Player's Princess (A Royal Sports Romance)(71)

"The cups?"

There's a game where you toss a ball into these plastic goblets, except it's freaking impossible. I sigh and walk her over, knowing she'll be disappointed. Ana hands over a five dollar bill for six balls, steps back, and starts tossing them.

They bounce around and always land in the yellow cups. They have to hit blue, gold, or red to actually win something. There's only one red cup for the biggest prize.

Anna tries only for the red cup. Her face is a mask of concentration; she doesn't even notice I'm filming her. She tosses ball after ball.

One, finally, bounces by accident almost into the red cup.

"Jason, you try," she insists, pointing to the last ball.

I walk over and hand her my phone so she can film my humiliation. I don't go for the red cup. I aim at one of the blue ones just so I can win her something.

The ball hits the blue cup but refuses to stay. It bounces loose and hits the "corner" where the cups meet, bounces again, and rolls across, traveling along the rim of the cups.

It trembles on the edge of the red cup, then falls in.

The attendant looks absolutely astonished. He stands up and stares at the cup, as if he's not sure what to do.

He looks up at the row of stuffed sharks hanging from the ceiling, each about three feet long.

"Uh, what color?"

I turn to Ana. "Princess?"

Ana walks over and looks at them, cocking her head to one side.

"I want the pink one."

The attendant takes it down and hands it over the counter to me. It's so big, Ana can't even carry it. I have to, over my shoulder.

"It's after noon," she sighs. "What should we do now?"

"Now we should get you a Nic-o-Boli."

"What is that?"

"You'll see. Come on."

On the way we stop at the Thrasher's for a bucket of beach fries. Ana carries them in her hand, feeding me between nibbling on them herself. I'm too busy carrying her prize. We get some strange looks as we pass the few people on the street.

"Is the Fun Land open all the time?"

"Only from early spring until today," I sigh. "It closes over the winter."

"That's sad," she says.

I nod. It is, in a way.

Nicola Pizza sits around a corner off the main drag, nestled next to a wing place and a smoke shop. The girl at the hostess station doesn't bat an eye at the shark, nor does the waitress who comes to our table and sees it occupying the booth beside Ana.

I get a Coke, Ana orders a Sprite. She really seems to like those, for some reason.

"Oh, they have anchovies!" she says, her face lighting up.

"Oh God," I say, feigning choking.

She sticks her tongue out at me.

After I explain the virtues of the Nic-o-Boli, Ana defiles it by ordering one with ground beef, extra ricotta, and anchovies. I get mine with beef and cheese, the way I always liked them.

"You have eaten here before?" she asks while we wait.

"Yeah, this was part of the ritual, I guess."

She seems a little confused.

"Figuratively, Princess. When I came down here with my family, we always did this. Funland, eat here, the fries, the works."

She nods like she's thinking about something.

"You're treating me like family," she says.

I'm a little taken aback, but she's right.

It's not a long wait for the food. When it comes out she digs in with her plastic forks, eating hungrily. I make a superhuman effort not to look at the whole fish cut up in her meal.

"It's good," she says with a full mouth, then gulps it down. "I'm sorry."

"Oh my God," I say.

"What?"

"You used a contraction. You said 'I'm.'"

She grins. "Yes, I am… I'm learning."

As I eat, I feel something brush my leg.

Wait, that's not something. That's her foot, and it's caressing along my thigh.

Not to be outdone, I slip my foot out of my shoe and run it up her calf. She giggles and puts her foot right in my crotch, rubbing my dick through my shorts with her toes. It starts to harden.

"You're making me want to run out on the check."

"Never. I'm still hungry," she says with a smirk. "You can just sit there and watch me eat until I have had my fill."

Ana pulls out her card and pays for the meal before I can. When we leave, I tuck the shark under my arm and walk with her, hand in hand.

"I don't wish to go back yet."

"I know. We're not," I tell her. "We need to go to the beach."

"I thought we were at the beach."

"No, the real beach. I'll show you."

It's midafternoon by the time we get back to the car. I put the shark in the back seat and put Ana in the front, and drive her to the beach.

It takes half an hour to get to Cape Henlopen Park. When Ana sees the big spotting towers, she says, "What are those?"

I point at the big brown concrete roundhouses. "Back in World War II, they used those to look out for German submarines."

Honestly, I have no idea if that's true or not. It's what my dad told me.

The park is open for free this time of year. There are no cars in the lot; it's too cold to go swimming.