Page 71 of Pinkie Promise

“When I pick my outfit maybe I’ll send you a photo,” I whisper.

“Baby,” he murmurs into my neck, before leaning up and kissing me gently. When he pulls back he says, “Over Christmas I might take my siblings to the rink, get them comfortable on their blades for the first time. If you want…” He shoves one of his hands through his hair and then drops it to my waist. “If you want, I could bring you with us. I only take one sibling at a time, it’s not like I’ll have the whole bunch,” he laughs, although his cheeks start flushing red and he glances down as if he’s getting nervous.

“Okay,” I agree, loving the idea of seeing Hunter teaching his baby siblings how to skate. I also secretly want him to teachmehow to skate, but I save that thought for another time.

“Yeah?” he asks, tilting my chin so that I can look up at him. He’s wearing a sleepy half-smile that has my heart doing crazy things.

“Yeah,” I whisper back, before pulling him down for one more kiss.

*

A champagne cork shoots across the living room and I let out a tipsy yip as I duck out of its way. Aisling throws a pillow from our sofa over to the girls in the kitchen, and they scream and scamper, laughing profusely. I look back into Ash’s little compact mirror and finish my coating of mascara as she switches up the song on the playlist, blasting it out of the speaker on the countertop.

“How was last night?” I ask her as she tosses her cell and stands up on the couch to catch the rogue cushion being thrown back at us. She’s wearing a strapless baby blue mini dress, silverstilettos, and the biggest pair of diamond earrings that I have ever seen in my life. She sinks back down next to me and we share an amused look.

Aisling was at her boyfriend’s last night and, from the aggressively hot outfit that she’s wearing for our cheer Christmas party, I can tell that she isn’t pining too hard for him right now.

“I mean, I kind of want to kill him,” she laughs, rolling her eyes and downplaying her emotions. “Like, at first I didn’t mind that he’s such a dog because he’s also really good at spoiling me, but now that we’re ‘exclusive’ and his phone is still pinging off every five seconds… I don’t care if he’s already been drafted – he has a girlfriend, so his past hook-ups shouldn’t be pursuing him anymore. He let me scroll through his DMs, and he isn’t even responding to them, but it’s getting to the point where his popularity is downright annoying. I knew what I was signing up for with him but I think that we’re reaching the end of the rope.”

She runs her fingers through her hair, laughing humourlessly as she shakes her head.

“I knew that I should never have said yes to being exclusive with him. Honestly, I think that the most important lesson that I’ve learned from this is that it isn’t just the guys that you need to keep your guard up around – it’s the girls too. If I hadn’t met you at cheer when we were freshmen, Lord knows what I would do.”

I give her a little “aw”, genuinely touched.

She waves her wrist quickly, wafting away the sentimentality. “I know, I’m sappy, I’ll shut the hell up now.”

“No no no–”

Ash picks up a shot-glass from the coffee table and stares at the sparkly red liquid, the crushed candy canes around the rim giving it an extra festive feel. She tentatively sticks the tip of her tongue into the glass and then pulls a face that sends us both into hysterics.

She passes me a shot of my own and we tip them back in unison.

“Can I just… say one more thing?” she asks hesitantly, poking at the candy rim so that she doesn’t have to meet my eyes.

I nod vigorously, the red liquor warming my veins.

She glances over her shoulder, her fingers running over her diamonds, and then I watch her eyes pool with tears, making me scooch forward and wrap my arms around her.

“I can’t trust anyone Fallon,” she whispers. “Not even the girls on the damn team.”

I know the problem before she even says it. “Who was messaging him?”

She frowns at her lap before mouthingWhitney.

My jaw drops open and she scrunches up her nose.

“Whitney? As in, the girl who replaced me as the head flyer?” I hiss, pressing my fingers hard into my temples, unable to comprehend a betrayal by someone on your ownteam. Especially when, as the captain of Carter U’s comp team, Ash is close with all of the girls on the squad.

Seeing as Ash just assigned Whitney the position of the comp team’s star flyer my brain is fizzing like crazy over the idea of her betraying her.

I feel like I’m forgetting something but the sparkly liquor is making my thoughts hazy.

“I know,” she whispers, smoothing out her dress as we walk to get one last drink from the kitchen. In my light state of tipsiness it takes me a second to realise that Blair, the girl who dropped me so good that I ended up getting multiple concussions, is standing right next to us at the counter.

My cheeks heat up, feeling a little betrayal of my own.

Our eyes meet and neither one of us knows what to do. She offers me a small unsure smile, her brow creasing with guilt, and I give her a tiny smile of my own, not exactly sure where westand with each other. After a few seconds of nervous eye contact she takes a glass from the tray and takes her leave.

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