Summer Days

Chapter 34

Victor rose up from the towel to take a plate from us as we all settled in on the ground again. "Looks good." He smiled, pinching off a piece of chicken from the skewer. "What's that?" He pointed to the fried butter.

"Fried butter." Luke said happily.

Victor made a face. "That doesn't even sound good." He said.

I smiled. "It smelled really good though." I said, reaching for one. I studied it. It was like a donut hole. They'd drizzled them with a strawberry sauce and dusted with powdered sugar. I looked at the two of them and they were looking at me. "Someone's got to go first." I said before taking a bite.

Luke's eyes flared with excitement and he reached for his own. "Is it good?"

I chewed cautiously before taking another bite. "Oh... it's ... interesting. Maybe if the butter ball inside had completely melted it would be great." I said, popping the last bite in my mouth to avoid dripping melted butter all over. The unmelted part seemed to just give off a greasy mouthfeel that was a little strange but the overall effect was pretty good. I watched as Luke decided just to pop the whole thing in his mouth.

He frowned slightly before smiling again. "Oh yeah, that is interesting." He smiled at me.

"You two are crazy."

"Try one." I said to Victor. "Just one." I said, holding out the container to him. He eyed me for a moment. "Please Victor..." I said pleadingly, letting my lower lip pop out to a pout for a moment.

"Don't." He warned, reaching for one. "Just for you." He said, leaning in and kissing me lightly before he tried it. He scrunched up his nose before swallowing, making me laugh.

"More for us." Luke said before we all dug into the other dishes that we'd gotten.

"More for you." I said. "I think I'd have an actual elephant ear and maybe some cotton candy."

Victor smiled. "No deep fried pickles?"

"Is that a thing here?" I made a face. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I do like pickles but fried?" I was skeptical.

"Must be a mostly southern thing." Luke shrugged. "They're actually all over down here. I like them with a bit of hot sauce in the ranch."

"So are they going on the diner menu?" I asked, taking a bite of the waffle fried bacon. My eyes widened and I dipped part of it into the maple syrup that had come with it. "Oh this is good." I said, offering it to Luke to take a bite. He leaned into me and took the bite before nodding. "This should be on the diner menu." I said, setting it down to reach for a napkin when my fingers were sticky with syrup.

"Agreed. I'll let Uncle know what we are thinking." Luke smiled and took a sip of water before starting in on some of the yakisoba noodles.

Victor grabbed my wrist before I dripped syrup on him. "Need a napkin, hmm?" he asked.

"I do." I nodded with a smile.

"Let me try the bacon..." He said softly, letting go of my wrist to let me offer him the bacon. He took the bite and chewed it. "That definitely has a lot of flavor. It's good." He said as I reached out for the napkin again. He took my wrist again, eyes locked on mine as he raised my hand to his mouth and kissed my fingers, sucking them into his mouth slightly as he cleaned the syrup off of them. He let go of my wrist but I let my fingers settle on his lips for a moment.

"Nice." I murmured, lost in our own world just at the feel of his lips and tongue against my fingers. Luke cleared his throat behind me. I blushed and pulled my hand away from Victor's face. "Sorry."

"No need to be sorry, Princess." Victor said.

"I was just clearing my throat." Luke said. "A noodle sort of went the wrong way." He said as we instituted one of our plate changes and we swapped plates so that each of us could eat something different.

I smiled after studying them both for a moment. "This is going to be the best day." I said softly, toasting them with my water bottle. I giggled when they hit their bottles against mine.

"And it's off to it's start for real now." Victor said as the first music act took the stage. I beamed. "The Jazz Five." He said.

I nodded slightly and shifted, putting the plate down and taking another one of the butter balls to see if they were any better after having a chance to cool down a bit. It wasn't bad, I thought as I finished it off and shifted, tucking my legs underneath me as I shifted closer to Victor, watching in rapt attention as the jazz group played.

Luke shifted closer as well, the three of us sitting as close as possible as we listened to the music. I smiled, leaning back against his shoulder as Victor's arm claimed the spot across my legs when Luke's arm slipped around my waist.