Page 44 of Brazen

17

CLIO

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When I saw the line for everyone who wanted a slice of pizza, I questioned my own sanity. On the first day of school, a mom had pulled me aside by the flagpole and asked if I’d help with the annual fall festival. I’d said yes because I was new in town and needed to make friends, but I had no idea that it was a crazy assignment.

The event was off to a wild success. There were two hundred kids who attended the school, and all of them had to be in attendance along with parents, grandparents, and older and younger siblings. It was a mad house… and everyone was having fun.

JT had come in with me and had seen Remy helping out at the bake table with a woman who introduced herself as Marina. She invited JT to join them, and I agreed, since otherwise, he’d be stuck serving pizza with me for an hour. Cookies and his best friend would be way more fun for him. I pointed out to JT where the pizza table was then offered to Marina to swing by and grab both kids to do the games when my shift was over. Except now, it seemed like I was going to be here all night.

We’d been serving for over an hour now, and two other volunteers were supposed to replace us thirty minutes ago but hadn’t shown up. My options were to ditch pizza duty and leave the PTA high and dry or disappoint my kid by never taking him around to play the carnival games.

“Did you put the order in for more pepperoni?” I asked Harper, the other mom working the pizza booth. I wiped my brow with the back of my hand. The amount of pizza we’d sold had been insane.

Harper had a perky blonde ponytail and got into the fall theme with a gingham blouse and jean skirt. “Matt, Joey’s dad, is meeting Rowan out front with ten more larges.”

“Who’s Rowan again?” I slid a cheese slice onto a paper plate and passed it to a harried mom carrying a baby and had a toddler holding onto her leg. She passed me a ticket in return and moved on. Everything was paid for with tickets which were purchased by the front door, so the money was collected in one location. We only had to worry about keeping enough pizza available, which was actually a problem.

“Rowan’s the teenage son of Frank, the owner of Lucky Pie, the pizza place on Main. Have you been there yet?”

I shook my head, trying to keep up with the close knit community of a very small town. “Cheese or cheese,” I said to the next person in line. “Pepperoni’s all out for now.”

The teenager smiled. “Cheese sounds great.”

I dished up another slice and traded it for the ticket. Then another person. Then another.

I finally had a second to reply to Harper. “I haven’t been there yet, but based on how many people are in line–” I noticed how it curved around the science fair table and down the length of the gym “–I should definitely get takeout.”

“Lordy, woman, you’re fast.” Harper commented on how quickly I doled out the slices and kept the line moving.

“Former pit crew mechanic,” I replied, holding up the spatula.

“Pit crew? Like for race cars?”

“Yep. IndyCars.”

“Wow. Impressive and such an exciting career. I got a slice of bread stuck in the toaster free one time. That’s as much of a mechanic as I am. I don’t know a thing about those different screwdriver heads. But pizza? I know pizza. Go in and get it. It’s best when hot,” she replied, taking the empty pizza box and sitting it in the stack behind us to be put in recycling. She came over to stand beside me again–our method was working well, and I couldn’t say I saw the end of the line, but everyone seemed to be happy. “Speaking of hot,” she leaned in and whispered.

I glanced at her. “What?”

Her eyes weren’t on me but across the gym. “Mr. Rodeo himself.”

I looked that way, and my heart leapt. The kid standing before me cleared his throat because I had been halfway to handing him his plated slice when I froze.

I smiled, passed it to him, got his ticket, then paused.

Sam was here! Whoa. Were those…flutters in my belly?

I couldn’t deny how the sight of him made my body come alive. He was looking mighty fine if my pussy said so. It clenched in eagerness to see him in his jeans, white button-up, and white Stetson. His hair was tamed and only curled slightly from beneath it. Only the night before had he pulled me into the back seat of his pickup for a little fort fun of our own.

For one brief moment, I thought he might have come knowing I’d be here, but, no. He wasn’t alone. He held a little girl, maybe three years old, on his hip, just as comfortably as a parent would. Beside him was a little boy who looked an awful lot like him and a slightly bigger boy. Both were older than JT but only by a few years. They walked over to a ring toss game. Sam handed over the ticket to play and passed one of the rings to the little girl as he held the rest. On the first toss, she’d caught it on a nail on a very-handmade board that had a huge orange pumpkin painted on it.

She threw up her hands, and he bounced her on his hip. I’d never seen him smile quite like that before.

The flutters started up again. I took tickets and slung pizza, all the while, trying to keep my eye on him through the crowd.

He gave her little hand a high five. The boys also cheered.