“Let me smell.” Minx sticks her nose in the candle and I giggle. “That does smell good!”
I smell some Christmas scented candles, finding a few I love.
“We can come back tomorrow to buy some if you want,” Rascal whispers in my ear.
I smile. “I’d like that a lot.”
He plants a kiss on my cheek and we keep walking. If I get the chance to buy all the things I want, the truck will be packed.
“There are so many amazing things here,” I say.
“Am I gonna have to limit you to what you can buy?” Rascal laughs.
“Probably!” I giggle. “It’ll be hard to narrow it down though.”
The closer we get to the carnival part, I notice there’s live music. The scent of deep fried foods filling the air causes my stomach to growl.
“What’s on the itinerary first, Romeo?”
“Some kettle corn and then we ride some rides.” His face resembles the face of a kid walking into a candy store.
“You love these things, don’t you?”
“Hell yeah. We grew up going to rodeos and carnivals every other weekend. It was practically the only thing there was to do,” he explains.
“I’ve never been to a rodeo,” I admit.
He stares at me, eyes wide.
“To be fair, I’m not from Texas, remember?”
“I’ll let that one slide, but we’ll be fixin’ that once we’re back home,” he promises. “We should figure out what else you’ve been missin’ out on. You probably have a whole bucket list of things.” He chuckles.
“Ha-ha. The sad thing is, you’re probably right,” I agree.
“You poor, sheltered, Princess,” he teases.
I swat at his arm playfully as we get in line for the kettle corn booth. They have a menu with maybe twenty different flavors.
“We’ll get two bags. A bag of traditional and whatever other flavor you’d like to try,” Rascal tells me.
“Hmm.” I mull it over, reading the menu. There are a bunch that sound delicious, like caramel, cinnamon roll, dark chocolate peanut butter, triple chocolate and white cheddar. “I want to try the cinnamon roll one.”
“Good choice. I’ve never tried that one,” he says. Once we get to the window, Rascal tells the girl our order. He hands her some cash and she gives him our popcorn. I take the cinnamon roll one, opening it right away.
I pop a piece in my mouth and moan. “Oh my God!”
Rascal stares at me. “Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Moan like that,” he says.
I laugh. “Sorry, it tastes fucking amazing. Here, try some.”
I hold the bag toward him, gesturing for him to take some. He grabs a few pieces, tossing them in his mouth.
“Holy shit. You were right.”
I give him a smug grin. “That happens a lot. Get used to it, Romeo.”
“That mouth is gonna get you spanked if you’re not careful,” he warns.
“You promise?” I wink and a smile stretches across his face.
“Do the two of you need to get a room?” Minx jabs.
“Nope,” I say.
“Maybe,” Rascal says.
Our different answers make Minx and Raze shake their heads and laugh.
“What rides are we checking out first,” Minx asks.
“Marley needs to experience them all,” Rascal tells her. “Let’s start with the Music Express.”
We walk over to the ride they decided on. The Music Express. Watching the ride while we stand in line, it rotates in a circle over a hilly track, going forward at first, then switching and going backward.
“This better not make me throw up,” I tell Rascal. He laughs in response. It gets to be our turn. We show the guy our wristbands and head on in, picking a random car and climbing in. The ride starts out slow. The faster it gets, I slide into Rascal. Every time I try to scoot back to my side, I can’t. I begin laughing uncontrollably. By the time the ride is done, I’m in tears from laughing so hard. We climb out and head to the exit.
“What did you think,” Rascal asks.
“I would definitely ride that one again.” I can’t fight the smile on my face.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” he chuckles.
We go on to ride more rides, like the bumper cars, the scrambler and a roller coaster. Once we hit most of the rides, we go into the fun house. That was interesting to say the least.
“Riding all those rides made me have to pee,” Minx says.
“Me too! Let’s find a bathroom,” I agree.
“There’s one by all the concessions,” Raze informs us. “We can get more food while we’re over there.”
“I’m fucking starving,” Rascal adds.
We get to the concession area and Minx and I head straight to the bathroom. We are in and out as quick as possible and wash our hands. We’re about to head back to the guys when Minx pauses.
“I swear they attract women with or without their cuts.” She rolls her eyes. “Come on, let’s go save them.”
I hold my arm out, stopping her. “Hold on. I want to see how Ras handles this.”
His back is to me, but by his body language, I can tell he’s not amused. The girl talking to him doesn’t seem to notice, or she doesn’t care. He turns his body so his back is to her. Irritation is written all over his face as she walks around and keeps talking to him.
“Alright.” I giggle. “Let’s go save them.”
We walk over to them and Rascal’s eyes light up with relief when he sees me.
“Hey, Princess.” He steps away from the girl, pulling me into his arms and kissing me. “Ready to get something to eat?”
“You don’t want to introduce me to your new friend?” I tease with a smirk. The girl glares daggers at me before huffing out a breath and stomping away with her friend in tow. Minx and I burst out laughing.
“Yeah, that was real funny,” Rascal deadpans.
“They would not take no for an answer,” Raze says. “It was fucking annoying.”
“Aw, you didn’t like the high schoolers flirting with you?” Minx pokes fun at him.
“Can we please get something to eat?” Rascal growls against my neck before kissing it.
“Lead the way, Romeo.” I grin.
28
Rascal
“What do you wanna try first? Corn dog, funnel cake, pretzel,” I ask Marley.
Her eyebrows draw together. “What’s a funnel cake?”
“It’s fried dough like a doughnut. The batter is drizzled into the oil so it doesn’t have an actual shape. You can get it topped with fruit, powdered sugar, chocolate syrup or honey,” I explain to her. “It’s delicious.”
“It sounds . . . interesting.” She giggles. “Maybe we should start with a corn dog.”
“You got it.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders, leading her to get corn dogs. I order one for her and two for myself, along with an order of fried pickles.
“Do you need any dipping sauce,” the cashier asks.
“Ranch and mustard, please,” I tell her. She hands me our food and we go sit at a table. Raze and Minx meet us at the table with their own food.