Fake Marriage Box Set

“You gonna share any of that?” I asked Emma, who dug right in, tearing off a piece and putting it in her mouth before it’d even cooled. “Or should I get my own?”

She giggled, hiding her full mouth behind her sugar-dusted fingers. “You should probably get your own.”

I gave a look to Lacey, who pulled her plate of fried dough out of reach.

“Don’t think you’re gonna share with me, either, Pete Gains.”

“Well, goddamn!” I said, but couldn’t hold back the laughter when they both started giggling. We walked on, me stealing little bites of funnel cake from Emma’s plate in between her tearing off big chunks and sticking it into her mouth. As soon as they were done, we jumped on the Ferris wheel, the three of us cramming into a single car, with me in the middle.

“Damn, Pete!” Lacey complained, sticking her elbow into my ribs to get me to move over. “I didn’t remember your ass being so wide the last time we rode a Ferris wheel together.”

I elbowed her right back. “We were kids then, Lacey. Your ass was narrower, too!”

We kept up the ribbing the whole way, Emma laughing at us as we moved back and forth in the seat, trying to get it to swing as wildly as we could. After the ride ended, we wandered the midway, trying our hands at some of the games. Emma had a second funnel cake by then. She pointed at a stuffed horse hanging from one of the booths.

“That one looks like Elroy!” she said, and turned those gleaming green eyes at me, the smile on her face as bright as the flashing lights that had just come on as the sun went down. She had a little sugar on the side of her mouth.

“It does indeed,” I agreed and laid some money down to win it for her. It was the ring toss, which wasn’t my best game. I threw the first of three rings and didn’t get close. The second toss was better, and the third was worse than the first. “Shit!”

Lacey shoved me hard in the middle of the back. “Want me to win the horse for her since you can’t seem to?”

“I’ll win the stuffed toy for my girlfriend, thank you,” I said, giving her a nasty look before setting more money down. I won the damned thing on the second toss this time. I turned to hand the stuffed horse to my best girl, loving the way she grinned and hugged it to herself. She got up on her tiptoes to kiss me on the lips. She tasted like powdered sugar.

“Y’all want something to drink?” she asked. “I need something to cut through all that sugar.”

I gave her a ten dollar bill. “Grab me a beer if you don’t mind.”

“I’ll take a beer, too.”

I gave Emma another five and she went off, cutting across the midway to one of the booths that sold alcohol.

“How’re things between the two of you?” Lacey asked, looking over at me, her dark eyes gleaming in the flashing lights. “I know they got rough a few weeks ago.”

“We’re good now,” I said.

“I’m glad to see you so happy together.” I could see she meant it.

“I am, too. I almost lost her because of you, though.” I shoved her a little and she belted me one on the arm.

“The hell you did.”

“I’m glad you and her are such good friends. I’d really didn’t want to choose between you.” I smiled at her. She was already giving me a nasty face, expecting the exact smartass dig to come out of my mouth that I had planned. “I’d have hated to see you go, Lacey, after all we’ve been through.”

She just rolled her eyes, but I could see she was happy about the way things had turned out, too.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Emma

Sunday

We got the horses fed and worked early, and were just relaxing into the day, sitting on the porch with Riley snoozing between us, watching the day warm up into the afternoon. I looked over at Pete, smiling at the way the wind ruffled his hair. It was getting long on top. He’d need another haircut soon.

“Let’s go out tonight,” I said.

He raised his dark eyebrows at me, the surprise widening his blue eyes. “To dinner?”

I shook my head. “Let’s drive up to Austin. We can meet up with Jack and have dinner at Murdock’s. Kasey’s working tonight.”