Page 41 of Oh, Hell No

This booth’s was not. The boosters had donated Jellycat stuffed animals for the top prizes and tiny Squishmallows for the lower-tier winners. Both very popular brands among the kids. There was a peach-and-purple dragon Jellycat sitting on a display above the workers’ heads, and on the right of it sat a sloth, which I wouldn’t mind having. I mean, it was cute and looked soft. Then, on the left of it was a green dinosaur. My kids in class talked about them often, and I knew that the dragons were a very sought-after theme as of late due to a book series.

I stood and watched Toby as he tossed the first ring. He’d have to get all three to win a Jellycat. When the first ring hit a bottle, swirled around the rim, then sank down, he clapped his hands once and gave me a big grin. I tried to show enthusiasm, but I was kind of done with the festival. As I stood there, my eyes drifted over the crowd—until they stopped, and all the oxygen around me seemed to be sucked from the vicinity when they landed on a face I hadn’t seen in eight weeks. At least not in real life. I’d had plenty alone time with it in my fantasies.

He was watching me as he tossed a piece of popcorn intohis mouth. I blinked, thinking I had started hallucinating, but he was still there. A smirk appeared on his face. I realized my imagination hadn’t done him justice. I’d forgotten just how gorgeous the man was…and seductive.

I heard Toby’s cheer, but it sounded far away. The entire festival had managed to fade out, and there was a humming in my ears instead. Oz tossed another piece of popcorn into his mouth as we stared at each other. When a hand touched my arm, I jumped, startled, and ripped out of the strange haze I had been pulled into.

My gaze swung back to Toby, and he gave me a sheepish shrug.

“Missed that last one,” he said.

Then, his eyes did a quick check to see who or what I had been looking at. I didn’t follow his gaze, not wanting him to see me stare at Oz because if I turned my head, I would stare directly at him. He was impossible to overlook.

“But you get one of the smaller ones,” he said, his eye back on me, then nodded toward the display of Squishmallows.

I didn’t want to take one. The girls loved those things, and one of the boys could easily win those over the much more difficult items above. But Toby seemed so keen on me picking one out that I felt I had no choice. Forcing a smile, I pointed at the least-desirable-looking one they had. It was brown, and I thought perhaps it was a dog or maybe a bear. I couldn’t tell really.

When they handed it to me, Toby looked displeased with my choice, but said nothing. I thanked him, and he touched my elbow to lead me to the next game. I wasn’t a fan of this contact. My gaze went back in the direction of Oz of its own accord. I had no control over it. When I found him, I wished I hadn’t.

His eyes were no longer on me, but the stunning brunette beside him. He handed her the popcorn he was holding and took a black-and-white Jellycat stuffie from her. They were together. Oz was on a date at the church-hosted festival. Thisseemed rather relationship-like to me, and he’d said he didn’t have those. I seriously doubted he brought one-night stands to a festival and bought them popcorn and won them expensive stuffed animals.

Just then his eyes shifted back on me, as if he could tell I was watching him. The weird feeling in my chest was bothering me. There was no reason for it. I barely knew the man. The time we’d spent together felt much longer, but it had been brief, and the majority of it, I had been in a dark basement. Still watching the beauty beside him, I was—I didn’t know—unsettled maybe. This was the last place on earth I would have expected to see him. And it wasn’t as if I had been having a good time to begin with.

She placed a hand on his arm and leaned in to tell him something. He bent down so she could talk close to his ear, but his eyes didn’t look anywhere but at me. And I liked it. I needed to snap out of this. She turned her head then, and I could see her face completely. She was drop-dead gorgeous.

A smile touched her lips, and I hated that it seemed genuine and only made her stand out more. What had I expected? This was Oz, Greek god incarnate. Of course the women he dated would look like that. I wondered if she knew he was in the Mafia.

“That sound okay?” I heard Toby ask, and I jerked my eyes off them and back to him.

I had no idea what he was talking about. I was afraid to pretend I did and agree because it could be something like,Why don’t we go back to your place?or,What about dinner and a movie?

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I zoned out. My head is starting to hurt,” I lied. At least about my head. I had in fact zoned out on what I was afraid was jealousy. Over Oz. The man who should have been a cause for nightmares, but instead only showed up in my dirty dreams. Those were not scary at all.

He glanced in their direction, trying again to see what I kept looking at, then back at me. “I was seeing if you wanted to gowatch the sack race,” he said, sounding unsure now.

I knew we probably both had students in it, but, no, I didn’t want to go watch the sack race. I had been here for four hours with him, and I was ready to go home. I’d been seen and done my duty, and I didn’t want to people anymore.

“My head is getting worse, and I need to lie down,” I explained.

The disappointment on his face was loud and clear, but apologizing for this would only give him some hope there would be a next time, and there would not be. This wasn’t a date, although he seemed to think it was.

“Yeah, uh, if you’re sure,” he said as if he was agreeing to a root canal and not a five-minute drive to drop me off. His gaze went back toward Oz and Miss America. “Is there someone here you don’t want to see? I’m good with leaving and finishing the day with a movie. Maybe at your place. I can go pick something up for dinner—”

I shook my head, cutting him off before he went on any further. That sounded like a form of torture I was never going to be up for. I was a good listener. I always had been, but Toby liked to hear his own voice and talk about himself more than he liked to breathe. I didn’t want the details of his life anymore today—or ever.

“This is going to be a migraine. I can feel it. I need to be alone in a dark room for the rest of the day.” Major lie. I didn’t get migraines, but when Marley did, that was how she dealt with them.

The concern in his expression now matched his further disappointment. While I was having an internal struggle NOT to look back in Oz’s direction. Toby had noticed already, and if I looked again, he would be certain it was Oz I was looking at. Even if he didn’t have a gorgeous woman with him, he drew attention all by himself. The two of them were like a bright, obnoxious beam that said,Soak in our perfection. Envy whatyou will never be.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s get you home then,” he replied.

I wanted to weep with relief. This was over, and the next time a mandatory school event was happening on a weekend, I’d be armed and ready with my excuse if he asked me.

Nineteen

Winslet

Along with the only bottle of red wine I owned, my box of Goldfish that still remained a mystery, and my favorite pajamas, I had spent the past two hours watching season two ofLucifer. I’d wanted some crime solving, but I had also been in a bad-boy mood. This show covered all those bases.

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