Page 34 of Bad Boy Crush
At a booth offering frozen lemonade, he placed his order. When he reached for his wallet, wrapped in a plastic bag to keep from becoming waterlogged during the last event, she took her arm back.
He sucked down a big drink of his lemonade as he handed over hers. She would have preferred pink over the original, but he hadn’t asked.
“I feel for Renaldo,” he said. “I am a state champion. That’s a lot of pressure on him.”
She hummed noncommittally.
“I’m a lot to go up against,” he continued bragging.
“He’s held his own so far.” And with a week’s notice and hardly any practice. “He bested you at the tree toss. And he smoked everyone, including you, in the log-splitting competition. Such a basic skill, really.”
Hunter’s cheeks reddened. “The carving is worth the most points. No one cares about log splitting. Even if you’re behind, you can take the championship. It’s how I won last year.” He tapped the medal around his neck, which she felt like strangling him with right about now.
There really wasn’t any reason to argue with him. He wouldn’t be assuring himself repeatedly if he was as confident about a win as he purported.
“Ant’s amazing with a chain saw.” She couldn’t help rubbing it in. Most competitions were mental. She didn’t mind laying a foundation of doubt. “You’ll have to earn your win.”
“I always earn my wins,” Hunter snapped.
She relaxed into the conversation, happy to let him wage an internal battle about who was the best. “Did you know Ant made my wedding arch?”
“You…you were married?” He’d made a lot of assumptions, not that he’d bothered asking her about herself in the time he’d tried flirting with her. If he was a dating option—and he wasn’t—that would have been a tick in his con column.
“Mm-hmm.” She played with the straw in her cup. “It was intricate and detailed. Such an impressive example of what he’s capable of.” She’d wanted to keep it, but she also hadn’t. She’d been so angry with Liam that it’d crossed her mind to take an axe to it and chop it into firewood. But it’d taken Ant hours and hours of hard work. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to destroy it. She’d told Liam to offer it back to Ant. Liam had told her Ant had refused, so Liam had sold it. At the time, the arch, like Ant, had been collateral damage.
“Don’t count me out. You haven’t seen me carve yet, sweetheart.” Hunter kissed her so suddenly, her breath was trapped in her throat. What the hell? She put her hand on his chest to shove him away, but he clasped her fingers with one hand and wrapped his other arm around her waist. When he slanted his head and stuck his tongue into her mouth, she turned her face to cut off the kiss.
“What the hell was that?” She put a few feet between them and swiped her lips.
“A surprise kiss you won’t forget. I’ll give you a moment to collect yourself.”
“Are you fucking kid—“
“Hey, guys.” May’s words were measured as she and Elliott approached, each holding a giant pretzel wrapped in wax paper. Elli assessed the situation, her brown eyes snapping between Lou and Hunter. Lou tabled reprimanding him, choosing to stand with her friends instead.
“Hey, ladies,” he said. “I have a carving contest to win, so I’m going to ready my tools.”
You are a tool.
Once he’d plodded through the crowd and was out of sight, Lou took one last sip of her frozen lemonade to cleanse her palate and then tossed the cup into the trashcan.
“You kissed him.” Elli kept her tone neutral.
“He kissed me. I should have slapped him.”
She thought back to both times Ant had touched his lips to hers. Nothing about those kisses made her want to slap him in the face or gargle with frozen lemonade afterward.
“You are not a violent person,” May stated. “Plus, you needed that kiss.”
“What?” Lou sent her friend a beseeching look.
“To prove how much more you want to kiss Ant. Admit it. I’m right.”
“Well, Ant’s a better kisser,” Lou mumbled.
“Come on. I’ll buy you a real drink.” May looped her arm around one of Lou’s, and Elliott mimicked the motion with Lou’s other arm. “I won’t make you kiss me after I buy you one.”
“You’re probably a better kisser than Hunter too.”