another man,” she said. “He’s very close to you. You care about him a great deal.”
Okay, now this was awkward. I certainly didn’t want to talk about another man while on a date with Ryker, especially when I knew the “other man” she was talking about was Parker.
I jerked my hand out of her grip and she seemed to regain focus, her eyes meeting mine. Her face had gone pale.
“I saw heartbreak,” she said. “And pain.”
And this had gone from funny to irritating to downright eerie. Like I wanted to be told my future held more pain than I’d already endured, plus heartbreak.
“What happened to the happy-ever-after with him?” I blurted, jerking a thumb toward Ryker.
She shrugged. “I can’t explain what I see. The future isn’t set in stone. Different choices lead down different paths.”
The Ferris wheel line moved and Ryker pulled me over to where it was our turn to get on.
“I’m really glad we didn’t give her money for a fortune like that,” I groused. “She’s crazy.”
We settled into the seat and the worker lowered the bar across our laps, then let off the brake. The compartment rocked gently as the wheel turned to empty the container behind us for new riders.
“So who’s the other man?” Ryker asked. There was more than a little possessiveness in his tone.
“I’m not dating anyone else,” I said, evading an actual answer, though technically a true statement.
Ryker frowned. “You and Parker haven’t…” He let the sentence trail off.
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you really asking me if I’ve slept with my boss?” I injected a lot of self-righteous indignation into that, though I could feel my cheeks burning. What I’d done with Parker was so embarrassing, I could barely admit it to myself. No way was I telling him that Parker had turned me down flat, then proceeded to kiss me senseless just minutes after Ryker had Friday night.
“Pretty much,” he said, cocking an eyebrow. “Glad to know you’re not the type.”
I smiled weakly back. If he only knew that my “type” was the kind of girl whose boss could get her to do just about anything, he’d probably want nothing more to do with me.
He changed the subject, thank God, and I tried to shove the weird psychic lady to the back of my mind. It was all hokum anyway. I didn’t believe in psychics any more than I did ghosts or goblins.
“Let’s forget about crazy drunk non-psychic lady,” Ryker said, sliding his arm across my shoulders. “And get back to what we were doing before.”
I smiled. “And what was that exactly?” I teased.
“You were having an awesome time with me, of course.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Arrogant? Check. A total player? Check. Incredibly hot? Double check. But I was having more fun on this date than I’d had in a longer time than I cared to remember.
The last rays of the sun were just peeking over the horizon, the lights from the fair and carnival twinkling in the encroaching dusk. Ryker pulled me toward him and I rested against his chest, enjoying the moment as the wheel slowly turned.
After the Ferris wheel, we bought hot dogs and more beer, then made our way to the grandstands for the apparently highly anticipated tractor pull. The stands were full of people, but we managed to squeeze in. It was a lot of noise and a lot of smoke, but after two additional beers, it seemed like fun to me, especially with the crowd so into it.
It was late when it was over and Ryker pulled me into the beer garden where a cover band was playing.
“It’s late,” I halfheartedly complained. “I have to work tomorrow.”
“Just one dance,” he prodded.
The band was covering Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” which was an old favorite of mine, and they were pretty decent. “All right, just one dance,” I agreed.
His arms wrapped around my waist and he held me close as we moved to the strains of a Journey tune. One dance turned into two, then three, and pretty soon I’d lost count. Ryker was a good dancer, taking the opportunity to slide his hands places they hadn’t yet been, not that I was complaining.
The heated look in his eyes made my skin feel hot, and it was by unspoken agreement when he pulled me off the dance floor and we headed for his truck.
I was inexplicably nervous as we walked, his fingers interlaced with mine. It wasn’t like I was some easily frightened