Page 6 of Cuddling Carly

Again, Kelly didn’t seem fazed by the encouragement.

Her eyes fell past Carly. “There are the judges going in to sample now. And who is that hottie?”

Carly turned and saw a group of five people walking into the tin building where the competition was being held. Towering above the other four was Wade.

“Holy crap!” Carly blurted out.

She instantly felt silly.

“I saw him first,” Kelly said, never taking her eyes off him as she walked away.

Actually, I saw him—and met him—first, Carly thought with a satisfied smile. It didn’t matter, though, she realized. If Wade was even single and looking for someone, he would obviously choose Kelly. She was beautiful! Looks and confidence made a powerful package that was hard to resist.

There was no way he’d want Carly over her.

“But I can dream,” she whispered with a quiet giggle.

“And dream I will.”

***

Carly didn’t see Wade for the rest of that day.

And thankfully, she didn’t talk to Kelly again, either, though she was on the receiving end of some nasty looks and sneers from across the large tent where their tables were.

Carly didn’t understand the other woman’s problem, but if Kelly didn’t like her, oh well. It stung, sure. Always had. But there wasn’t anything she could really do about it.

Day two of the fair started off even better than the previous one, and by noon she had sold so many cupcakes that she had to restock. There was still one day left, and she hoped she’d have enough. If that looked unlikely, she’d stay up late baking that night.

Things got even better, though, when she heard that unmistakable deep voice say, “I should have known you were baking for the county fair.”

Looking up from the cash box where she was organizing her till, she smiled. “Wade!”

The older, rangy man with him grinned. “See that? She remembers your name.”

Wade briefly shot the guy an annoyed look, but the man just chuckled.

“Carly, I’d like you to meet Sam. He works the ranch with me.”

“Nice to meet you, sir.” Carly stood and shook his hand.

“Did we try one of your cupcakes in the judging portion?” Sam asked. “I don’t recall seeing any Halloween ones.”

“Yes, sir. The rules stated we couldn’t decorate them, that way judges couldn’t figure out what belonged to who. They wanted it completely anonymous to keep it fair.”

“I reckon that makes sense. We sure sampled some great cupcakes and I wish you the best of luck. I’m going to meander over to the caramel corn booth and buy me a bag.” He looked at Wade. “No reason to follow.”

Once again, the two men exchanged looks that seemed to convey a lot to one another, and Carly was very curious what that was all about.

Don’t read too much into it. A guy like Wade isn’t into you. He would want someone like Kelly.

In fact, for all Carly knew, the two had already met and were smitten with one another.

“How has business been?” Wade asked once it was just them.

“Great! I might even have to bake more tonight.”

“Hey, that’s great. I’m rooting for you.” He took out a five and slapped it on the table. “And I’ll have this bad boy right here.” He pointed to a vanilla one with orange frosting and black sprinkles.