I grabbed a throw pillow and hugged it to my chest. Hunter wasn’t the type to tell a fib, so it had to be true. Embarrassment and pride swirled in my head, fighting for control. Embarrassment won out. I shook my head and leaned back into the cushions.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said resolutely. “Even if I had a hundred guys after me, I’d never forget about you. I like you too much.”
Something flickered in his eyes as he looked at me and inhaled slowly. “Really?”
Of course it was true. He shouldn’t have looked so surprised. I’d always liked hanging out with Hunter. That was part of what made us such great friends.
I patted the seat beside me. It was time for a change of topic. My lack of a dating life was not something I wanted to be talking about on our first movie night back together. “Duh, I like you. Now come sit down and let’s get this party started.”
He shot me a small smile and stood as the opening movie trailers began to play on the TV behind him. “Thanks for that, Char Char.”
“Anytime.”
I watched him move toward the kitchen to grab some more cookies. Hunter might have resembled something more like a man now, but I could still see some of that boy I used to know. It was there in the warmth of his eyes and the teasing tilt of his smile. I held on to those familiar bits, even as he sank into the sofa beside me and our thighs touched, causing strange little waves of heat to ripple out across my body.
He leaned over and shoved a cookie into my hands. “Here, have one before I eat them all. I have the feeling you need it after dealing with Ms. Gentry today. I got to know, is she some sort of zombie? Or a ghost? She looks like an old war widow that just crawled out of a cemetery.”
I took a bite, inhaling deeply with the wonderful explosion of flavors on my tongue. My mom was a great cook, but she could never make cookies like these.
“No, I’m pretty sure she’s real,” I said with my mouth full. “Her son was there, and he looked like a human. A sweaty human on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but still human.”
He cocked his head and smiled at me, sinking farther into the couch cushions. “Seriously, Char, I didn’t have a clue you were going to enter the competition.”
“Funny, I didn’t either...” I grumbled quietly, staring at the TV.
“You never would’ve done something like that a year ago. It’s really cool. The rodeo guys and the contestants usually cheer each other on, so we’ll get to spend lots of time together at the fair this week. Plus, you’re definitely going to win.”
I gulped down the cookie that had suddenly turned into a lump of charcoal in my mouth. That was the second time Hunter had gushed about me being in the competition. He was all for it. I didn’t have the heart to tell him it had all been a set up and I was getting out of it as soon as possible.
At least, not tonight.
“You really think I actually stand a chance of winning that thing?” I asked him, grabbing another cookie from his hands. At this rate, I was going to eat a dozen of them in one go. It was a good thing I’d packed the Pepto-Bismol.
He scoffed. “Yeah, totally. You’re better than all those girls combined. It’s no contest. They might as well call it right now.”
I squinted at the TV, trying to hold in my giggle. That was the funniest thing I’d heard in a long time. Maybe even funnier than hearing about three guys being interested in me. I wanted to burst out into mocking laughter, but when I looked over and found him studying me with such an intense expression, my stomach tilted dangerously.
“What?” I asked. Totally busted. He’d caught me laughing. “I’m not mocking you, I swear. I just think you’re a little delusional if you think I’m going to win the Junior Rodeo Queen. Lexi says I’ve got the hair for it, but other than that, I’ve got nothing. Not like Sarah Claiborne.”
“No, it’s not that...” Something like pain flickered across his face as he pointed to his lips. “You’ve got something...there.”
Blood rushed to my cheeks. That’s what I got for stuffing myself with warm, gooey carbs. So much for impressing him with all the ways I’d matured this year. I was a hot mess.
“Do I have chocolate on my face?”
His frown deepened and he nodded. I tried to clean it with the back of my hand, but he was still looking at me funny.
“Did I get it?” I asked.
He bit his bottom lip and then tentatively reached out with his hand, swiping the pad of his thumb gently against the corner of my mouth. The sensation sent a sharp shock down my spine, my stomach tilting violently the other way. It wasn’t unpleasant. And actually, it gave me the sudden and crazy impulse to spread chocolate all over my lips in the hope that he’d touch me like that again. It was a feeling I’d never had before. It made my heart do a crazy staccato beat in my chest.
“There.” He swallowed hard and then nodded, his gaze flicking from my lips, back up to my eyes. “Better.”
“Um...thanks.”
I turned back to the TV and nibbled on the edge of my cookie, determined not to look him in the face again until at least the opening credits. That was so strange. Almost as strange as Hunter putting both of his hands on his knees and gripping them until his knuckles turned white. Silence fell between us, and not the comfortable kind that we used to fall
