Page 103 of Pinkie Promise

Hunter is sitting on the edge of the bed with his legs spread wide, elbows on his knees, chin on his fists, and he’s watching me intently as I work my hair into a half-up half-down ponytail, secured in place with my cheer ribbon.

When I start slowly combing my fingers through the fluffed up ends he scrapes a hand down his stubble and finally glances away from the mirror, his cheeks staining red and one of his hands moving to grip at the bulge in his jeans.

As soon as he realises that I’m now just messing with him because I love seeing him entranced when I do girly things, he grabs both of our bags and then borderline shoves me into a headlock, making me howl with giggles as he muscles his way out of the bedroom.

“How’d you learn to do all that stuff with your hair?” he grunts, and I peek up at him from under his bicep, shimmering with mischief as I see the grumpy aroused look on his face.

“You mean, how’d I learn to tie a ponytail?” I ask, unable to stop myself from grinning because only a guy as masculine as Hunter could bethatclueless when it comes to girls.

“Yeah,” he says, genuinely serious.

I bury my face into the side of his chest, shaking with laughter as he lets out a frustrated huff, as if he thinks that I’m keeping inside information from him.

He’s so cute, I can barely cope.

“I thought you had a sister,” I remind him. “Surely you’ve seen her do her hair before.”

He pushes open the front door and lets me step out before he follows, turning around for a second so that he can lock up before we walk to the Uber.

“Wren’s fresh. She’s barely got hair.”

I can’t contain myself. I burst into a round of truly baffled laughter, so confused by Hunter’s country talk that I literally have no idea what he’s talking about. He shoots me a sullen scowl before opening the Uber door for me.

“Hunter, I swear, I’m not laughingatyou,” I giggle, pawing at his abs as he heaves himself down onto the seat beside me. He jerks his chin at the driver, asking her to set off. “I just have no idea what any of that sentence means.”

He yanks my seatbelt over my belly before clicking in his own, and then he lays his arm heavily over my shoulders, dragging me into his side as he settles against the upholstery.

“I mean that she’s, like, fresh out the womb. She’s a baby. Her hair isn’t like this,” he says, glancing down at my head as he tangles his fingers up in my ponytail. “She just has those little baby curls right now – tiny ringlets, like the ones you’ve got around your forehead.”

He works his fingers through the lengths of my hair for another minute and then he settles his hand around the side of my neck, squeezing me gently.

“Do you wanna learn how to do it or something?” I ask him, feeling a little guilty about teasing him when he’s such a sweetie.

He stares out of the window for a moment, most likely trying to hide that red blush on his cheeks, but after a few beats he looks down at me and rasps, “Yeah, I’d like that.”

When we pull up at the Larch Peak U rink, where the bus is still parked up from yesterday’s journey, I see that a bunchof other larger Ubers are just driving off, presumably having brought the guys back from the motel, and Hunter’s teammates are all filtering towards the team transport bus.

I bite anxiously at the tip of my thumbnail, knowing that I shouldnotbe joining them on that coach.

I feel stupid knowing that I’m about to be an unwanted intruder.

“Hey.” Hunter squeezes me with his forearm and snaps me out of my internal tumult. He tips his chin at me and says quietly, “No stressing. I want you here, with me, and none of the guys are gonna have a problem with it.”

Hunter helps me out of the Uber and then he’s hauling me to the bus, our bags thrown over one of his large shoulders.

I’m snuggled securely under the other.

Tanner steps out of one of the Ubers and as soon as he sees Hunter a huge grin spreads across his face.

Hunter mumbles a resigned “ah Jesus” as Tanner swaggers his way over to us, his sharp eyes flicking keenly from Hunter’s face to mine.

“Nice face,” Tanner says, smirking at Hunter’s cut cheekbone and bruised eye.

I prevented myself from telling Hunter how hot he looks with his game injuries because I don’t want to encourage him to engage in more fights.

But truth be told, he looks crazy sexy right now.

Hunter smirks, brushing off the taunt.

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