Page 127 of Power Play

“Oh my goodness.”

“You also informed the entire Bennett kitchen that carnival lights improve everyone’s bone structure.”

I covered my face with my free hand. “I need you to start forgetting things.”

“That’s never happening.”

He parked near the far end of the lot and released my hand only long enough to shut off the truck. By the time I climbed down, he was already coming around the hood.

“I could’ve waited.”

“I know.”

Ryan caught my hand anyway.

People were everywhere, and that fact registered more tonight than usual. Families and couples moved across the uneven lot while students I recognized from campus gathered near the entrance. A group of girls in KFU shirts walked several yards ahead of us, and two of them looked back when Ryan came beside me.

His fingers tightened naturally around mine.

He didn’t look at them.

I did.

The taller girl said something to her friend, and both glanced toward us again before turning around.

My first instinct was immediate and humiliating. I needed to let go before they decided what our joined hands meant, before the sight traveled through campus, reached somebody connected to my parents, and turned this night into a conversation I wasn’t prepared to have.

My fingers loosened.

Ryan’s didn’t.

His head turned toward me. “You good?”

“Yeah.”

He looked at our hands before returning to my face. I smiled, but Ryan didn’t. Something tightened briefly in his expression before his thumb moved over mine. Instead of letting me slip away, he brought our joined hands against his chest and kept walking.

He didn’t ask why I had tried to let go. Somehow, that made the shame worse.

We reached the ticket booth, and I reached for my purse.

Ryan caught my wrist. “What are you doing?”

“Paying for myself.”

“No.”

“You don’t have to pay for everything.”

“I know.”

“You said that about the door too.”

“And I meant it both times.”

He handed his card through the opening before I could argue.

“Ryan.”