Page 119 of Just Like Home

“Yeah, I’ve never been to a fair.” She turned off the Bluetooth speaker and faced him. “Why?”

He shrugged. “They have corndogs and funnel cakes.”

She laughed. “Two things I cannot imagine myself eating.”

“Hey, don’t knock it till you try it.” He was trying to keep the tone light, but he feared he was failing. He didn’t do “light.” Heck, he didn’t even do “friendly.”

Apparently, he did do “forward” and, he feared, “creepy.”

“Nobody told me there was a fair in town,” Charlotte said.

“Just outside of town,” he said. “Small towns love their fairs and festivals. Pretty much one every weekend in the summer somewhere around here.” He watched her. “Wanna go?”

“Sure,” she said quickly.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She smiled.

Why did he feel like he’d just won the lottery?

And why did something like a warning bell ring out at the back of his mind?

Time with Charlotte was dangerous, but he wouldn’t do anything to risk his heart. Not again. He’d just take her out for fair food and make sure she had a good time.

Something she would’ve written about to Julianna if it had happened before his sister died.

Not a date. Just two friends hanging out.

Never mind that he couldn’t get her vanilla scent out of his mind or that he was resisting the urge to put a hand on the small of her back and lead her out to his truck, as if she needed guiding. As if she were his to guide.

“Well, I guess I can cross ‘going to the fair’ off my bucket list,” she said.

“Along with ‘eat a cinnamon roll,’” he added, opening the passenger side door to the truck. “And get flowers from a good-looking man.”

Her smile dazzled. Wow, she was pretty.

“And also ‘take a hopeless cause and teach him to dance.’” She pulled herself up into the truck and he closed the door, unable to keep from smiling at her flirtation.

Maybe it was dangerous. Maybe all this could ever be was him taking a girl to the fair for her very first funnel cake.

Or maybe this time it would be different. More like Julianna and Connor and not at all like he and Gemma.

Was it too much to hope for?

He didn’t know, but as he started the engine, he realized a very real part of him wanted to find out. He wanted to test the waters, to take a chance.

And while that excited him a little, mostly it scared him to death.

37

Charlotte and Cole maneuvered through the crowd of people, the smell of popcorn and something fried permeating the air. Twice she’d nearly been knocked over—once by a woman carrying not one, but two children (easily forgiven) and once by a guy on his phone who didn’t even say he was sorry (not so easily forgiven).

“You okay?” Cole said after the second one nearly landed her in the dirt.

She nodded.

“I’m afraid the fair isn’t making a good first impression.” He held his hand out to her, and she stared at it like it was a foreign object.

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