Page 19 of Choosing You

“Okay, so…I have a couple of close friends I grew up with. We did everything together. When we were in high school, we were a little goofy, and…I don’t know, pretty immature.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, but his expression was fairly neutral. “Anyway, it was my junior year, and my boyfriend had broken up with me. His name was Mike, and he dumped me so he could ask out the head cheerleader. A total cliché, right?” Shaking her head, she murmured, “The jerk.”

Beside her, Will chuckled.

“We were coming up on prom season and both my friends had dates, but my ego was shot and I told myself I couldn’t possibly go out with another guy. Hell, I couldn’t even think of kissing another guy. That’s when the dare happened.”

“The dare?”

She nodded. “Yup. The whole thing started out as a dare at a spring carnival. There was a kissing booth, and they dared me to get in line and kiss the guy in the booth.” Shrugging, she went on. “I wasn’t really shy, but that wasn’t something I would normally do—I normally don’t feel comfortable kissing someone who is a complete stranger. And I tend to…I don’t know…I tend to wait a little, even with the guys I date before things get physical.”

“So they were daring you to break out of your comfort zone,” he stated.

“Exactly. So, I figured, why not? What did I have to lose?” She gave a small laugh. “I was in the line, and I was second-guessing myself and my friend Audrey said to me, ‘Look at it like this—you’re going to kiss him and walk away. You’ll never see him again.’ And that made sense. Looking back, though, it really didn’t. That guy was a senior and I didn’t know him, but there was still a chance I’d see him in the hallways at school. But I told myself I wasn’t looking to get into a relationship. I was just getting a brief kiss and moving on. If you think about it, that’s what most normal people in line for a kissing booth are doing. They’re not looking at it as they’re meeting their soulmate or immediately going to ask out the person they kiss; it’s just for fun.”

“Did you see him around school?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

“So you got your kiss and…”

“And…it was actually a lot of fun, and after that, it became a game we played—kiss a random guy and never look back.” Glancing at him, she smiled nervously. “Immature, right?”

“I don’t know if I’d say immature, but…high school was a long time ago, Sloane.”

“It was, but it wasn’t like we went to festivals and carnivals every weekend, and most don’t even have kissing booths anymore.”

“There was a lot of talk about letting them go at the festivals, but I was a little vocal about it,” he admitted. “I kept hoping you’d come back.”

They turned down the path to the right and she could see the platform for the ski lift. “Look! We’re almost there!”

He nodded absently. “Okay, but I’m still confused. You would go to random festivals, kiss random guys who you never saw again, but…you kept coming back here.”

Now it was her turn to nod.

“So what happened?”

“You happened,” Sloane said, chuckling again.

“I happened?”

“The first time I came to Sweetbriar Ridge for a festival, I was kind of blown away. Everything was just so much…more!” she said, smiling at the memory. “I’ve been to the state fair, and I’ve been to carnivals, but that festival was just amazing. All the people were so friendly, and it was all just so much fun! But…none of my friends were with me. I was here with my cousin. She knew the whole kissing booth story and…well… she dared me to get in line and buy a kiss.”

“Your cousin dared you? Who’s your cousin? Maybe I know her.”

There was no way she was telling him that, at least not yet. Instead, she deflected a bit. “That’s not important right now.” Sloane nodded. “Anyway, she dragged me away from the booth and back to her car and…I couldn’t stop talking about it. You. The kiss.”

“You did mention that I kiss like a dream…”

“I’m going to regret saying that, aren’t I?” she teased. “But yeah, you do. And after listening to me talk about it, and what I would have done if I had stayed at the festival, she said I needed to get over it and stop romanticizing it. That it was just a kiss.”

“But it wasn’t.”

Shaking her head, Sloane agreed. “No. It wasn’t. So we kept coming back for the festivals and we’d sort of watch the booth for you and I think she figured if I kissed you enough times without it leading to anything, that I’d get over it.”

“But you didn’t.”

Again, she agreed. “I didn’t. I wanted to get to know you. Idowant to get to know you.” She paused, then shook her head. “I kind of feel like an idiot right now.”

“Why?”

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