“Oh yeah?”
I yank him by the wrist toward a neon stand. “Bumper cars, round two. The loser buys lemonade.”
Fifteen minutes later, we’re both laughing so hard I almost forget what my real name is. Hedoeslose—spectacularly—and when I hand him the world’s most overpriced lemonade, he takes a sip, grimaces, and declares it “absolutely worth the public humiliation.”
“I’m saving the receipt for my therapist,” he adds. “Gonna say it’s when my delusions of masculinity died.”
I roll my eyes. “You rammed meonce.Then spent the rest of the ride apologizing like you’d bruised my ovaries.”
“Because you shrieked!”
“I shrieked because I waswinning.And because the steering wheel came off in my hand.”
“Not my fault you picked the death trap car.”
I hum around my straw. “No regrets. I looked hot.”
“You did,” he says, so simply it stops me mid-sip.
And there it is again—that brutal honesty. The kind that creeps in when you least expect it and plants something stupid and warm in your chest.
I duck my head and fake a cough. “Okay, calm down, Romeo.”
He chuckles, scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry. I’m just—this is…”
“Surreal?” I offer.
“Yeah.”
We keep walking, past twinkling lights and kids screaming on spin rides, past games rigged to hell and teen couples making out beside trash bins. My shoes are starting to stick to the pavement.
And I feel... more like myself than I have in months.
Not CottonCandyKisses. Not a camgirl, not a brand, not a business. Just me. JustCove. A girl in a short skirt and sticky thighs, falling too fast for someone who shouldn’t matter this much.
Goddammit.
“You okay?” Everest asks softly, like he can read me.
I nod, too fast. “Yeah. Just thinking.”
“About?”
I tilt my head at a ring toss booth. “How I could definitely beat you at that.”
His mouth quirks. “Is that a challenge?”
“I’m undefeated in plastic ring warfare. Don’t try me.”
We stop to play. I win him a stuffed raccoon that looks sketchy as hell, and he acts like it’s the greatest gift anyone’s ever given him.
“My first fan gift,” he says.
“You’ll treasure it always.”
“‘Til I’m dead,” he promises solemnly.
Time gets weird after that.
