His breath caught and he stared at her. Her hair was a dark blonde -- the color of caramel -- and fell to slightly below her shoulders in a thick braid. She had the bluest eyes he had ever seen and an adorable little nose with a few freckles scattered over it. Her face was delicately pretty and captivated him completely.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, standing and brushing off her skirt.
"N-no. Why?"
"You're staring at me."
"I'm sorry. Yes, he's my dog. His name is Bruiser. Weren't you at the show?" He didn't think he remembered seeing her in the audience, and he was sure he would remember her.
She laughed. A bubbly laugh that was a vast improvement over the shrill giggles of girls he'd known before.
"No -- I was dropping off my pies for the competition. I'm here with friends. I like your dog," she said. "I should have known he was yours. Matching shirts. Cute touch. Oh -- here they are. I have to go. Nice meeting you," she threw over her shoulder as she turned to go. This was different. She hadn't flirted or fawned. She wasn't using his dog to get to him. She almost seemed not to notice him that way and was honestly friendly. She was now walking away with the identical twins he's noticed earlier when he realized that although she said it was nice to meet him, they hadn't actually met.
"Wait!" he called. "What's your name?" She didn't hear him; she and her friends were disappearing into the noisy crowd on the midway. Fabian heard his friend Dave's soft chuckle behind him.
"First time I've ever seen a girl prefer your dog," he said.
"Shut up." Fabian toweled his face some more.
"It's not that big a town. You'll find her. Come on -- we only have an hour before your dad needs the stage and we need to get cleaned up here."
Overheard by the baking tent: I don't know why she enters contests at all. She always wins; how is that fun?
Her grandmother Kreider had baked the pies for the four farms' produce stand. She taught Lisa to bake when Lisa was very small. Lisa couldn't remember not knowing how to bake. She had always loved the velvety feel of the flour on her fingers. Lisa had been what adults described as an "active" child. Her nickname "Scooter" was given to her because she was hardly ever still. Baking was the only thing that could hold her attention and keep her calm for long periods of time.
She sold her own pies for the first time when she was ten. Her grandmother hadn't been well, and it was either Lisa's pies at the stand or none at all. No pies was not acceptable during the busy summer season. The stand was popular with both tourists and locals and so were the pies. Lisa's mother was a good cook, but didn't have the light touch for pastry. Lisa's pies sold as well as her grandmother's the first week and a little better from then on. Her grandmother didn't mind at all.
Lisa liked the extra money and the recognition around town. Her pies had gotten her the job at the diner, which she loved. But even without any of that, she knew she would still bake.
"Nervous?" Annie asked her. They put down drinks and sat at a picnic table.
"Not really. I don't really lose anything if I don't win. If anything, I feel a little guilty for entering." She pulled the top off of her straw and pushed the wrapper down until it was bunched tightly at the other end. Amy pulled the end off of her own straw wrapper.
"You probably should have given other people a chance," she said, then blew her wrapper at her sister. Annie rolled her eyes.
"Are you ever going to grow up?" she asked, picking the wrapper off of her shirt.
"Ask Lisa. She's the one doing the caterpillar thing." Amy gestured as Lisa dropped a drop of lemonade onto the compressed straw wrapper and watched it unfold itself.
"Anne and George wanted me to enter," she told Amy. "It's publicity for the diner." She watched her wrapper writhe on the table. "You should have seen one of the judges," she said. "I felt sorry for him. He was ... huge."
"I heard about that guy," Amy said. "Greg was on ambulance duty last night and told me that guy was in the emergency room. Hit his head, or something."
"Oh," Lisa said, looking up as the wrapper finished it's throes. "Then he's the strong man's brother."
"Say what?" Amy and Annie both stared at her. Lisa shrugged.
"I heard Shelly and the nurses talking about that this morning. They said his brother brought him in and his brother was the strong man."
"That was one beautiful man, by the way," Amy sighed. "Shame you missed that show."
"That stuff is silly," Lisa replied, "and you're married."
"Silly is the point," Annie told her, "and you're not married." Lisa shrugged again.
"He wouldn't be interested in me," she said.
"I think it's more the other way around. Have you ever met anyone who interested you?" Amy wanted to know.
"Several times, It just doesn't seem to work out for me. I'm not the kind of girl that guys go for. I'm more of a little sister or a buddy. I'm okay with that."
"No you're not," Annie said softly.
"I have to be," Lisa replied. "My family warned me years ago about the danger of being "one of the guys". Turns out they were right. And don't even start about looking here at the carnival. They're going to leave, so what would be the point?"
"Don't just shut the door, Lisa. Slam it and lock it tight." Amy rolled her eyes. "Anything can happen. Look at Greg and me. How long were we just friends? It never dawned on me to see him any other way until something clicked and we caught fire. It could happen to you. You have got to be lonely."
"I'm thinking about getting a dog." Lisa sipped her lemonade. "The strong man has the cutest bulldog. Now I want one."
"How did you know that?" Annie demanded.
"When I came to meet you guys, I found the dog tied up behind the stage. He had on a teeny-weeny muscle shirt -- it was so cute! The strong man said it was his dog."
"You met the strong man?" Amy and Annie were both agog.
"Yes. He doesn't say much -- does he have an announcer or something in his show? I can't imagine it was interesting." Lisa grimaced and took another sip of lemonade.
"Lisa, what are you talking about?" Amy demanded. "The guy did a solid stream of patter and was really funny! He flirts constantly through the whole show."
"Then he's a really good actor. The guy I saw hardly said anything and sort of acted like he'd never seen a girl before."
"Are you sure it was the strong man?" Annie asked skeptically.
"He was the guy on the poster," Lisa shrugged. "So what do we want to do this afternoon?"