Sparks Fly

screamed ‘Let me off!’ the entire time.”
    He was obviously trying to hold in his laughter. “Go ahead,” she said, poking a finger in his chest, “laugh at me. But just wait until this thing gets going and I scream so loud you go deaf.”
    He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. “You probably just needed someone to hold you tight.”
    She tensed as the ride started, but his body was so warm against hers, and his arms felt so safe around her, that she was surprised to find herself actually enjoying it.
    A couple of minutes later when the coaster came to a stop, he helped her step safely back to the ground. “So, how was it?”
    She smiled up at him. “I can’t believe it,” she marveled. “It was almost fun!”
    “Now that’s a resounding endorsement for the hug-you-tight technique.” Putting one arm around her, he steered them toward the cotton candy booth. “Now that we’ve worked up an appetite, it’s time for sustenance.”
    He bought them each a huge stick of cotton candy and an enormous bag of popcorn to share between them. They took their feast out to the end of the public pier and stuffed themselves.
    Mouth full of sticky spun sugar, Angelina said, “I don’t normally eat this kind of stuff.”
    Will gave her a wolfish glance. “It shows.”
    She blushed and stuffed a hunk of cotton candy into his mouth so he couldn’t say anything else to embarrass her. “Mmph, mmph, mmph,” he grunted.
    “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk with your mouth full?” she scolded, her eyes twinkling.
    Finally, after another couple of sticky bites, Angelina’s aching stomach got her attention.
    “Ugh,” she said, sitting back against the chair with her hands holding her flat stomach. “I just had one too many mouthfuls of sugar.”
    “Me too,” he said, tossing the rest of his cotton candy into a nearby garbage can.
    As they sat next to each other, feet dangling over the end of the pier, Angelina thought about how good it felt to be with Will. Just hanging out and having fun, Angelina felt like she had everything in the world that she would ever need.
    Could it be? Had she finally been able to work her Feng Shui Cupid magic on herself?

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    By the time they made it back to Will’s mother’s house, Joyce was up and painting at her easel in the living room. “How was the carnival?”
    Angelina opened her mouth to ask how Joyce could possibly have known that they were at the fair, but Will reached for one of her hands and held it up. “Pink hands. This stuff is impossible to wash off. She always caught me when I tried to sneak junk food.”
    “Which was, if I recall correctly, every single day,” Joyce added, trying to assume a repressive motherly look and failing.
    Angelina laughed, enjoying the interaction between Will and his mother. Still, she couldn’t help but think that she should have been working with her client all this time. “I’m sure you didn’t fly me all the way out here to ride roller coasters and eat cotton candy with your son, so if you will just give me a moment to wash up, we can get started. If you’re up to it, of course.”
    “Go ahead and take your time washing up. I need to clean out my brushes anyway.”
    When Angelina had left the room and closed the guest bedroom door firmly behind her, Will muttered, “If she only knew how wrong she is.”
    “Speak up, sonny boy, old ladies are present.”
    Will barked out a laugh. “Playing that old lady card again, are you? As if you won’t be able to outrun me the day you get out of that wheelchair.” Noting the smug look on his mother’s face, he turned the tables. “All I was saying was that you did, in fact, fly her all the way out here to ride roller coasters and eat cotton candy with your son.”
    Joyce tried to affect a bewildered look, but when Will said, “Just admit it,” she let it fall away.
    He would have said more, but his cell phone rang and he excused himself to answer it outside on the front porch.
    Joyce breathed a sigh of relief that she had been saved by the bell. Not that she felt she had anything to apologize for, of course. From everything she had seen so far between her son and Angelina, it seemed that her matchmaking plan was working quite well indeed.

    * * *
    Angelina washed her hands with soap and hot water in the guest bathroom and wondered about the glowing woman staring back at her in the mirror. Her eyes were bright with something stronger