Ch. 29: Hay Ride

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:

We caught up to Ally and Joey who were watching Nick finish his turn on the jumper. I noticed Nick stiffen at our approach.

"Hey! You made it!" Ally exclaimed in our direction.

"Yeah, I had a family thing, but it's good to finally be here. What have you all been up to? Sean talked to Ally.

As we got up closer I saw this look on Evan's face I couldn't quite place. He was definitely not happy at us, or maybe it was at Sean?

"We've been having a blast dude, Ally and I raced each other in those bubble things over there. These are Rachel and Ally's friends Evan and Nick," Joey gestured at the guys as Nick walked over, his turn now over. I didn't realize Joey and Sean knew each other. "You should've been here when Rach was racing that guy Jake, it was d**m hilarious," he added smiling.

Evan and Nick stood by me, looking down their noses at Sean and I didn't know why. I felt an urge to introduce them.

"Evan, Nick, this is my boyfriend Sean. He goes to Pacific with Ally, Joey and I," I said, forcing a smile. Something about their moods made the air suddenly stifled with seriousness and I was desperate to hold onto our easy silliness from earlier.

The stone-serious facial expressions I got from them made me think that was not going to happen any time soon.

"Hey," Sean said, seemingly unfazed by their cold demeanor.

Ally and I shared a look, and before she could say whatever she was about to say, Joey chimed in, "Well, I think we're ready to move on, huh? What's next?"

Bless that boy.

His words reminded me of the cotton candy, "Oh yeah, I know just the place!" I sang out and pulled on Sean's arm.

I led us back towards the cotton candy booth and luckily no one was in line. Sean offered to pay for mine and he was first in line getting me a pink cotton candy. Joey and Ally were next in line and Nick and Evan were just standing on the sidelines, still stone-serious.

"You guys alright?" I asked them, eyebrows pressed in confusion.

Evan cracked his neck and started, "I - We - just don't-" before Nick interrupted in a loud and harsh tone, "WE'RE FINE."

I was about to press Evan on what he had started to say but just then Sean came up holding my cotton candy. I smiled at him. Ally and Joey started walking to us from the booth. That's when Evan made a very strange noise, like a low grumble mixed with a cough.

Nick eyed him and he announced to all of us, "Uh sorry guys, looks like we've got to go. We totally forgot about this thing we have to get to." He nudged Evan twice with his elbow until Evan finally grumbled and turned around.

Ally and I looked at each other silently, saying 'that was weird' with just our faces.

"Uh," I said loudly as they started to walk off, "Bye!"

I watched them go for a minute until I felt something at my lips. I looked at Sean and saw him grinning as he held the whole cotton candy cloud at my face. Something about the way he didn't seem to notice the guys' weirdness made me smile, and I thought Wow I guess he really only has eyes for me. Which of course made me feel warm and fuzzy all over. It was just really - nice.

"Okay, onward," I declared, mouth full of dissolving cotton candy.

We played two booth games before Joey and Ally decided to go off and start their tennis date. Joey gave Ally an out, but she still wanted to play. I thought she also just wanted some alone time with Joey, but whatever she needed to tell herself…

Sean and I went back to the large game areas and played the gigantic version of chess, then moved into the line for Giant Candyland. The grass had markers all along the floor here, indicating the different squares you could land on after spinning the giant wheel. Sean let me go first and I picked a candy queen mask to hold over my place, he picked a candy joker mask. Our group of six participants took turns spinning the wheel and moving forward. Initially I was making great pace and Sean was way back with this other girl.

"You know it's not as fun when I just dominate like this!" I shouted at him, making him laugh.

"Yeah you just wait!" he yelled back.

A few spins later and he really was catching up. I spun and got stuck for a turn in the sticky licorice forest. He moved past me, and as the game neared an end it was pretty much between me, Sean, and a girl in Meg's grade. In the end he won.

"You know what? I think you cheated somehow and I'll be needing a rematch later," I told him jokingly.

"I didn't cheat," he responded seriously. "That's nearly impossible in this silly game. It's all chance."

I was taken aback by his tone. Hadn't he known I was only teasing? My face fell.

"I - Sean, I didn't mean that. I was just joking. You know, like gaming smack talk…" I responded, my voice getting smaller, pleading.

His upset face suddenly changed 180 degrees and he smiled. "Yeah! Of course! I know that," he said. The abrupt change threw me off. I was thrown. This was so out of character for him - he's never snapped at me like that before.What was this obvious fake smile he was using now?

"Oh come on, now," he said, voice lowering, "I was only teasing back, I wasn't being serious." His hand came around to take mine, and I stepped back but he caught it. The contact calmed me down and I let it go, my face relaxing. I nodded at him, smiling, glad this weird moment was over.

"What do you want to do next?" He asked, motioning around, and I refocused my attention on the fair around me.

I spotted the pony guy and knew immediately, "Let's go for a ride!" I pulled him along and he laughed at my enthusiasm.

The pony guy was this older guy who had grown up in Melbourne his whole life. His family owned one of the oldest homes in the area, it was also one of the largest. He had a sizable house on it as well as a little barn and some land. He owned a few ponies as well as two horses. He was known for bringing his horses and carriage out at every citywide event and offering people free hay rides.

We stood in line for our turn and didn't quite make it onto this group's ride so we had to wait. The group left and the horses started clopping down the street.

Sean looked at me inquisitively and asked, "So are you, like, really into horses?"

"I don't know about horses specifically. Animals, yes. Cats, dogs, rabbits, all that. Not so much reptiles, but definitely mammals," I informed him.

He smiled, "That was a very specific reply. I take it you've thought about this a lot?"

"Yeah, I've got to be fair. I can't just go throwing around the word 'favorite' to just any specific animal," I added.

Sean went on to ask me questions about the fairs in years past and I chatted away giving him more details than he could ever possibly remember. I was like an encyclopedia of this town and its fairs and I couldn't help but pour out all that I knew.

Suddenly he asked me, "So what was with you and that Jake guy Joey was talking about?"

I was a little thrown, but responded, "Uh, nothing really. We share friends. I've known him a long time…"

"And that's all?" he asked, skeptically.

"Yes, honestly" I said definitively. "I used to have a crush but that was forever ago and nothing ever happened."

"Hmph," he sounded back.

At last the group returned and started getting off the wagon. Sean helped me up like a gentleman and I noticed that the other people who were standing behind us earlier must have left. We were the only ones here.

"Oh, that's alright. You two can be my last two passengers for the day. These two are getting tired," the pony guy told us both. He shut the little red gate and walked up to his post.

Off we went. The horses trotted lightly and took across the street, and up two blocks. I pointed out different people's homes to Sean, and shared a short story or two about a few of them. He seemed really entertained by my story telling. The wagon rounded the corner and we trotted on, the sun was past its peak and the breeze felt really refreshing, prompting me to take off my jacket. In the middle of another anecdote, my eyes skimmed across the face of a very large dog. My eyes darted back, trying to look again and yes, there was a really large dog looking at us from between these bushes. Husky? Some sort of herding dog for sure. But the bushes were in between the houses of some older folks I knew, and they didn't have dogs.

I stopped mid-sentence in my confusion, and I opened my mouth to say something when Sean's face appeared in front of me. So incredibly close. It was such a surprise I sucked in a breath, and in that instant - he leaned forward and kissed me.

My head swam with thoughts, emotions, and everything was like background noise as the electricity from his kiss screamed out over everything. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I heard the sound of a dog whining, but that's when he took his hand and pulled me closer as he deepened our kiss.