Page 105 of Taming I Do
“Really?”
I took a few steps, then tugged on her hand to get her to move closer. “Come here. This is the Pucker-Up Path picture spot number one. We’re supposed to grab a selfie, then hash tag it and post on the town’s page.”
“You up for it?” She held out her phone.
“You’re not going to post it, are you?”
“Of course not. But that doesn’t mean I can’t take them for me.” She stood in the middle of the tunnel, the twinkling lights making the highlights in her hair shimmer and the rhinestones on her tiara sparkle. “Pucker up, Jasper.”
As we touched lips, I forgot I was standing in the middle of the Fall Festival. I forgot all about the rule of not kissing in public. And whatever trouble my brother had gotten himself into was the farthest thing from my mind.
Until my phone buzzed in my back pocket. The makeshift tracker I’d installed in one of the dog crates had just moved.
Delilah
“I’ve got to go.”Jasper backed away, a smear of red lipstick on his lips.
“What do you mean you’ve got to go?” I squinted at him through a warm curtain of desire. The tunnel, the thousands ofsparkly twinkle lights... the man couldn’t have picked a more romantic place to take me on my last night in town.
“I’m sorry. Something’s come up with one of my brothers.”
“Is everyone okay? Let me come with you.”
He peeled my hand off his arm and gave it a squeeze. “Not this time. I’ll be back before you know it. I’ve still got to take you on the rest of the Pucker-Up Path.”
“But...” Something was off. If one of the boys was hurt, he wouldn’t even bother with an explanation, we’d already be in the truck, heading to whatever crisis had come up. I knew him well enough by now to tell that family came first with him, no matter what. If he was willing to walk away from the biggest night we’d shared, whatever was going on had to be serious.
He put his hand at the small of my back and led me out of the tunnel. Lucas and Maggie stood nearby, snacking on apple cider donuts.
“Hey, Lucas. Can you show Delilah around for a bit? I’ve got to run and take care of something that just came up.”
I didn’t want to be pawned off on another brother. But I also didn’t want to cause a scene.
Lucas glanced over, his surprise at being roped into hanging out with me evident in the way his eyebrows rose halfway up his forehead. “Uh, sure, we can do that for a bit, right, Mags?”
Maggie laughed, spraying donut crumbs down his shirt.
“I promise not to let her get near you.” Lucas shifted his daughter to his other hip. “We were just about to decorate a pumpkin for the pumpkin float. Want to come with us?”
My gaze bounced from Lucas’s smile to Jasper’s frown and back again. Didn’t seem like I had much of a choice.
“Sure.” But even as I stepped away from Jasper, it felt like I was making the wrong choice.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” Jasper promised. Then he disappeared into the crowd, swallowed up by the other festivalgoers.
“The pumpkin tent is right this way.” Lucas took a few steps and I reluctantly followed.
Jasper had taken the magic with him. But I’d never shirk my responsibilities. So, I pasted a smile on my face and took a seat across the table from Lucas and Maggie.
“Did Jasper say why he had to leave in such a hurry?” Lucas asked.
I chose a pumpkin and began to draw a face on its smoothest side with one of the markers that sat between us. “No. He just said something about one of your brothers needing some help.”
“Hmm.” Lucas checked his phone. “Whoever it is, they must not be in too much of a jam. We’ve got a family group text, and no one’s sent out an alert.”
That calmed my nerves enough that I could focus on the project at hand. Lucas seemed to be a loving dad to Maggie. I wondered if that’s how Helmut would have treated me if he’d been given the chance.
Lucas picked out a tiny pumpkin and let Maggie cover it with marker scribbles and stickers while he worked on the one he was carving.
