36. Grace
Chapter 36
Grace
I’m so excited to go to the county fair I can barely sit still in the pickup. The men tease me, but I don’t care if I’m acting like a five-year-old—and besides, I know they really think it’s cute.
I always loved the county fair growing up. It was one of the big events of the year. The renaissance fair is a lot of fun and we’ve had that every year too, but that was more of a place to go for art and theater-esque performances, and a lot of the people who came in were artists and performers from out of town who will travel from fair to fair all through the year.
It was great, but it’s more Aiden and my mom’s thing. My thing was always the county fair. It’s everyone from all over, all the people in the 4-H clubs, the local knitting societies, the ranchers, the Girl and Boy Scouts… all the people I knew from the local area coming in and having a crazy fun time. There are rides that feel like they’re going to shake apart while you’re on them, tons of cute animals to pet and enjoy, fun competitions, and all the bad-for-you guilty pleasure food you can stomach.
I excitedly chatter about it as we drive out. “Should’ve made a checklist,” Jesse teases me as we pull into the massive parking lot.
“Let’s just make sure you eat your corn dog and cotton candy and cupcake the size of your face after you go on all the rides,” Easton points out, laughing.
“Okay,” I challenge, “so who’s going to go on the rides with me?”
“Cade!” Hendrix and Jesse insist, grinning at each other and then at Cade in a way that makes me think Cade was just offered up as a sacrificial lamb.
We park and head inside. I’m practically bouncing—I had forgotten how much I loved things like this and I’m so excited to be back.
“Okay,” Jesse announces. “Animals first, right? They’ll be taken in to go to sleep soon if we wait.”
I agree, and quickly follow him to see the demonstrations of the animals and the showcases. We’re just in time to see the prizes awarded for the various animals such as best in show for chickens, bunnies, and calves. It’s adorable.
The men speak in my ear, explaining the different things about farming and the animals that they know. None of us know anything about bunnies, but we know a bit about chickens, and the men know a ton about horses and cattle.
After that, we move onto the rides before I get too hungry. Cade joins me, and I get the feeling he’s a bit sick. He has a weird look on his face that makes me laugh and also fills me with sympathy, and I thank him with a kiss afterward. I had a lot of fun—I love that feeling in your stomach where it feels like it’s flipping around and flying out of you while you’re being spun around and dropped from tall heights.
“You’re wobbling,” Hendrix says with a laugh when we get off the tilt-a-whirl and I stumble around.
“Worth it,” I insist, grinning at him, even though he does look a little wavy in my vision.
He just laughs and puts an arm around me to help steady me until my vision fixes itself.
After the rides, it’s time for food. Hendrix loves the same junk food that I do so we end up stuffing our faces. The other men are a little more restrained in their food choices, but that’s okay. Hendrix eats however much of the food that I have leftover, because I want to try everything but have only so much room in my stomach, so I end up eating just a few bites of some things.
There’s mac n’ cheese fried on a stick, deep fried ice cream, deep fried Oreos and Klondike bars and deep fried cookie dough. There are tacos, chocolate milk made of milk right from the cows, fried chicken, BBQ ribs, corn roasted with spices, chili cheese fries, funnel cake, and my absolute favorite: apple cider donuts.
“You two are absolutely insane,” Jesse notes as Hendrix and I cackle gleefully over our food like we’re witches in Shakespeare.
“You only get all this once a year!” I point out, and it’s true. Sure, I can get some stuff like a good BBQ every so often, but the crazy snacks, the spiced corn, the rich desserts… it’s something you only get here, and that’s what makes it special.
“Well, when you’re finished trying everything, I’m going to kick your ass at the ring toss.”
“That’s what you think,” I warn him.
I’m not usually competitive, but Jesse brings it out of me like nobody else. It used to drive me insane. I thought he hated me, and I thought that all the times he would challenge me or tease me, it was him genuinely trying to one-up me.
Now, though, I know how he really feels, and it’s fun.
We finish eating and Jesse leads me to the arcade and carnival row, a whole line of booths on either side with fun games. I imagine this is probably what going to the circus felt like, back when they were popular, enjoying the little carnival section before heading into the big top.
Jesse has a wad of cash to get us chances on the games, and we have fun competing back and forth. The other three wander off or watch us, but I’ll be honest I don’t quite notice, because I’m so caught up in kicking Jesse’s ass as hard as I can.
There are all these fun prizes you can potentially win, usually stuffed animals. This one booth is overflowing with them, including a gigantic stuffed pink bear.
“Oh, hey. I wanted a bear like that once as a kid.” I had forgotten about it until I saw it again. “I remember begging my parents but they said no. It would’ve been tough to haul it back in the backseat with Aiden and me, and I think it was only winnable, not buyable, and Dad didn’t have the money to waste trying to win it for me.”
“Huh,” Easton says.
“Wildcard!” Jesse yells. “Time to prove your honor!”
I grin and hurry over to him, joining him at another game.
Everyone who meets us—both random people playing with us and employees working the booths—takes one look at me with the cowboy hat on my head and smirks. I know that they know, with my playing with Jesse, that it’s his. And they know what my wearing it means.
It makes my skin prickle with heat, but it also makes my chest warm. Damn right, this cowboy is mine.
Easton and the other two wander up after I’ve finally beaten Jesse in the water squirt gun game. He beat me in the throwing darts at balloons game, so now we’re even and need a tie breaker.
I frown. “What are you carrying?”
It’s the gigantic pink bear I pointed out. Easton hands it to me. “It’s for you.”
I clutch the bear to me, my heart swelling with joy. I know that it’s just a silly bear, and I’m not a nine-year-old kid anymore. But it still means so much to me that he went out of his way to get me something, especially something that he instantly knew would mean a lot to me. No hesitation, he just… did it.
Easton’s so kind that way. So thoughtful. It means the world to me.
I clutch the bear to my chest. It’s almost as big as I am. “Thank you Easton, seriously.” I get up onto my tiptoes and brace a hand on his chest to kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“Easton?”
We all turn in time to see none other than Easton’s grandparents walking up to us. They’re wearing some strings of colorful beads that I know are a prize for a fishing pool game, and have big smiles on their faces.
“Nan! Grandpa!” Easton strides over and hugs them both. “I didn’t know you’d be here today.”
“As if we’d ever miss the county fair,” his grandmother says. “We might be retired, but we still like to get out and enjoy life. And this is one of our favorite events of the year.”
“It’s lovely to see you both,” I say earnestly. “I’m glad you’re having fun.”
“And it’s good to see you all having fun!” She winks at Easton. “Someone here is clearly having fun. Did you win that bear?”
“I bought it,” Easton admits, a bit sheepishly.
“Bought!” His grandfather fake gasps in outrage. “You’re supposed to win the prize for your girl, did we not raise you right?”
I laugh and the other three men grin wolfishly at Easton, who glares at them. “Oh, don’t you all start.”
“We’re so glad we ran into you,” his grandmother continues. “You seem so happy and goodness knows you could use a lot more of that! I wonder why…”
She winks at me, and I can feel myself blushing. When I glance at Easton, he looks like he wants to blush too and is trying valiantly to hold it back.
“Well, it is nice to have her around, I suppose,” he says. “Another pair of hands to help with the chores.”
“Hey!”
“Oh, that’s why he looks happier than we’ve ever seen him,” his grandfather teases. “He finally found someone else to do the laundry. He always hated that.”
I know they’re teasing, but I can’t help but stop breathing for a moment when I hear him say happier than we’ve ever seen him. I don’t think they’re kidding about that.
And that makes me happier than I can say.
We chat for another few minutes, then Easton’s grandparents excuse themselves, saying they need to get home and go to bed. It is starting to get late, dark all around us, the fairground lit up like an oasis of light in the wide dark of the country.
After playing some more games and finally having a tie breaker with Jesse, I’m hungry again, and so are the men. So we head to get something else to eat, then we decide to go watch the musical performances.
As we walk, Jesse teasing Hendrix for being unable to decide what to eat so he got five different things again, Easton pulls me in close with an arm around me. “It’s true.”
I look up at him. “What?”
“What my grandparents said, about—about how happy I am.” Easton’s face is a little flushed, his eyes soft and vulnerable. “It’s true.”
My heart thuds in my chest. “Me too,” I whisper back to him.
I really can’t remember a time I’ve felt this happy. This content .
Before I can examine that or start to worry about what that means, I hear a low whistle that sends a shiver down my spine. “Well, well, well, look what we have here.”
I suddenly wish I hadn’t eaten so much as I look over and see the McAllisters standing there. All three of them look both disturbingly happy and angry to see us, and I find myself pressing in close to Easton instinctively. But I don’t want these men to notice that I’m uncomfortable, so I force myself to square my shoulders and stand strong.
“Fancy seeing you all here,” Travis drawls, taking a few steps closer, trying to crowd us in. I can see Kyle and Leon moving on either side of him, as if they’re trying to box us in like a pack of wolves.
Jesse and the others don’t move, jaws set and eyes glittering. My heart swells with pride at their courage and strength. They’re not easily intimidated.
“Wow, amazing, we’re at a county fair that everyone here attends. What a shock,” Hendrix says dryly. “You could knock me down with a feather.”
“You four, stomping around like you own the place. Like you’re the golden boys.” Travis snorts derisively. “Somebody’s gonna knock you down a peg someday soon, and you’re going to learn that you’re just like the rest of us.”
“We’re not the ones who are arrogant or have an attitude problem,” Jesse replies.
“No, you’re just the dirty thieves who can’t stand to see someone else trying to be successful.”
“That’s what you think happened? Might want to get your head checked, see if you’ve gotten kicked by your horse too many times. Because I knew you were dumb, but now you’re also delusional.”
“I’m neither, and you’d be smart to start respecting me and mine.” Travis gives a slow ugly smile that I don’t like. Objectively, he’s a good looking guy, I suppose. But there’s something about how he holds himself, the expressions he makes, that contorts his face and makes him look wrong.
“I’ll start respecting you when you give me a reason to respect you,” Jesse bites out, his calm demeanor finally cracking and revealing the righteous anger beneath.
“Oh, I’ll give you a reason,” Travis replies. That ugly smile of his morphs into a snarl. “You took something of ours. We just might fix to take something of yours.”
It doesn’t seem like an idle threat, either. My heart races as my mind darts back to what the men said to me back when I first came to the ranch—about how they’d combined Easton’s family ranch with Jesse’s in order to keep both ranches going. I know that it can be hard to keep making a living this way.
The idea that the McAllisters could ruin the ranch and destroy the livelihoods of my Alphas makes my stomach go cold with fear.
I feel all four Alphas tense and the air between the two groups grows cold. Jesse and Cade both look like they’re going to launch themselves at Travis. Easton takes a small step forward to put himself between me and the McAllisters.
For a second I think they really are all going to fight each other. I find myself shaking with adrenaline and anticipation. It’s out in public, plenty of witnesses, and yet it feels like we’re all alone, a bubble of violence that’s about to pop.
I’m not sure what changes. Maybe Travis realizes that three against four isn’t quite a fair fight and he’s not sure he and his two pack mates can win it. Maybe they don’t want to draw a crowd. Maybe they’ve got a shred of honor left in them and don’t want to get into a fight where an Omega might get hurt.
But the tension slips out of Travis’ shoulders, and the fire of anger in his eyes dims a little. He takes a small step back. “We’ll be seeing you all. Watch your backs.”
He turns and storms off, Kyle and Leon following.
I shiver. Easton keeps his arm around me, securing me, but I don’t feel safe. I know that they’d do anything to protect me, but it’s not myself I’m worried about. It’s the four of them.