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She made a loop around to get to me, but it was too late.
The buzzer went off, metal scraped, and the bumper cars came to a rapid halt.
“What? No way!” She looked around, stomping on the pedal to force it to go.
“Ha!”
She looked up. “You so cheated.” She unclipped her seatbelt and stepped out of the bumper car.
“You keep saying that.” I slid out smoothly, landing on the metal floor. “But I think we both know that was a fair game.”
She came my way, a little light of fire in her eyes. She was ready to argue and I’m sure she was about to until I swung my arm over her shoulders and pulled her in close.
My gesture took her completely off guard, but she didn’t say anything. She was about to continue about my “cheating” but I’m guessing this was better.
“What was that about cheating?” I mused.
She looked up with rosy cheeks. “Oh, hush.” She looked towards the stand with the big, pink teddy bear.
I looked with her, stopping in my tracks. “Don’t worry. You’ll get your prize for effort.” I released her and walked towards the stand. “Come on.”
“Yeee!” Her squeal was shrill as she met at my side. I stopped at the stand, offering up the five bucks for a quick game.
“Five bucks for three darts?” I frowned at the guy behind the booth.
He held his hands out with an innocent plea. “I just work here, man.”
I shook my head, and threw one of them at the purple balloons at the very top. They were worth more points. Jenny waited at my side, anticipating the damn bear.
“Hey,” the man said, stepping closer and waving a finger, “aren’t you that fighting kid? Doomsday or something like that, right?”
I avoided his gaze. “No,” I lied.
Jenny stopped bouncing at my side, looking up at me. I could feel her confusion.
“Oh,” the man went on. “Could’ve sworn you were him. All those fancy tattoos. You’re huge too. Actually, now that I think about it, I think Doomsday might be a little bigger. Never mind.” He waved a hand. “You ain’t him.”
I scoffed. “Yeah.” This guy.
I threw the other two darts at the purple balloons, won the damn game, got Jenny her stupid teddy bear and walked away.
I stopped at the funnel cake stand and Jenny met up with me, but I could still feel the man looking at me, peering over the other heads to watch me.
“What was that about?” Jenny asked.
“Nothing,” I muttered.
“It was obviously something. Did you know him?”
“Nope. But he looks like he attends the fights.”
“He knew who you were. Why’d you deny it?”
I blew a breath. “Because if word got out, we wouldn’t be having a good time anymore. We’d be kicked out. No one trusts a fighter, especially an underground one.”
“Oh.” Her throat worked up and down. She then focused on her teddy bear and squeezed it against her chest, smiling. “Well, it’s whatever. Don’t worry about it. Let’s just walk away.” Reaching down, she grabbed my hand that was balled into a fist, and smiled so sweetly it damn near made me melt inside. Well, it more like cooled me down. “It’s okay, Drake. Let’s go this way.”
She turned and we walked through the busy crowd, hand-in-hand. She started for the exit, and when I realized we were nearing the gates, I chuckled.
“You are wild, Snoop.”
“What?” She winked over her shoulder. “A deal’s a deal. I’m good for my word.”
“Hmm.”
She released my hand and walked for the passenger door of my truck. I met at the driver’s side, swinging my door open. When we were inside, she placed the bear between us, and then buckled in.
I did the same, starting the engine right up. I didn’t drive off right away though.
“What’s wrong?” she inquired.
“Can I take you to one more place?”
She nodded eagerly. “Sure.”
It took twenty minutes to get back to Fox River. I drove slowly, knowing damn well there was a place I should’ve been getting to. It had no choice but to wait for me.
Jenny gasped when she noticed the lighthouse a few yards ahead. “Lake Ultimate,” she breathed.
I nodded, pulling to the side of the bridge, parking, and then turning the headlights off. I made sure to face the vast body of water, the moon that looked as if it were perched atop the rippling waves.
“This is so beautiful, Drake,” Jenny whispered quietly. She looked around, watching as the light from the lighthouse circled its perimeter. “Are we allowed to park here?”
“Probably not.”
She turned quickly to look at me. “Aren’t you afraid of getting caught?”
I scoffed. “Hell, no.”
“It’s considered trespassing this late. You could get arrested and go to jail.”
“Don’t you mean we could go to jail?” I was teasing her now.
Her face drew a blank, eyes wide. She didn’t know how to react.
