Page 12 of Puck Shots (Love The Game #6)

“Okay, not everyone is in this pic, but we’ll start here and then move on to the rest.”

I take the photo and smile at the sight. It’s got about fifteen of the guys standing with their arms around each other’s shoulders, bunched together in a group in front of a giant inflatable bounce house. They’re covered in something shiny, and bubbles cling to them in places.

“That was last year’s summer fundraiser. Each house had a different challenge, and we spent the day moving between them trying to win ribbons like those,” he says, pointing to the red, blue, and green ones around his neck in the photo.

“Looks like you had fun.”

“It was amazing. Once you’re one of the brothers, they stop bossing you around, and you get to join the fun.”

“So I won’t be making your bed all year then?”

“I mean, you can, if you want to,” he replies, sitting on the edge of his still perfectly made bed. I did it early this morning after he left for training. It’s way more fun when he helps, though.

“Okay, let’s go through what you know already,” he says, patting the bed cover beside him, encouraging me to sit.

“I know Sam,” I say, sitting and pointing to where he stands in the photo.

“And Kirt and Logan are on either side of him, brothers in the house and in real life. Logan is two years older, and during Kirt’s rush, Logan nearly got expelled because he tied Kirt to a lamppost in only his boxers and wrote Free Kissing Booth on his chest in red lipstick.

He’d been kissed by about forty people, guys, and girls, when the Dean walked by and freed him. ”

“Oh my god, I nearly forgot about that. It was forty-two people exactly. Kirt still brings that up whenever they have an argument. It’s his forever win card, I think, like a get out of jail free card. Whenever he just says “forty-two” Logan backs down and gives in to whatever he wants.”

“Forty-two, got it. Umm, Logan is another lacrosse player, and there are twelve lacrosse players in the house total this year, more than last year, but they graduated. And Boston won the lacrosse finals last year, right?”

“Yep, but that’s not important. How many ice hockey players?”

“Umm,” I murmur as I try to count them in my head. “Seven?”

“Yep, and who is the fastest player in the team?” he asks, his smile growing wider.

“You,” I say, nudging his side.

“You bet your ass. Okay, now we’ve settled that, let’s go over the others.”

***

I finish third, purposely getting a couple of questions wrong to help with my standing with the other pledges. Another one of Cosmo’s ideas.

“You want them to see how amazing you are, but you want a couple of them to feel like they’re better than you.

But we’ll know you could have smashed them all,” he’d said, and as Sam lifts the lacrosse stick to give his speech and the small butterflies fall out, along with one extra, made out of a folded water bottle label.

Cosmo locks his gaze on that one, and then he glances my way, brilliant blue-gray eyes locking with mine for just a moment before he turns away, shaking his head with a chuckle.

I couldn’t help but add it to the bunch when I saw what he’d planned.

Everyone laughs. Except Sam, who looks right at Cosmo.

“Wasn’t me. I was on beer duty,” Cosmo says with a cheeky grin.

He looks guilty as sin, or maybe that’s just how he looks to me.

Like some forbidden desire I want but can’t have.

And fuck, I want it bad. The more time we spend together, the more I feel like he might want it, too, like the way his eyes will linger on my mouth just a little longer than is just a casual glance. It’s probably all in my head, though.

“Who was it?” Sam asks, and the chuckles die down.

“Pledge Elli was on set up,” Gareth says, folding his arms over his chest, and my cheeks burn.

“Pledge Eli, you got anything to say about this?” Sam asks, plucking the last of the fake butterflies from his net and tossing it to the ground. Shit, what do I do here?

“Umm, it was…” I won’t say it was Cosmo. Fuck, what do I do here? “It was too hard to find real ones, so I had to manage with fakes. They’re pretty, don’t you think?”

The room goes dead silent. Fuck, maybe owning it was a bad idea. Is this the end? Do they kick me out now, or wait until pledge-a-palooza is over and then kick me out? Could I even get a dorm room this far into the semester?

Sam reaches down and picks up one of the butterflies, inspecting it closely.

“Real would have been better, imagine if they all just started flying around the house when I grabbed it,” he says, and then he does something I never would have guessed.

He laughs. Scooping up a handful of them from the floor and tossing them over the pledges in the front row, the rest of the guys start laughing, too, and it’s almost loud enough to drown out my thumbing pulse in my ears.

I look over at Cosmo, and he winks my way. Was this part of some grand plan of his, too. Did he know I wouldn’t rat him out? Did he know Sam would be cool with the joke and not banish me from the house?

Two of the pledges, Dos and Finn I’ve had zero conversations with, come up and shake my hand.

“Never knew you were a prankster, Eli,” Dos says.

“Yeah, Eli, you killed that quiz, too. Tell us when you’re planning something else, we’d be up for it,” Finn adds.

“Sure. Umm, thanks, I will.”

***

I lie in bed listening to the breathing and snoring of the other pledges that night, almost too wired to sleep, so I grab my phone and message my brother, John.

ME:

You up?

A few seconds later, my phone vibrates, and his message comes through.

JOHN:

Yep, what’s up. Everything going okay at the house?

ME:

Yeah, your friend’s brother is looking out for me. He’s cool. Loud, but cool.

JOHN:

That’s good. See, I told you that you’d fit in there.

ME:

I don’t know that I would say I fit in just yet.

JOHN:

You killed the quiz, right?

ME:

Third.

JOHN:

Seriously?

ME:

I may have thrown a few questions. You know, to win over some of the pledges.

JOHN:

Did it work?

ME:

I think so, the prank on the Pres did more, though.

JOHN:

You pranked the Pres? Who are you, and what have you done with my brother? I don’t have much money, but I could pay you at least a twenty for his safe return.

Fucking smart ass.

ME:

Is that all I am worth to you?

JOHN:

I’d sell my soul for you, brother. But seriously, you pranked the KOK president?

ME:

I participated in it, but took the blame for the whole thing, so might as well have been all me.

JOHN:

That sounds more like it. So what punishment did you get?

ME:

No punishment. They actually thought it was pretty funny. When they knew it wasn’t Cosmo, anyway.

JOHN:

Glad to hear it’s going well. I made lifelong friends in that house and had the most fun in my life. Well, until I started playing B-Ball. Be sure to have some fun, too, okay?

ME:

I will.

I pop my phone on the book stack bedside. This last week has actually been lots of fun, for the most part, and when I think of all the things that made it that way, Cosmo is right there, in every memory, smiling at me with those bright eyes and smelling of iced coffee, vanilla, and peppermint.