Page 76 of Stupid Matchmaking Love
Those lips. They’re so close. It’s like they’re mocking me. Nah-nah-nah-boo-boo, you’ve got to kiss me, then you’re going to miss me.
“Look, if you don’t want to kiss, we don’t have to.”
My eyes rapid-fire a series of blinks. “Wait. You don’t want to kiss me. Is that what you’re saying?”
He squeezes my shoulder. I didn’t ask for sympathy. “I’m saying, if you’re not comfortable, we can skip it.” A slow grin curls his mouth—that mouth. “We’ll make the audience wait. Tease them a little. I don’t want you to do something you’re not comfortable with.”
Why does that suddenly make me want to do it more? “Who says I don’t want to?”
“You look like you’re going to vomit, Cristina, and you didn’t look that way until Mina mentioned kissing.”
“I’m not a chicken.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Because I’m not.”
He drops the arm that’s holding me. “Good, then you shouldn’t have any trouble with me kissing you, then.”
He starts to walk off, abandoning me, leaving me with that line—that threat. “Wait.”
His head falls back like, Why me, God? Then Rhett slowly spins around. He looks good in a blue-checkered shirt, jeans, cowboy boots—like he should own a ranch.
“Yes?”
“I’m willing if you are.”
“Good. Then we’ll kiss on the Ferris wheel.”
My stomach plummets to the ground and explodes. “Fine. I’m looking forward to it.”
Bile claws up the back of my throat. Rhett’s right. I might vomit.
Hopefully not in his mouth.
Chapter 24
Rhett
“And that’s one giant plush for the winner in the blue shirt,” the carnival worker says, pointing to me. “You can pick any of the giant stuffies on the top row.”
I look down at Cristina, who’s nibbling cotton candy on a stick. “Which one would you like?”
“That one.” She points to a brown teddy bear with a red bow tie. Then, as if remembering her manners, she shyly adds, “Please.”
“I’ll take that one,” I tell the man.
Using a stick, he pulls the bear down, and I present it to Cristina. “For you.”
She hugs it, still holding the cotton candy. “I can’t believe you won me a teddy bear.”
“Believe it.”
She looks up at me with her big doe eyes, all vulnerability and heart, and my chest expands. Damn, but there’s something about winning a prize for her that fills me with pride.
“So . . .” I rub my hands together. “What would you like to do next? Ride the Ferris wheel?”
Her eyes widen.
