Page 61 of Puck Happens

“No mercy, am I right?”

“You stay until you get beat. Those are the rules,” he agreed.

“Bet your ass,” I said.

“I’ll beat you.”

My entire body went still at the voice behind me. My heart skipped a beat. My lungs held a breath. And then I felt him.

The kid who’d been sitting beside me vanished, a ten dollar bill in his hand, and Dillon took his place.

“Oh shit,” Nick said, his attention fully on the pro hockey player. “You’re…”

“Not today,” Dillon said. “Today I’m just here to play some games.” He slapped a bill down on the counter. “Twenty bucks should cover me until I beat her.”

“In your dreams,” I muttered.

“Unfortunately, yes,” he shot back.

Not fair. Not fair at all. He didn’t get to ignore me for a week and then sit down and insinuate he’d been dreaming about me. That was garbage.

He was garbage.

I went back to ignoring him.

“Okay everyone, take your spots and wait for the bell,” Nick announced, moving down the line to help the other kids with their water pistols.

“I didn’t come here for you,” I said, filling the awkward silence as the kids laughed and talked smack around us.

“Oh really?” He asked.

“Yes, really. I’m here because I love this charming town and I really love the water balloon clown game.”

“Too bad I’ll be kicking your ass at the water balloon clown game.”

“You can try, Le Coeur.”

He pivoted the squirt gun and sprayed me in the side. Eyes wide, I glared at him.

He flashed his Dimples Grande.

What an asshole.

Nick rang the bell and we were at it. My balloon popped first and I shot him a cheeky smirk.

“Let’s go again,” he muttered.

“You really don’t like losing, do you?”

“My job is not losing.”

The bell rang again. I won again. This time he got a double fist pump right in his face.

“If you start kicking your legs people are going to think you’re having a seizure,” he said, and I laughed.

“Poor baby,” I said, forgetting that I was mad at him.

It took him four tries, before he finally won.

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