Page 26 of The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

‘Just squeeze my hand ... oww ... a little less squeezing.’

‘Sorry.’ Hazel eased her grip but did not open her eyes. She was crammed into a Ferris wheel seat with Noah and her penguin, slowly rising up over the carnival, but she wasn’t thinking about that. Or about the fact that this Ferris wheel had literally been assembled that morning, and by whom?! And what if they’d missed a screw or something? She wasn’t thinking about any of that.

She was focused instead on Noah’s fingers wrapped around hers, and his warm body against her side, and his deep voice in her ear. And frankly, all of that was making her dizzy in an entirely different way.

‘You should really open your eyes. It’s beautiful up here.’

‘Why are we stopping?’ Hazel’s heart lurched as the wheel stopped.

‘They’re letting more people on.’

‘I hate that.’

‘That other people get to ride, too?’

She had to open her eyes to smack his shoulder and found him grinning at her. ‘No. I got stuck at the top once.’

‘For how long?’

‘Like an hour. But it was storming.’

‘Shit, Hazel. You didn’t tell me you had like actual trauma around the thing.’ He loosened his fingers from hers and wrapped his arm around her instead. She didn’t hate it.

‘I’m fine. I think.’ She peered over the front of the carriage and found the carnival lit up below her. Music and laughter drifted on the evening breeze, muting the frenetic energy of the fair and giving an ephemeral quality to the night. Beyond the carnival, the twinkling lights of Dream Harbor made the town feel both cozy and distant, like another world she had the opportunity to see just for a moment. She could even spot the marina from here and the lights on the docks. The beauty was nearly enough to make her forget to be afraid.

‘Any urge to puke?’

‘Uh ... no. Not at the moment.’ The wheel started turning and they continued their descent. Hazel’s stomach dipped and she squeezed her eyes shut again, burrowing her face into Noah’s shoulder.

Salt air and sunshine and soap. She breathed deep. Noah’s arm stayed firm around her shoulders as they reached the ground and swooped back up for another rotation. Hazel looked this time.

‘This might be fun.’

‘You sound surprised.’

‘I am.’

He laughed, the feel of it ghosting over her cheeks. Their heads were close together, the seat was small and the penguin was big. They didn’t have much choice.

‘You know what might be even more fun?’ he asked.

‘What?’

‘If we made out up here.’

His smile said he was teasing but his eyes said he was dead serious. He was closer now, his nose brushing against her cheek, his forehead leaning against hers. And everything about this felt reckless.

Hazel leaned in.

Her lips brushed against his. Noah made a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh so Hazel deepened the kiss, her tongue swept into his mouth and he was cotton candy and lemonade and summer and Hazellikedit.

She pulled away as the wheel turned to bring them back down and caught Noah’s dazed expression in the multi-colored lights of the rides.

‘Damn, Hazel Kelly,’ he whispered.

And she smiled.

ChapterNine