“Is it just me or was Grams about to punch me in the face?”
“Bowen,” I sighed out. “You honestly didn’t think what you did would only hurt me, did you? You’re lucky Gramps still doesn’t know.” I turned away from him. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”
His hand went to my shoulder, and I stopped. “I’m sorry.” I heard the sincerity in his words, but I still doubted him. “I’ll apologize as many times as you want me to. Please, give me a chance to make it up to you today. If you still think you can’t forgive me, then I’ll leave you alone.”
“You’ll leave me alone?”
“So long as you give this afternoon a chance.”
I considered it while he bought tickets at the booth by the entrance. The festival was one of my favorite events of the year. I didn’t promise him anything when he matched his pace with my lazy stroll.
“Where’s Penny and Kyle?” I asked, searching the crowd for them.
A sad laugh reached my ears. “Penny fooled him into riding the Ferris wheel.”
My eyes bugged out. Kyle hated heights. I imagined him white knuckling the guardrail and taking deep breaths every two seconds. I laughed, too.
Bowen stopped and stared down at me.
“What?” I sobered. I lifted a hand to my nose and self-consciously rubbed. “Is there something on my face?”
“No.” He nudged my hand away. “It’s just been so long since you laughed like that around me. Nice.”
I ignored the heat in his gaze and headed toward the game booths. “Come on. Let’s see if you can still win me a bear.”
We passed a clown handing a toddler a red balloon and took a right at a mascot of an elk wearing a sign that read: HUNTING SEASON. Fifteen minutes and several dollars later, I happily clutched an enormous, stuffed rabbit while eating cotton candy.
“I forgot how good you are at target shooting.”
“I’m not that good. The booth owner just likes you.” He shook his head and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.
I offered him a fluffy, pink pinch. “Oh, come on, you held your own out there. I have Mr. Snuffles to prove it.”
He chewed. “You already named the rabbit?”
“Of course I did, isn’t that right, Mr. Snuffles?”
He pointed at Penny dragging a nauseated Kyle to another ride before the pair disappeared. I looked from the rabbit toward the direction of Bowen’s finger. I initially thought I’d need the friend buffer Kyle and Penny would provide, but so far, being with him felt normal. Just what I needed.
“Poor Kyle.” I sighed. “I wonder what Penny has on him.”
“I don’t want to know.”
Before I could turn my attention somewhere else, I spotted a familiar faux-hawk of dark chocolate hair in the crush of people. He stood in line for the Ferris wheel, wearing his usual long-sleeved shirt and jeans, but since the weather had gotten cooler recently, he had a jacket vest on. With a relaxed stance, he casually slipped his fingers into his back pockets, leaving the thumbs out. He laughed. A girl affectionately touched his arm.
I moved forward.
“Going somewhere?” Bowen asked after he handed his payment to the vendor for the supersized soda.
“Sorry. Didn’t notice you were buying something,” I said absentmindedly while anxiously waiting for him to get his change.
“Where next, boss?” He took a sip and offered the giant cup to me.
I waved off his offering. “Can we go on the Ferris wheel?”
His lips pulling up into a slow smile, he willingly led me to the line. Right then I was too irrational to think of the consequences of that smile. If I hadn’t seen Dillan with some girl, I wouldn’t have even thought to ask Bowen to the Ferris wheel. When we reached the tail end of the queue, I finally recognized who he was with. The pair stood about three couples ahead.
“Constance.” My voice had enough venom to poison everyone within a five mile radius. All thoughts of being friends with her went out the window.
“Who?” Bowen looked around.
“I can’t believe Dillan has the nerve to bring Constance to the Fall Festival.” I motioned with my chin toward the front of the line.
“The new guy?”
“Don’t sound so confused. I thought Constance had more sense not to fall for his fake charm.”
“I thought you didn’t like the guy.”
“I don’t.”
For the whole wait to get on the Ferris wheel, I whispered my disappointment at how Constance let herself fall into Dillan’s trap. When Bowen and I finally got on the ride, I told him about how much of a jerk Dillan could be. I bitterly recounted every mean and nasty thing he’d put me through—omitting all the other heart pounding moments, of course. Bowen joked about the situation. His humor earned him another few minutes of how guys always ended up protecting their own. Bros over hoes and all that crap. By the time the ride ended, I’d worked myself up into such a coil that Bowen’s temper snapped.
“I thought you just needed to vent, but now I think you’re actually jealous.” He towered over me.
Anxiety filled my stomach like a fizzy drink, but I stood my ground. “Jealous? Don’t be dense. I just spent the whole ride telling you how much of a jerk Dillan is.”
“My point exactly. You let him get under your skin so much that seeing him with another girl makes you angry for no reason.” He gestured toward the direction Dillan and Constance went after getting off the Ferris wheel.
Our raised voices drew in a crowd.
Ignoring the people around us, I continued my rant. “I’m not jealous! Maybe you’re the one who’s jealous.”
“Don’t I have the right to be jealous when the girl I’m trying hard to win back is drooling over another guy?”
I paused, unable to speak for a couple seconds, trying to process his words. “You’re trying to win me back?” I parroted.
He heaved a heavy breath. “Yeah.”
“No one told you to do that.”
“Free country.”
“See, that’s your problem.” I poked his chest. “You don’t listen to me.”
“Don’t make this about me!” He ran his fingers through his hair, disheveling the dark, sun-kissed strands. “You’re the one with a problem.”
Like something in me snapped, I calmed down. Ice froze my insides. “Thinking that I have a problem is what got us here in the first place.”
He held up his hands in apology. “I don’t think—”
“Tell me this, Bowen. Did you cheat on me to make me jealous?”
He blinked at me, stunned. “I…I…Selena, you don’t understand.”
“I thought so.” I pushed the rabbit into his arms and marched away without looking back.
…
Snaking my way through the throng into the flea market, it dawned on me that when it came to all things Dillan, I was certifiable and the people around me became collateral damage. Meeting him changed me somehow, and I didn’t know if it was a good thing.
I ran a hand through my wild hair and had to tug several times to free my fingers. Frustration boiled in me. In search of a distraction with some retail therapy, I scanned the stalls.
A jewelry merchant caught my eye. The booth had multi-tiered displays with scarves scattered everywhere as accents. I studied rings modeled by ceramic hands. When nothing jumped out at me, I moved on to a row of small hooks where necklaces with assorted pendants dangled.
A squat man whose beer-belly plumped up his gypsy costume came over. He had an easy smile. “Find anything you want?”
“Not yet.” I returned his smile and noticed a glass case with more necklaces. A thin, silver chain with a perfectly circular pendant called to me. I looked at the gemstone and saw a soft blue light glowing from within the white clouds.
“That’s a moonstone.”