Winnie

The day has flown by. I'm sweating and the fan that's set up in the corner of my booth is doing nothing but blowing more hot air directly into me. It's these late days of summer that have you wearing your sweater in the mornings and thanking God you wore a tank top under it in the afternoon. I also may still be blushing over Rhett's impromptu visit last night. I wanted to die when I remembered what sweatshirt I had on. I catch myself biting at my thumbnail and pull my hand away from my face, another anxious habit I'm perpetually trying to break.

There are still a few hours left of the festival before I can clean up. I let Anna go a half hour ago when her friends stopped by to visit. She gave me a half hearted ‘Are you sure?' before flinging her apron at me and bounding off, giggling with the group of girls. It's just me now but luckily it's slowing down. Which is good because I only have a few items left.

"Winnie!" I look up to see Mary Holloway coming towards me.

"Hi, Mary!" I smile and wave.

"Would you look at that…you barely have anything left."

"I know. I can't believe it."

"I can." She gives me a knowing smile. "You're so talented, sweetie." I beam at her.

"Thank you, Mary. It means the most coming from you."

"Have you had a chance to walk around yet? Rhett's team is having a hay day at their kissing booth." She chuckles.

"A kissing booth, huh?" I should be surprised but it's the most on brand thing Rhett could do. "I haven't had a chance yet. I need to stop by Uncle Bucks, too. I'm starving and some chili and a beer sounds pretty good." She steps around my makeshift counter and comes to stand beside me. I give her a puzzled look.

"Well go on then. I can man your booth for a bit. I've seen it all." She winks and me and I give her a hug.

"You know why I love these events so much?"

"Why? And don't tell me it's because Sue Anderson gets tipsy at each one and starts spilling the not so secret things her and Bradley get up to." She shudders and I burst out laughing.

"If I'm being completely honest I don't hate that, it's always been really informative, but no. It's because of you, Mary." She cocks her head to the side and purses her lips, so I go on. "You took me around at my very first event here in town and gave me this." I hold up my wrist to show her the bracelet she gave me 17 years ago. "You gave me this and it made me feel so special— like maybe I would be okay eventually. I hadn't felt like that in months."

"Oh, sweetheart." She pulls me back into a hug. "I have loved you as my own daughter all these years and I always will." My eyes well but I hold back the tears. Mary Holloway has been a pillar in my upbringing.

"I know. I love you, too."

"Now go have some fun out there!" She shoo's me. "And if you see Rhett, will you tell him we're having family lunch tomorrow at 11:30? Will you come?"

"Of course. I would love to." I'm not sure how I feel about spending so much time with Rhett. I'm also not sure how I'm going to avoid it. His fence is also my fence.

"Good. I'll be here and can close it down for you. Tom's around here somewhere and I'll enlist his help later."

"You don't have to do that! I'll be back?—"

"Please just go be young and carefree for awhile." She cuts off my protest.

"Alright, I will. But please call if you need anything!" I smile.

"Bye, sweetie!"

"Bye, Mary." I go straight to my uncle's booth first, I wasn't kidding when I said I was starving. He's waving his hands around in the air, entertaining a group as usual. Uncle Buck has never shied away from the spotlight. A trait I really admire. He's never nervous in a crowd, he'll have them laughing and at ease in a matter of moments. Colt's like that. Me, not so much. I love being around my people, but new people, lots of new people. Count me out, better yet, don't count me at all. He spots me as he waves those animated hands again and winks at me. I grin and give a tiny wave before securing my spot in line for chili. He finishes his story and says goodbye to his new friends then motions for me to come over. I shake my head, but my stomach growls, so I find myself making the decision to slip out of line and taking advantage of family benefits.

"Winnie!" I smile at his excitement in seeing me.

"Hey, Uncle Buck. Looks like you've been pretty busy over here." He grins.

"You know me, always in for a good story." I grin back at him. I feel a hand clamp onto my shoulder and then something wet soaks into my side.

"Baby sister!" Colt greets me loudly and squeezes me until I come off the ground.

"Colt! You're wet, stop it!" He sets me down but keeps his arm slung over my shoulder.

"I came straight from my last run. Didn't want to miss family dinner." He winks. Yes, if there's one thing my brother has in spades. It's charm and he comes by it honest. Our dad was the same way. A small pang as the thought makes my stomach twinge, but I smile. He looks so much like him, from what I can remember. Things are getting a little fuzzy in my head. I clear my throat.

"How was the water today?" He looks out towards the mountains and smiles wide.

"Perfect." I roll my eyes.

"Oh really? Because you say that every time I ask."

"That's because it's always perfect. Wouldn't change a thing." An easy smile is on his face. He's good at making things look easy. I don't envy my brother in too many ways, his struggles are not something I have to contend with but this is one of the times I do. He's wild in a way I never will be. Too much can go wrong in the wilderness and even though Colt is certified in as many things as you can be to guide rafts all day and be out there—I'm still going to worry. Uncle Buck sets two bowls of chili down on the counter in front of us and reaches to the side to grab a couple spoons for us, handing one to my brother. He accepts it and we dig in.

Colts almost finished with his when two plastic cups of beer appear next to our bowls.

"Ah, yes. Thank you, Uncle Buck. This is exactly what I needed." I thank him.

"No need to thank me, sweetheart. It's just good to see you two." I smile.

"You, too. Dinner on Wednesday?"

"You know it, I'm making spaghetti and meatballs." He says proudly and I laugh because it's always what he makes.

"Ahh…just what I needed to refuel after being in a boat all day." Colt chimes in, he's guzzled his beer and wipes his mouth with his napkin before kissing the top of my head as he stands.

"Love you, Win. It's been fun, fam, but I've got a date. See you Wednesday!" He tosses his plate and cup into the trash bin.

"You're going in your wet clothes?"

"She won't be worried about my wet clothes." He waggles his eyebrows and I smile at his unwavering confidence.

"See you Wednesday, love you." He disappears into the crowd. I stand and throw my bowl away, I still have half of my beer. Uncle Buck is talking to Jay, one of his servers.

"I'm going to walk around." I mouth to my uncle. "Love you." he smiles and calls "Love you, Win!" I walk in the direction of the cotton candy machine. I won't consider this a successful fair until I've had some.

I'm walking with a giant pink fluffy cloud on a stick when I see Rhett's booth. Or his teams. I scan the spaces surrounding them, but I don't see him. There is still a very long line of high school girls waiting for a chance to kiss a hockey player. I sigh. I can sympathize. It doesn't feel so long ago that I would have stood in a line all night for a chance at kissing Rhett.

"Winnie." I jump and look to my right, mouth full of melting pink sugar.

"Rhett. Jeeze you scared me. What are you doing over here?" He smiles and holds up his hand showing me a pink fluffy cloud of his own.

"It's not a successful fair unless I get some cotton candy." I blink hearing his words echo my thoughts from earlier. I swallow and nod in agreement.

"Mhmm…well I'm also supposed to tell you there's family lunch tomorrow."

"Is there now? And you volunteered to relay this information?" He pulls a piece of the sticky sugar from the rest and pops it into his mouth.

"Your mom asked me to tell you if I saw you." I say as blandly as I can. "I saw you."

"I saw you, too, looking around a few minutes ago. Thought you may have been looking for someone." His tone is overly innocent and my blush has returned.

"Nope, just checking out the crowd. It looks like your booth is doing well." He smiles at me, knowingly.

"Yeah, it's going pretty well. You know, lunch at my parents tomorrow is going to put a kink in my plans."

"You have plans? A lunch date?" His dimples are on full display now.

"Kind of. I was really looking forward to getting to know my new neighbor." I feel my mouth pop open. Is he flirting with me? "Last night, I didn't really get a good look at her, but from what I could tell. Absolute smokeshow." Well that answers my question, just not why—maybe I don't care right now. I tuck my hair behind my ear and look up at him through my lashes.

"Well you are in luck then because…I was also invited." I say as I take another nibble of my cotton candy. His eyes brighten, crinkling at the corners showing me his panty dropping smile. His hand comes up and with his thumb he swipes some stray melted sugar from just under my bottom lip. I stop breathing.

"Perfect." He starts to say something else but a loud gasp from the crowd has us turning towards the boys.

"That didn't sound good." I say looking over to the crowd. Oh no.

"No. It didn't." His tone is only slightly annoyed before he looks back to look me in the eyes. "To be continued." He stalks off towards a high schooler whose pants are pulled down, mooning the large group of onlookers. I cover my mouth to try and smother my laugh. I cannot wait to see how Rhett handles this. He stands in front of the boy with his head slightly bowed and says something quietly. The boy pulls his pants up and stops smiling. Rhett points in a direction away from the crowd and the boy starts walking that way with his head hung low. Rhett looks back at me and I'm guessing my expression is not as stern as it should be because he gives me a reproachful look and shakes his head at me too. I put on a my most apologetic look, mouthing "Sorry, Coach" and his eyes spark at the sentiment. I laugh and turn to leave so he can handle his situation.

I stop at one of the local breweries booths and get another beer. It's slowing down and people are starting to gather at the other side of the festival to claim their spots before the fireworks start tonight. I'm walking back to my booth to make sure Mary and Tom don't need me to help pack up and when they tell me they've got it covered I walk home.

It's only later when I'm sitting on my front porch watching the fireworks that I think about my conversation with Rhett. Flirting with him seems harmless enough on the surface, but I know how bad it will be when it ends. And it will end. One day when he decides he wants more than what I can give, he'll walk away and take whatever love I've allowed myself to have with him.