Page 100 of The Mistletoe Mix-up

“Is there a reason why I should throw one at you?” she asked, rubbing her hand against his chest.

“You should never throw anything at me. I’m your boyfriend.”

Wren cocked her head to the side, teasing, “I thought I read somewhere that throwing things at your boyfriend is a rite of passage?”

“You should be kind to me,” Sam pouted. “I think I’m going to really get it today.”

“We’ll see,” Wren said, giving him a kiss. “I’ll come by in a bit.”

“Alright, I love you,” Sam said, jogging backward away from her. Wren thought that she would never get tired of hearing him say that.

“I love you, too,” she said.

Sam sat in the chair in the pie-throwing area for what felt like hours. He was covered with everything from pumpkin to chocolate, and his hair was a mess of different textures. Thankfully, a sweet young woman with a wet towel came to him in between pies and wiped his face. His neck felt a bit crusty, though, and he couldn’t wait to get out of there and take a shower. He’d had a coughing fit earlier when someone chucked a pie at him and he’d gotten globs of filling up his nose.

Although most of the women had left smiling after chucking a pie at him, there were a few who hadn’t seemed at all appeased. Finally, there had been a lull in people looking to hit him with pies, and thankfully, he only had about fifteen minutes left in his shift.

The Winters clan stopped at the gate of the pie-throwing booth, various stages of amusement etched into their friendly faces.

“Man, you really got hammered!” Chris called out to him.

“It’s okay, I mostly deserved it,” Sam said, wiping a hand over his saturated hair. “You aren’t thinking about getting me, right?”

The majority of them shook their heads, but then Sam caught sight of the devilish gleam in Declan’s eyes. The big man reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, removing a five-dollar bill from the black leather.

“Oh, come on,” Sam groaned.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. I’m not passing up the opportunity,” Declan said, studying the available pies.

“Is this seriously because I flirted with your girlfriend when you were first dating?”

“Yeah, a little bit.” Declan selected a white mousse pie, holding it balanced on the palm of his hand. “Also, you are too handsome, and I think you need a little smear on your face.”

Declan threw the pie, catching him on the chin.

“Weak aim, Gallagher,” Sam said.

“We need to get in on this action,” Merry said, grabbing a pie off the table and handing over her five-dollar bill to the attendant.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Sam said, holding up a time-out sign. “You are my sister-in-law. What are you doing?”

“This is for all the times I told you to stop flirting with my sister and you just kept going, mocking me.”

“Man, Holly,” Sam said, scowling at his friend. “You’re getting me into all kinds of trouble!”

“Sorry,” she said, laughing.

“Fine, whatever, but for the record, she flirted back!”

Merry let the pie fly, but it only caught his shoulder.

“Ha ha,” said Nick as he handed over a five and picked up a pie.

“Wait wait wait! What did I do to you, Nick?”

“Nothing,” Nick said, smirking. “It just looks like fun.”

Nick’s lemon cream pie hit Sam square in the face, the pan dropping to the ground and leaving behind yellow and white goop. The Winters family cheered while one of the attendants ran over with a wet towel, wiping away the goop from Sam’s eyes, nostrils, and mouth.