Page 42 of Fun and Games

Mason rummaged around in the bag and pulled out two energy bars. He handed me one in white packaging. It was vanilla flavored.

"You got me vanilla?" I asked needlessly, looking to Mason.

"It's your favorite, right?" he asked. "Most of the flavors in the stores I went to were chocolate or caramel, but I finally found one with vanilla."

He'd gone to more than one store just to find me a vanilla-flavored energy bar.

My heart thumped heavily, sounding loud to my ears. The ache in my chest was anything but painful. It was a sweet, giddy sort of feeling. A curious sensation filled my stomach. My insides felt as if they were melting, a hint of a crackling fire beginning to kindle within my chest.

"I hope it tastes good," he said as he unwrapped his. "If not, I bought an extra strawberry one. I remembered you said you liked that, too, even if it isn't your favorite."

My expression went soft, and I could only hope I wasn't wearing a besotted look.

Mason was a good guy. I liked him. For a while I'd worried I might like him too much. But his thoughtfulness, effortless and uncalculated, warmed me to my very core.

The thought that I might like Mason, that I might care for him in ways that went beyond friendship…

My heart still jumped with panic. I still got the urge to run. I wasn't ready for this. I couldn't risk getting attached again. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

But sitting there, in the back of that Jeep next to Mason, a part of me couldn't help but wonder…

Maybe I wasn't as broken as I thought.

Sixteen

"I thinkwe're nearing the end," Mason said. "What do you say we stop at the gift shop before we leave?"

"I wouldn't mind buying something." I'd spotted a cute, stuffed giraffe on my way in and had it in mind when we drove past a herd of live ones.

"Are you the kind of girl who still sleeps with stuffed animals?" Mason asked.

I gave him a peeved look, and he put his hands up.

"No judgment here," he said. "I was just wondering if I'll have a dozen beady eyes watching us go at it when I take you home and ravish you."

"Oh, is that what you're planning on doing after this?" I asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Do you have any objections?" he said slyly.

"Who's to say you'll be the one doing the ravishing?" I countered with a coy smile.

When the safari Jeep dropped us back off at the entrance near the gift shop, I went straight to the stuffed toys.

"Look how adorable this one is!" I held out a fat, squishy hippo with a wide open mouth and a pink tongue.

"He looks like he's getting ready to eat you," Mason said. "Watch out or he'll bite off your fingers."

I pretended to make the hippo chomp down on his hand with its soft, squishy teeth. Mason laughed. I put the hippo back on the shelf and picked up a lion with a wild mane.

"I like this little guy," I said. "He looks like Simba from the Lion King."

"His eyes are sewn on crooked," Mason said.

I turned the toy around to look into its eyes. It was true, someone had done a bad sewing job. Or maybe whatever machinery had put it together had malfunctioned. Either way, the eyes were lopsided, with one of them bulging out and the other sunken into the fur, making him look less like Simba and more like Quasimodo.

"That's just part of his charm," I said. "It makes him unique." I tucked him under my arm. "I bet he's still on the shelf because no one else will buy him."

"Are you taking pity on a stuffed toy?" Mason asked.