Chapter 1 #2
“Look here, folks,” the barker called out. He was a large man with a yellow T-shirt and a purple Bryant Bros. Carnival baseball cap. “We have a winner.” He bent down, holding his knees. “You want to pick out a large stuffed animal for your uncle?”
Sammy uncrossed his fingers, arms, and legs. Tapping his chin, he looked at all the toys. “Hmm,” he hummed. “I’m not sure.”
“Not sure?” Aiden echoed. “A minute ago, you said you had one picked out.”
“I just want to take one more look.” He tapped his chin once more. “I got it.”
“What do you want?” asked the carnival worker.
“That one.” Sammy pointed.
The man grabbed the foot of a large pink bear. “This one?”
“The one beside it,” said Sammy.
The guy moved to a cheetah in sunglasses. “This?”
“The other side,” said Sammy, still pointing.
With skinny green arms, a large head, and huge eyes, it was a Martian.
“Him?” the carnival worker asked, his tone dubious.
“Yeah,” said Sammy with a smile. “Him.”
“Here you go,” said the worker, handing over the toy.
Sammy hugged the Martian to his chest. The doll was almost as big as the kid. “I love him,” he said, giving the toy a hug. “I’m going to name him Aiden. Aiden the Space Alien.”
Aiden never thought he’d be flattered by having a green dude as his namesake. As he watched Sammy hug his prize tighter, his chest expanded with love and pride. “Let’s find my sister and show her what you got.”
“There she is.” Sammy pointed to a group of three people. His sister, her fiancée, Ryan Palmer, and Aiden’s mom, Emily, stood in line next to a soft serve ice cream truck.
“C’mon.” He held out his hand. “Looks like they’re getting dessert. Want a hot fudge sundae?”
“Hot fudge is Aiden the Space Alien’s favorite.” Sammy slipped his hand into his. “And I love it, too.”
Until a month ago, he hadn’t put much thought into being a dad.
But having Sammy come into his life had changed things.
In fact, now he couldn’t wait to be a father.
He just hadn’t had a girlfriend in a long time.
Then again, living in Red Grove made it hard to meet someone new.
In a town like this, Aiden was related to half the single women.
And the other half? Well… He’d known them so long that they might as well be family.
His mom looked up as he approached. She waved them over. “We’re next. What do you two boys want?”
“Aiden the Space Alien loves hot fudge,” said Sammy, holding up the Martian.
“Wow,” said Ryan, scooping up the kid and the toy.
Ryan was an ER doctor, who helped Matti when Sammy got caught in the cross fire of a shoot-out.
After an eventful month, Aiden’s baby sister was now engaged.
Maybe that was another reason he had started to think about having a family of his own.
“That’s a pretty impressive prize you have. ”
“Uncle Aiden won it for me. He had to get five rings on five bottles, and he did.”
“Good job,” said Ryan, holding up his palm.
Aiden gave him a high five. It didn’t matter that they were grown men. If it made Sammy happy, he’d do almost anything.
His mother walked away from the ice cream truck’s window holding three cups. Matti had two, along with several plastic spoons. “Hot fudge sundaes all around,” said Emily.
Aiden took one of the cups from his mother and a spoon from his sister.
“Here you go.” He handed both to Sammy.
Ryan set the kid on the ground.
Emily held out a sundae and spoon to Aiden. “Thanks, Mom.”
As a group, they walked toward a cluster of picnic tables.
Aiden scooped creamy and cold ice cream into the spoon.
He swirled it through the gooey and warm sauce and stuck it in his mouth.
The sweetness from the ice cream blended with the bite of the fudge sauce.
“Perfection,” he said, licking the spoon clean.
Sammy stuck his spoon in his mouth. “Perfection,” he parroted.
Matti and Ryan, with Sammy between them, lagged behind Aiden and his mother.
“Sammy seems to like you,” said Emily.
Aiden liked the kid, too. Still, he said, “It’s all because Matti brought him over to see the fire trucks.”
“Well, whatever the reason.” She stopped at a picnic table and kicked her leg over the bench to take a seat. “I’m glad that he’s a part of our family now.”
Aiden sat across from his mother and took another bite. “Me, too.”
“How’s work?” she asked.
“You know,” he said. “Busy. I’m at the station all the time.”
“Oh.” His mother seemed to deflate a little.
“What’s the matter?”
She smiled and waved away his question. “It’s nothing,” she said, lifting the spoon to her mouth to take a bite.
“If there’s something you need, then it’s not nothing.”
“It’s my dishwasher. It’s not working. The warranty is up, and I hate to throw it out.”
“I can come over and take a look,” said Aiden. He mentally flipped through his calendar. “Sunday morning?”
“So long as it’s not a bother.”
Since his parents had divorced, he’d made it his mission to take care of his mother. She was a capable woman and would have done just fine on her own. But the truth was, he liked being the one she called. “You are never a bother, Mom.”
Matti and Ryan caught up. They took their seats at the table, and for several minutes, the five of them ate their ice cream in contented silence.
“Can we come here tomorrow?” Sammy asked.
“I don’t know,” said Ryan. “I have a shift at the hospital in the morning.”
Emily, Matti, and Ryan kept talking about who had time to come back to the fair and when. Aiden had a shift at the fire station tomorrow as well. But he wasn’t really listening. His attention was on his foster brother, Ted.
He stood at the edge of the fair and was talking to a woman with long blond hair. She wore a flannel shirt and jeans that hugged her curves in all the right places. She was one of the most beautiful women Aiden had ever seen—and what’s more, he’d never met her before.
“Hey, Sammy,” he said, knowing full well that he was using his nephew to get an introduction to the beautiful woman. “You want to go and say hi to Uncle Ted?”
The kid stood on his seat, bouncing on his toes.
It seemed like all the sugar had gotten into his system.
Aiden wondered how Matilda and Ryan would get Sammy to go to sleep.
Then again, his sister was a social worker and Ryan was a doctor.
They’d figure it out. “I see him.” Sammy pointed. “I see Ted.”
He hopped off the bench and ran toward the mayor. “Uncle Ted.”
“Hey, Sam. Come back,” said Ryan, rising from his seat.
“I was the one who got him all wound up,” said Aiden, standing as well. “I’ll go get him.”
He trotted after the kid. By the time he caught up with Sammy, the boy was holding up his space alien toy. “He likes hot fudge,” he said.
Ted glared at the child. “Can’t you see that I’m in the middle of a conversation?”
Sammy took a step back, his eyes wide. “Uncle Ted?”
“Hey.” Aiden put his hand on Sammy’s shoulders. “Everything okay?”
Ted shook his head. “Yeah. I’m fine. Sorry, you just caught me off guard, that’s it.” He smiled. “So, you got a hot fudge–loving Martian?”
Sammy seemed to have forgotten all about Ted being rude. “Uncle Aiden won him for me at the ring toss,” he began.
Kneeling to get on the child’s level, Ted continued to talk to Sammy.
“So,” said Aiden, nodding at the woman. “This is some turnout for the carnival. Nice to have something like this in the area.”
It wasn’t his best line, but it was a start.
“Thanks,” said the woman. “It took a lot of work, but it all came together.”
For a moment, her words didn’t compute. But then, he understood. “You own this ranch?”
“Well, my family does.” She nodded her head toward the rides and snacks and games. “I run this place with my grandfather, Rusty Harris.”
“I heard this was called the Five Steers. For some reason, I imagined that it was run by a bunch of guys.”
“You’d be half right,” she said, giving him a perfect smile. “My grandparents had five boys. That’s where the name came from. But nobody wanted to take on the responsibility, except me.”
“That’s impressive,” he said, looking beyond all the lights and people. The land had several barns, a large homestead, wooded areas, and hills. “I’m Aiden, by the way.” He held out his hand to shake. “Aiden Colton.”
“Lucy Harris.” She placed her palm in his. An electric current, like he’d just touched a live wire, raced up his arm. It filled his whole body until Aiden’s pulse was galloping. “Pleasure to meet you.”