I Pucking Hate You (L.A. Hawks Hockey #6)

Prologue

Okay, what do I have to do?”

“What do you mean, what do you have to do?” Irritated, she turned her head, which, in the cramped cubicle, was more challenging than getting into Harvard.

He shrugged. “I’ve never done this before. So, what do I have to do?”

“You’ve never taken pictures in a photo booth? What kind of childhood did you have?”

“A terribly boring and totally abnormal one. I thought we established that by date two, so — what’s the goal here?”

“To have fun?”

“Fine, but what kind of outcome do you want?”

She snorted and rested her forehead on his shoulder for a second. “Gareth! The outcome is that we have fun. I know you’re familiar with the concept of fun. You’re with me, after all!”

He grinned and lightly stroked the back of her neck. “That’s a good point. Okay. I’ll just press start.”

“No, Gare! We still need to discuss our poses and…”

But it was too late. Gareth had pressed the button, and a countdown started on the little square screen, in aggressive red numbers.

“Poses?” he asked, irritated. “Why do we need poses?”

“Well, to make it the funnest!”

He frowned. “I can’t believe you always do better than me on every exam, despite your poor grasp of language. There’s no superlative for fun!”

She had to laugh. “In my world, there is — okay, just make a face.”

“What kind?”

She laughed louder. “I don’t know, any face. Something like this, for example.” She stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth and squinted.

There was a flash.

She glanced over to see what kind of face Gareth had made, but he hadn’t made one.

“Gare!” She slapped him on the shoulder. “You’re still smiling!”

His grin widened. “What’s wrong with that?”

It flashed again.

“You’re not supposed to smile in these photos, you’re supposed to do something funny.”

Another flash.

“God, it photographed us arguing twice. Do something exciting so that…”

He pulled her head toward him and kissed her with one warm hand on the back of her neck, and the other so high on her leg that Disney would have rated the photo at least PG-13.

The camera flashed.

“That wasn’t funny,” she remarked, in a daze, as he pulled away.

“No, that was the funnest,” he whispered against her lips, grinning, and kissed her a second time, hard and brief.

She felt it all the way down to her toes.

“Come on, let’s see what we have.” He grabbed her hand, pulled her out of the booth, and stood there tapping his foot impatiently on the floor.

“Hm.” Hazel tilted her head as she looked at what the machine spat out. “We’re not very photogenic, are we?”

Gareth chuckled softly and held the strip of photos up between them. “They look awful!”

“I still like them. I’ll show them to your dad when he comes to visit this weekend.” She waggled her eyebrows.

Groaning, he shook his head. “Why did you have to remind me that he’s coming? I’m throwing the photos away.”

“No! Are you crazy?” Incredulous, she pulled the pictures from his hands. “They’re…real.”

“And your poor grasp of language strikes again. Real and awful aren’t synonymous, Hazel.”

She pinched his side. “I’ll keep them until I want to forget you.”

Sighing, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulled her against him, and kissed her temple. “Then I hope for your sake that you never throw them away.”

She didn’t intend to.