“Hey, Haskell,” a woman said as she approached and stopped in front of him.
Haskell Pancake, er, Panchak. What a name.
“Evelyn,” he said, his voice lower and less formal. He was still smiling, though.
“I, uh,” she glanced at Kalista, then looked at him again. “Can I ask you something? In private?”
“Sure.” He stepped out of the line.
“I can wait until you get your cake,” Evelyn said.
He scoffed. “Already had three today. Won’t hurt to miss the fourth.”
They walked away, and the line was finally making some progress. When Kalista reached the window, she was practically starving. “One funnel cake,” she said to the attendant. “Small.”
The lady manning the booth looked at her like she’d grown a third ear. “We make one size and one size only.”
Kalista’s eyes widened. She’d seen the plate-sized portions as people had gotten their cakes. No way she could eat all that... not at once anyway. “Okay, a one-size-fits-all will be fine.”
Within a minute, a fresh golden, crispy funnel cake appeared on a paper plate. The woman sprinkled a mountaintop full of powdered sugar over it. “That’ll be two dollars.”
Oh no. Kalista didn’t think to bring any money. Wait, she didn’t have any money, and she didn’t think to ask Viv for any.
“Ma’am, there’s a line behind you.”
She smiled, trying to play it off. “I’m Viv’s stepdaughter,” she name-dropped. “She’s good for it.”
“Who’s Viv?”
“Bo’s fiancée.”
The woman’s thick brows furrowed. “I don’t know any Bo or Viv.”
“Bo owns this farm,” a teenage kid behind Kalista said.
“I don’t live ’round here,” the woman said. “We just come to different festivals in the area. And this funnel cake is still two dollars, ma’am.”
How embarrassing. She couldn’t even pay for a lousy funnel cake. “Never mind,” she said, moving to step out of line.
“I got it.”
She turned to see Tyler standing close by, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out his wallet, handed two dollar bills to the funnel cake lady, then walked away.
Kalista grabbed her plate and hurried after him. “Tyler!”
But he didn’t turn around. Just kept on walking.
How confusing. If he was still mad at her, then why did he pay for her cake? And if he wasn’t mad, why did he ignore her?
The wafting scent of fried dough and sugar distracted her thoughts, and she sniffed the plate. It smelled heavenly. She took a big bite and almost fainted from the deliciousness. “Where have you been all my life?”
Chapter 13
As he and Jade went to the double-deep-fried corn dog booth, Seb’s thoughts spun. He hadn’t expected her to be at the hoedown, or to look so enticing. Her outfit was simple— cap-sleeved hunter-green top, perfectly fitting jeans, the same tennis shoes she wore during her dumpster dive, that luscious auburn hair falling in waves over her perfect shoulders. He couldn’t recall what he had for breakfast this morning, but he couldn’t stop memorizing every physical detail of Jade Smith.
Then there was the Skee-Ball game. He played a few times when he was a kid, and he was never all that good, preferring ring the bottle and baseball toss games. But he was willing to give it a try anyway. Then he saw the competitive spark in Jade’s eyes, and a jolt went through him. This was the side of Jade he knew was buried deep beneath her business demeanor. Fun, playful, and for a few minutes, relaxed. He didn’t even mind that she won in a spectacular, and possibly embarrassing—for him— manner. He wouldn’t care if she beat him ten more times if he could regularly see her smile as brightly as she did when she won the neon pink polar bear.
Then he’d asked her about playing the game as a kid, and thelight dimmed. He was unsure why, although she had recovered well.
