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He stared into my eyes for a long moment.
“And it’s not just because I can’t cook and you can and I might be getting a little addicted to your food.”
He laughed, breaking our hold to pull me against his body. He wrapped me in his arms and held me tight, and I rested my cheek against his chest.
I really didn’t know where this would go, but I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to find out.
And to think, it took me yelling at my brother to realize that for real.
“Is that it?” he murmured into my hair. “You’ve been weird all day because you yelled at your brother because you realized that you do actually like me?”
I nodded.
“Does that mean I can take you on a real date tonight?”
“As long as I can be in bed by nine.”
“I think I can make that happen.” He tilted my chin up and pressed his lips against mine in a sweet, slow kiss that just drummed in that this was the right thing to do.
He was the right person.
Maybe not forever, but he was for right now.
And I’d take that.
“Does that mean we’re dating?” I muttered.
“It does.”
“Damn.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN – PIPER
RULE SIXTEEN: DATES ARE WAY MORE FUN WITH YOUR EYES OPEN.
I shook my head emphatically as Maverick guided me off the rollercoaster. “I am never doing that again.”
“It’s a kid rollercoaster!” He laughed, steadying me. “How can you hate that?”
“It’s fast! I don’t like fast.” I pouted. “And bumpy.”
He rolled his eyes. “Okay, what now?”
“I never would have agreed to a date if I knew this was what you had in mind.”
“Let me guess, you were hoping I’d cook for you.”
“Little bit.”
He peered down at me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “That’s exactly what you had in mind.”
“Don’t judge me.” I sniffed. “I’m just not a funfair kind of person.”
Wasn’t that the truth?
I hated funfairs. I couldn’t believe there was one in White Peak right now—apparently, it’d come along for the half-marathon and had been so successful that the mayor gave them permission to pitch up in the park. The grass in this area would be wrecked for weeks, but as long as they paid taxes, who cared?
Not the mayor, that was for sure.
I hadn’t a clue it was here. Given that I lived three feet above where I worked, I had no need to come to this side of town. My friends, knowing I hated them, didn’t bother to tell me, either.
They knew I’d never come. And if I did, it’d be for the—you guessed it.
Food.
I did like funfair food.
“Okay, so what do you like to do?” Maverick asked, guiding me around a muddy puddle. “Eat the funfair food?”
“I feel judged.”
“No judging,” he said slowly. “Shall we go and find some food?”
“See, if you’d started with that, this date would be going so much better than trying to kill me with a rollercoaster.”
He laughed, and we went in search of the nearest food stall. It was a sweet treat one, but I was not in the mood for donuts or anything like that, so we continued on our search. We sidestepped a group of rambunctious teens and finally found a place with actual food.
Well, what constituted as normal food here.
We ordered fries to share, and I got a burger while Mav ordered a corndog. When our food was ready, we took it over to the nearest picnic table that was empty and sat down together.
“Do you know what’s weird?” I asked, dipping a fry in a little ketchup pot. “You sell a bajillion books and most people just don’t recognize you at all.”
He tilted his head to the side. “I guess, kind of. I don’t put my photo on my books, and I doubt most people here look at my website where it is. Even considering social media, they couldn’t pick me out of a lineup. Most people don’t recognize authors unless you’re a bonafide superstar or there’s something identifiable about you like a wild or bright hair color. But, if I told them my full name, there are a lot of people here would know who I was, probably. Women especially.”
“I just think it’s funny how you can be so famous yet so anonymous at the same time.” I chewed down a fry. “What a world.”
He watched me as I opened the cardboard container holding my burger and picked out the pickles then took a huge bite. “You really are just here for the food, aren’t you?”
“I’d prefer to be at home with no pants on watching you cook,” I said around my mouthful of burger.
“Can’t say I’m against that myself.”
I swallowed. “Lesson learned, then.”
“Hey, I didn’t know you wouldn’t be wearing pants. If you promise next time not to wear pants, I swear I’ll cook for you.”
“Done and done.” I grinned, grabbing a handful of fries and shoving them in my mouth.
