He stopped arguing. Mattie’s knowledge and experience creating social media plans meant she knew tons more about focus groups and target audiences than he did. Professionally, he couldn’t afford to turn down much-needed online help. Personally, he couldn’t stop grinning at the realization of how much interest Mattie had in him. If she never intended to see him again, she would have offered him a handshake at the end of their road trip. Instead, she was making sure they had a reason to stay in touch.
Dave shook his head. If she was doing all that, why was he trying to stop her? “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’d love your help with this.”
For the first time in hours, his GPS told Dave to make a turn. After passing through the small town of Thunder Creek, Dave spotted the sign for the Thunder Creek Family Campground and turned onto the dirt road.
The spot Dave had reserved was a corner site that backed onto a farmer’s field. The field had already been harvested, leaving them with an undesirable view of stubble and dirt. Luckily, the view was offset by the fact that the lot was a double one with more than enough room to park and disconnect Mattie’s trailer, leaving him free to drive Mattie into Hopewell for dinner and to enjoy the concert at the main stage on their last night together.
Mattie wandered over while he unhitched the trailer. “Mei Chen just texted. She contacted the logistics department at our parent company and booked a truck and driver for tomorrow.”
“I have to ask. Why do you always use your boss’s first and last names?”
“She’s just the type of person who commands that kind of respect. If she ever showed up at work in jeans and a T-shirt, or was late for a meeting, I’d think she’d been replaced by an imposter.”
“She sounds formidable.”
“She is.” Mattie gave him a small smile. “They’ll get here around noon. They’ll drive me and the trailer back to December tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll be home by suppertime. At least I’ll get to see your morning show.”
“That’s great,” Dave choked out. It was too soon for their little team to break up. “I’ll make sure it’s one for the books. In the meantime, would you like to go check out the fair?”
“Sure.”
He winced at the casual phrasing of his question. Everybody wanted to go to a fair. If he wanted to take Mattie out, he needed to shoot his shot. He tried again. “No, Mattie. I mean, would you like to go to the fair with me? On a date?”
“Oh.” She squared her shoulders. “In that case, yes, please.”
The campground was a twenty-minute drive from the town of Hopewell. It wasn’t hard to find the fair set-up at the high school; all they had to do was follow the noise. They parked three blocks away and strolled along the busy sidewalks. Eight food trucks lined the street across from the school. Behind the two-story building, Dave saw coloured lights flashing and heard the familiar sounds of carnival barkers and music being piped through cheap speakers.
“Oh, cotton candy! We’ll have to stop there for dessert.”
“What if they have deep-fried chocolate bars?”
“Then you can have one of those and I’ll have cotton candy,” Mattie said with a laugh. “What did you say about a show?”
“They have a concert stage with different acts every night. Shall we see who’s playing tonight?” Dave took Mattie’s hand and joined the river of people making their way to the temporary fairgrounds.
They burned their mouths on straight-from-the-deep-fryer corndogs and then quenched the fire with freshly squeezed lemonade. Mattie offered to share her cotton candy, but he declined. He didn’t find any deep-fried chocolate bars, but he did find a table selling slabs of fresh watermelon.
“I’m going to be a mess,” he groaned.
“Yeah, but watermelon.” Mattie pulled him toward the row of carnival game tents. “Let’s win you a towel.”
He was a terror when it came to darts. He fired them at the backboard so hard that the blunt ends popped anything in their way. The balloons didn’t stand a chance. In short order, he’d not only won himself a hand towel with a comic book “Pow!” graphic, but also a small yellow teddy bear the size of his hand. The barker couldn’t shoo them away from his stall fast enough.
Dave presented the bear to Mattie with a slight bow. “To remind you of the Magnificent van and our trip together.”
She clutched it to her chest. “I love it.”
The loudspeakers scattered around the schoolyard sprang to life when the announcer gave notice that the night’s concert was about to start.
“Merrily Sweet!” Mattie gasped. “I love her!”
“Really? I had no idea. I thought all of her songs in your playlists were there as filler,” he teased. The pop singer was the reason he’d insisted they leave Moose Jaw an hour earlier than he’d originally planned. He’d wanted to ensure they didn’t miss the show. Dave used his height to shoulder them into a spot on the edge of the crowd, close to the stage. “Can you see?”
She wrapped her arm around his waist. “Yup.”
The concert was scheduled to last an hour. With five minutes to go, he dragged Mattie away. He’d been keeping an eye on the line for the Ferris wheel, and it slowed down significantly when Merrily hit the stage.
His timing was perfect. They ducked into the line and were loaded onto the second-last gondola before the ride started. As the cage began to move, they swung gently, then soared into the air to the soundtrack of Merrily’s current hit ballad. From the top of the wheel, they could see the stage and fairgrounds clearly. The rest of the town faded into darkness as streetlights in the distance looked like fairy paths leading into the night.