"Not a satisfied customer. Oh well," Rico told Sammy.
In the meantime, plenty of other people had gathered around the stuff that was for sale. Mitch was already taking one lady's money while she smiled at him like she would be happy to give him more.
Mitch wasn't exactly working hard to charm her, but then all he really needed to do was stand there in a white t-shirt that showed off his biceps, flash his blue eyes, and everyone with a pulse was throwing money at him.
Since they weren't needed, Rico and Sammy tried out one of the treasures they found among Grandma's things. It was a faded, pink hula hoop and they took it to the clear space on the side near Grandmother's table to try it out.
"I don't want to know why you had this," Rico warned his grandmother when he saw that she wasn't in the middle of a transaction just then.
His grandmother was determined to tell him anyway. "The way I could work one of those things when I was a girl. Oh, the things I could do. In my younger days, I could hook my leg..."
Rico had to jump in. "No, no, no. Stop right there, Grandma. No," he told her firmly.
"Spoilsport," she told him while Sammy looked between them curiously.
She and Rico took turns with the hula hoop but spent most of their time picking it up off the ground. Mitch watched them. By the look on his face, he wasn't impressed.
"You want to give it a spin?" Rico asked him.
He shook his head. "You're both so good at it. Show me how it's done," Mitch said.
Rico took the first turn. He was terrible. Then he handed it off to Sammy, and she was terrible too. She didn't seem to know it as she picked up the hula hoop off the ground and offered it to Mitch.
"We'll teach you how, Daddy," she said.
Mitch smiled and told her, "No, thank you, honey. You guys have fun."
Not long after that, Sam arrived with Lara, Gloria and Noreen, so he must have caught a ride with them from town. Sammy ran over to them to give her report.
"We have a hula hoop, and I got to put stickers on stuff," Sammy said and showed an orange sticker that was still stuck to her arm.
Gloria was impressed. "I love stickers!"
"Stickers are all done, but see what you can do with this." Rico handed off the hula hoop to her, but Lara tried to stop him.
"No, I want to see you work those hips," Lara told him.
"There isn't much to see, but I bet you could show us how it's done," Rico challenged her, but she shook her head.
Lara first checked that the girls were out of earshot. "Stacked girls can't do the hula hoop. It turns into porn. Ask Noreen to have a go. She's G rated from head to toe," she said as Noreen gave her the stink-eye.
"You're a terrible person," Noreen informed her then she went to join the girls and did the hula hoop pretty darn well.
"What was she complaining about? Look at that little swizzle stick go," Lara said then she gave them the happy news that Stella was long gone. "She never stays long. She doesn't like Peach Tree, and when I told her that Rico already stole Mitch away from her, she liked it even less."
"He didn't steal him," Sam said in Rico's defense.
But Rico was fine with that version. "No. I like it. Yeah, I totally stole him. I'm such a bad boy."
Sam laughed. That wasn't the reaction he was looking for so Rico glared at him. "Where's your man anyway?" he asked as Lara went to browse and say hi to Mitch.
"Wyatt and the boys will be here soon," Sam told him. "Then we'll be off to volunteer for the festival. How are things with you and Mitch?"
"I have one word for you. Skinny-dipping," Rico told him, but he couldn't say more because Grandma called Sam over. As he left, Sam gave him a look like he wanted to know more.
Rico wondered how much he should say about what happened. Mitch didn't like it when he overshared, but Rico wasn't sure where the line was.
He probably said more than he should have already, so why worry about it? But he did worry. It wasn't like him, but Rico didn't want to ruin what they had. And at the same time, he wanted to test if what they had was strong or so fragile that it would fall apart if he said one wrong word.
