Or my ovaries.
What he did shouldn’t have been so hot, but it was, and based on the swooning going on around us I wasn’t the only one affected.
I continued to watch as he reached out and pried away a small handful of the blue fluffy sugar goodness. He then proceeded to stuff it in my mouth.
“What the hell, Ezra?” I chewed and swallowed.
He grinned, rocking back on his heels. “You were drooling. I was trying to clean up.”
“I was not drooling,” I defended, squaring my shoulders. “I was merely…appreciating the view.”
“Mhmm,” he smiled, biting his lip. He glanced away and pointed, “Let’s go over there.”
“To the games?” I questioned. “You know those things are rigged, right? They only want your money.”
“I think I can afford to lose a few bucks.” He winked.
“True,” I agreed.
He stopped in front of a booth, one where you had to throw baseballs at different targets.
“What do I get if I win?” Ezra asked the guy manning the booth.
“A goldfish,” the guy replied, pointing to where several goldfish swam in mason jars.
“Sweet,” Ezra rubbed his hands together, “Sadie, why don’t you think of a name for our future pet.”
I raised a brow, taking another bite of cotton candy. “Our pet? Do you really think I could manage to keep that thing alive for more than a day?” I pointed at one of the happily swimming fish. “I can’t even remember to feed myself.”
He laughed, ducking his head. “Fine, I’ll take care of it.”
He laid some money on the counter and the guy handed over several baseballs. “You get three tries on each target and you have to knock down all three targets to win.”
“Easy enough.” He smiled, rolling his shoulders.
He blew out a breath and I laughed. “You’re really taking this seriously, aren’t you?”
“I always take my balls seriously.”
I rolled my eyes and poked him in the ribs.
“Hey, you gave me the perfect opening. I had to take it.”
I shook my head, smiling even though he was ridiculous. I’d missed our banter though. It felt like it had been missing the last month, but with everything that had been going on and the months we went without speaking to each other it was reasonable for us to be a little wary around one another.
But now we were back to the old Sadie and Ezra.
Only we were sleeping together.
But that wouldn’t change our relationship.
Nope.
Definitely not.
I forced myself to pay attention to the silly game. He’d already knocked down one of the targets and had moved on to the second. That one fell too and he stepped over to line up with the third target. He missed, and then missed again. When he raised the final ball I couldn’t stop myself from lightly kicking the back of his knee. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt him, but it messed up his aim.
“Sadie,” he groaned, but then began to laugh. “You really don’t want me to bring that goldfish home, do you?”
I shrugged innocently. “I just thought you should work harder for Toby. You know, show him that you really want him.”
“Toby?” He raised a brow.
I feigned a gasp. “You said I could pick a name.”
“And you said you didn’t want a pet.”
“Well, I mean, I do already have a puppy.” I reached up, ruffling his hair.
He laughed and ducked away.
Around us strangers took photos and videos on their phones. I did my best to ignore them.
“You want the fish or not?” He asked, already pulling his wallet out of his back pocket.
I shrugged again, fighting a smile. “Only if you think your balls have what it takes.”
“You’re baiting me and it’s working.” He chuckled, smacking a twenty-dollar bill on the booth counter.
“That’s what I’m here for.”
The guy handed him his change and some more baseballs.
“You’ve got this, Ez.” I gave him a thumb’s up while making a silly face.
He batted me away and mumbled, “You’re distracting me.”
“Come on, you’ve gotta show Toby that you’re serious about this life-changing adoption. Work for it.”
“Shhhh,” he covered my mouth with his hand, “I can’t concentrate with you babbling.”
I licked his hand.
He lowered his head and muttered, “I should’ve known you’d do that.”
“I’ll be on my best behavior now.” I raised my hands and took a step back. I bumped into the solid steel wall of Kenny and stumbled. The large ogre of a man grabbed my elbow and immediately steadied me. Thank God for that, the last thing I wanted to do was fall and show the world my Britney. Granted, I was wearing underwear, but accidents happen.
Ezra successfully knocked down all the targets this time since I didn’t distract him. He gladly accepted his new pet goldfish with a boyish grin. As we left the booth a crowd of people rushed it, all of them now wanting to win one of Toby’s brothers or sisters.
It was getting close to the start time for their set so we didn’t have time to do anything else.
Jon and Kenny ushered us both into the talent tent.
“Dude,” we heard almost immediately, “why the hell are you carrying a goldfish?” Hayes strode forward, holding a bag of chips.
“I won him,” Ezra said, setting the jar down on a table.
Hayes merely shook his head. “How are you?” He asked, nodding at me.
“Uh, good.” I smiled awkwardly. Hayes was a nice guy and I felt bad about how things had gone on our date, but the way he acted he didn’t seem to have any hard feelings.
“Has Ezzie-poo taken you on a date yet?” He grinned, looking between the two of us with a knowing smile.
“No,” I said adamantly.
Ezra changed the subject by asking where his bass was. Hayes told him and he hurried off, leaving me alone with his band mate.
“So,” Hayes started, chewing on a mouthful of chips, “you two haven’t banged each other’s brains out yet?”
I rolled my eyes and took a seat on one of the plastic chairs dotting the tent.
“Why does everyone think there’s something going on with us?”
“Um…” Hayes looked at me like I was crazy. “Number one, we’re not blind. Two, the sexual chemistry stemming off the two of you is about to smother all of us. Just do it already so things can go back to normal.” He leaned his hip against a table covered in food, waiting for my reply.
I simply laughed. “You’re crazy.”
“Maybe,” he agreed, and tipped a finger in my direction, “but I’m not stupid.”
“Touché.”
Behind me the tent opened again and Mathias walked in. Immediately Hayes groaned, waving his hand dramatically at the lead singer.
“Duuuude,” he drew out the word, “you cannot wear a fucking nerdigan on stage. Plus, it’s like ninety degrees. Aren’t you dying?”
“What did you call my cardigan?” Mathias stopped in his tracks, glaring at Hayes.
“A nerdigan. It’s the proper name for it. Seriously, take it off. You look ridiculous.”
Mathias smirked. “If you wanted me naked all you had to do was ask.” His hands went to the belt on his jeans.
Hayes sputtered. “No dude, just the fucking nerdigan.”
Mathias shook his head and took it off. Hayes smiled in glee. “I’m only taking this off because it’s fucking hot out there and I don’t want to pass out on stage. So stop gloating.”
“I’m not gloating.” Hayes defended.
“You’re smiling,” Mathias’ glare was icy, “it’s the same thing.”
“Where’s Remy?” I asked.
Mathias turned his attention to me. His lips turned down into a deeper frown. “She doesn’t like dealing with the crowds now that she’s pregnant. It makes her nervous.”
“Her or you?” I countered.
His lips twitched. “Mostly me.”
“That’s what I thought.” I smiled. Mathias was crazily overprotective of Remy, but even pregnant the chick was a definite bad ass.