Hero Ever After by Sarah Ready

Author:Sarah Ready [Ready, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781954007048
Publisher: Swift and Lewis Publishing LLC

12

Ginny

* * *

Liam knocks down all the bottles in one throw.

“And we have a winner, folks,” yells the carnival worker. “Winner, winner.” Bright bulbs flare and a horn sounds.

Liam looks over to me and grins. I shake my head, mostly because of the cocky look on his face, but I can’t help returning the smile.

“Yeah,” shouts Bean. “Can I get the big bear? The big pink one?” She jumps up and down and points at a teddy bear that’s bigger than she is.

“The little lady wants the bear,” says the carnival worker with a sly look in his eyes. He holds out a fist-sized squirrel to Bean. “Here’s the small prize. You need three wins for the big one.”

“Ohh,” says Bean. Her voice drops from high to low. “Erm, it’s…hmm.”

I start to laugh and Liam waves the prize away and hands over twenty dollars.

The worker grins and raises his microphone. “Player, player. We’ve got a big player.”

Liam lightly tosses a ball in his hand.

“You can do it,” says Bean. “’Cause you’re—”

“Shhh,” I say. I cut her off before she outs Liam.

“Oh yeah,” she whispers.

I smile and tap her on her nose. Liam’s surprise was bringing us to the county fair. Except, we’re not here just to play carnival games, he and Bean are working on going incognito in alter egos. The rules are that no one can suspect they’re a superhero and protégé.

He gave Bean a pink wig, a sequin hat, heart sunglasses and a shirt that says “superhero.” I’m biased, since I’m her mom, but she looks so stinking cute I can barely stand it.

Liam raises the first ball and aims at the bottles. He pulls back and throws. He hits them, but only three fall.

“Tarnation. Those bottles are slippery as a mare in heat,” he says. Then he turns and winks at me.

I hold back a laugh. He’s fully in character. If I didn’t know he was Liam Stone, I’d never recognize him. He has on a black cowboy hat, a fake mustache, cowboy boots, sunglasses and a shirt that says “I’m with stupid” with an arrow pointing at his face. Okay, fine, I start to laugh. He looks back at me and shakes his head. Then he tosses another ball at the bottles.

“Got ’er,” he shouts and he pumps his fist in the air.

“So ridiculous,” I say.

Bean jumps up and down and cheers. We’re up to the medium prize, a stuffed taco with googly eyes and legs. Liam has two more balls to throw. The worker sets up the bottles and motions for Liam to take another throw.

“Player, player,” the worker shouts into his microphone, “We’ve got a big player.”

The midway is crowded. People mill about, try their hand at carnival games, eat cheesy chili fries, cotton candy or mysterious fried snacks on sticks. I take in the nostalgic smell of sugar, fried grease, and kicked up dust—those summertime fair smells. Of the hundreds of people passing by, not a one pays any attention to the movie star, aka down home cowboy, in their midst.

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