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I HAD GOTTEN LOST IN myself for a minute there, but I’d pushed my way past it. Charlyse was my guest, and the last thing I wanted to do was make her uncomfortable. Death wasn’t an easy subject, and my father’s passing was still a little too fresh for me. Sometimes, I could talk about my father like I’d finally gotten past the worst of it, but then the wrong memory or turn of phrase would confirm how very wrong I was about that, and I’d retreat into myself.
I could tell myself I’d let my father go, but the truth was, I probably never would. My dad had probably been the only person who’d really ever understood me. I’d never been so easy to get close to. Even my mother had walked on eggshells around me my entire life. My obstinate nature had given her pause early on, and she’d resorted to handling me with kid gloves, keeping a healthy distance from me. She just went through the parental motions, mainly for the benefit of her friends and the public in general. The perfect, doting mom.
As a result, I hadn’t had the easiest time connecting with people. When your mother mistook a spirited nature for a psychological condition and ran you around to psychiatrists every chance she got, your social issues only tended to get worse. It was my father who’d reached me in the end, and had clung to me and everything I stood for with a sense of allegiance nobody had ever been able to match.
My father had given me purpose, focus, and a path. The old man was as closely tied to my identity as anyone. Nobody could let go of connections with that level of depth. My father hadn’t been just a parent; he was a mentor, a hero, and a guiding force who made me feel like I was worth something. Like I was different only because I was special. And it was that very realization that gave me a sense of destiny.
I looked over to see Charlyse’s eyes closed. Her body was balled up with her legs curled up on the seat, and she seemed to be peacefully sleeping. I smiled at how cute she was.
A few more hours passed, and because of the energy drinks and some good talk radio discussion, I somehow managed to stay awake. When the sun began to brighten the horizon, I yawned and stretched, glancing over at her as she did the same.
“Good morning,” I said, smiling.
I saw her glance at the car’s clock, then back to me. “Good morning. Damn, I fell asleep. I’m so sorry.”
I watched the road and but still grinned. “What are you sorry for?”
“I should have been keeping you company.”
Waving a dismissive hand, I said, “Nah, you’re good. You were tired.”
“I need coffee.”
Chuckling, I said, “You got it.”
After a half hour or so, I spotted an exit that had a Starbucks, and I used the drive-thru to get us both some caffeine-infused nectar to get us through the next couple hours.
SMALL TALK WAS MADE for the next couple hours. I was tired, but the coffee was keeping me conscious. Charlyse’s conversation and beautiful laugh helped, too. I put my eyes on the road and brightened when I caught sight of a colorfully painted Highland Fair sign. I stole a glance at the beauty sitting to my right. What better way to bring the mood back than a county fair? Shit, I hadn’t been to one in a long time. The timing couldn’t possibly be more perfect. I pointed to the sign and smiled.
“Oh, Highlands Fair. I love county fairs,” she replied wistfully.
“Want to make a pit-stop?” I asked with a devilish grin.
Glancing down at her dress, Charlyse’s fiery brows rose. “I’m, ah, not exactly dressed for the occasion.”
“I’ve got a shirt you can wear in the trunk.”
She’d look sexy as hell in a T-shirt and high heels. With a body like that, Charlyse could fill anything out. Weighing the suggestion for a lingering moment, her beautiful face broke out into a brilliant smile.
“Ah, what the hell. Why not?”
A brighter smile stretched across my face. I liked this girl. Really liked her. She was beautiful, a friggin’ mechanic, and spontaneous. And, as I’d find out twenty minutes into our stop at the fair, she was talented, too. Seemed Charlyse was full of surprises.
After parking in the dirt lot, I grabbed her hand and led her to the back of the car. Pulling out a Dalton Racing tee, I stretched the hole and put it over her head. It was huge on her and covered the bottom of her fitted, green dress. I then reached up and tied the shirt into a knot at her left side, right at the curve in her waist.
“Classy,” she said, laughing.
“Hot,” I whispered into her mouth as I kissed her quickly, and then slammed the trunk to the car closed. Hand-in-hand, we walked to the ticket booth, where I bought us admission tickets.
We presented the tickets and went through the fair’s turnstile. It was hot, but bearable, and already very busy. It smelled of popcorn, cotton candy, and cows, and made nostalgia from my childhood blanket my memory.
“Ooh, cups!” Charlyse said, pointing to a booth not far inside. I laughed and followed her in. Admittedly, we stood out like a couple of sore thumbs in the middle of this small town’s fair, dressed in a tie-less tuxedo, and her in a cocktail dress, T-shirt covering it, and her heels. I wondered how she walked around on the uneven dirt and pavement in those things.
She smiled at the kid behind the booth, and I gazed in awe as Charlyse won game and after game of cups.
Smart and cute, I thought with a smile, watching her charm the young man into letting her play “just one more round.”
When she was done, she giggled as she counted a stack of wrinkled tens, tucking them into my pants pocket for safekeeping. When we left the booth sixty dollars richer, she confided in me her knack for counting cups.
I grinned. “You could take your little gig to the casino.”
“And spend the rest of my days behind bars? I watch movies. I know it’s illegal,” she replied, softly punching me in the arm.
“You’d make stripes look good,” I said, looking her up and down.
She shook her head. “No stripes. Orange is the new black, remember?” she quipped.
“You’d make that look good, too.”
“Nah, not with this hair color. It would clash for sure.” She pointed to her head.
Unable to resist her cuteness any longer, I leaned down and kissed her, and then pulled back at the sound of giggling children. Charlyse flushed as my fingers slipped through hers, and I pulled her along the dirt road past the pie tables. I had fond memories of the fairs I’d been taken to as a kid. My father had a thing for them himself, and always found the time to bring me along to ride the giant old Ferris wheel at Austin’s yearly fair. We’d consume heaping bags of cotton candy, and I’d bet my allowance on the pie-eating contests.
Somehow, it just seemed right having Charlyse by my side at a fair. I hadn’t dared step onto the Austin fairgrounds since my father had passed on, but with her good company, the only memories flooding back to me now were happy ones. I barely knew her, but I was comfortable with her in a way I rarely was with anyone. Stranger or not, I was glad she was here.
“Oh, my God! My game!” she said, breaking me out of my happy memories.
I followed her gaze to the booth in front of us, and my brow furrowed, curious. “Sling Shooter?”
“Yep,” she replied proudly, squeezing my hand.
“You say that like you’re some kind of champion.” I chuckled.
She grinned, a playful challenge in her eyes. “I am.”
I lifted a single brow in challenge. Eyeing the rows of stuffed animals, I asked, “Okay, which one do you want?”
She let go of my hand and put hers on her hips. “You’re gonna win it for me? I’m pretty good at this, you know.”
“Choose, honey, or I’m gonna choose for you.”
She glanced at me with surprise for a minute, and then recovered. Charlyse made a dramatic gesture of selecting the exact gargantuan plushy she fancied, a glint of mischief in her eyes all the while.
“I want the Pegasus.” She looked at me and smirked. “If you can handle that, Mr. Dalton.”
My grin stretched into a bright smile. Apparently, she didn’t know who she was talking to. I could win her that Pegasus with one hand tied behind my back, blindfolded.
“Oh, I can handle it, all right.”
Tilting her head, her eyes narrowed shrewdly, sizing me up. “Prove it, loverboy.”
Grinning at the nickname, I focused my sights on the ticking monster, slow moving at first around the forest tree figurines, and then so fast, it was erratic. I pulled the slingshot taut and launched its pellet at the bullseye circling the beast’s center, nailing it on the first shot. A flare of satisfaction warmed my gut to see the hairy mammoth flip over, sending the victory alarm sounding loud enough for half of the fairgoers to hear.
Heat crept over my limbs as I felt Charlyse approach me at that moment, and I turned to see her hand lifted over her eyes to fend off the sun’s glare.
She bit back a smile. “Impressive. What else can you do?”
Stealing a glance around me, I weighed my words before returning my gaze to hers again. Instead of the perverse response that was on the tip of my tongue, instead, I replied, “If you’ve got an appetite, I’ve got room for some pie.”
Her eyes sparked, catching the challenge at the suggestion of a team sport.
After collecting her giant Pegasus, I took her free hand and practically dragged her to the pie-eating contest. Signups were almost full, but we’d secured the last two spots as intermediates. Excitement stirred in me. This would be fun as hell, and that was what this trip was about. I wasn’t the sort of guy to bring just any woman along with me to a big, career-changing race like this, and I most certainly wouldn’t come to the fairgrounds with a woman I wasn’t seriously considering dealing with for a while. If she could hang with me for a pie-eating contest after only knowing me for a night, she could hang with me through anything.