Page 82 of Cheap Shot

“What kind of flowers?” Evie asked. He answered and the O’Shea girls asked him a couple of questions about flowersbefore Evie changed the subject to her favorite topic. “Do you like horses?”

When the girls were talking about ponies and riding, Luke kinda tuned it out and looked over at Sebastian.

“Harper, she really thinks I’m some kinda hero, huh?” Luke asked gruffly.

Sebastian nodded. “She really does.”

“Shit”—he glanced over at the girls who thankfully weren’t really paying him any attention—“uh, shoot. I don’t feel like I’m a great role model or anything …”

“She’s been through a lot. She really needed a protector at that time. I guess I wasn’t tough enough to qualify.”

Luke huffed out a laugh. “Did youeverfight?”

“Me? No. I was the setup guy. Good for getting the puck and setting up our goal scorers. That was about it.”

Luke nodded. He could see that.

The organizer raised her voice and gave them their next set of instructions. Luke helped the O’Shea girls trace their hands on red felt, then carefully cut out the shape.

“You’re doing itwrong, Maura,” Evie said, frowning at her sister as she carefully placed the red “bird” shape onto the paper with glue. “It’s upside down.”

“Nuh-uh,” Maura said. “Yoursis wrong.”

Catherine came over to referee and get the girls back on track. Luke tried not to laugh when Sebastian had to help Harper pickred feathers out of her hair when she accidentally glued them to herself instead of the paper.

After that, they all glued on black and orange felt triangles to make a face and beak and added googly eyes. Luke’s was kinda lopsided and it looked like the bird might have a conkie or something.

Could birds get concussions?

There were white pom-poms and silver snowflakes to add on top of the trees too and by the time Luke was done, his leg fucking ached and he had glue and little bits of feathers stuck to the tips of his fingers.

“Ugh,” he said with a groan, rising to his feet.

He stretched carefully, his shirt riding up, and he caught a little sideways glance and lick of his lips from Sebastian like he was enjoying the view.

“Here,” Catherine said with a smile, holding out a package of wet wipes. “These should get your hands clean.”

“Thanks.” Luke scrubbed at his fingers, wondering where the fuck the glitter had come from and why it didn’t seem to be coming off. He asked Catherine, who shrugged.

“It’s one of life’s mysteries.” She leaned in and spoke in a low voice. “There’s a reason it’s called the herpes of the craft world.”

Luke choked on air. “Mrs. O!”

She gave him a little wink. “Just repeating what I’ve heard.”

Luke shook his head and made a few laps of the room, trying to loosen up his leg.

After the crafts were done, when the merch had been handed out and everyone was just standing around talking in little groups, Sebastian leaned in and squinted at him, reaching for his face.

Luke ducked away.

“Dude. You’ve got a little bit of feathers in your beard,” Sebastian said, sounding annoyed. “I was just trying to help.”

“Oh.” Luke brushed at it. “Did I get it?”

It took a few more tries but when it was all gone, he gruffly said, “Thanks.”

“Sure. I was tempted to just let you walk around like that all day but I thought for Harper’s sake I’d be nice.”