Page 25 of The Dangers of Daydreaming (Love Connections #2)

“Come this way,” I said, gesturing her over to the booth. “You’ve played carnival games, right?”

She shook her head. “I’ve never been to an amusement park at all.”

“Not even Lagoon? That’s got to be like an hour from you?”

Again, she shook her head, then shrugged. “After the divorce, both of my parents were pretty busy with work. We didn’t do a ton of activities.”

“Never went with friends or anything?”

“My cousins wanted to plan a day there once; I can’t remember what ended up happening to derail that.”

I stared at her, boggled. “Okay, change of plans.” I grabbed her hand, pulling her back to the ticket booth.

I had done it so quickly and without thought that it wasn’t until our palms were pressed together and our fingers interlocked that I realized.

Maybe I had accidentally dragged her into a date, just without classifying it as that.

The thought made me feel like a dirtbag, so I dropped her hand, even though I didn’t want to .

I bought us evening passes and led her back into the park.“Alright, what’s first? Rides, roller coaster, Ferris wheel?”

She seemed to be in a state of shock, but then her eyes glittered and a smile lifted her lips. “Roller coaster.”

“I take it back, let’s just go play carnival games.” She had her eyes clamped shut as the roller coaster attendant checked our belts. My lips twitched—really, this wasn’t a huge rollercoaster.

But the fear painted in broad strokes across her face made the smile drop.

I wanted to reach out and grab her hand, but the chivalry my grandparents had instilled ran strong, holding me back.

Being the nice guy really sucked sometimes.

“The scariest part is the start, as soon as we get going, you’re gonna have a blast.”

She was shaking her head back and forth. “Is it too late to back out? It’s probably too late, isn’t it? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what have I done?”

My hand flexed against my knee. “I can flag down the attendant if you want to get off.”

My eyes scanned for the guy; he wasn’t checking belts anymore.

Suddenly, our cart jerked forward. Lucy let out a yelp, her hand darting out and grabbing mine in such a vice grip that it was an impressive feat of my nervous system that it still managed to feel every inch of her skin against mine.

I curled my fingers around hers. She had grabbed my hand, so I was no longer the bad guy for holding on.

I would earn that title only by letting go now, and I’d hate to hurt her.

I felt a little bad enjoying this when she was so terrified.

Her other hand snaked around my upper arm, pulling hers elf close.

Roller coasters. The key had been roller coasters, and I’d stumbled upon this Holy Grail of information totally by accident.

I closed my freehand over hers on my arm.

“It’s the scariest part, remember? You can do this.

It’s going to be okay.” She was still shaking her head, and a sound half between a groan and a whimper escaped her lips.

I moved my hand to hold her head against my shoulder, as if I could shield her from the fear.

My gut felt like it was tumbling around in a dryer, having nothing to do with the steady incline as we went up to the first drop.

And then we were off, flying down the track, the wind blowing her hair across my neck.

She had her whole body pressed into mine, clinging for dear life, and I held her right back with a grin as wide as the Grand Canyon on my face.

Would I be able to get Lucy to go on it again? I would love a repeat of this.

The ride was short. Too short by my estimation. And when our cart slowed to a stop, I regretfully removed my hand from Lucy’s hair as she pulled back.

Her eyes flipped up to mine, moisture clear in their chocolate depths, and for a second, my heart lurched at the sight. But then a one-thousand-watt smile split her face.

“That. Was. Amazing.”

Yes, it was, but I had to admit to a level of shock at hearing it from her. “It was?”

She laughed, the sound bright and unburdened, and swiped beneath her eyes with her hands. Then she pressed her hand to her chest.

“Oh my gosh, I thought my heart was going to pound right out of my chest. Is this what it feels like to be high?”

I snorted. “No, I don’t think it is.”

She ignored me, hands waving in an attempt to express her apparent excitement. “It is amazing. Incredible. Let’s do it again.”

We stood in line and rode it two more times, and to my complete and utter dismay, she didn’t hold onto me once. The third time, she even threw her hands in the air, screaming with delight the entire time. My eardrums might never be the same, but I was more worried about my heart.

Eventually, after touring the whole park, we made it back to the carnival games, where I had the satisfaction of beating her soundly at every single one.

“What happened to chivalry?” she asked after my tenth straight win.

“I am pretty sure there is no part in the definition that says I need to let you win.”

She pouted, and it was adorable. “Still would have been nice.”

“No, you would have gotten annoyed at me for pretending to lose.”

Her hand was wrapped around an almost-gone cotton candy cone, and she pinched her lips to the side in thought. “Yeah, I probably would have.” Then she sighed. “I’m totally forcing my cousins on that day to Lagoon.”

I felt strangely jealous of her cousins.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it, their roller coasters are much larger than ours.”

“I will.” The park was closing, or else I would have found more ways to keep her out with me, but as it was, we’d had a long day today and had an early morning staring us in the face.

So, we walked back to the van and drove to the hotel with her verbally reliving every moment of the amusement park.

It made me happy to listen to her rattle on about each of the things that I had been doing right beside her.

Because it meant that because of me, she’d just had an incredible evening.

My head was growing big from all the unspoken praise.

I parked at the hotel, held open her doors, and made it up the elevator before I couldn’t help myself.

“So, dinner?”

She didn ’t glare, and her smile didn’t fade. “Maybe.”

“Still just maybe?”

She nodded, biting her lip, but her smile was still there. Was she actually teasing me now? I thought that was my territory, but I was more than happy to share. “Let me check my schedule,” she said, and the absolute cheek in her tone made me want to push her against the wall and kiss her senseless.

“I can check it for you, it’s the same as mine.” I used my key card to get us into the room.

She went straight for her bag, pulling out pajamas, and then passing me on her way back to the bathroom. But she paused, with her hand on the doorknob. “Probably,” she amended.

“I will take probably.”