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I accompany her over to the park and Neddie grins down at her. “Hi Sam!”
“Hi, buddy. Stop your swing, okay?”
“’Kay.”
He’s agreeable enough as he drags his bare feet in the dirt, kicking up dust over his whole body. He looks like a nude Pig-pen from the Peanuts cartoon when he hops off. “Where’s your Mamaw?”
“She fell asleep on the couch while I was watching cartoons.”
Sam takes his hand. “Well, let’s go check on her.” She gives me an amused look. “I’ll be right back.”
“Take your time,” I chuckle, heading back toward my car. There’s never a dull moment in her neighborhood and I swear, it’s kind of growing on me. Neddie takes her hand and she walks him down the street and into an apartment.
She returns a few minutes later, and we’re off to the county fair. “Did the kid sneak out on her?” I ask, chuckling.
“Yeah, and apparently, he spilled milk on his clothes, so they had to go.”
It’s a short drive, but we hit some traffic when we get close, and it takes a few minutes to find a parking spot because half the county is here. The crowd will get even thicker this evening when the concert starts.
“What do you want to do first?” I ask, slipping my hand into hers. I love how she always looks at our hands and smiles as if she didn’t expect it. Maybe the last man she dated wasn’t as affectionate, but I take every opportunity to get my hands on her.
“Do you want to see the animals? I know it’s kind of smelly, but last year they had alpacas and they are so adorable.”
“I think I can handle smelly.” We turn toward the livestock pavilion and petting zoo. If it were hotter, the stench probably would be overwhelming, but with the cool breeze blowing, it’s not bad at all.
We take our time, wandering through the petting zoo, stopping to pet and feed the animals here and there. When we enter a pen of goats, Sam kneels down to one with a handful of corn and it walks up, eating out of her hand. She smiles up at me, but it only lasts a spilt second because the goat behind her isn’t happy. Maybe it’s jealous. Who knows? But it rams its head into her side, not hard enough to hurt, but it’s enough to knock her off balance and back onto her butt. The corn scatters around her and she laughs as she’s suddenly surrounded by goats trying to get a bite.
“I should’ve seen that coming,” she laughs, taking my hand and letting me help her up. “Goats are cute, but they’re assholes.”
I point to another stall as we leave the herd of goats. “There are your alpacas.”
She brushes off her hands, shaking her head. “No, those are llamas. You don’t want to mess with them.”
Chuckling, I walk over to the fence where a llama stands almost as tall as me. It does have a “don’t fuck with me, buddy” air about it. Maybe it’s the little snort it lets out.
“It’s going to spit on you if you get any closer,” Sam laughs.
“Do alpacas spit?”
“I guess they can, but they usually don’t. Alpacas are all sweet and gentle and fluffy. Llamas are the spawn of hell, bent on world domination.”
Laughing, we keep walking. “I take it you were attacked by a llama at some point?”
“No, but my neighbors had a few when I was growing up. They got them to keep the coyotes away, and any animal mean enough to scare off a coyote gets a wide berth from me.”
Her face lights up when we come to the alpacas, though, and a young woman greets us, letting us inside the pen. Samantha is in heaven, petting and cooing over them. When I reach out a hand to pet one near me, I’m shocked. “They’re so soft!”
“I told you. Aren’t they precious?”
We spend a few minutes there, until a large family shows up, and we step out to let them have a turn. The wind picks up and darker clouds start to inch across the sky. “I think it’s going to rain,” Sam says, glancing up.
“Looks like it. Are you hungry? We can grab a table in one of the food tents.”
“Starving,” she agrees.
I’m tempted to talk to her about the whole relationship thing while we eat, but I decide to wait until later. Maybe a romantic moment will present itself.
We get lucky and the clouds blow past with barely more than a few sprinkles, and as the sun sets, the carnival side of the fair starts to clear out. Everyone is headed over to the stage to watch the concert. Another thing we have in common is our taste in music, which doesn’t include country, so we take the opportunity to enjoy some rides while the lines aren’t long.
