Page 15 of Pucking Unhinged
Callum’s big, dopey, punchable face fills the screen. He’s got a caramel apple in his hand, and Lilac pressed in beside him. “You guys okay? Service is shitty. We keep trying to call, but it’s so spotty.”
No fucking shit.
“One of the tents caught on fire, so we got stuck over here by the rides,” Winter says, voice calm even though her hand is still shaking. I know it’s because I almost kissed her and not because there was a stupid small fire in an empty tent. “Everyone’s fine. Looks like they’re letting everyone back in this area. Stay where you guys are and we’ll come and find you.”
Callum chews on the apple, loud on purpose, and I’m going to lodge the whole thing down his throat when I see him. “You look more pissed than usual. Something wrong, buddy?”
I glare into the camera. He smirks like he loves irritating me.
Lilac elbows him, then leans toward the screen and speaks quietly as if that will make it so only Winter can hear her. “Hayden’s losing his shit because he thinks the games are rigged. It’s about to be a whole thing, and Madi had to take his phone because he threw his wallet at the attendant because he laughed at him.”
Callum shrugs like he sees nothing wrong with assaulting someone for laughing at you. There are so many better reasons.
I roll my eyes. “This is why we should have stayed home. And of course they’re fucking rigged, it’s a carnival.”
Lilac purses her lips and looks at me admonishingly before she turns her attention back to Winter. “Reese wants this stuffed octopus, and Justin keeps trying to win it for her, and Ramsey is on his way so can’t wait to see how that plays out.”
“Oh my God, can someone please just kill Justin? I’m so tired of hearing about him,” I snap, sneering into the phone. Winter’s hand pats my chest like she’s trying to soothe me, and Lilac bursts into laughter.
“My money’s on Hayden accidentally killing him while he’s ripping the basketball hoops off the wall,” she says, eyes gleaming. She’s enjoying this, and I can hear Madi in the background coddling Hayden, telling him it’s just a game.
Before anything else can be said, Callum announces, “I’m ready for funnel cake,” and ends the call, no goodbye, no warning. Just gone.
Winter shakes her head, smiling faintly at the empty screen. I don’t smile. My blood’s still running hot, because all I can think about is how close I was to kissing her before that call.
Winter says softly, “Lilac and Callum are good together, don’t you think?”
My hand moves before I can think better of it, sliding down her arm until my fingers circle her wrist. Tight. Claiming. I have to just feel her in my hands right now, and I could not explain fully in words right now just how much. “She should be named a saint or deemed a witch for putting up with him,” I say flatly.
Winter laughs as we walk and I love that sound. It only comes second to the time I recorded her whispering my name in her sleep. It makes me want to cage her against me and never let her out again. She’s looking all around, and I’m watching her, only looking away every few seconds to make sure I’m not going to run over anyone.
When we reach our group, they’re crowded around a game booth. Lilac is holding several half-eaten food items in her small arms, and Callum is chewing what looks like roadkill mixed with funnel cake. But he’s holding a stuffed fawn under what I can only imagine is the sweatiest armpit known to mankind. He must have taken a food tasting break to win his girl a prize.
Reese looks over her shoulder to wave at Winter, but only gives me a look of disapproval. She’s still mad at me for punching Ramsey when he put Winter’s tracker in. It was a reflex. He’s my cousin. And I’m not sorry. She’s going to have to get over it. Her bobblehead boyfriend doesn’t acknowledge us because he’s too busy shooting tiny basketballs at a hoop. He misses every single one.
Madison’s arms are wrapped around a ridiculously large pink bunny when she practically skips over and pulls Winter into a side hug like she hasn’t seen her in a year. I get it, I really do. I feel the same way. Hayden is shadowing Madi, moving when she does, but his neck is cocked, and he’s glaring at the guy running the game. The poor dude looks like he’s been through it, and knowing Hayden, he probably has.
Winter teases, her voice lilting, “So you figured out how it was rigged?”
Hayden scowls. “I did not. I threatened to put his head through the hoop, and miraculously Madi won a prize.”
“After spending two hundred bucks and then having to climb over the counter to get your wallet back,” Callum adds, smirking.
Hayden points at him, but doesn’t say anything because Madi is in front of him, beaming up at him and saying, “I love it. It’s so soft.” She knows exactly how to work him because he’s no longer ready to fight Callum, and is all heart eyes.
I can’t deal with this right now.
“Maybe I’ll try,” I mutter, just to shut them up.
That’s when I see it. Not the flashy stuffed dragons or neon stuffed dogs hanging from hooks, but a small teddy bear shoved off to the side. Worn. Different. Almost forgotten. It almost looks like it wasn’t intended to be a prize here at all. Winter’s eyes linger on it for half a second too long, and that’s all I need.
She doesn’t say she wants it. She doesn’t have to. I know her too well.
I step forward, slap some cash on the counter and take three balls from the attendant. He doesn’t meet my eyes, and steps over to give Justin another round. I line them up and eye the hoop. One after another, they sink clean. No rim, no wobble, just precision.
Winter’s breath catches, a soft sound that hits me in all the right spots. “Oh my gosh. You’re amazing at this.”
That praise, quiet, reverent words she doesn’t offer to anyone else, lights me up from the inside. It makes my cock hard, makes me want to earn it over and over until she’s breathless saying my name.
