Page 12 of Bad Seed
“At the festival?”
“Yes.”
I knew it. He isn’t even wearing purple.
“It’s also my first time on a Ferris wheel. I, um…” His Adam’s apple rebounds in his throat like a tennis ball off the stairs. We turn for the last leg, reaching the top. Aubry starts to claw at his jeans before he folds his hands. “This is nice?” The squeak from his huge body might be comical if he isn’t sweating buckets.
“Are you okay? You didn’t try the chili, did you?”
“No.” He damn near vacuums his bottom lip into his mouth. Coughing, he squares his shoulders and stares straight ahead. Which is when the ride kicks into gear. We swing backwards on the slow, meandering drop.
With a yelp, Aubry places one hand to the top of the bucket and the other…
On my thigh.
Fingers, and thumb, and the whole palm aren’t just touching but digging in. Kneading. The bucket rocks and he leaps, his hand sliding higher.
Oh, fuck. His thumb nearly dips down the spreading cushion of my thigh to caress the crease. I bite my lip to keep from moaning and reach for his hand.
This is it. We’re alone. He’s hot and a dork. I shake back my hair, swishing the ponytail, and turn my head for a kiss.
His eyes are so wide the whites glow neon under the brim of his hat. He’s gnarled his face into a rictus of certain death while holding his breath.
So no kiss.
“Are you…” I run my fingers over his hand, take hold, and guide it toward my knee. “Afraid of heights?”
“No,” he declares despite all evidence. Aubry winces and gazes up at the sky. “I’m just on better terms with the ground.”
He picked the Ferris wheel. I’d have preferred somewhere quiet and dark. “So why’d you want to come here?”
“I didn’t expect it to be so fast and rickety.”
“It’s a carnival ride.”
“Right, right.” He closes his eyes tight and takes a breath as we swing down to the lowest point before going back up. Suddenly, he’s swiveling his head around, staring at the crowd as if looking for something.
Or someone.
“Did you come to Loomis for the festival?” I ask questions to keep my brain from thinking.
“No. I moved here recently.”
“Seriously?” Loomis is tiny, the kind of place where everyone knows everybody’s business. And a man like Aubry would become everyone’s business the second he walked down a street. “I haven’t seen you at the Super Saver.”
“Very recently.”
So I could be getting in on the ground floor of the newest town heartthrob. An urge to throw a bag over his head and rush him back to my place fills me. “Well, how do you find Loomis?”
“It’s…quaint. What about you?”
Chain him to my bed. Feed him nothing but grapes and honey when I’m not being his dirty girl. Wash his body with a sponge as he…
He asked me a question. “Ah, yes. Very nice.” Crap, I was halfway through his sudsy treasure trail when he asked me that. What was it? About my job? “I’m a food photographer and stylist. It means I take pictures that are so good people want to eat their phones. Ha. Uh…companies are always sending me boxes and boxes of stuff. Like, I’ve got this cereal contract right now. I have to go through five boxes to find the perfect Os for the shot. Takes hours.”
I keep talking to fill the silence as he stares at me.
“I use mashed potatoes as ice cream!”
