Page 82 of Make Her Mine

“Sorry, Travis,” Harlow says. “His kisses are all mine. These lips are off-limits to everyone else.”

Travis laughs. “Oh, come on, Harlow, what are we gonna do over here for an hour?”

She laughs. “Well, we’re willing to make a three-hundred-dollar donation to cover what Jefferson would typically bring in. And then Zach’s going to fill in for him.” She looks at Zach. “I know he can’t raise three hundred, but every little bit helps, right?”

Zach bristles. “You don’t think I can bring three hundred dollars?”

She shakes her head. “I really don’t. But hey, step right up and prove me wrong.”

I smirk. Not only is she going to get Zach off our asses for the next hour, but now she’s challenged him publicly. He’ll either double the donation which benefits the cause, or he’ll be embarrassed when he falls short. Either is fine with me.

“What do you say?” Travis asks Zach. “People are going to be a little disappointed that it’s not Jefferson but…”

I like Travis Bennett. And he’s a smart guy. He said exactly the right thing to get Zach to say, “Yeah, of course I’ll do it. Anything for the hometown.” He looks over at me. “No worries at all.”

And that’s where we leave him as Harlow and I stroll off across the square to enjoy the festival.

And we really do. For the rest of the afternoon we play games, we snack, we go on rides, and we spend a lot of time talking to friends and family, some who we see every day and some who are back in town for the first time in a long time.

I haven’t had this much fun in longer than I can remember.

Watching Harlow with the town is not something new for me. I’ve seen her interact with this community a million times. But doing it from right beside her, knowing that everyone assumes she’s my girlfriend, feels different.

It feels really fucking good.

The lights around the festival have just started to blink on, the multicolored bulbs on all of the booths and rides twinkling, throwing a rainbow-colored glow over the square, when we hear, “Harlow! Jefferson!”

We turn to find Graham, Margot, Sloan, and Mia coming toward us.

“We’re all going down to the river for a bonfire tonight,” Margot says. She pins Harlow with a look. “You’re coming out with us tonight. Both of you. Together.”

Harlow looks up at me. “What do you think?”

What I think is I want to prolong being able to hold her hand, stand close, and maybe even sneak a kiss or two, and I can definitely do that at a bonfire. Some of our friends who will be there know about our situation, but not everyone does. We’ll have to keep the ruse up. This is perfect.

“Sounds fun,” I say. “We should definitely go.”

She turns back to Margot. “We’ll be there.”

“Great. See you in an hour,” Margot says. “BYOB.”

They walk off to issue more invitations and I look down at Harlow. “How do you want to kill the next sixty minutes?”

“Maybe I should change,” she says looking down at the yellow sundress she’s been wearing.

The one I asked her to wear.

Okay, I told her to wear it.

I really, really like this dress. “Why would you need to change?”

“It might get chilly after the sun goes down.”

“There will be a fire,” I remind her. Then I slide my hand around her waist and pull her up against me. “And you’ll have a boyfriend there. It’s kind of his job to keep you warm, isn’t it?”

She doesn’t pull away, she doesn’t even tense. She looks up at me from beneath her lashes. “That’s a very good point. So, I guess we can just hang out here until it’s time to go.”

Fuck yes. Cuddling by a bonfire? Bring it on.

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