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I raised my eyebrows. This was new. “What?”
“I look around and see if I can find the alphabet. It’s a game Fletcher used to play with us, although I’m guessing he learned it from Mom.”
My heart tweaked at the mention, at the soft look in his eyes. I knew his mom had passed of cancer when he was young. “A game sounds fun,” I said.
“Shall we play together?” he asked. “Bet I’ll get more letters.”
I chuckled. “I don’t see why not.”
After about ten minutes of racing to find letters and laughing more than I thought I would, Hayes and I were sitting side by side in chairs as the students started painting our skin. I watched out of the corner of my eye while a girl brushed tiger stripes on his cheeks. The poor thing’s hands were shaking, and her cheeks were flushed with shyness. Hayes Madigan wasn’t an easy one to ignore, even if he was just sitting there patiently.
The girl painting a princess crown on my forehead was chatty and talked my ear off about her art project she was working on for her senior capstone. I could hardly get a word in edgewise, which was a first for me.
Eventually, both our faces were painted, and I stood up, getting a view of Hayes’s face. He had a soft pink nose, a white puff of “fur” underneath, and orange and black stripes over his cheeks.
As soon as I giggled, he growled at me, which just made me laugh harder. He paid for our faces and tucked my hand in his while walking out of the tent with me.
So, Hayes was a hand-holder...
He ran his thumb over my skin, making a shiver go up my spine. No one simply holding my hand had ever made me react this way before.
We stalled off to the side of the face painting tent, out of the way of foot traffic. “What now, Della?” he asked, drawing me from my thoughts.
I smiled at the sound of my name on his lips and gestured toward the food trucks lined up farther down the road. “Usually I’d get a cup of cocoa and a funnel cake, but I know how you feel about hot chocolate.”
He rolled his eyes as we weaved through people on the sidewalk. “What if I told you that you were right?”
My eyebrows rose, and somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it must have lifted the crown painted on my forehead slightly. “What?”
“The mint hot chocolate is the best. Don’t make me drink the regular kind.”
I shrieked, utterly satisfied that he finally admitted it. “I knew I was right.” A few people stared as they were passing by, but Hayes didn’t seem to notice.
He gave me an amused look. “Ah, so you’re that kind of girl.”
“What kind?”
“The ‘I told you so’ kind.”
I chuckled. “Aren’t we all? Not saying ‘I told you so’ takes all the fun out of being right.”
He was smiling, but he didn’t argue and guided us through the people mingling about toward our next destination.
Farther down Main Street, there were several tables set up and food trucks pulled into a circle in the biggest intersection. I pointed out a red truck that had been my favorite year after year. This close, I could smell the food coming from the truck, and it made my mouth water as we stood together in line.
Hayes wasn’t much for small talk, which was fine. It was easy just to stand hand in hand with him. He only let go of my fingers to pay. And I was feeling a little spoiled by him. I glanced away to keep him from seeing my flushed cheeks, and that’s when I noticed my parents together in line at a different food truck.
And they saw me standing with Hayes, our hands linked. Dad looked pissed, and Mom wrung her hands worriedly.
Hayes followed my gaze, a worried look knitting his eyebrows. “Should I?—”
“Let me talk to them,” I whispered to him. “I’ll meet you at a table.”
I had to handle this before things got even more awkward.
24
DELLA