Page 102 of Claiming Their Omega

I excitedly chatter about it as we drive out. “Should’ve made a checklist,” Jesse teases me as we pull into the massive parking lot.

“Let’s just make sure you eat your corn dog and cotton candy and cupcake the size of your face after you go on all the rides,” Easton points out, laughing.

“Okay,” I challenge, “so who’s going to go on the rides with me?”

“Cade!” Hendrix and Jesse insist, grinning at each other and then at Cade in a way that makes me think Cade was just offered up as a sacrificial lamb.

We park and head inside. I’m practically bouncing—I had forgotten how much I loved things like this and I’m so excited to be back.

“Okay,” Jesse announces. “Animals first, right? They’ll be taken in to go to sleep soon if we wait.”

I agree, and quickly follow him to see the demonstrations of the animals and the showcases. We’re just in time to see the prizes awarded for the various animals such as best in show for chickens, bunnies, and calves. It’s adorable.

The men speak in my ear, explaining the different things about farming and the animals that they know. None of us know anything about bunnies, but we know a bit about chickens, and the men know a ton about horses and cattle.

After that, we move onto the rides before I get too hungry. Cade joins me, and I get the feeling he’s a bit sick. He has a weird look on his face that makes me laugh and also fills me with sympathy, and I thank him with a kiss afterward. I had a lot of fun—I love that feeling in your stomach where it feels like it’s flipping around and flying out of you while you’re being spun around and dropped from tall heights.

“You’re wobbling,” Hendrix says with a laugh when we get off the tilt-a-whirl and I stumble around.

“Worth it,” I insist, grinning at him, even though he does look a little wavy in my vision.

He just laughs and puts an arm around me to help steady me until my vision fixes itself.

After the rides, it’s time for food. Hendrix loves the same junk food that I do so we end up stuffing our faces. The other men are a little more restrained in their food choices, but that’s okay. Hendrix eats however much of the food that I have leftover, because I want to try everything but have only so much room in my stomach, so I end up eating just a few bites of some things.

There’s mac n’ cheese fried on a stick, deep fried ice cream, deep fried Oreos and Klondike bars and deep fried cookie dough. There are tacos, chocolate milk made of milk right from the cows, fried chicken, BBQ ribs, corn roasted with spices, chili cheese fries, funnel cake, and my absolute favorite: apple cider donuts.

“You two are absolutely insane,” Jesse notes as Hendrix and I cackle gleefully over our food like we’re witches in Shakespeare.

“You only get all this once a year!” I point out, and it’s true. Sure, I can get some stuff like a good BBQ every so often, but the crazy snacks, the spiced corn, the rich desserts… it’s something you only get here, and that’s what makes it special.

“Well, when you’re finished trying everything, I’m going to kick your ass at the ring toss.”

“That’s what you think,” I warn him.

I’m not usually competitive, but Jesse brings it out of me like nobody else. It used to drive me insane. I thought he hated me, and I thought that all the times he would challenge me or tease me, it was him genuinely trying to one-up me.

Now, though, I know how he really feels, and it’s fun.

We finish eating and Jesse leads me to the arcade and carnival row, a whole line of booths on either side with fun games. I imagine this is probably what going to the circus felt like, back when they were popular, enjoying the little carnival section before heading into the big top.

Jesse has a wad of cash to get us chances on the games, and we have fun competing back and forth. The other three wander off or watch us, but I’ll be honest I don’t quite notice, because I’m so caught up in kicking Jesse’s ass as hard as I can.

There are all these fun prizes you can potentially win, usually stuffed animals. This one booth is overflowing with them, including a gigantic stuffed pink bear.

“Oh, hey. I wanted a bear like that once as a kid.” I had forgotten about it until I saw it again. “I remember begging my parents but they said no. It would’ve been tough to haul it back in the backseat with Aiden and me, and I think it was only winnable, not buyable, and Dad didn’t have the money to waste trying to win it for me.”

“Huh,” Easton says.

“Wildcard!” Jesse yells. “Time to prove your honor!”

I grin and hurry over to him, joining him at another game.

Everyone who meets us—both random people playing with us and employees working the booths—takes one look at me with the cowboy hat on my head and smirks. I know that they know, with my playing with Jesse, that it’s his. And they know what my wearing it means.

It makes my skin prickle with heat, but it also makes my chest warm. Damn right, this cowboy is mine.

Easton and the other two wander up after I’ve finally beaten Jesse in the water squirt gun game. He beat me in the throwing darts at balloons game, so now we’re even and need a tie breaker.

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