Page 79 of The Worst Kept Secret

I laugh because I was always into all the fair food and I used to be very serious about what we should eat at what times so we didn’t get sick on any rides. I tap my chin and look around. “Well, are you hungry? If so, turkey legs first. We are very close to Maryland though so waffle crab fries are also a great idea if they have them. If you’re not hungry, we can start with dessert.” My eyes dart between all the food vendors near the entrance and I don’t see any of those. “Snow cones? Pass,” I say waving my hand. “Oooh! Fried pickles?” I point to the stand a few yards away.

“God, you’re fucking cute.” He wraps an arm around my shoulder and kisses my temple. “Whatever you want.”

We get an order of fried pickles and a boozy lemonade which I’m really not sure what that consists of and we start walking around.

“So, I know you’re staying in Philly for the foreseeable future while you’re helping your mom, but do you see yourself anywhere else?” He asks as we walk amongst the crowds. It’s a weeknight, so while it’s a little less busy than I’m sure it is on the weekends, there’s still a good number of people and more children than I’d expect for a school night.

“I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought except for when I was considering moving to New York with Lucas and Rory, but the thought of anywhere else seems scary. I’ve lived here my whole life. I didn’t even go away to college.” I cock my head to the side. “What about you?”

“I don’t know. I suppose if there were a reason.” He takes a sip of the drink and immediately coughs. “This is awful by the way.” He scrunches his face and I snatch it from him.

“What did you expect? Top-shelf liquor? Don’t be a snob.” I laugh. “This may or may not have been concocted in someone’s bathtub.” I take a sip of it. “Just ride the wave.”

“I want to make sure I can get us home.” He laughs. “Maybe you ride that wave alone.” He points at me. “Back to your question though; Rae is here and Lucas isn’t far. My parents are still in New Jersey. I don’t see why I’d leave if practically everyone I know is here unless I had a real reason to move.” We make it to a row of different games and I can already feel my competitive side coming out. “Like maybe the woman I was seeing needed to move and we were serious and I wanted to go with her.”

His eyes trace my face and though the implication is loud, I don’t respond to it. I look at the first game, the high striker, which is the one where you have to slam the large hammer down to ring the bell and I nod my head towards it. “If my memory serves me correctly, you’re pretty good at this one.”

“It’s been a while.” He hands me the bag of fried pickles and wipes his hand on a napkin. “Let’s see.”

“I want a big stuffed animal,” I say, holding my arms out. “The biggest.”

He raises an eyebrow at me. “That I’m going to be stuck carrying around the park?”

I give him a fake pout. “Okay, a smaller one, but this is what happens when you don’t tell me things, I would have brought a backpack to make it easier to carry a bunch! Now I can only get like two.” I pout jokingly as he steps up to the game and pays the attendant who can’t be older than eighteen. The guy hands him the oversized hammer and I take a step back to give him some space. Just as he raises it up and he’s about to hit it, I scream. “Don’t miss!”

He stops just before it hits the metal plate and he turns around and glares at me for breaking his concentration. The attendant snorts. “You’re funny.”

“Hush, Avery,” Theo growls over his shoulder before he does it again, slamming it down so hard that I hear the bell a second later. The visual of his strength makes my knees weak and I bite my lip.

God, what can’t this man do?

“And you didn’t even break a sweat! See I was trying to give you a challenge.” I giggle as I move into his arms and wrap mine around him.

He presses his lips to my temple. “Which one?”

“Hmmm.” I look around and spot a cute little yellow dragon and point at it. “That one!”

Theo laughs as the attendant hands it to me. “It looks like that dragon from that book you love.”

I pull away, giving him a curious look because while I know why I picked it, I’m surprised he does. “How did you know?”

“I listen.” He shrugs as he hands the kid an extra five dollars with a nod and guides me toward the next game.

“Yeah, but we weren’t together…I mean…”

He brushes his lips against mine gently. “I’ve been very aware of you for the past year.”

I don’t know if it’s the rail liquor lemonade making me emotional but his words make my heart flutter in my chest. “Come on,” he says as he tugs me toward another food vendor. “I think I want fried Oreos now.”

After a few more games, including one involving a football that he was obviously way too good at, it’s starting to get darker. I now have another stuffed animal, a cute giraffe that is bigger than my dragon and almost half my height.

So yeah, Theo is carrying it.

He won even more, but he ended up giving them to whatever young kids were around which made their night and me very turned on.

We’re walking for a bit longer when we run into a funnel cake stand that has a long line of people. “This was really fun,” I tell him. “Thank you for this. It was so thoughtful.”

“Of course,” he says, like it’s the simplest thing he could have done. “I would do anything to keep you smiling like you have tonight.”

---