Page 70 of Ranch Rules

With a daring twinkle in her eye Natalie snatched off a large piece, popped it into her mouth and grinned at him.

“Maybe you’ve had a little too much fun. Maybe we should head home.”

Natalie’s eyes widened and she handed the cone back, chastened. “No, sir. I’ll be good, I promise. Can we stay, please?”

Thomas smiled and slung an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. “You be sure that you do. Hey, what do you say we ride the carousel?”

She nodded eagerly. “They always look like so much fun on TV.”

“You poor, sheltered thing. We’ve got a whole childhood to make up for.”

“Oh, it wasn’t so bad. My parents were great, you know. It was me. I’ve always been serious.” She wrinkled her nose and giggled. “Goal-oriented, my dad always said. You’d like them, I think.” Then realizing what she said, she looked away.

“I’m sure I would, little-bit. After all, they’d have to be great people to raise such a smart young lady.”

Her heart swelled. “So, carousel?”

“You bet.”

The lines weren’t too long and they had fun chatting in the meantime. Thomas, despite his protests, even fed her pieces of cotton candy until the cone was empty and wilted in his hand. She couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest girl alive and that was even before they took their seats on the carousel.

“It’s prettiest at night,” he told her, his tone apologetic.

“No. I love it.” The minute the ride began to move, she squealed and clung to him.

“It’s not a roller coaster,” he teased, but he put a reassuring arm around her just the same.

Natalie settled into him, looking out at the wide expanse of blue sky and the people, colors, and lights below them. It was beautiful. “I can’t believe I stayed home and read when my parents wanted to go to the fair.”

“Hope they were good books.” He tickled her ribcage, making her giggle.

“Not better than this.” She met his eyes, hoping he would hear all that she couldn’t put into words.

His teasing smile became a sexy, soft grin. And then he leaned toward her.

Natalie met him in the middle, and their lips touched. Softly, at first, but as the kiss continued it grew deeper, more passionate. When they broke apart, her heart was hammering in her chest in the most wonderful way.

Thomas stroked her cheek tenderly. “What do you say we head home?”

“Tired of me already?”

“Far from it, little-bit.”

Once they were let off, they walked together hand in hand, and Natalie knew he was feeling just as happy as she was. They were almost out when she saw the giant red cup over an Icee stand.

“Ooh, a Slurpee!” She tugged at his hand, turning to him with eager eyes. “Can we get one, please?”

“You’ve had more than enough sugar for one day, honey.”

“Oh, Daddy, please?”

She had surely found the magic words because his face softened at once. “All right, all right, I’ll get you a small.”

“But—”

“The correct response is, ‘Thank you, Daddy.’”

She bit down on her bottom lip, stopping the rest of her protest. “Thank you, Daddy,” she echoed obediently.

“There’s a good girl.”

Once he’d paid for her Icee they resumed the trek back to the car with her slurping happily. “Look at my tongue.” She stuck it out at him, making him laugh.

“Nice shade of purple.”

Natalie dropped his hand. “Wanna race back to the car?”

“No, I don’t think—”

“One, two, three!” She took off as fast as she could, but before she was out of earshot she was pretty sure she heard him mutter something about a ‘sugar coma.’

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