Page 106 of The Naughty List

I get the cups and pay the man before taking a cup over to her. She takes it and says, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She takes a sip and looks at me. “Is there alcohol in this?”

I laugh. “Yep.”

“I didn’t know they did that here.”

“So, what do you say to a carriage ride?”

She smiles. “I’d love one.”

I lead her over to the payment booth and pay the twenty-four dollars for the ride. We’re taken over to the carriage and she climbs up ahead of me. I climb up next to her and pull the thick fuzzy blanket up over both our laps. The horses start moving and a slight wind blows. I see her raise her cup to her lips as she holds it in both hands for the warmth. She shivers and I put my arm across the back of the seat.

“Come here,” I say. “Get warm.”

She smiles but scoots up to my side and I hold her close. Already, it’s warmer.

“We never did this before,” she says, looking up at me.

“Yeah, it always seemed like a couple thing back then.”

“I remember the day that we were here, I wanted to ask you to go on a ride with me so bad. I was looking around for you, and that’s when I saw you climbing into a carriage with Christina.”

“I didn’t know you saw that.”

She nods. “I did, and I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces. I cried and called my mom to pick me up early.”

“That’s why she came early?” I ask, looking down at her.

She nods.

“I didn’t know that.” She doesn’t reply, so I pull her closer. “I would have much rather rode with you that day,” I tell her and her eyes move up to mine.

“You would?”

I nod, then lean in, pressing my mouth to hers. This kiss is different from all our other kisses. Before, we always came together in desperation and need for one another or just drunken stupidity. Now, we’re coming together in love. I love Felicity more than anything else in the world. She’s always been top priority to me, even before I knew it myself. Our friendship turned into a crush, and that crush turned into love. All this time, I thought the love I had for her was based on our friendship, but that isn’t the case and I see that now. I am in love with my best friend. Only question is, what am I going to do about it?

When our ride ends, we get off and head over to the hot tent where food is sold. She opts for some loaded nachos and I stick with a BBQ sandwich and onion rings. We also grab a couple of beers to wash down our food.

We’re sitting alone at our pop-up picnic table when Greg walks over. “Hey, fancy seeing you two here…together.”

She smiles up at him. “Hi, Greg.”

He smiles down at her. “Hi, sugar.”

She laughs and rolls her eyes.

“You guys mind if I sit with you?”

I shrug and he sits anyway. “So, what’s been going on with you two since I last saw you. Did you two finally seal the deal?”

“Greg,” I warn.

Felicity holds up her middle finger.

“So, that’s a no,” he says. “You know, Felicity, I’ll take you back to my place and show you how a real man handles a woman. I know you’ve been thirsty for it since high school.”

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