by Dawn Doyle
“What?” he asked, placing his hands down on the narrow wooden surface in front of him.
Scenario’s of him laughing and telling me to ‘dream on’ flashed in my mind, and I wanted to turn and leave. I could hear Elise mumbling to herself, and her nasty tone made me root myself to the spot, determined to see through the potential disaster.
“Ten seconds to open the event,” Lara said quickly. “Rules are, no tongue, closed mouth, and no touching. Ready?”
I stepped in front of Eastyn, looking up into his green eyes as he looked down at me with intrigue. I placed the ten dollars through the slot in the clear dish, and pressed my palms on the wood.
His dark brows dipped. “Isn’t this out of your comfort zone?” he asked while Lara addressed the customers with a fifteen second countdown.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Then what the hell are you doing it for?” His eyes dropped to my mouth as his tongue ran over his bottom lip, and my answer disappeared from my mind completely.
“Twelve, eleven, kiss!”
I surged forward, lifting up onto my tiptoes and pressing my lips to Eastyn’s while Lara began our countdown. My heart immediately began to race, the thumps coming fast and hard against my chest, the added rush of blood sending heat coursing through me. His lips were soft, a contradiction to his tough exterior, and so warm I wanted to sink further into him, to get closer and feel him against me.
“Six!”
Eastyn’s lips moved, slightly parting, then kissing me deeper, taking my lower lip between his. Heat swiped across my flesh, his tongue running over the surface of my lip in a simple flick, but it was more than enough for my insides to contract, my muscles bunching deep in my stomach.
“Two!”
He sucked and I gasped, my mouth opening enough for him to close his lips around mine, making my spine arch in ways it shouldn’t in front of a crowd.
“Woo!”
Applause broke out and I pulled back, placing my fingertips over my mouth. Eastyn stared down at me, his eyes hooded and a sheen on his lips from our rule-breaking kiss. It was only ten seconds, but if the swirling in my stomach was anything to go by, the after-effects were going to last considerably longer.
I walked away, standing off to the side out of view of the others. I could see the crowd, and most were watching me with curiosity, puzzled expressions etched in their furrowed brows.
“Thank you, Shay, for opening our booths! Get your five bucks at the ready and your pouts warmed up, cos… We. Are. Open!” Lara yelled, clapping her hands over her head.
“That was amazing, Shay,” she said, coming over to me and placing her hands on my shoulders. “Oh my god, are you okay?”
“I think so,” I managed, my voice quivering as I spoke, but it was a lie. “Why?”
“You look like you’ve taken drugs. Your pupils are huge and your face is flushed…” She slapped her hand over her mouth and giggled behind her palm.
“What? What?” I urged.
“You liked kissing Eastyn, didn’t you? Oh my god, I had no idea you liked him! No wonder you wouldn’t work a booth.”
“No, that’s not the reason, I just—”
“But you didn’t deny it,” she countered. “I get it, he’s gorgeous and he looks after himself. You’d be crazy not to like him.”
“I’m just going to go and hide my embarrassment right now,” I said, thumbing over my shoulder. “Maybe throw myself into a huge tub of popcorn, or maybe consume my bodyweight in cotton candy.”
Lara crossed her arms over her chest, smiling while gnawing on her bottom lip. “Bye, Shay, have fun,” she sing-songed and lifted her hand from her crossed arms to wiggle her fingers.
I groaned. Ten seconds was all it took for Eastyn to shut off my brain. And I wanted to do it again.
Chapter 4
Shay
The popcorn was delicious, even though I could taste a slight hint of hand sanitizer on my fingers, but I’d consumed more than required and I had to come out of my hiding place at some point. Lara would be wanting to know what I’d been working on for the paper, asking what I was thinking of putting in my article. Truth was, I had no idea because I hadn’t seen anything since grabbing a large tub of popcorn after leaving her at the kissing booths.
The kiss still ran through my mind, Eastyn’s lips on mine and tasting my mouth. My stomach flipped again, and I took a steadying breath before I lifted the side of the tarp to the rear of the hook-a-duck game and exited my hiding place, ready to do my part for the fundraiser.
He was just messing with me, trying to make me uncomfortable in front of the others.
That’s what I was telling myself, because the longer I thought about it, the more it made sense. He’d already said it was out of my comfort zone, and he wanted to make me suffer. Target achieved.
I’d made it halfway across the green when I heard my name being called in a high-pitched tone I recognized immediately.
“Aunt Shay!”
“Rebecca!” I squealed as my five-year-old niece barreled toward me, her white and pink floral dress flowing behind her. Her dark curls bobbed with every step. I held my arms out and she jumped at me, wrapping her tiny arms around my neck as I swung her in a circle. “Hey, beautiful girl. Where did you come from?”
“Daddy’s here,” she said, pointing behind me.
I turned to see Mason holding Jasmine in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder. “Hi! What are you doing here?” I asked, leaning over carefully to kiss Jasmine’s shoulder. “I wasn’t expecting to see you for another few months.”
Mason shrugged. “Well, when my panda girl called me and sounded upset, I couldn’t leave her by herself.” He smiled warmly. “Actually, I found out that this event was happening and wanted to surprise you.” He pointed the visitor sticker visible just below Jasmine’s pink dress. “We won’t see you during the break, so we booked a hotel not far from here. That’s where we were when you called.”
They lived four hours away from campus, and driving with two young children must’ve been exhausting. My throat tightened at his gesture, and a sting bit at my nose, threatening to make me cry right there in front of everybody.
I cleared my throat. “Where’s Sabrina?” His wife of seven years was pregnant with their third child and was due in two months. I hadn’t seen her bump in a long time.
“She had to go to the bathroom. Little Becky couldn’t wait to see her favorite person in the whole world.”
“Is that so?” I asked, nuzzling my nose against hers while she giggled.
“Yeah. Mommy had to pee first. She said it was gonna go down her legs if she waited any longer.”
I pulled my lips inside my mouth to stop the laugh escaping. I nodded. “We can’t have that, can we?” I put her down and then took her tiny hand. “Shall we go find something fun to play?”
“Yay!” she cheered, and jumped up and down.
“I think she’d like that,” Mason said.
“Ah, you found her,” Sabrina said as she came up behind Mason. “Good to see you, Shay. You look wonderful.” She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me as close as she could, her warm embrace making me smile.
I pulled away and shook my head. “Wow, you look incredible!” I stared at her long lilac dress, her protruding bump remarkably larger than last time. “I can’t wait to meet the new baby.”
Sabrina smiled, her pink cheeks lifting as she did. She brushed her shoulder-length, light-brown hair back, her highlights more noticeable in the sunlight. “Me neither, and my bladder is about done with being used as a kick-bag. My feet are killing me, though. Is there somewhere I can sit?”
I ushered them to a picnic table with plenty of room. The majority of the students were hovering near the kissing booths, no doubt, so there was plenty of room to move about.
“You rest here, and I’ll take Rebecca to play. Is that okay?”
“Go have fun.”
“We will. Let me know when Jasmine wakes
up.” I looked down at my niece, her toothy grin making me grin too. “Come on, honey. Let’s go get candy,” I whispered. It wasn’t quite lunch time and I didn’t want my brother or sister-in-law to dampen our joy. When it came to my nieces, the rules went out of the window.
“Aunt Shay, can I play hoops?” Rebecca asked, pointing to the basketballs while crunching the brightly colored candy drops. There were a few players there, the three hoops occupied by frustrated customers. Casey was working the stand, probably before he took his turn at the booths. “I want a Pikachu.”
“We’d like to play,” I said to Casey when the others left, grumbling that the game was fixed.
“Cool. Who’s the kid?” he asked, gesturing his chin to Rebecca. “She’s cute.”
“My niece, Rebecca,” I replied, then slipped ten bucks into the slot. I picked her up and stood her on the counter, then Casey handed her a ball.
“Folks here too?”
I shook my head. “My brother and his wife are here with their other daughter.” I paused, then eyed him suspiciously. “Why did you ask me that?”
He held his hands up. “Hey, just making conversation with the customers,” he explained. “I can’t just stand here handing my balls to everyone without a little small talk first.” He smirked, his lips slightly pursing and his brown eyes bursting with humor.
“Children are here, Casey,” I whispered.
“Hey, that was innocent. I have no idea what’s running through your mind, Shay.”
I turned my attention back to Rebecca, who was studying the hoops with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth.
“One, two, three!” She threw the ball, but it dropped two feet in front of her. “Again.” Her lips wobbled when the next ball didn’t go far at all.
“Hey, Bex, it’s okay,” I soothed, cradling her little face in my hands. Tears filled her eyes and my heart broke seeing her so upset. “Hey, Aunt Shay hasn’t had her turn yet. Should I try?” She nodded quickly and I kissed the tip of her nose. She giggled melodically when I pushed up my imaginary sleeves.
Casey handed Rebecca the ball and she handed it to me. She held up her fingers. “One, two, three!”
I launched the ball into the air, hitting the side of the hoop before it bounced off, hitting the side of the tarp. “I have another turn, honey,” I said quickly when her lips turned down. If I didn’t win this damn toy, I was going to bribe Casey to let my buy one for her. I didn’t care how much it cost, I just needed the Pikachu to make her happy.
Another person stood next to me and Casey made his way over. Before he spoke, I knew who it was. There was no disguising the smell that carried on the wind. I swallowed hard, focusing on Rebecca. I could see the two of them out of the corner of my eye and it took all my strength not to turn.
“Hey, East, fancy seeing you here,” Casey said, slapping his hand, then fist bumping him. “I thought you were going back to your dungeon to brood for a while?”
Eastyn laughed, his quiet chuckle audible over the music playing on the sound system. “Nah, that’s later.” He dropped his money into the slot and Casey handed him a basketball.
He licked over his lips, and the feel of them against mine came flooding back. It was then I thought of the other lips that followed mine. Six per minute and he was there for ten. Sixty pairs of lips had been against his, and he had at least another one hundred and twenty to go.
“Aunt Shay, you haven’t thrown it,” Rebecca said, tapping my arm.
“Sorry, honey, I’ll do it now,” I said, snapping my eyes to my own section. “I’ll try my best, okay?”
Rebecca nodded and her hair bounced around making her look even more adorable than she already was, if that were possible. She counted me in and I threw the ball, watching as it spun through the air toward the hoop, hitting the backboard just inside the net, causing it to ricochet off of the wood.
I closed my eyes and squeezed my lids shut. “I’m sorry, Bex, I tried.”
“It’s okay,” she said, her young voice hiccuping as her lower lip protruded.
I lifted her off the counter and set her on the ground, and I heard the sound of a ball being thrown. I looked up just in time to see Eastyn’s shot fall effortlessly through the hoop and out the bottom of the net. It figured, since he was so tall.
“Another score to win a big prize,” Casey said, throwing him another ball.
Eastyn spun the ball between his hands, his eyes fixed on the shot.
I found myself watching more closely, my eyes moving to his tattooed biceps that flexed as he moved his arms. The kiss had affected me more than I liked, and now that I knew exactly how his lips felt against mine, I began to stare at his mouth. I didn’t want to think about the time between our kiss and then; it aggravated me in ways that it had no right to. I paid ten bucks for ten seconds, and he did what was asked of him, nothing more.
“Come on, Bex, let’s play another game, huh?” I asked before Eastyn could notice I was gawking at him. “Would you like some cotton candy before we do?” I asked, taking her hand in mine and walking away from the stall.
“Yes, please.”
Her sullen voice tugged at my chest. I wanted to go back to Casey, but I didn’t want Eastyn to hear me pleading with him to sell me a toy. Rebecca’s mood would be lifted again soon in the form of sugar-filled snacks, and my failure would probably be forgotten by the next day. I hoped.
“Winner!” Casey called out, and I looked over my shoulder to see him tossing a giant Pikachu to Eastyn.
I picked up my pace, getting Rebecca out of there before she saw it.
“Hey,” Eastyn said from behind us, and the hairs on my neck stood on end, sending tingles all the way down my back like tiny ice picks gently pricking at the surface.
I turned around, keeping a firm hold of my niece’s hand. “Yeah?”
“You can have this, I don’t particularly need one of these in my life right now,” he said, holding out the toy that looked to be the same size as Rebecca. It reminded me of my own toy—my panda—sitting in my room. I stared up into his eyes as he continued holding out the toy. My mouth opened, but nothing came out. It was only when I felt a movement at my side did I pick up my hanging jaw.
Rebecca hid behind my legs. “Stranger danger,” she whispered.
“Um, that’s very thoughtful, but no, thank you,” I replied finally. Eastyn’s face hardened, his brows twitching in the middle as though he couldn’t understand my refusal, and god did that dark look make my stomach dance around in musical chaos. I swallowed those thoughts away, then lowered my voice enough so that only he could hear me. “Rebecca’s recently learned about stranger danger in pre-school.” I pointed to the yellow and black stuffed Pokemon. “You having that toy and offering it to her when she doesn’t know you is one of the things they discussed. If you try to hand it over, she’ll scream blue murder.”
It was true. I’d acted like I didn’t know him, and Rebecca would’ve noticed. If he gave me that toy, she would stand there and scream her lungs out until she was red in the face.
Eastyn’s tough expression relaxed enough for me to see a hint of a smile at the corner of his lips, the movement causing his eyes to soften more than before, and my body reacted in the same way. “Sure, I understand.” He nodded, looked over my shoulder, then back to me. “I guess I’ll have something to cuddle tonight after all.”
Warmth rushed up my neck and into my cheeks, the blush most certainly evident because Eastyn’s mouth quirked a little more than it already was. I turned and walked away from him, then looked down at Rebecca. “Let’s go wash our hands and then get some of that pink fluffy stuff, okay?”
“Do they wash their hands, too? They might pick their noses,” Rebecca said, breaking into a skip beside me. “We don’t want to eat their boogers.”
“No, we don’t.” I replied, holding back my laugh. This child was sounding more like me every time I saw her. My bad habits, or good habits as I thought, were rubbing off on her a lot.
“We can only eat our own boogers,” she said, then giggled, sounding more like her father.
“Ew, Bex, we do not eat our boogers!” I said, lifting her up and swinging her around, causing her to squeal in delight.
“Boogers, boogers!” she called out. “Crunchy boogers!”
I retched, making a mental note to speak to Mason about what he was teaching my precious niece.
*****
After wiping the sticky evidence from Rebecca’s face, and then carrying back our haul of winnings, we headed back to where Mason and Sabrina sat. My head was still spinning from the carousel, but Rebecca’s wide grin was worth the dizziness. I smiled when I saw that Jasmine was awake and running around near them, loving how her short hair was beginning to curl just like Rebeccas’s.
“We’re back,” I said, dropping the plethora of stuffed animals on the picnic table.
“These must have cost you a fortune to play for,” Sabrina said, running her hand over them.
“Worth it,” I replied.
“Jasmine, would you like a bunny?” Rebecca asked her sister.
“Bunny!” Jasmine held her tiny hands out and Rebecca gave her a bright-pink rabbit with eyes too big for its face, which she pulled to her chest and embraced like it was already her favorite.
“And look at this.” Mason reached under the table, pulling out a giant Pikachu. “There’s a little lady who wanted one of these. Can you see her anywhere?” He pretended to look around.
“It’s me, Daddy, it’s me!” Rebecca jumped up and down, pointing at herself, her eyes wide and excited. “I want one.”
“There you are,” he said, holding it out for her. He looked up at me and winked. “Aunt Shay made me promise to play until I got one of these for you.”
I narrowed my eyes at Mason, and he looked at me with a strange glint in his, then he mouthed, ‘Go with it.’ “I did. I wanted to make sure you never left without your favorite character,” I said, playing along. It was worth it to see her cute grin.