He gave her a ha-ha look and she winked.
“Wait, a date,” Stacey said, ever adoring of a bit of good gossip. “Do tell.”
“Oh, just some guy. We have the same name, and he was cute.”
“Well, shit. Must be true love,” Luke said.
Isobel snorted.
“Luke’s grumpy,” Stacey said in a loud whisper.
“He hasn’t been getting much in the way of kisses,” Jordan replied in an equally loud whisper.
Stacey clucked her tongue and reached into her purse to give a dollar to Luke’s box. “Sorry, Jordan. You’re a doll, but Luke and I go way back.”
“Seriously?” Isobel muttered as Stacey jammed a one through the opening. “We haven’t learned enough from that mistake?”
“Don’t fret,” Stacey said. “My days of making out with this handsome boy are over, but a quick kiss can’t hurt us.”
She beckoned him forward with a finger, and he leaned down obediently, accepting her sisterly peck on the cheek.
When he pulled back, he caught Jordan watching them with an assessing look on her face.
“Okay, we’re off to indulge in an elephant ear,” Isobel said. “You two be good.”
Stacey blew them both a kiss, but before Luke could tell Jordan to leave Stacey alone—to leave them all alone—he had another customer. A cute twenty-something who may or may not have slipped in just a tiny bit of tongue.
Luke felt Jordan’s hot stare but refused to glance her way.
For the next twenty minutes, they both had an increased stream of people, mostly playful cheek pecks, although there were a couple of drunken dudes who’d come up to Jordan. Luke had been ready to haul them away, but Jordan took easy care of them with a few tart words and scathing reprimands.
He gave her an admiring glance. “You handle yourself well.”
“I’m from New York,” she said by way of explanation.
He nodded, but though he knew the words were true, it didn’t feel like she was from the big city. She was far too at ease with the smell of fried food, the grubby hands of the children who occasionally darted behind and between the booths, running headlong into knees. She’d laughed along with everyone when someone’s pig went racing through the game area and even hummed along with a band doing mediocre Lady Antebellum covers.
The two hours were over quicker than Luke expected—quicker than he’d like, knowing that Man-Jordan would be showing up any second to claim his Ferris-wheel date.
Vicky came scuttling over, waving her clipboard. “Kids! I’m so sorry I’ve left you this whole time; there was a mix-up over at the dunk tank and, well…you survived, didn’t you?”
She looked the two of them over, as though searching for bruises—or hickeys.
“I had a great time,” Jordan said, as Vicky reached up and flipped the sign to CLOSED.
“Luke, did you?” Vicky asked.
He shrugged noncommittally. “I survived.”
“Can I talk you into doing the afternoon shift?” she asked.
“Hell no.”
Vicky sighed. “I didn’t think so. Guess it’ll have to be Travis. He’s always a bit too eager to participate, but he does bring in good money,” she said, picking up Luke’s box and lifting it as though trying to gauge the weight of the paper money.
“I think City here probably beat me,” Luke said, nodding his chin toward Jordan.
Except she wasn’t there.