“I don’t know,” I say. “I’ve never been to a fair before. What’s 4H?”
Darla’s mouth drops open in surprise before she shouts, “Double date!”
“What?” Rhett asks, his eyes wide.
“Come with us. It’ll be a double date, and Carter won’t feel like drivin’ off a bridge with you there, Rhett.”
Looking over at my pretend date for the evening, I give him the biggest smile I can muster. “I’ve always wanted to go to the fair. Do they have those deep-fried sandwich cookies?”
“You’ve had them before?”
Shaking my head, I clasp my hands in front of me to beg. “No, but I want to try them. I tried to make one at home once, and Istarted a grease fire. It also wasn’t very good, and Mama about had an aneurysm.”
“You really want to go? On a double date to the county fair?” Rhett asks, his face serious.
I nod and smile even bigger until my cheeks ache. “I really do. Oh, do they have a Ferris wheel? I’ve always wanted to ride one. They always look so romantic in the movies.”
“I can’t believe you’ve never been to a fair,” Darla says. “Never?”
Shaking my head, I look at her. “Mama had very particular feelings about them, so I wasn’t allowed to go. And then things never aligned once I was old enough to make my own decisions,” I say and turn back to Rhett. “Please, Rhett? Pretty please?”
He sighs and gives me a smile. “Of course, we can go tomorrow.”
Darla slaps her hand on the table. “Great! It’s a double date. We’ll meet you there around six?”
Chapter Eight
Rhett
Brynlee nearly bounces in the passenger seat next to me as we drive to the fair. When I picked her up, she all but ran outside in a pair of jean shorts that show off her amazingly toned legs, a tight, white tank top that accentuates her curves, and her hair up in a high ponytail with her curls from the night before grazing her shoulders. Not that I’m paying that close of attention to her appearance or anything…
“Rhett?”
“Brynlee?” I ask with a smile and turn to look at her once I’ve found a parking spot.
She turns and rests on her hip to face me. “Is this a date?”
Darla kept saying double date, likely to push something. “Do you want it to be a date?”
“There you go again. It’s like we’re playing a game with a set of rules I haven’t learned yet.”
She sounds so frustrated that I can’t help it. My hopes are high. “I’d love for this to be a date, Brynlee,” I say, deciding to take a chance.
“Okay, good. I was hoping you’d say that.”
My stomach flutters, and I hurry to open her door. Holding my hand out, she tilts her head to study me, making me nervous. Has she just changed her mind? “What?”
“Do you do this for everyone or just me? The door thing.”
“Women, usually. I don’t feel the need to open the door for Carter and offer my hand to him when we go someplace. To be fair, he’s never done it for me, either, which is just rude.”
“And here I thought I was special,” she says, taking my hand and letting me help her to the ground.
My free arm reaches for her hip to help her avoid the puddle from last night’s random rainstorm. “You are special.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” she says. With her sneakers, the top of her head barely reaches past my shoulders.
“It is.”
