Page 45 of One Pucking Destiny

“While I was growing up, my mom had this cook, Marcela, who she was really close with. Marcela waslike a surrogate mother to her. Her own mother had passed, and her dad wasn’t in the picture. According to Mom, Marcela was nothing but love and helped raise Mom as if she were one of her own. That included teaching her all these recipes passed down through her family over generations in Mexico. So the cookies I made are called polvorones. Marcela had all these special things she did while making them that made them turn out so good.”

“They were delicious. You didn’t expect they would be because they look so plain. But after taking a bite, you craved another,” he says.

“Exactly. Anyway, when I came home over Christmas, my mom had made a batch of them. We had a long conversation with Beckett over this plate of cookies about how meaningful they were to us, and I might have mentioned that they are the only cookie I knew how to bake. So I knew I was guaranteed three votes—mine, my mom’s, and Beckett’s. Seeing that Beckett threw the poker game so I could win, I knew he’d vote for me. I figured that you and Iris would, of course, vote for yourselves and a couple of the other guys would vote for themselves. So really there were only a few votes up for grabs when you think about it that way. That’s why I felt so confident in making that bet… because I had an edge, and I knew it.”

Bash is silent as he takes in my words, and I feelnauseous. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him, but the guilt was eating me alive.

Finally, he throws his head back and laughs. “You little nepo baby you, using your advantages against me. You play dirty.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was brilliant. If I wasn’t so bogged down with my own ego, I would’ve realized you had an advantage before I made that bet. Look, I was bound to get a cookie tattoo at some point. I mean, my fate is sealed with that one. Would I have chosen a different location? Yeah, probably. But whatever, it’s really not a big deal.”

A wave of relief lifts, leaving me lighter and happier.

“However,” he continues, “Beckett is another situation, the prick. I can deal with him cheating with the volleyball coin toss and throwing the poker game. But just because he’s married to the team doctor doesn’t give him the right to unfair advantages. I mean, he defiled the sanctity of the cookie competition. How dare he?”

Chuckling, I smack Bash’s thigh playfully. “Yeah, as a pair, they’ve got it bad, the love bug.”

“Look, I’m a huge fan of love. I love love. Love is great. The more love in this world, the better, but we have to draw the line before it gets out of control.”

“Let me guess. The bye week annual cookie competition is that line?”

“Hell yeah, it is. I mean, when will the madness stop? What’s next?”

I shake my head, the pair of us laughing. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to get back at him.”

“Oh, that’s a guarantee.” He pauses a beat. “Wow. Well, thanks for bringing that to my attention. While I still technically lost, I don’t feel so bad about it now.”

“Good.”

He sets his plate on the bedside table. “I don’t really feel like hanging out downstairs. Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Sure. What do you want to watch?”

Remote in hand, he clicks on the big screen television at the foot of his bed and starts flipping through the channels. “Oh my God, it’sEndgame!” he exclaims.

I stare up at him as his disheveled blond hair flops against his face, and his mouth beams in a smile.

“Are you a Marvel fan?” he asks.

“Not really, but I’ll watch it.”

He twists to face me. “What Marvel movies have you seen?”

“None of them.”

“None of them?” he gasps.

I laugh. “No, Mom and I were CW girls. WewatchedGilmore Girls,Vampire Diaries,The 100… shows like that. We never got into superheroes.”

“But they’re superheroes.”

“I know, but they’re just not my thing.”

His brows rise. “How do you know if you’ve never watched them?”

“I guess I don’t.”

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