for a text back for three fuckin’ years.”

I stare at the picture and then give Tanner a look. “Tanner. Aisling O’Malley has a boyfriend.”

He gives me a grin before I get back to removing my gear, knowing about Aisling O’Malley’s situation because I have classes with her brother. Tanner chucks his cell back into his bag, and I head over to the stalls with my towel because my muscles are dying for some heat relief. I squeeze into one of the cubicles and immediately hit the tap, swallowing down a grunt as the spray scolds the valley between my shoulders.

This is what I need, I think to myself as I brace one palm on the wall and run the other through my hair.Get on the ice and sweat her out of your system. Doesn’t matter if she doesn’t show up tomorrow. Getting signed is what’s important.

I hose myself off, knot my towel around my hips, and then I walk back to the benches where Tanner is waiting for me. We’re two of the only guys on the team who were born and raised in Carter Ridge, going to the same small town high school despitehaving different economic home lives. Tanner’s parents are low-key rich as fuck, hence the pricey SUV that he unlocks when we get out onto the lot. He also doesn’t have that many siblings, whereas I’m the oldest of six.

Our other roommate Caden is leaning against the SUV’s side panel, his cell to his ear as he says something in a hushed voice. He has black hair, thigh tats, and he’s built like a tank. He’s also only twenty. He’s living with us even though he’s a sophomore because he has a girlfriend from home and he fucking hated his freshman year. At least when he’s living with Tanner and me the passage of chicks in the apartment is much more discreet.

“I’m heading to my parents’ tonight, and I’m gonna be working in the garage until late tomorrow,” I say as Tanner pulls off onto the main road. My dad is a mechanic and my mom owns the local diner, so I usually spend Saturday in the workshop and Sunday in the diner’s back office.

“You still coming tomorrow night?” Tanner asks as he indicates.

“Yeah, but it’ll be close,” I say, wondering if I’m even going to have time to shower the car grease off my fingers before heading to the corn maze. Then I think of the girl that I may or may not bump into and with a little more steel in my voice I finish with, “I’ll be there.”

Tanner snickers as he takes the turn at the junction and he mutters a dark, “I bet you will.”

*

Every year on the outskirts of town, Carter U hosts a big Halloween party out in the corn fields. Tanner and I have been sneaking into it since we were fifteen, so we’re more than well acquainted with the set up.

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