Page 92 of Choosing You

“Let’s do it!” he said excitedly, throwing down money for game tokens. Grinning at her, he motioned toward the game. “I mean, I’m a freaking cowboy, baby! I am going to blow up all these balloons and not only win you a penguin, but a second penguin so he can have a friend!”

“Yay!” Clapping, she stood back and watched him get into position.

The first balloon didn’t fill.

Neither did the second.

By the fourth she was wondering if she needed to just call time of death on it so they could move on.

And other people could get a turn.

“Will…honey? Maybe we should…?”

“No! Fifth time’s a charm!” he declared loudly.

“O-kay…” she murmured, but still clapped to cheer him on.

It turned out that the eighth time was the charm, and it would have been cheaper for him to just buy her a stuffed penguin online instead of spending so much money on tokens. But when he faced her with it in his hands, he looked so proud of himself that she couldn’t help but be proud of him.

“You did it! Thank you! Oh, I love him so much!”

He tipped his hat at her. “You’re welcome.” When they were several feet away from the booth, he whispered, “Sorry it took so long. That little kid kept staring at me and was making me nervous.”

“Aww…you’re precious,” she told him, kissing his cheek. “And I appreciate you working so hard to win this for me.”

“What are you going to name him?”

“Hmm…good question.”

“I was thinking maybe you could name him after someone you know,” he suggested. “Maybe even someone you love.” He shrugged. “I’m just saying…”

“You don’t think it would be weird if I named him after my dad?” she teased.

“Your dad? What? No! I meant…”

Silencing him with a kiss, she pulled back and grinned. “Do you think we should name him Will?”

“Well…I worked really hard to win him.”

“Yes, you did,” she cooed. “But should he be Will or William?”

For a moment, he studied the penguin hard.

Like seriously way harder than anyone should study a stuffed animal.

“William. He should be William,” he stated. “It’s a good, strong name for a penguin.”

“Okay.” They started walking and she hugged William close.

“Did you have another name in mind?” he casually asked.

“Um…I was thinking Waddles, Snowball, Icicle, Flipper, Chilly, Ice Cube, Blizzard, Penguin Pete, Frosty, Snowy, Polar, Ice Pop, Tux, Pingo, Chill, Icy, Cool Breeze, Aqua, Tundra, Skipper, Pugsy…”

His eyes were comically wide.

“But…you know…I was just tossing those names around while you were playing the game. No biggie.”

“That’s an awful lot of names.”

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