To fulfill a promise to her late father, Aubrey Lynn posts an ad to hire a fake boyfriend for Christmas. But when ex-marine Knox Mikelson shows up, with his arrogant attitude and clear dislike for her, she gets more than she bargained for.
"You snooze, you lose." I stuck my tongue out as I hooked my last ring on the bottle.
"You are 100% cheating." Knox narrowed his eyes at me.
"How can I cheat at throwing rings?" I shot him a look, placing my hands on my hips.
"The fact that you have done this year after year means you are cheating."
"I don't...." I shook my head. Deciding to ignore him I turned to point out which stuffed animal I wanted. When the guy handed over the fairly good sized Panda I crushed it to my chest with a grin.
"Lets go find something you aren't secretly good at." With my new stuffed animal in my arms I brushed past Knox, purposely trailing my hand up his arm and leaning in more than necessary.
"I'm good at everything babe." With a smirk I continued on past him towards another booth we had yet to go to. I let myself take a quick peek over my shoulder and saw Knox still standing there staring after me. He had an almost stunned look on his face that made me stifle a giggle. The fact that I got a reaction out of him was enough for me.
I had to move around quite a bit of people until I finally reached a booth that I was pretty sure Knox would be good at. Seeing that it was empty I stepped up to the counter with a grin.
"Football." Knox slide up beside me.
"Think you can handle this one?" I taunted.
"Uh huh put your money where your mouth is." I couldn't help but grin at the determined look on his face as he handed over the little tickets my mom passed out to all of us. I gladly stepped off to the side, cuddling my panda to my chest to try and stay a bit warmer.
The outfit I had changed into after the bakery consisted of a pair of snug black jeans and a thick pale pink sweater. Even with a huge jacket on over the top I was really really cold.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Just remember to hit the red circle." I gave some advice as Knox reached for the three footballs sitting on the counter. The goal was to hit the center of the red circle. You had three shots and if you got all three you win. All of these were fairly easy games for kids to play but sometimes the easiest ones can be the hardest.
Knox sent me a look that had me putting my hand up and nodding at him to continue. Ever since we split from the others Knox and I have been joking around and taunting each other. I wasn't sure if it was the atmosphere of the festival or not but Knox seemed...more relaxed. Like he was finally letting himself enjoy what was going on around him. And I for one was enjoying seeing this new side to him.
I stayed quiet as Knox threw the first football. It hit directly in the middle of the red circle which was not at all surprising. He said before he played in high school and I had a feeling he was actually really good.
When he threw the second one my eyes were drawn to his back. While he was wearing a coat it seemed to hug his entire upper body. I never knew coats could look so good on someone. In a very weird way it seemed to enhance his wide shoulders and made them seem larger.
