Page 36 of Things Good Girls Don't Do (Rock Canyon, Idaho 1)

It was just a fund-raiser. No big deal. What did he care who she kissed?

A line started forming past the front of his booth and Chase was grinding his teeth and clenching his fists after five minutes. When the two guys he’d beat playing pool on Monday got in line, he c

ouldn’t stand it anymore.

Opening his lockbox, he pulled out three hundred dollars. When he saw Gracie stomp by angrily, Eric close on her heels, Chase called, “Eric, can you watch my booth again?”

Eric stopped, his attention moving back and forth between Chase and Gracie, getting further away from him. “I’m kind of busy, man.”

“I’ll owe you one,” Chase said.

Eric stared off after his prey, shrugged, and made his way over to the Jagged Rock booth. “Where are you off to now?”

Chase didn’t answer as he rounded the corner toward the kissing booth, telling himself he wasn’t interfering with the kissing booth out of jealousy. But as his eyes locked on Katie, smiling beautifully at the current man leaned down to kiss her, Chase knew it was a lie.

KATIE GAVE CARL Anderson a light peck and pulled back quickly. “There you go.”

Carl looked disappointed. “Man, that’s it?”

Katie saw Chase walking past the other guys in line, his expression dark, and her heartbeat sped up. “Yep, that’s it, Carl. Scoot.”

Carl left grumbling and Chase pushed the next guy out of the way. Loud curses and protests ensued from the men in line. He handed Katie a stack of bills. “I’d like to buy three hundred dollars’ worth of kisses.”

Katie’s mouth dropped open as Chase came around to the inside of the kissing booth and yelled, “Sorry, boys, these lips are reserved!”

The men grumbled as Katie finally got her bearings. “Are you crazy? Everybody’s going to be talking about this.”

He kissed her and she grabbed his arms to hold on. When he pulled back, he was grinning. “Only 299 more to go.”

She blinked at him. “You can’t kiss me 299 times out here. Mrs. Andrews is already giving me dirty looks, and people are going to say . . .”

He kissed her again. “Now it’s 298. People are going to say what they want. So what? We can give them something to talk about, and I don’t have to imagine you kissing a bunch of other guys.”

It was pretty much what she’d told herself earlier, but the little part of her that hated being the object of any gossip was protesting in her brain. She didn’t argue anymore, though, as he kissed her again and again. And when her time in the kissing booth was up, he still had 137 kisses to go.

CHASE ONLY HAD an hour and a half left at his booth and Katie sat with him the whole time, watching him work or just smiling when he stole another kiss.

When the fair ended, she helped him gather his supplies, fold down the rental tent, and carry the sample binders and equipment out to the Blazer. “No chopper today?”

He slammed the back of the car and came around to face her. Putting his hands against the Blazer on either side of her head, he said, “Nope. Can’t carry all that stuff on the back of a motorcycle.” He kissed her again. “I think that’s 118.”

“You can stop counting now.”

His mouth caught the last bit of her sentence. “That would be 117. No, because I want to make sure I get my money’s worth.”

Wrapping her arms around his waist, she asked, “Wanna see something?”

“Sure,” he said, pretending to look down her shirt.

“Let’s go then,” she said, ducking out from under his arm.

“Where are we going?”

Her look was flirtatious. “You’ll see,” she said, climbing into the passenger seat.

Opening up the door to the SUV, he hopped behind the wheel. “All right, where am I going?”

“Head out to Old Mill Road. Those clouds look pretty dark, but we won’t be long. I need to be back at the community center by six. Just enough time to show you my favorite spot,” she said.

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