Page 42 of Canadian Harvest
Travis
*high five* Mitch. I thought I moved fast with my hellcat but you’re putting me to shame.
Zach
Fast? You had to beg her to go on a date with you, dude. Or did you forget?
Travis
The second time. The first time it was all my moves. *smirk emoji*
Dyllan
Shouldn’t you be working, Travis? The city doesn’t pay you to gossip.
Travis
Slow day, my man. Looks like everyone’s being a law-abiding citizen today. Even Old Man Rathers hasn’t called in a bogus complaint.
Brody
You’ve jinxed it now.
Travis
Whatever. Back to Mitch. Are you taking Rachel to the Halloween dance next weekend? Please tell me you’re doing some cutesy couples’ costumes.
Travis
I can’t be the only one. Lila’s making me as some sort of payback.
I groan. I haven’t thought about the dance. I assumed I would volunteer to work and let Zach have the night off to do his couple thing with Mandy.
Don’t know. You’re all assholes.
I put my phone on do not disturb and slide it back into my pocket, not wanting them to take any more of my attention away from Rachel. She’s picking at the napkin from her blondie, and I realize that I also have been an asshole for paying attention to my phone and not her.
“Sorry about that. The guys gossip worse than half the people in town, I swear.”
She giggles, looking up from her napkin. “It’s alright. I get it.”
Reaching across the small table, I take her hand in mine, drawing her attention to me and only me. “I’ll make it up to you. Are you all done with your cider?”
She looks over at her near-empty cup, taking it with her free hand and downing it in one gulp. She places it back down and gives me a nod.
“Good. Let’s clean up, grab our cookies, and then I have somewhere I want to take you.”
We grab our things, taking the cookies out of the box and disposing of our garbage before lacing her fingers with mine and leading her to the edge of the festival. We get behind a small line.
“Oh! Hayrides?” Rachel rocks to the tip of her toes and back to her heels as she looks around the crowd. “I love hayrides.”
I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her tight to my side. I love seeing her so carefree and happy. I love the smile that crosses her face, and her pure excitement. I bite into the gooey cookie, not knowing how the flavours of S’more and pumpkin mix together, but it’s surprisingly good. Not that I would ever doubt Lila and her baking.
Rachel takes a bite of hers as well, never letting go of my hand. “I don’t know how Lila does it, but her baking just keeps getting better and better. I’m going to have to join the gym with how addicted to these I’m getting.”
I lean in and whisper in her ear. “I can think of another way we can burn off these calories.” Her cheeks flush and she lets out a small gasp, making me chuckle. “Eat up, babe. You’ll need your energy for later.”
She looks at me wide-eyed as she shoves the rest of her cookie in her mouth.