Page 6

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SADIE

“Here ya go, little lady.” The ride worker older than my dad holds the already open door to the Ferris wheel bucket.

Trying to not breathe in the onion stench, I start to slide inside when he suddenly dodges in front, blocking me in.

“You all by yourself? Don’t you know it’s cold up there? How’s about I—”

“Move.”

The menacing growl snaps from a shadow that’s more bear than man. In an instant, the sleazy man scuttles away, head damn near tipped to the ground. “Of course, sir. No problem.”

Aubry stares at him, his eyes black under the brim of his cap. I try to not breathe a sigh of relief but it’s hard to not feel like he just saved me again. Still glaring at the man, Aubry reaches forward.

His palm. It’s on my back.

Not just any part. No, it’s on the small of my back. Guiding me to my seat like some gentleman who’s also about to tear a man limb from limb. I do my best to elegantly slide into a tight Ferris wheel bucket while trying to not hyperventilate.

His hand is huge!

I sit down and watch my thighs spread. Aubry collapses beside me and the bucket tips to the left. It sends me careening toward him. At the last second, I grab onto a bar and try to hold myself up. His head swivels, the brim of his cap brushing over the top of my head.

“Tight fit,” he mumbles.

I can handle whatever you’ve got.

“Yeah,” I mutter instead, tempted to let go and fall into his lap. Maybe graze that eggplant he’s packing in his pants.

“Here.” With a grimace, he worms a half an inch away. There’s absolutely no room between my center-of-mass hips and his snatched ones but he grips onto the top of the bucket and stares out at the fairgrounds.

The ride shifts, lifting us into the air for the next passengers to get on.

Three kids, laughing and shaking, pile in.

I keep watching them while waiting for Aubry to give any hint as to why he asked me here.

We keep moving up, waiting for the ride to fill.

It’d be romantic—if the air didn’t smell like llama poop, the music wasn’t Ode to Exhausted Baby, and it looked like my date wanted to jump out of the bucket and break his legs.

“Is this your first time?” I ask, my mouth needing to fill the silence.

Goosebumps rise on the back of his neck, and he finally looks at me. “On a Ferris wheel?”

“At the festival?”

“Yes.”

I knew it. He isn’t even wearing purple.

“It’s also my first time on a Ferris wheel.

I, um…” His Adam’s apple rebounds in his throat like a tennis ball off the stairs.

We turn for the last leg, reaching the top.

Aubry starts to claw at his jeans before he folds his hands.

“This is nice?” The squeak from his huge body might be comical if he isn’t sweating buckets.

“Are you okay? You didn’t try the chili, did you?”

“No.” He damn near vacuums his bottom lip into his mouth. Coughing, he squares his shoulders and stares straight ahead. Which is when the ride kicks into gear. We swing backwards on the slow, meandering drop.

With a yelp, Aubry places one hand to the top of the bucket and the other…

On my thigh.

Fingers, and thumb, and the whole palm aren’t just touching but digging in. Kneading. The bucket rocks and he leaps, his hand sliding higher.

Oh, fuck. His thumb nearly dips down the spreading cushion of my thigh to caress the crease. I bite my lip to keep from moaning and reach for his hand.

This is it. We’re alone. He’s hot and a dork. I shake back my hair, swishing the ponytail, and turn my head for a kiss.

His eyes are so wide the whites glow neon under the brim of his hat. He’s gnarled his face into a rictus of certain death while holding his breath.

So no kiss.

“Are you…” I run my fingers over his hand, take hold, and guide it toward my knee. “Afraid of heights?”

“No,” he declares despite all evidence. Aubry winces and gazes up at the sky. “I’m just on better terms with the ground.”

He picked the Ferris wheel. I’d have preferred somewhere quiet and dark. “So why’d you want to come here?”

“I didn’t expect it to be so fast and rickety.”

“It’s a carnival ride.”

“Right, right.” He closes his eyes tight and takes a breath as we swing down to the lowest point before going back up. Suddenly, he’s swiveling his head around, staring at the crowd as if looking for something.

Or someone.

“Did you come to Loomis for the festival?” I ask questions to keep my brain from thinking.

“No. I moved here recently.”

“Seriously?” Loomis is tiny, the kind of place where everyone knows everybody’s business. And a man like Aubry would become everyone’s business the second he walked down a street. “I haven’t seen you at the Super Saver.”

“Very recently.”

So I could be getting in on the ground floor of the newest town heartthrob. An urge to throw a bag over his head and rush him back to my place fills me. “Well, how do you find Loomis?”

“It’s…quaint. What about you?”

Chain him to my bed. Feed him nothing but grapes and honey when I’m not being his dirty girl. Wash his body with a sponge as he…

He asked me a question. “Ah, yes. Very nice.” Crap, I was halfway through his sudsy treasure trail when he asked me that.

What was it? About my job? “I’m a food photographer and stylist. It means I take pictures that are so good people want to eat their phones.

Ha. Uh…companies are always sending me boxes and boxes of stuff.

Like, I’ve got this cereal contract right now.

I have to go through five boxes to find the perfect Os for the shot. Takes hours.”

I keep talking to fill the silence as he stares at me.

“I use mashed potatoes as ice cream!”

“Is that so? Then why were you wearing a shirt with Bass Pro on it in the bar?”

“You remembered?” I gasp like he’s brought me my favorite flowers for my birthday.

He shrugs. “I’m good at noticing things.”

“Well, I’m a food stylist, but I work at Bass Pro to pay the bills. Double majored in photography and business, and I don’t use either for that 401K. Still paying for those degrees though. How about you?”

“What about me?” He’s searching again, staring through the crowd as if he knows someone out there. Maybe a colleague brought him here. That’d made sense. Moving for a job.

“What do you do? For a living? Or to live? Very different things.”

“I suppose so.” Aubry nods like I shared some sage wisdom, then he slumps back onto the bench. “I was a…bouncer. In Vegas.”

“Really?” So he’s hot, single, and as poor as me. Two out of three is just fine. “That must have been exciting.”

“Far too much. Right now I’m…between jobs. Just seeing what’s—” He inches forward, rocking the bucket. But Aubry slaps a hand to the beam above and steadies us as he gazes out at something.

I try to see what he’s looking at, but all I can make out are tiny faces. Most of them are in purple or white wearing their trademark Loomis eggplant shirts. Though there’s one in a bright red. Probably forgot what day it is.

“Out there.” Aubry releases his hold, causing us to rock back.

Whatever spell kept him from noticing the height breaks and he scrunches closer to me.

We swing up, both of us staring at the humble bars below our feet that are keeping us in the air.

One missing nut and it could all come crashing down.

An arm drapes over my shoulder. I don’t realize he’s pulling me closer until I turn my head. His face is an inch or two from mine. Smiling.

“You look really nice,” he says and my world explodes.

This is it. Kiss him!

“I…uh.” The avalanche of words that are always at my beck and call becomes a trickle. Who the hell do I think I am kissing someone like that? He could benchpress a grizzly bear, and I’ve got bacon bits stuck in my bra.

“I think you’re nice too.”

I’m a coward. No other way to say it. Chicken shit. Broken, I slump back and twist to stare out at the view. It sure is pretty and…oh, damn it. It’s come to a stop.

We awkwardly hang in the air waiting for people to disembark. Aubry’s no longer staring at me, his attention once again snagged elsewhere.

I pick at my nails to keep from talking. He’s a nice guy, obviously. Not that kind of ‘nice guy.’ A real one who saves people who forget eggplant is in baba ganoush. Or that their friends don’t order hummus.

“I feel like I owe you.”

“Hmm?”

The first words I’ve said since I rebuffed him cause Aubry to focus on me. “For saving me. My life. Like, people always get huge things for that on the news. Cars. Businesses. Big checks. But I don’t have any of those.”

“It’s fine,” he says, trying to shake me off.

I can’t let this go. I owe him, and it’s chewing on my brain like another dentist appointment I missed. “Dinner.”

It’s perfect! I spin in my seat as we lower to the next place in line. “Why don’t I buy you dinner? As thanks.”

“That’s not necessary.”

I can shower, primp, and psych myself up to at least kiss him. “Of course, it is. At least to pay you back for the Epipen. Those aren’t cheap.”

“I’m not sure if—”

We lower to the bottom, and the worker wrenches open the door. “All right, lovers.”

Aubry is the first out, causing the man to skitter away. But as I slip past, the worker slides in behind like he’s about to close the door.

“Don’t.” A blur and the man’s arm is pinned back to the bucket. I stare at his palm and where it nearly landed on my ass. His face is gnarled up in pain from Aubry squeezing his forearm to paste.

“Fuck you, man. I wasn’t doing anything. Your girlfriend’s a fat cow bitch.”

I sigh at the familiar taunt but Aubry’s eyes blaze with fire. Instead of letting go, he pins his hand under the man’s chin and lifts him off his feet. “If I were you, I’d apologize to the lady.”

“S-s-sorry,” he cries out to Aubry.

“Sorry, what?” Aubry prompts.

“Ma’am.”

The ride worker plummets to his shaky feet. He keeps massaging his jaw and wincing. Aubry drapes a protective arm over my shoulders. My heart’s pounding, and I rush into his protective bubble, placing a hand on his chest. Just as we walk away, the worker sucks in snot.

Aubry snaps his head back, staring the man down. He has no choice but to swallow the loogie he was about to spit at us.

People give us a wide berth as we walk away, but I can barely feel my feet. I’m not exactly a small girl, but being by Aubry makes me feel like a tiny fairy cuddled in his hands.

“So dinner?” I ask. “How about tomorrow night at 6?”

He’s huffing like he’s carrying the outrage for me as we press through people. Just as I spy my friends watching us from a distance, he says, “Sounds great.”