Page 84 of If It's You

“No.” Maizie rolled her eyes. She pulled her hair to the side and turned her back to him. She waited. Just when she thought he might have disappeared, a feather-light touch tickled the back of her neck. A surge of electricity shot down her spine.

“I’m closing my eyes,” he whispered. His breath tickled her neck as his fingers slid the zipper down slowly. His fingertips grazed her skin, and she sucked in a breath. She needed to get out of this dress before she passed out. She reached behind her back and connected with his fingers clasped around the zipper.

“That’s good.” She ran to the house, every nerve ending in her body on fire. She slid into the downstairs bathroom and stripped off the dress, but it didn’t take the tingles with it. She didn’t think she would ever get rid of those.

* * *

Christian duckedinto Grandma’s car and sped out of the driveway. But he couldn’t stop his heart from racing no matter how fast he went. Holding Maizie in his arms, touching her neck and back like that, it was. . . wrong. That’s what it was.

He had come to the farm to forget about a girl not fall for the first one he saw. He couldn’t fall for the girl who nearly drove him mad every day. He wouldn’t let himself.

He drove back to the park, now alive with people, games, booths, food tents, and bounce houses. There were so many people it took a while before he found anyone he recognized.

“Oh, hi, dear.” Grandma gave him a big hug. “Did you get my granddaughter all figured out?”

“Ha!” Christian laughed at Grandma’s choice of words, then scowled. He could live to be a hundred years old and still never figure out that girl.

Grandma smiled knowingly. “I just saw Lyla over by the food tents if you’d prefer the company of another young woman.”

Christian held back a groan. Did she do this to all her grandchildren? Or just the temporary ones?

He found himself walking in Lyla’s direction anyway. She would have to be his distraction.

“Hi!” Lyla spotted him before he made it to her.

“Hi,” he said.

Lyla twisted her light blond hair in her fingers and bit her bottom lip.

Christian remembered Maizie doing the same thing. But when Lyla did it, he didn’t have the same urge to kiss that lip.

Enough about Maizie.

“Do you want to play a game or get some food?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said with a smile.

Christian bought them each a snow cone as they walked around playing random games.

“You should do the foot race,” Lyla said to him. “I bet you’re fast.”

“They do that? For adults?” Christian looked to the edge of the park where Lyla was pointing. Sure enough, there was a group of people racing down the width of the park. They walked closer, and Christian heard the announcer holler out the age group for sixteen-year-old boys.

“You should do it.” She insisted.

“Nah, I don’t think so.” Nothing like a grown man racing to impress a woman. But did he even want to impress Lyla?

“There’s a prize for the overall winner in the over-eighteen age group.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, sometimes it’s actually pretty cool. My brother Luke won a few years ago and got a laptop.”

Christian could definitely use a better laptop for college. He didn’t have nearly as much money left in savings as he needed. He really should have taken more time during his senior year to look into scholarships instead of avoiding life.

“Hmm.” He watched the boys race down the field.

“Hey, man, you gonna race?” Rob thumped him on the back.