Page 33 of Rematch
We joined a row of others in one of the water gun races booths. Audrey reached over her shoulder for her cross-body purse, but I shooed her hand away. “I’ve got you,” I told her.
Her brows came together. “You sure?”
“Yeah. No use paying money to lose.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’ll see about that.”
Audrey perked up as she grasped the handles tight. Leaning over, she squinted for a better view of the tiny target we needed to hit.
As soon as the buzzer went off, we all pressed down on our triggers and water streamed out of our guns like lasers. The stuffed animals atop the poles rose based on the accuracy of our hits.
The purple bunny atop Audrey’s post climbed quickly, leaving all of ours in the dust. It wasn’t long before it reached the top and the winning buzzer went off.
Audrey squealed as she raised her arms in victory.
“You cheated,” I teased, nudging her with my elbow.
“No, you just suck,” she said, shoving me back. “Do you want a consolation prize?” She pointed to one of the pandas hanging from the ceiling of the booth. “I’ll give you that one.”
“The hell am I gonna do with that?”
“Snuggle with it at night.”
“There’s someone else I’d rather be snuggling with,” I replied, running my eyes over her body, visually caressing every soft curve.
Audrey quickly averted her eyes. Ignoring me, she asked the clerk for the purple panda. She noticed one of the other contenders, a girl no older than ten years old, eyeing the bear as the clerk bought it down. Offering the girl a smile, Audrey handed the plushie to her. “Here, you go,” she said, her voice warmer than chamomile tea.
The little girl’s eyes lit up as she accepted the bear. “Thank you, miss!” She quickly turned around to show her mother the gift.
I reached for Audrey’s hand and helped her off the stool. “Come on,” I told her. “I’ll go win you a real prize.”
Her brow rose, but she didn’t yank her hand away. She allowed me to hold it as we took a walk to see what other games we could play.
We stopped at the balloon dart game, one of our favorites as kids. Again, she tried to reach for her purse.
“Stop,” I told her. “Tonight’s on me.”
She watched me take out my own wallet. Her eyes lingered on the large wads of bills inside of it. Her brows creased, and for a moment, I thought she was going to comment.
Tearing her eyes away, she turned her attention to the colorful balloons on the wall. She took the first turn with the darts. She pressed her waist against the edge of the counter and tossed the darts at the balloons. Loud pops rang through the air as she hit every single one.
I did just as good on my turn, popping each balloon I aimed for.
With our scores, we were able to get one of the medium-sized prizes, but I wasn’t letting her settle for that. I paid for one more round. This time, we split the darts and took turns throwing them.
The clerk nodded in approval as we popped all of those as well. “You two are pros,” he said. “Which of the large prizes would you like?”
I looked at Audrey to make the decision.
Her eyes raked over the selection. “Hmm, I’ll take…” She pointed her finger towards the large zombie-looking bear plushie. “That one!”
He pulled the large bear down, and Audrey eagerly accepted it.
She tried to hold the bear by its neck, but the damn thing was half her size. I grabbed it from her and threw it over my shoulder.
We walked over to one of the basketball shooting games. “These are always rigged,” I told Audrey as we approached it.
“Yeah, but the trick is to pay attention to the air pressure. Calculate your toss based on how much air is in the ball.” Using whatever science she had in her head, she tested the weight in her first ball. She carefully angled her arms and tossed the ball toward the net.
