The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,225

groaned and snatched the plastic cup from Blair. He dug out five tokens and handed them to the girl. “Let’s just save us both some time.”

“That old guy just gave me some tokens!” she shouted as she ran away. A low rumble instantly spread through the crowd.

“Look what you started,” Garrett said.

The small hint of fear in his voice was enough to send Blair into a fit of hysterics. “I never told you to just hand them out.”

A group of kids had already surrounded him and pushed Blair to the side in their quest for free tokens.

“Hey, are you like Santa Claus?” a kid shouted.

“Naw, his belly’s big, but not big enough,” a boy told him.

“Hey!” Garrett protested, good-naturedly. “No tokens for you.”

Blair watched him handle the kids, passing out the coins as he took their teasing and dished it back in return. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun. And then she remembered. It had been with him.

Nostalgia swept through her, hot and sweet, reminding her that chemistry wasn’t the only thing she missed about their relationship. It was his good nature, his healthy competitive streak, his kindness and compassion, and his intelligence. And most of all, it was his ability to ground her. He had always been the one person who could help her calm down after a less-than-perfect test score or some tiff with her friends.

She missed him.

He grinned at her above the heads of the kids, and she realized Garrett Lowry was the whole package. Looks, brains, and personality. Besides, she would wager the kid who’d made the belly comment a whole cup of tokens that he was wrong. She’d felt his torso under her fingers the other night, and it was all muscle.

Garrett dumped the cup upside down and shook it. “I’m tapped out, guys. Go thug roll some other old dude.”

Blair laughed as he approached her.

“You were loving every minute of that, weren’t you?”

“Thug roll?” she teased. “Is that even a thing?”

He gave her a goofy grin. “Not everyone can be hip to the lingo. Don’t be a hater, Blair.”

They had almost reached their table when Blair saw the whack-a-mole game. “Oh, I’m not passing this one up.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt.

“I’m fresh out of coins.”

She pulled one out of her pocket. “Good thing I saved a couple.”

“You’ve been holding out on me.”

“Hey, can you blame me? You keep giving them all away.”

His smile faltered. “I should have saved some for you. I can get more.”

She shook her head and picked up the mallet, getting a good grip on it. “I had more fun watching you with the kids.”

“Whose head are you planning to whack?”

She drained the last of her beer and handed him the empty cup before placing her token in the machine and picking up the club. A mole popped up, and she smashed its head. “That’s Neil.” Another mole’s head rose, and she hit that one too. “Robert Sisco Sr.” And another. “Rob Sisco Jr.” She hit the empty hole even harder. “Jack-wipe.”

She continued to beat the moles, naming them all before she slew them. She named the last one Garrett.

“I guess I deserve that,” he murmured.

She put another coin in the machine and played another round, drawing a crowd of kids as she smashed the heads with more enthusiasm than in the first round. She clipped one on the side, and the mole’s head dented on the lip of the hole.

“Oops.”

Two of the other heads stopped popping up, presumably broken, and the game finally ended when the mallet shattered into three pieces. When she looked up, panting, he was staring at her, and it was enough to make her lose her breath all over again. He leaned against the machine, his beer in his hand and his eyes on her. A wave of heat washed through her, and she knew she wanted him. God help her if he tossed her away again, but she wanted him for as long as she could have him.

He grinned and stalked toward her, pushing through her fan club of admiring eight-year-old boys and lifted her hand into the air. “And there you have it, kids. The mole champion!”

The kids cheered as he led her to the table, hand in hand. Tingles raced along her skin where it was joined with his.

“I think I probably owe Chuck E. Cheese about two grand, but I guess you’ll have to cover that too. I’m probably the most