Page 24 of Bitten By Desire
Oh, right.I’d been too busy staring at literally nothing. I blew on the top of the cup and took a small sip. “Wow. You weren’t kidding. This is amazing.”
He smiled.
I loved apple cider. I rarely had it hot though. And I wasn’t sure if that’s why the flavors exploded on my tongue or if it wasthisapple cider in particular. Or maybe it was so good because of the witch brewing it.
“I’m glad I didn’t have to miss out,” Zoey said as she took a sip. “I wasn’t feeling great today. I really should probably keep my distance.” She took a step back from us.
No, please don’t ditch me right away.
“Actually, I think I see someone I know that I really do need to say hi to. Because I heard he had a cold too, you see.” She pointed at no one in particular. “You two go do something fun and I’ll meet up with you after I talk to him about not feeling well.” She hurried off before I could protest.
“That was not subtle at all,” Bennett said with a laugh. “I don’t think she wants to hang out with us.”
I shook my head. “Nothing to do with you, that’s for sure.”
“Well you did kind of force her to be the third wheel.”
“I…I did not do that.”
But the way he was looking at me made me laugh. He’d definitely caught me in a lie.
“Fine. I kind of did do that.”
“Is the idea of hanging out with me really so terrible, Emma?”
I really liked the way my name fell from his lips. “Not even a little bit. How about you show me just how bad you are at these carnival games.”
“Get ready to eat your words.” He grabbed my hand that wasn’t holding the cider.
And it felt so…normal. To be holding his hand in a sea of people. In a sea of such strange people. It really shouldn’t have felt normal at all. We’d just passed a family of zombies.
“Which one did you want to show off your prowess at?” I asked.
“So many options to show you how amazing I am.”
I laughed.
There were all the normal games that involved aiming things. Basketballs, water guns, rings. Actually most of the games involved aim. Except the whack-a-mole. Although…technically you did have to whack them just so. Bennett better have really good aim if he was going to stand a chance at winning one of these games.
“There,” he said and pointed to the dunk tank. “How about you sit on that and I hit the target?”
“Um…I don’t think that’s how it works. You dunk the volunteer that’s currently sitting there. Not your date.”
“I’m sure for a few extra tickets we can get you up there.”
I laughed. “I don’t want to get all wet.”
“I certainly wouldn’t mind you getting a little wet.”
The way he said it made it seem like he wasn’t talking about the dunk tank anymore. I swallowed hard. “You’re trying to give me a cold much more real than Zoey’s fake one.”
He smiled. “Well, I certainly don’t want that.”
I felt like I was melting under his gaze. I was glad that Zoey had my sweater because I would have been sweating bullets if I was wearing it.
“This one.” I pointed to the ring toss. There were bottles set up in different colored glass. The ones in the middle aligned with smaller prizes. And the outside bottles were the huge stuffed animals.
“Ah the classic,” Bennett said. “Easy.”
