Hook Shot(18)

“So,” she continues, slowing her words, like that might help me, “you pull your icon.”

“Icon?”

Now I feel stupid. Every answer she gives me spawns another question.

“Pull,” she repeats, and at least she’s laughing. “And I’ll show you.”

I reach into the leather bag and feel several smaller silky bags. I grab one and look at her for what’s next.

“Open, but don’t show.” She offers the bag to Amanda, who does the same.

There’s a small boot in my bag.

“It’s a boot,” I say.

“Shhhh!” Vale hisses and laughs even more. “It’s a secret.”

Several people didn’t get the memo because when I glance over to Lotus’s crew, she’s comparing hers with Billie’s and Yari’s. Hers is a button she shoves quickly back into the bag.

“Someone else has the same icon as yours,” Vale explains. “You will both take a shot of tequila. That’s the ‘shot.’ And you kiss the person who has the same item you pulled. Like a hook-up. Hook Shot, but you don’t actually hook-up. It can be a quick kiss.”

She laughs, waggling her brows suggestively. “But it’s more fun when it’s not.”

“Kiss?” I huff a fuck that laugh.

“It’s like Spin the Bottle,” Amanda adds with a shrug. “Like you played in high school, but . . . older and with better kissing.”

Dammit, Banner, you owe me big time.

“Nah.” I shake my head. “I don’t think so.”

“But it’s zee game,” Vale says, dismayed. “In your honor. Hook Shot is a real game. We did not make it up. Just added fashion.”

“It can be zee game all it wants,” I tell her, grinning to soften the absolute truth that I’m not interested. “I’m not playing.”

Games always have me doing stupid shit, and then when I resist doing stupid shit, I look difficult.