Carnival Ride: A Sweet Romance (Red Canyon Series Book 2)

by Laura Westbrook

  “True. So how many balls do you want this time?”

  “Let’s do seven,” she said as she pulled out her tickets. She’d made sure to stock up on extra as she walked in. She probably could’ve gotten more at the convenience store place, too.

  “Coming right up.” He doled out seven balls, handing three to her and resting the others on the bench. “Do you have a strategy?”

  “My strategy,” she said as she palmed the first ball in her right hand, “is to knock over all the pins.”

  He gave a single nod. “Well said. Best to keep it simple.”

  “But really, what I plan to do is start from the middle podium and work my way out on the off chance that one of the pins flies off and knocks over some from the other podiums. If that makes sense.”

  He rubbed his chin. “Interesting. I think you should stick with your first plan.”

  She faced him squarely. “You think I can’t?”

  “I’m just saying I’ve never seen it happen.” He shrugged. “It’s not to say you can’t. There’s a first time for everything.”

  “You don’t think I can do it. That means I’ll just have to show you.”

  He gestured to the pins. “Go right ahead. I can’t wait to see this.”

  She started the first ball out with as much speed as she could muster. She tried to remember all the tips her old softball coach had taught her, such as putting her entire shoulder into the throw and not just her arm. She was definitely out of practice and showed it by angling so much of her weight forward that she had to take an extra step to regain her balance.

  The ball flew forward and knocked off a middle pin on the right side, which took out the one on top, but nothing touched the adjacent podium. She glanced over and mentally dared him to have a reaction.

  “Not bad for a start,” he said.

  “I’m just getting warmed up. You’ll see.”

  The next ball knocked off the lower left pin, and the next ball somehow cleared out the rest of that podium.

  “Great job,” he said, flashing one of his winning smiles. “It looks like you’re keeping up your reputation from yesterday. Did you go home and practice?”

  “Not at all. Like I told Sophie, it’s all natural skill. You should see my aim when I throw clothes into the hamper.”

  He stuck a thumb in his jeans pocket. “Now I’m even more impressed.”

  “Oh, you are not.”

  “Okay, maybe not by that, but overall yes.”

  Even as she readied the next ball, she snuck a peek at his expression. She hadn’t known him that long, but she was pretty sure he didn’t mean that sarcastically. Sure enough, he looked completely genuine.

  “So, are you ready to claim your prize, or are you going to finish throwing first?” he asked.

  “Why would I quit now when I’m ahead?”

  He held up his hands in mock defense. “Okay, okay. You’re right. Let’s keep going.”

  For the next podium, her first ball miraculously hit one of the bottom pins and almost toppled the whole thing in one go. That really got his attention.

  “She’s on a roll, folks,” he hollered loud enough for everyone nearby to hear. She didn’t look behind her to see if anyone had stopped to listen or even noticed. It was okay if everyone else ignored her, just as long as he didn’t.

  The second ball cleared the deck. There were only two pins left on that podium, anyway. That last throw had been pretty easy. The only thing was, when she looked down, she noticed she only had two balls left. It was probably a tall order to expect to knock over all three podiums with only seven balls.

  “Do you think you can do it?” he asked.

  “Don’t start questioning me now.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it…”

  By the time she finished with all seven balls, half the podium remained. She fell short by only three pins. She reached into her pocket. “I only have two tickets left,” she said.

  “Here, have two more.” He reached into a small, wooden box in the corner.

  “That’s nice of you.” Probably nobody else would’ve done that for a paying customer. Certainly not the guy with the bug bite stuff, as nice as he was.

  Maybe it was her nerves, but she couldn’t get the last two balls to work right. It was her own fault, she knew. One of them missed completely, and the other one only took off one pin. It had to have been the pressure. Whether it was his attention or the situation, she didn’t know, but she wanted that panda.

  Dust from several of the people walking past floated up and filled her nose. She felt like kicking the blades of grass around her, for lack of something better. Sometimes those dandelion heads were pretty satisfying when they exploded into a cloud of floating seeds.

  “That was great,” he said. “One of the best I’ve seen today.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t get it. I might go get some tickets and come back.”

  “You could,” he said, “but you don’t want to spend all your money on tickets. Relax, take a break, and it’ll still be here if you still want to try again.”

  “I suppose you’re right. Once I get on a roll, sometimes it’s hard to stop.”

  “A lot of people are like that. It’s no big deal. Today just wasn’t your day, but I still think you did well. How about your prizes? You get two of the front row ones.”

  She ended up picking out two more stuffed animals, a giraffe and a bear. The latter was the more obvious choice, as it was pretty cute, but they all played second fiddle to the panda in the back, which she noticed was still there. He pulled them down with the hook and handed them over. The bear was the softest material she’d felt in a long time. Even though it wasn’t a panda, she’d still find a nice home for it in her bedroom.

  She guessed that was it, then. Throwing those balls was the one pretense for being there. Without that, she was just an oddly placed loiterer, hanging around for apparently no reason except to talk to him. Although she wanted to stay, she didn’t quite feel up to coming across like a stalker, so she turned to leave. She couldn’t think of anything else to do.

  “Hey,” he said, and she turned around.

  “This may sound kind of random, but I go on break in fifteen minutes. Do you want to have lunch with me?”

  Her stomach leaped, but she managed to school her features. “Sure, I can hang out for a bit until you’re done. Where do you want to meet?”

  “If you just want to be back here around then…how does that sound?”

  “Great. I’ll be back.”

  As soon as she turned her back, she breathed out a long exhale through pursed lips. They were going to eat lunch together. Time together, one-on-one, in fifteen minutes. She had no idea why she was on the verge of sweating. It wasn’t that warm out.

  After a few minutes, she realized that she was wandering in circles just out of view of Nate’s booth. It was as if she didn’t want to stray too far in case she was late. She stared blankly at the other attractions clustered in the area, but she didn’t pay much attention to any of them. If pressed, she wasn’t sure she could remember anything she’d looked at. Her mind was certainly elsewhere.

  By the time she glanced at her watch, it was twelve and a half minutes into the fifteen minutes. Close enough, she told herself. Whether it was or wasn’t, she was tired of waiting. Patience wasn’t her strong suit, as her mother had told her many times.

  She turned on her heel and started walking back, not that it would take all that long. In under a minute—she knew because she checked—she made it back to Nate’s booth. A little early, but who’s counting, anyway?

  He had a few people gathered, a group of three made up of two women and one man. The guy threw his three balls and still didn’t manage to knock over all the pins on one podium. If she were a lesser person, she’d point out how much she could accomplish with only three balls, but she held it inside, kept warm simply knowing.

  As the group walked off, they teased each other about how they did. One of the
other two fared better than the guy, but she didn’t catch which one.

  “Hey, you’re back,” Nate said.

  Of course I am. “Did you miss me?”

  She didn’t expect a yes, but to her surprise, he said, “You bet. Are you hungry?”

  Truth be told, she wasn’t. She’d eaten a large sandwich before leaving home earlier that day, one of her world-famous triple-decker turkey sandwiches. Aside from the layers of lunch meat, it had an extra slice of bread between the two on the outside. Even though she called it world-famous, nobody outside Red Canyon had heard of her version, but they should, because it was amazing.

  “I could eat,” she said. Technically, it was true.

  He started walking. “We’re on our way then. Did I bore you by making you wait?”

  “No, I was fine. There are lots of things to look at. I don’t know how you get anything done with it all.”

  “You get used to it after a while.”

  “Where are we having lunch?”

  “There’s a seating area for the staff not too far from here. Some fold out tables and stuff like that. I thought we could sit there and enjoy the nice weather.”

  It was nice weather for that sort of thing. She took his invitation to mean they would be sitting outside. “Sure, lead on.”

  Chapter Five

  It turned out to be a combination of both inside and out. The tent enclosure that spanned over the seating area was a close cousin to the type at a circus, with support stilts and a raised center. It seemed less like a place to eat and more for jugglers and tumblers.

  As soon as they sat down, he excused himself for a moment. When he returned, he had a small cooler with him. He flipped it open and started removing the contents, setting them on the table, one by one.

  “I have a small confession to make,” he said.

  “Oh really? What’s that?”

  The sheepish look on his face was kind of adorable. “I didn’t exactly know this would be happening today, so I packed my usual lunch. The good news is I have extra. Would you like to split my lunch with me?”

  It was a unique twist to a date, but it had its own charm to it. It took her a second to collect her thoughts, and in that time, he continued. “If you don’t want to, I completely understand. We can get something nicer.”

  She lifted her hand and stopped just short of touching his arm. She wanted to, though. He looked so sweet, wanting to share what was his with her. To be fair, he didn’t have any planning time.

  “Why don’t you show me what you’ve got?” she asked.

  She couldn’t help but smile. As soon as she’d said that, he unloaded the rest of his lunch box with such excitement that an apple almost rolled off the table. This was a rare glimpse into a single man’s lunchbox, almost like a case study. She just hoped everything was before the expiration date.

  “Okay, I’ve got two ham sandwiches, an apple, some cheese crackers, and some chips.”

  She looked the items over. It was possible her stomach was abnormally small, but she’d never imagine packing such a big lunch. “Are you sure you didn’t have a premonition or something? There’s enough food here for two people.”

  He checked the cooler just to make sure he got everything. “I wish. Then I could start playing the lottery. This is a normal size lunch for me. I say lunch, but it’s actually lunch and dinner. We usually work through both, so I try to bring enough for both meals so I don’t have to rely on buying my food here.”

  With a jolt, she realized he was sacrificing his packed dinner for her. The split portion didn’t look so small, after all. He was sharing what he had with her.

  “I’ll take one sandwich and the cheese crackers,” she said.

  “You got it. I know it’s not much…”

  She shook her head. “Actually, I’m not all that hungry. This is perfect.” She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she’d just got done eating a different sandwich, made at home and a lot more elaborate. It wasn’t much of a fair fight, especially considering her third slice of bread in the middle. That was borderline genius.

  He seemed to accept her answer and portioned out the food. He pulled out a pocket knife and opened up the tiny scissors on it. Cutting along both edges of the bag, he proceeded to peel back the edges from the top of the sandwich like one would a banana. She realized she was staring.

  “That’s one way to do it,” she said. “Do you always do…sandwiching that way?”

  He looked down at the bag, then back up. “I guess it is a little strange. I never really realized it until now. That way, you don’t have to pull out the whole sandwich with your hands—mine aren’t always the cleanest sometimes—and you don’t get any crumbs on you.”

  Actually, that’s not a bad idea. “I learn something new everyday. Maybe I’ll give it a try.”

  Reaching back into his pocket, he pulled the pocketknife back out and extended the tiny scissors to her. “Want to?”

  “Sure.” It took twice as long, but she snipped the sides and peeled the top back. It might be her new favorite way to eat a sandwich, although it also might just be because it was his idea.

  She ended up placing the sandwich down, with one of the flaps out to keep the bread off the table, as she reached for the cheese crackers. By the time she finished them, he started to cut the apple to share that too. That took him even longer than the sandwich bag cutting, simply because the blade was so short. It was like trying to pour a cocktail one thimble at a time.

  The apple looked pretty tempting, so she moved on to that before finishing the sandwich. He looked like he was about to say something, but held back until she picked up the sandwich and peeled back the flap again.

  “Do you always start with the sides before you touch the main course?” he asked.

  She looked down at the empty cheese cracker wrapper. “Yeah, I do. My friends make fun of me for it, but it’s a habit. I’m not sure why I do it.”

  “I think it’s cute. I guess we both have quirky ways of eating.”

  “Pretty much. Everyone is strange in their own way. I think mine came from when my parents made me finish my vegetables before leaving the table. I probably figured it’s best to start with the worst thing while I was the hungriest. It worked out pretty well.”

  “You won’t have a problem enjoying that sandwich, whether it’s first or last. It has the best mustard money can buy. Seriously, out of the two choices of mustard at the store, that was the best one.”

  She smiled. “Well then, I’ll count myself lucky to taste such decadence.”

  “Anytime.”

  Over the years, she hadn’t found herself on all that many dates—a few here and there like most people—she’d had her fair share of dinners and movies and all that. Some of them were decently fancy, having to go outside Red Canyon for them, and they were all worth the drive. They weren’t exactly caviar dishes, but they had aimed to impress. She’d trade them all for that moment with him, with the warm breeze playing with her long hair.

  She wished it was appropriate to snap a picture, because she felt the most peace she had in a long time, not worrying about moving or pouring drinks or the guy staring down her top as he paid for his beer. For that moment, at least until she had to leave to go to work that night, she could just be.

  He placed the last of the wrappers in his cooler and stood up. “I wish I had longer. I had fun.”

  “I did too,” she said. “What are you going to do for dinner? I mean, I pretty much just ate it.”

  “It’s all right. Tonight I’m helping the owner settle the books, so we’ll probably order in some delivery or something like that. We usually shut ourselves away for a few hours and don’t come out until all the numbers add up. Sometimes we don’t even have time to eat.”

  “Maybe…I could come back to see you.” It just popped out. Usually, she let the guy make all the moves, especially in the beginning. She liked to feel chased, although she’d only admit it to herself. But there was something
different about him.

  He flipped up the handle on the cooler and set his hand on it. “How about tomorrow night? Would you like to come and spend time with me then?”

  “I’d love to.” That actually worked out pretty well, as she closed tonight at work and opened the next morning. She probably should take the time tomorrow night to move instead, but she wasn’t going to listen to that side of reason. If anything, she could bring a few boxes over on her way home.

  “Great,” he said. “It’s a date then.”

  * * *

  The moment Chelsea walked into work, she was ten minutes late. She didn’t mean to be, obviously, but by the time she got done eating lunch with Nate, went home, changed, and drove to work, it had put her behind schedule. Not that she regretted any of it—far from it. She would’ve happily been even later.

  She was in the best mood. Nothing really bothered her, not even the rare instance of traffic in Red Canyon on the drive over or the fact that the day shift had hardly done their job to set her up for the night. A grin seemed fixed on her face even as she scrambled to refill bottles, stock the beer, and count the drawer.

  Even some of her regulars seemed to notice. One guy who always came in on the same night of the week plopped himself down, ordering the exact same kind of beer, wearing the exact same hat. It was so beat up, she guessed he probably slept in it too.

  “You’re different tonight,” he said. “Did you win the lottery or something?”

  Her voice echoed in the beer cooler as she pulled his bottle out. “No, nothing like that. I’m just in a good mood tonight.”

  He tapped his wedding ring against the side of the bottle in a way that usually annoyed her, but that night, she barely heard it at all. “No crime against that. So what happened?”

  “Recently, I met…I was met with a positive experience.”

  Before, he had always split his attention between her and the baseball game on the TV overhead, a sad thing with worn edges and a crack that threatened to go beyond the frame and into the screen itself. Now, he gave her a long look. “Okay. That’s taking a long road for a short walk.”