She nodded and even seemed anxious to mess with Luke.
Had Jack ever met a girl who immediately followed along with their joking?
As expected, Luke got rocked on the bumper cars. When he came off the ride, he started swinging at anything he could get his hands on. He even knocked over a tiny blonde in his angst. His friends’ laughter only egged him on further.
Without thinking, Jack slung his arm across Lexi’s shoulders as they laughed. As she turned into him, trying to catch her breath through giggles, he breathed in sharply. He needed to stop this. Why did she make that so hard?
“I cannot believe him,” Lexi said, breaking contact, as she wiped away tears of laughter.
“He is a riot,” Jack confirmed.
They watched Luke try to punch Seth, but Seth ducked under Luke’s halfhearted blow easily.
“Why don’t we get you something to rot your teeth?” Jack suggested.
He wanted her away from the walking comedy act, so he could have her all to himself again. He grabbed her hand and pulled her away toward a cotton candy machine. Her hand fit perfectly in his, and he quickly dropped it when he came to that realization.
Needing to change the subject, Jack asked, “So, tell me, Lex, what do you normally do on Friday nights?”
She shrugged. “I hang out with my roommate or Olivia, go downtown, see movies, game nights, dinners, fraternity parties.”
She seemed to add the last part reluctantly.
“Cool. I like to do all of those things,” Jack said with an easygoing smile.
“Fraternity parties?”
“Mike’s in a fraternity,” he told her. “So, yes, even fraternity parties. Probably not as often as my freshman year though.”
After they ordered cotton candy, they made their way toward the Ferris wheel. When Jack offered the candy to Lexi, she snatched a piece of it and stuck it in her mouth. He stared down at her mouth where pink sugar had mingled with her lip gloss. He couldn’t seem to pull his eyes away.
Lexi licked her lips, and Jack swallowed.
He would really like to know what that tasted like.
“You’re such a mess,” he said, trying to cover his inappropriate thoughts.
They stopped at the line for the Ferris wheel, which was wrapped around the ride. Jack popped some cotton candy into his mouth as she watched the machine transfixed. He didn’t even see the giant ride when standing next to her.
He let the sugar dissolve in his mouth before speaking. “What’s your major?”
“As of today, I’m undecided.” She seemed happy about it.
“An indecisive one, I like it.”
“I’m not indecisive. Just open minded.”
“Same thing.”
“Well, what’s your major, Mr. Decisive?” She stuck one hand on her hip and gave him with a knowing look.
“I’m not decisive, just practical. I’m pre-business, likely going to the accounting route. Not so sure though.”
Lexi wrinkled her nose. It was adorable.
“Eww. I’ll forestall practical. Thank you!”
He found himself laughing at her forthrightness. She didn’t seem to hold anything back.
“Yeah, it’s what I’m good at.”
“At least there are a lot of jobs out there for you. Not much a person can do while being undecided, and what I really want to do has only a few more jobs than that,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“And what is that? What do you really want to do?” he asked very seriously. Despite the joking, he found that he was actually very interested in what she wanted to do with her life. It suddenly mattered a lot to him.
She paused before answering. “Gymnastics.”
“That’s awesome,” he said, noticing all the wonderful muscles gymnastics had put on her small frame. And…she was probably flexible. He needed to stop that line of thinking or else it could get embarrassing.
He knew the gymnastics captain. He wondered if Lexi had been recruited or if she had tried walking on. “Have you talked to the gymnastics team here? If you like it so much, you should try out.”
“No,” she responded solemnly.
“Why not?
“You don’t just try out for the gymnastics team here. They’re amazing. If they don’t recruit you, then you have no chance. No walk-ons. Nothing.”
“How do you know that? Were you recruited?”
“No, I wasn’t,” she said sharply.
Oh, sore subject. He should introduce her to Krista. Maybe that would help.
“Oh, well, I know one of the gymnasts. I bet she could talk to the coach. Even if you can’t be on the team, you could probably practice with them.”
The glance she gave to him was as if she were approaching a martian.
“Okay, maybe not,” he said, raising his eyebrows. He took another bite of cotton candy to prevent himself from speaking again.
“Even if I could get to talk with the coach, there would be no way she would let me practice with them.”
“Never know until you try,” he said, swallowing the remaining bit.
She was hot when she got herself all riled up. Luckily, they were now at the front of the line, so he didn’t have time to think about it again.
Jack handed the man four orange tickets, and then he ushered Lexi into a big swinging yellow bucket with the number twenty-five plastered against the back. He recognized the guy working, and as Lexi took a seat, he asked the guy to do him a favor. The guy laughed, called him an ass**le, and told him to sit down.
Once Jack took his seat next to Lexi, the Ferris wheel began to rotate in an endless circle. Jack smirked at Lexi, and then started shaking their bucket back and forth. She grabbed on to the sides and squeaked. The girl in the bucket in front of them started threatening them, but he just laughed.
Lexi put her hand on his knee. “Calm down. We don’t want to get kicked off!”
“I know the guy who’s running it. No way we’ll get kicked off,” Jack said.
But he stopped anyway and used that moment to throw his arm across the back of the bucket seat. Lexi relaxed until she was almost leaning into him but not quite. He wondered what she was thinking.
As they made their final rotation, the ride crawled to a stop at the very top, looking out across the open fields. Jack smiled, silently thanking his friend, as the sun was setting low on the horizon, casting the last sliver of orange, pink, and red on the sky.