Unfortunately for her, it hadn’t even made my cock twitch.
“What are you looking at?” Halley snapped, turning to me with a flick that made her hair go even wilder. “Do you want a picture?”
“Whoa, where did that come from?” I held up my hands. “I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“No, but you’re looking at me as though you’ve just seen a bunch of nudes and are figuring out how to exploit me.”
“That’s an interestingly accurate situation. Have you been there before?”
“Preston, fuck off.”
I got up and jumped off the stage. “Hey, what’s up?” I moved the ropes to the side and walked over to her.
It was against my better judgment, I won’t lie. Approaching an angry Halley was probably close to waving a red flag at an angry bull.
She huffed, turning, and hit me with a dark look. Her bright blue eyes were red hot, flaring with the annoyance she wasn’t bothering to hide at all. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“Any woman who says that she’s fine is not fine.”
“I said I’m fine.”
“Any woman who repeats that she’s fine is definitely not fine.”
“Any man who keeps harping on at a woman who’s said she’s fine is cruising for a bruising!”
“Feisty.” I grinned and put my hands in my pockets.
“Don’t, Preston.” She dropped her purse on the ground and fluffed her hands through her hair. “I have to switch on and pretend like I want to be here today when I don’t, all right? Just leave it.”
I looked at her for a moment as she pulled a mirror out of her purse, flipped it open, and checked her reflection. After a moment of looking, she pulled a tube of lipstick from her purse, too, and uncapped it.
She applied it expertly, painting her full lips in a scarlet red color that matched both her glasses and earrings today.
Don’t ask me how I knew that. I didn’t want to fucking address it right now.
Halley pressed her lips together before she put a folded up tissue between them, blotted her lipstick on it, then checked herself again in the mirror.
I would never understand women.
She stood up and tucked the tissue into her ass pocket. “Let’s do this. Joe! Let ‘em in!”
I paused as she flicked her hair over her shoulder and jumped up onto the stage, taking her stool and plastering a smile on her face like she hadn’t just been snapping at me.
The curtains swished, and I stepped up onto my side of the stage and sat on the stool. There was barely any room between us, but that didn’t stop me from leaning back and saying, “I know you’re not fine.”
“Shut up, Preston.”
“We’re going to talk about this.”
“No, we aren’t!”
“We are.”
“We aren’t!”
She got the last word because the curtains opened fully and allowed in the people who’d been waiting outside. My line was a mix of young women and older ones, from twenty-somethings to at least seventy. Halley’s was more focused on the teens and the older guys, but there were a few men in there close to our age.
I ignored how my stomach flipped with annoyance.
She could kiss anyone she wanted, just like I could.
I had no claim to her.
That didn’t mean to say I had to like it.
The only way I’d get through this week would be if I actually got to kiss her so I’d stop thinking about it for ten minutes.
“Hey, Halley.” I leaned back closer to the curtain.
“What?” she hissed back.
“Wanna make a bet?”
“Not with you.”
“Why? You afraid you’ll lose?”
She snorted. “I don’t lose bets, Preston.”
“Then bet with me.”
“Ugh. Fine. What’s the deal?”
“I bet I’ll kiss more people than you today.”
“Done. How much?”
I smirked with a glance at my line. “Whoever loses has to line up on the other side of the booth and add another kiss to the winner’s tally.”
Silence.
“Halley?”
“Fine. You’re on. You’re going down, flower boy.”
I covered a laugh with a cough as Lindsay Rinna approached the stage for my first kiss of the day.
It didn’t matter if I did go down.
Either way, I’d kiss her by bedtime.
***
The soft, hot pretzels burned my hands through the thin napkins I’d been given to carry them. At five bucks apiece, you’d think they’d give you a paper plate at the very least.
Or two napkins.
I wasn’t fussy.
I shouldered my way into the tent. We’d finished the second session of the booth and were waiting for the third to start. I hadn’t eaten all day since my earlier break had been dedicated to helping my parents at their stall since Reagan had weaseled her way out of it this year.
I was starving. I was tired, I was hungry, and I needed a goddamn beer.
I also needed a Chapstick.
If anyone ever thought kissing a bunch of women was a dream come true, I had a disappointing dose of reality for them.
All it’d given me was chapped lips and a case of sexual frustration.
“Here.”
Halley looked up from her phone, her eyes widening when she caught a glimpse of me. “Is that for me?”
“Nah, I’m eating them both. I’m just holding one out to you to tease you.”
She pursed her red lips, her gaze darkening ever so slightly. “You’re hard work, Preston.”
I shrugged, shooting her a half-grin. “Careful. It’s hot.”
“Thanks.” She put down her phone and took the pretzel from me. “Ouch. Crap, you’re right.” She immediately laid it on her lap and licked her fingers. “Aren’t they doing paper plates anymore?”
I shook my head.
“I’ll have to talk to my father.”
“You sound like Draco Malfoy when you say that?”
She’d just ripped a bite of pretzel off when she looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Wrong. If I sounded like Malfoy, I’d have told you that my father would hear about it. I just said I’d talk to him.”
“Perks of being the mayor’s daughter, right?”
“Hardly. He’s never listened to my suggestions.” She shrugs. “Neither does anyone else, to be honest, even when they really should.”
“Like what?”
“Like when I tell my mom that three marriages are more than enough for anyone and she doesn’t need a fourth.” She paused for a moment. “I think she just likes the weddings.”
“She gets to be a princess and be the center of attention. Don’t most women love that?”
The shudder that wracked her body told me that Halley was not most women.
“No, thank you. I can’t think of anything worse than being the center of attention for an entire day just because I fell in love with someone.”
“You’re the center of attention during the fair every year.”
“Wrong. I’m a mild sideline attraction, and it’s all for charity. That’s different. I’m not doing this for me. I’m doing it to help other people. This booth has raised a thousand dollars for the last four years because people pay more than a dollar. Then my dad quietly matches the donation. Two thousand dollars is a lot of money to the charities we help.”