Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (21 page)

“When was the last time you came out to the
fair?” Autumn shifted Addie in her arms, and I considered offering to take the
little girl, but then thought against it.

“I didn’t come last year,” I admitted. “But
the year before that I was dating someone and we checked it out.”

“I don’t think I was here last year, either,”
she said. “I missed the opening of the fair, and then I was having morning
sickness.”

“That will put a damper on your desire for
roller coasters,” I said. “In fact, how are you going to do any roller coasters
with Addie in tow?” Autumn shrugged.

“Guess I’ll have to come back another time
this month with my parents and Tuck,” she said. “Make Mom hold Addie while the
rest of us go on the extreme rides.”

I laughed. “Doesn’t your mom like extreme
rides?”

Autumn shook her head. “She loves the ferris
wheel, but nothing more extreme than the flying swings.”

“Should we take a walk around the fairgrounds,
see what there is to see, and decide what we want to do first?”

She considered my question. “Sounds good.
Also, I’m getting pretty hungry.”

We walked the whole fairway, checking out the
different rides and games, and Autumn shifted Addie onto her back, holding her
there with a strap. We bought funnel cakes and corn dogs, and talked about the
rides that it would be safe for Addie to come with us on.

“I think we could do the sleigh one,” Autumn
said. “They can bolt her down in my lap.”

“The swings are a bit much for her, though,” I
said as we passed that ride.

“What about the carousel?”

“That’s doable,” Autumn said, nodding. “What
do you think, little girl?” She looked over her shoulder at Addie, who still
had powdered sugar on her face from a bite of funnel cake. Addie burbled her
agreement, beaming.

We rode the carousel, the sleigh ride, and a
flying elephants ride, and Addie managed them all as well as if she was a born
daredevil. We found a few more rides and on some of them I held Addie while
Autumn rode and we watched, or she insisted I ride, while she and Addie
watched. It felt weird to be holding Addie while Autumn was on a ride; it felt
like exactly what I should be doing and at the same time, weirdly foreign. I
liked it.

After a while, we’d managed to get to the
rides that we wanted to check out
—
at least the ones that didn’t have huge lines
that would make us wait. “What do you want to do next?”

“Check out the animals?” We headed over to the
farm tent
—
daring, since there were people who would recognize her
—
and Addie cooed and gurgled over the animals
as we wandered from one to another stall, taking in the pigs, cows, chickens,
and more. Someone had brought in some exotic yard fowl, and Autumn joked about
getting herself some guinea hens just for fun.

From there we went to the games, since there
wasn’t much else for us to do. We took turns, playing skeeball, the “test of
strength,” and darts. Autumn was best at skeeball, and I was better at the
“test of strength.” We went from one to another, joking and laughing, and I
thought to myself again that it felt so good to be with her, just wandering
around the fair.

“Ever shoot a gun before?” Autumn pointed to
the target practice game, and I shrugged.

“Who hasn’t?”

She grinned. “Want to compete?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to shoot a
gun with Addie strapped to you?”

Autumn rolled her eyes at me, looking up
through her eyelashes. “It’s a pellet gun,” she pointed out. “No kickback, no
spark.”

“It will look pretty cool, I guess,” I
admitted. “And if you can even make the target…”

“I can make the target,” she insisted.

“How many times?”

She shrugged. “How many do you want to bet?”

“Five times,” I told her. “Perfect shot each
time. Big prize.”

“I can do it,” she said. “What are we
betting?”

I thought about it. “A kiss,” I told her.
“Another kiss.”

“Okay,” she agreed. I saw the color rising up
in her cheeks, the glint in her eyes.
How
could any man ever want to put her aside? She’s so beautiful.
“I’ll go
first.”

“Go for it,” I said. “I’ll watch, and then
I’ll clobber whatever score you come up with.”

Autumn giggled. I gave the man running the
shooting game five tickets for her turn up. She kept Addie strapped to her back
and took her pellets from the man. I watched her bring the pellet gun up, sight
it, and then take her shots. Two landed in the center
—
better than I would have thought she’d do
—
but the other three hit the outer rings.

“Not bad,” the man running the game said. “You
can choose from these prizes.” He gestured to a row of small stuffed dogs.

“The green one,” she said. She looked at me.
“Addie loves green.”

“My turn.” I took up one of the BB guns and
gave the man my tickets for the game. I took a deep breath. I’d gone hunting a
few times, but it had been a while since I’d shot anything. I brought the sight
up, and looked at the target.

I took another breath; I wanted to win not
only to get the big prize, and not only to get a kiss from Autumn, but for the
sake of showing off to her.

I shot the first pellet. It hit the bullseye,
and I looked over at Autumn. “I got two,” she said teasingly. “You have to do
at least two, and you only
really
win
if you get five.”

“I can do it,” I told her. I sighted again and
pulled the trigger. It went in right next to the first one, still in the
center. “One more and I’ve got more bullseyes than you.”

“Get it first, then brag,” she told me.

I took a quick, deep breath, and took another
shot. Hit the bullseye again. “You were saying?”

“Five is the winning number,” she said
playfully.

“I’ll get five,” I said, even though I wasn’t completely
certain. I put the sight down, closed my eyes to steady them, and brought the
gun back up. I shot twice, in rapid succession. Two pellets came out, and both
hit the bullseye. It was pure luck, but I was glad. I turned to look at Autumn.
“You were saying?”

“You played me!” She shook her head, grinning
and looking excited. “You-you did something.”

“Pure skill,” I said, even though it wasn’t
true at all. “Right, my man?” I looked at the guy running the game.

“It is a game of skill,” the man agreed. “You
can pick one of the top shelf prices, or two of the middle shelf prizes, or
three of the bottom shelf.”

“I’ll take that big stuffed bear,” I said,
pointing at it. “The purple one.” I looked at Autumn. “You like purple, right?”
She grinned even more.

“I do.”

We left the stall with her new bear and
wandered around for a little more; she bought some cinnamon-roasted nuts, and
checked the time. “You could come home with me, you know,” I pointed out.

“I can’t,” Autumn said, shaking her head. “If
I stay too late, my parents will know something is up.” I had to agree with
her.

“Can I at least get that kiss that you owe
me?” She laughed and shifted Addie on her back.

“I suppose I should honor our bet, even if I’m
still pretty sure you set me up,” she said. I knew it would have to be a pretty
chaste kiss
—
we were in public, and on top of that Autumn had Addie to consider. It
wasn’t like we could make out there in front of the fair.

I put my hands on Autumn’s waist and tugged
her closer to me, trying to forget about Addie for the moment. I leaned in and
brushed my lips against Autumn’s, starting soft.

I wanted to devour her; I wanted to take her
home, strip her naked, and make love to her over and over again. But that
wasn’t in the cards. Instead, I kissed her as hungrily and deeply as I could
without shuffling Addie.

I pulled back after a few moments, my body
heating up, and looked down at her. “Sometime soon, right?” Autumn’s flushed
cheeks and bright eyes gave me the answer before her lips did.

“As soon as I can,” she said, stepping back
from me and finding her keys in her purse. I took a deep breath and exhaled
slowly, thinking of where my keys were so I could drive myself home.

Chapter Twenty Seven

Autumn

I looked around outside of the guest house, my
heart beating faster in my chest. I’d told Mom that I was going to take Addie
to the park by myself. I was actually going to meet with Cade, with my daughter
in tow.

It was four in the afternoon, and Dad and Tuck
were doing some chores around the farm. I picked up Addie’s carrier, which
doubled as an insert for her car seat. I had a few things in her baby bag: not
just a change of diapers and wipes, but some food I’d managed to put together.
Cade was bringing more with him.

You’re being ridiculous. Just go.
It was one of Cade’s days off, and I had
finished up all of my chores early. Mom had a perfectly good story from me, and
Tuck and Dad were too busy to ask questions, much less to notice that I was
going anywhere.

“Come on, baby girl,” I said to Addie, hefting
her carrier. She could walk
—
she was actually getting quite good at it
—
but for certain things, I still liked to have
her in the carrier.

I locked the door behind me and walked from my
house through the backyard and towards the front of the main house. I started
to find the key for my car, to load up Adelyn and the food and her stuff.

“Where ya headed?” I looked up and saw Tuck
leaning against the driver’s side door of my car.

“Just a little trip out to the park,” I said
with a shrug. My heart beat faster and faster in my chest.

“Oh? That sounds nice,” he said. “Going to see
Cade while you’re at it?” I rolled my eyes.

“Why? Cade isn’t interested in me, remember?”
I felt my palms starting to get clammy, nervousness rising up in me.

“So then why didn’t I get an invitation to
come with you? Just you and Addie out in the park
—
that doesn’t sound like you.”

“I’ve taken lots of trips into town with just
Addie and me,” I pointed out.

“You’ve been meeting with Cade,” Tuck said,
meeting my gaze levelly.

“I have not,” I protested. “I’ve been getting
out of the house.”

“And, meeting with Cade,” he insisted.

“Where did you get that idea?” I felt the
blood rising into my face and tried to stop it; he grinned.

“If I didn’t know for sure, I’d know for sure
right now, the way you’re blushing,” he said. “Come on, Sis.”

“I’m not admitting anything,” I said tartly.
“But if I
was
meeting with Cade, it
would be during his off hours. No harm, no foul.”

Tuck shook his head. “Sis, if you keep doing
this, Dad is going to find out. How do you think he’s going to feel towards
you, hiding this from him? How do you think he’s going to feel about Cade?”

I rolled my eyes. “Dad is not going to find
out,” I said.

“He might,” Tuck told me, shrugging. “I
managed to find out, didn’t I?”

I frowned at him. “I don’t know how you found
out, but you are not Dad.”

“It’s important for him to know,” he said with
a shrug. “Cade made a promise to Dad, and he’s not upholding his end of the
bargain.”

“He’s not distracted,” I insisted. “He’s
working just as hard as you are
—
not that anyone would know it by the way you
talk.”

I pressed my lips together. I’d heard from
more than a few people in town that Tuck had been downplaying Cade’s role on
the farm, all but calling him lazy. “You had better not tell Dad that I’m
meeting with Cade,” I told my brother firmly.

“What are you going to do if I tell him?” Tuck
smirked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’ll tell him about you bad-mouthing Cade to
all our friends in town,” I said. “I mean, I don’t know if he’ll care about you
saying that Cade is not pulling his fair share, but I’m sure he’ll care about
you telling people he’s a fool for hiring anyone at all.”

Tuck stared at me for a long moment. “You
wouldn’t.”

I laughed. “I would just as readily as you
would tell on me,” I said. “Mutually assured destruction, bro. You screw me
over, I will make sure you’re nuked with Dad.”

“Dad wouldn’t care,” he said, puffing up.

“Dad
would
care,” I countered. “He would care a lot. Maybe even enough to be pissed at you
for years for bad-mouthing
him
as
well as me, as well as someone he hired. Maybe you won’t get the farm, after
all.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared my brother down. “You willing
to take that risk?”