Chapter 15
“I hate this. Why did we have to come here?” she said in a bitchy tone as she looked around the large carnival with disgust. “If I had known we were coming here, I would have stayed home. God, have you ever heard of a restaurant? That’s where I should be eating, not something on a stick like some slob.
” She flipped her long hair over her shoulder as her glare locked on them.
Jason glanced at Mitch, whose jaw was clenched tightly. The man did not look happy and Jason didn’t blame him one bit. If Jason had known that she was going to act this way, he never would have suggested coming here, or at the very least, he wouldn’t have brought her.
Personally, he loved carnivals and theme parks.
He couldn’t pass by one without stopping in for a fried treat and a few rides.
Mitch was the same way, which was why they were here.
They came to have a good time. Instead, they were stuck listening to this woman bitch and whine.
She’d started as soon as she’d heard their plans for the evening.
As soon as she found out, she’d put her foot down and demanded that they take her to a nice restaurant. She’d been outvoted and offered a ride home. She’d refused. Jason knew that she’d decided to come along just to make their lives a living hell for not jumping to meet her demands.
“We can go on the bumper cars or the Ferris Wheel,” Mitch started to suggest.
She folded her arms over her chest and glared, just glared at the man. Mitch cursed under his breath. She turned her cold glare on Jason and he didn’t bother hiding his eye roll. This was ridiculous. There was no way he was letting her wreck his good time.
“Jason!”
He turned around and his frown was instantly gone, replaced by a pleased smile.
He watched as his little grasshopper quickly walked towards him, grinning from ear to ear.
She had a stuffed animal, a snake from the looks of it, around her neck, a large soda in one hand, and her other arm wrapped around a fake sword, a teddy bear, and the largest piece of fried dough that he’d ever seen.
As she got closer, he could see that it was generously covered in powdered sugar, making him lick his lips as he thought about licking powdered sugar off her delectable little body.
“Look what I won!” Haley said, practically beaming with excitement. It was hard to believe that someone loved these places more than him and Mitch, but apparently, Haley was that person.
When he’d told her where they were going today, she’d squealed excitedly and threw herself in his arms. He’d laughed so hard that he’d almost dropped her.
This was their first date since they’d come together a week ago and thankfully, he’d chosen well.
He would have liked to have been able to take her out sooner, but they’d both been swamped with giving final exams and going over final grades.
School was over now and they had the whole summer together.
“This is so much fun!” Haley said, seemingly oblivious to Mitch’s date’s attitude or she simply didn’t give a damn. He suspected the latter. His little grasshopper didn’t let things bother her.
“Where did you get all of this?” Jason asked as he leaned in for a kiss and a bite of that fried dough.
“Oh, um,” Haley gestured with her drink towards the direction she came from, “after I hit the bumper cars, I couldn’t resist the basketball game or the darts and then I smelled the fried dough, and,” she shrugged. “I guess I got distracted.”
“I thought you had to use the bathroom. We’ve been standing here waiting for you for over a half-hour!” Mitch’s date, Sue or Jude or whatever the hell her name was, pointed out.
Judging by Haley’s expression, she’d forgotten all about the bathroom and just remembered that she had to go. That was confirmed a few seconds later when she shoved her drink, food, and winnings in his and Mitch’s arms and took off running.
Jason took a huge bite out of the fried dough and sighed happily. No doubt, he was going to have to hunt his little grasshopper down in a few minutes near some game or ride and carry her to the bathroom.
Mitch looked down at his arms, frowned and then looked at all the stuff Jason was holding. “How come you got the sword? I want the sword.” He reached out to snag the sword only to have Jason bitch slap his hand away with the fried dough.
“My sword!”
“Jerk,” Mitch mumbled as he continued eying the sword.
Jason looked thoughtfully down at his sword as well and took another bite. “We could always go win another one and have a sword fight.”
“Sweet!” Mitch said. Yeah, they were big kids when it came to carnivals, but who fucking cared?
“I’m not going anywhere,” Mitch’s date said, intent on wrecking their good time.
Mitch shrugged. “Well, then have a good night.”
Haley added a sniffle to her pout.
Jason chuckled. “I don’t care. You’re not getting it back.”
“That’s not fair! You’re just mad because I kicked ass!”
Mitch rubbed his shoulder while he glared down at Haley. She bit her lip and took a step back, ducking beneath Jason’s arm. He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head.
“Fine, keep the sword. I don’t care,” she said in a sulky voice. Mitch muttered something and sighed heavily.
“You want to go on the bumper cars again?” Mitch asked with an easy smile. He’d never seen his friend forgive anyone so fast before, but of course, Haley had that effect on everyone. It was hard to stay mad at her. She was too damn cute for her own good.
“I suppose we could do that,” Haley said, already tugging Jason towards the bumper cars. “If you insist, that is.”
Jason looked back in time to catch Mitch leering at Haley’s ass.
“That was so much fun,” Haley said dreamily as she pulled her shoes off.
“It was okay,” Jason mumbled.
For the past four hours, Jason had been uncharacteristically quiet. He didn’t seem to do much more than glare at Mitch. A few times there, she thought he was going to kill his friend. She wasn’t sure what she’d missed or if she should even get involved.
A few minutes later, they were naked and crawling beneath Jason’s sheets. That’s when he really frightened her. He didn’t kiss her or touch her. In fact, he didn’t even glance at her breasts and Jason always looked. Always. They were like magnets for his eyes.
Now, he was lying on his back with his arms behind his head. He made no moves to get closer to her or to pull her against him. He was truly starting to scare her now. She rolled over onto her stomach and watched him for a moment.
“Are you okay?” Haley finally asked.
He shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“You’re quiet.”
“I just don’t feel like talking.”
“Do you want me to go home?”
He hesitated before answering, “No.”
“Then, what do you want?”
“Nothing. I just want to lay here.”
“So, you just want to lay there and nothing is wrong,” she said, summing it up.
“Yeah.”
She rolled her eyes. It seemed she didn’t have much choice about getting involved now. It was either that or get up and leave because she wasn’t about to stay here for another moment of this.
Before he could stop her, she was up and straddling his hips where she made another shocking discovery.
Jason wasn’t hard. Jason was always hard when they were in bed, in the shower, or making out on the couch, and all those times in between.
She was pretty sure that he would never have to worry about needing Viagra.
He made no attempts to push her off, but he didn’t look at her either.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s wrong,” Haley said softly.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Don’t make me use my fists of fury to get an answer out of you,” she threatened.
His lips twitched, but still, Jason said nothing.
“Okay, you just lay there and sulk, then. I’m going home,” she said, moving to climb off him.
Jason’s hands shot out, gripping her hips to stop her.
She raised an expectant brow.
He sighed heavily. “You pissed me off.”
Well, that was totally unexpected...sort of.
“Hey, I said I was sorry about hitting Mitch with that sword. How was I supposed to know it would leave a welt?” Haley demanded defensively.
“That’s not what I’m talking about. That didn’t bother me.”
“Is it because I kicked your ass at skeeball?”
“No! And that game is rigged anyway, so it doesn’t count.”
“Riigghhht,” Haley said, drawing out the word. She thought over the rest of the night and couldn’t figure out what she’d done. “Okay, you’re gonna have to help me out here because I’m drawing a blank.”
“I’m pissed because all those men hit on you and not once did you tell any of them to fuck off because you had a boyfriend!” he snapped.
Her face went blank. She blinked once and then again. Then, she burst into uncontrollable laughter.
“It’s not funny,” Jason snapped, but that only seemed to make her laugh harder.
All day at the carnival, he’d been forced to watch men notice Haley.
Every time she smiled or laughed, they smiled as if they just couldn’t help themselves.
Every time she jumped up and down excitedly, their eyes zeroed in on her bouncing assets.
He’d caught them checking her out and sending her appreciative looks all night.
Mitch, the rat bastard as he was now known, completely ditched his date and focused entirely on Haley.
It only got worse when they went to Joe’s Tavern. The place was large, homey and clean and today, Joe put out a huge buffet. So, with an all-you-can-eat barbecue and several flat-screen televisions and five pool tables, the place had been packed.
When Haley went up to get food, they crowded her, offered to carry her plate, get her a drink, sit with her, and scoop her food.
When she played pool, and she really sucked at pool but clearly loved it, they offered to “show” her how to play.
Two guys had the balls to send drinks over to their table while she was with him.
Several actually had the balls to come over and flirt with her in front of him!