harder.
“Throwing me to the wolves?” she said across her shoulder.
“I’m not doing any throwing. They are.” He nodded his head at the two teens who had lined up on the other side of the table from them.
Looking out across the crowd, Journee was able to see most of her siblings grinning. All of them had been where she was at one time or another, and this year was her turn.
Actually, her brother Denver had won Father of the Festival, which meant everyone in his family—and there were a lot of kids in his family—got to throw pie at their dad.
Hopefully she’d have herself cleaned off in time to be able to see that.
Natalie was supposed to be able to throw pie at her husband as well, but Journee suspected that Natalie wouldn’t be able to throw pie at Denver. They’d probably end up eating it together instead or something.
Twenty minutes later, it was pretty much all over, and everyone who had participated in the Not Such an Ironman Ironman Contest had an opportunity to throw pie at them.
“It wouldn’t be so bad if that lemon cream hadn’t made a direct hit. I hate lemon,” Dante said as they toweled off in the small equipment shed behind the diner.
“I love lemon. I would definitely have traded you that for the coconut cream. I break out in a rash from coconut.”
“I don’t think you’re any more allergic to coconut than I am to horses.”
“Nice.” She looked over at him. “I think we’re supposed to be supporting each other.”
“I can’t support falsehoods.”
“Fine. You’re right. I’m not allergic to coconut. But I wish I were.”
“So I guess that’s where I say I’m not allergic to horses...” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Actually, I don’t even wish I were. I think I’m gonna come back here next spring and get Blakely to give me lessons. I will learn to ride horses.”
“I think you’ll enjoy it.”
“Don’t you ride? I thought you said you did.”
“I can. But honestly, it’s never been my thing. Blakely definitely got all that in the family.”
He took one more swipe with the wet towels that had been provided. “Did I get it all?” It hadn’t been hard to take their ponchos off, but their heads were a completely different story. She wasn’t going to feel clean until she could go home and take a shower.
“You missed some here.” She reached up and with the corner of her towel cleaned his ear.
“There’s some on your ear too. That must be the trouble spot.”
“That and noses, I think. Although I’m pretty sure my nose is good.”
“I don’t see any on it.” He fingered his towel a little and looked down.
She had the impression that he wanted to say something, but in all honesty, she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it. She liked the fun and the laughter, and the little bit of awkwardness when they had been thrown off the horse, but even with the slices of excitement that had cut through her, it wasn’t something she really wanted to repeat.
She wanted to play it safe.
“I guess you know I have to leave tomorrow.” He twisted the towel in his hands.
She forced herself to sound relaxed. “I’m glad I got to meet you. I guess I have my dad’s matchmaking with Blakely to thank for that.”
“Yeah, from what I hear, it’s been successful. I guess they won the kissing contest.”
“I heard that too.”
He swallowed and shifted, and suddenly the air around them felt awkward as she thought about the kissing contest, and matchmaking, and Dante leaving.
“I know that sports figures aren’t the favorite of your family, but if you could maybe pretend that I’m not a sports figure and maybe think about if it might be okay if I come back?”
She put a carefree smile on her face. “You don’t need my permission to come back. Mistletoe is a great town, and I’m pretty sure everyone would love to see you again.”
“Come back to you. To see you.” He looked at her, and her heart twirled. She didn’t want to dismiss what he had said, because obviously it was said with a great deal of feeling and also a bit of risk.
But she just didn’t want to go there.
“When I told you about my boyfriend—that I only had one...” She smiled a little, thinking of Computer Geek’s reaction to the fact that she only ever had one boyfriend; Dante had had a similar reaction yesterday. “The reason we broke up was because