Page 73 of Mayhem
“It was good; we had fun.”
“What’d you do?”
Erin scrunched her nose. “I spent the day giving him my undivided attention like I’m attempting to do with you.”
Cruz chuckled. “I get it.”
It wasn’t that she minded talking about her date with Paetyn. She didn’t want to do it while she was on one with him. For the most part, she and Paetyn hadn’t brought him up when they’d spent time together, and she wanted to do the same while she was with him. Erin had no problem telling him about it tomorrow if he still wanted to know, but today, she was with him, and that was where her focus was.
They did more laps around the pond, staying on the water for over an hour before peddling the boat back to where it was tethered. After turning the key in to the attendant, they returned to the parking area and got into his car, Erin giving him their next destination.
Cruz pulled into the parking lot of Axe Whooping and turned to Erin to find her smirking at him. He shook his head because he knew this was about to turn competitive, just like when they’d gone to the shooting range, but he was all for it. There was nothing wrong with a little friendly competition.
They exited the car, and he took her hand, leading them inside. A smiling face greeted them, asking what they were interested in doing while there.
“Hi,” Erin greeted. “I reserved the course for four-thirty. Erin Daniels.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ve got you. If you give me just a few minutes, I’ll get one of the guys to take you back. The tutorial takes about fifteen minutes at the teaching target, and then the course will take about an hour to an hour and a half to complete.”
“Thank you,” Erin responded, and Cruz pulled her to the side as a group walked in.
“You know I’m not going to go easy on you, right?” he asked, placing his hands on her waist.
“I hope not because it’d be less fun when I beat you.”
Cruz snorted, shaking his head as she smiled at him. That smile always did things to him; even when she wasn’t actively trying to, she had a way of stirring things inside him. He couldn’t stop himself from leaning down and kissing her.
A few minutes later, a young man introduced himself before leading them to the back. He went over some basic safety rules and demonstrated the best way to throw the axe before allowing them a few practice throws, then led them to the beginning of the course and informed them each target was stocked with six axes, three for each of them, and the first one housed their scorecards to take along with them. There were ten targets, each of which would take six to ten minutes to complete.
“Are you sure you want to do all ten of these, Maly?” Cruz asked when they were alone.
“Why? Are you getting cold feet because my practice throws were better than yours?”
“You wish. I don’t want your arm to be sore by the time we finish.”
“I think I’ll be okay, but let’s make this interesting.”
“How so?” he inquired.
“If I win, I get anything I want,” Erin informed him.
“I already give you that. How would this be different?”
She glared at him playfully, but Cruz knew she couldn’t deny it. Though she didn’t typically ask them for much and complained when they did things for her that she thought were over the top or cost too much, they gave her anything she wanted and things she didn’t know she wanted. Paetyn had told her it didn’t matter what it was; she could have it, and he hadn’t been lying. If it was within their power to give it to her, it was easily hers.
“I get to cash it whenever I want. It doesn’t have to be now.”
“Okay, andwhenI win, you have to accept that doing things for you, buying you things, comes second nature to us. We do it because we want to, and stop fighting us on it constantly.”
Erin pouted at him, shaking her head. Cruz was sure he’d never seen anything so adorable before in his life. “No, that’s not fair. Choose something else.”
“I won’t. That’s what I’m choosing. If you don’t want it to happen, all you have to do is win, baby. Which you were so confident about a moment ago,” he reminded.
“Fine, but when I win, I don’t want to hear it was because you let me.”
“Deal.”
Cruz gestured for her to go first, and as much as he knew she wanted to win, he couldn’t allow that to happen, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t take it a bit easy on her as long as she didn’t notice.
