Page 122 of You Found Me
“I know, that’s why you love me,” I smugly say.
“Don’t make me take it back, Spencer Hale.”
I gasp, then mime zipping my lips before leaving the booth.
***
A few hours later, all of the families have left, and we’ve cleaned everything up.
Looking around at everyone, the one thing we have in common right now is exhaustion. Even through Colette’s content smile, you can see it’s going to hit her hard very soon. Cori jokingly told her that she’d have to pay her to do something like this ever again.
“Thank you guys for helping out. I know it was a lot to ask, but you made this run so smoothly—even with the hiccups leading up to today.” There’s a chorus of “you’re welcome” and “no problem.”
“And an even bigger thank you to Theodore,” she says, looking at him like she’d rather be at the dentist having teeth pulled, “for stepping up and playing Santa Claus.”
Theo shakes his head at the use of his full name. “You’re welcome, Sta—”
Whatever he was going to call her, he stops when she pins him with a glare. Clearing his throat, he tries again, “You’re welcome, Colette.”
“I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m ready for a nice peppermint cocoa and a ride on the Ferris wheel. Thanks again everyone. Go enjoy the rest of your Saturday.”
The crew starts filing out, Piper, Callum, and Cori are among the first out the door. I’m not sure what the first two are doing, but I heard Cori saying she had a date and needed to “wash the stench of joyous children” off of her. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, which gave away that I was listening to her conversation with Piper. Cori smirked and shrugged, not caring.
Caressing Emmy’s arm, I place my hand in hers, intertwining our fingers. “You want to change and then we can leave?”
“You didn’t bring anything to change into. So, I won’t change in solidarity.”
“Shortstack, that’s sweet of you. But you brought clothes so that you could change out of your alter ego,” I laugh out.
She shrugs. “It’s actually pretty comfortable. Come on, let’s put our stuff in our cars and go play some games. Think you can win me a prize at one of the booths?”
“Buttercup, I can win you as many prizes as you want. I’ve never met a carnival game I couldn’t win.”
“Let’s go test that bold claim.”
***
Sooo . . . I’ve apparently lost all skill I had as a kid when it comes to fairground games—that or they got harder.
Emmy hasn’t said anything, but I can see her stifling her laughter as I hang my head in shame. We’ve been to three different booths and are heading to another one right now. It’s a reindeer themed ring toss. It’s literally throwing rings onto giant reindeer antlers.
I hand the booth attendant two tickets, and he gives me five rings. Surely that’s enough to at least get her a small prize from the bottom row since you only need to hit three to win. The first two completely miss, the third one barely makes it, and the last two miss. Rather than call it quits, I set down more tickets. This time, I make the first two then miss the next two.
There’s a small boy—maybe five—who comes up during my third throw and immediately hits two in a row. I watch in abject horror as this child proceeds to make all five rings. Beforepicking his prize, he pays for another turn. Once again, he makes all five as I sit here, embarrassed that my last one sails past the reindeer antlers.
Emmaline’s laughter comes out as a surprise, even to her. I’ve been schooled by someone who’sbarelytall enough to see over the booth. He claims his prizes then looks between Emmy and my prizeless hands before waving at me to come down to his level.
“Do you want to win you a stuffy for your girlfriend?” he whisper shouts, causing a snort to come from Emmy.
“Luca, let the nice couple be,” his mom says to him before looking at me. “I’m so sorry. He has a game like this at home and plays ita lot.”
“Mama, I have two stuffies and they have none. I only wanted to share,” Luca pouts.
“Luca, my name is Spencer. It’s really kind of you to offer to give my girlfriend, Emmy, one of your stuffed animals. But we can’t take it. You won it fair and square.”
He shrugs. “Okay. She might dump you if you don’t give her something nice. My friend lost his girlfriend because he didn’t share his prize cart toy at school yesterday.”
His mom sighs while Emmaline and I chuckle. Emmy bends down to meet his eyes. “I’m not going to dump him. Promise.”
