Page 30 of Hot Shot

“Are you okay?” the woman asks Oliver.

“He’s okay, no broken bones or blood.” I ruffle the kid’s hair and hand him over to his mom.

She nods. “Thank you so much.”

“No worries.”

The mom carries her son away, and our group continues to the dodgeball pit, where we proceed to try to take each other out with the balls. Beck, Cade, and I keep drilling it at each other, managing to avoid each other’s shots until finally I nail Cade hard.

“Aaaargh!” Cade yells.

“In it to win it, bro,” I shout, and throw the ball at Carrie. Not hard.

She laughingly dodges it, but throws her ball at me hard, and son of a bitch, I’m so distracted watching her gorgeous smile and her tits bounce that she nails me on the side of the head. “Shit!”

“In it to win it!” She pumps her hands in the air.

I have to laugh.

“Where’s Cade?” I look around for my friend, who’s disappeared, and spot him out on the walkway in an intense conversation with a cute little redhead. “Shut the fuck up. He never stops.”

“Stops what?” Carrie asks.

I didn’t realize she’s right beside me. “Picking up women.”

“Ah. Is there something wrong with that?”

“Nope. Not if you’re trying for the Man Whore of the Year award.”

“I never knew there was such an award.”

I catch the faint lift of the corners of her lips. “Really? Can’t believe you haven’t heard of it.”

“I know a few guys who could probably give Cade a run for his money.” She wrinkles her nose.

I frown.

I look over at Beck and Hayden, who are holding hands and bouncing lightly, gazing into each other’s eyes. Ugh.

“Hey, I’m starving,” he calls to them. “We done here?”

“I guess,” Beck says. “Where should we go to eat?”

We throw out various ideas as we leave the trampoline area and put our shoes back on, until finally Carrie’s suggestion of Cowboy Kitchen gains unanimous approval.

“Is Cade still trying to pick up that chick?” Beck asks.

I sigh. “Apparently. I’ll go find him.”

I locate him now on the trampoline with the girl, both of them laughing at something.

“Hey, we’re leaving,” I call to Cade. “You coming?”

Cade spares me a glance. “Nah. Go on without me. See you tomorrow.”

“Uh-huh. Fine,” I mutter, and rejoin the others. “Okay, guess I need a ride with you all. I’ve been ditched.”

Beck slings his arm around my neck. “Poor you. Don’t worry, we got your back. No man left behind.”

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