I chuckled. “Good plan.”
“Speaking of plans. We’d better get to the fair if we’re going to get through all the rides today.”
“We don’t have to go. If you’d rather do it later, then we can wait.”
She shook her head. “No, I want to go. It will be a fun distraction.”
“All right.” I held a hand out to help her stand. “Let’s ride.”
Four hours later, I was buckling my seat belt as a carnival worker locked us in a cage. A cage that had once been a clean white but was now spotted with rust.
“I fucking hate The Zipper,” I muttered. “Are you sure about this?”
Poppy looked green. “I’m sure.”
Liar. There wasn’t an ounce of confidence in her voice. “Maybe we should take a break. Come back and do this in an hour or so.” We’d saved The Zipper for last because it was the ride that had scared her the most.
“No.” She clicked her own seat belt with shaking hands. “This is the last ride and then we’re done. We just have to get through this, and we’re done.”
“Okay.” I reached up and gripped the handle on the side of the car. My hand felt slimy because I was sweating my balls off. It was blistering outside, probably over ninety, and not a breeze to be found. Being trapped in this hot metal car wasn’t helping.
I needed water. Better yet, a fucking beer. I hadn’t gone on this many rides since I was a kid, and even then, Mom and Dad had limited my tickets. But there was no limit today. I’d spent almost two hundred dollars on tickets because I’d refused to let Poppy pay.
These fucking traveling carnivals were raking it in. Bastards. Even the kiddie rides had cost five bucks. You’d think they could afford some spray paint to spruce up these cages.
“Enjoy the ride.” With our car locked, the worker smacked the side, then moved back to the control panel.
“Oh my god,” Poppy groaned as the car rocked back, her face going from green to white, matching her knuckles on the bar across our knees.
“Tell me again why we’re doing this?” I hoped a distraction would get her through the loading process. And then we’d just have to stick it out through the two-minute ride.
“Jamie never had a chance to do many fair rides. He was always showing livestock with 4-H, but he loved stuff like this. He even begged me to go to Disneyland for our honeymoon.”
I swallowed hard, not wanting to picture Poppy on a honeymoon. A niggling prickle crept up my neck. I’d been pushing images of Poppy and her husband aside, compartmentalizing them in a box I had no plans to ever open, but the damn lid kept flopping open.
It didn’t help when there were reminders everywhere, like her wedding rings always shining on her finger.
The worst part was, I’d asked her to tell me about him. And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to know. I did. I wanted to know everything about Poppy. I just didn’t realize how hearing her talk about Jamie, seeing her face soften, would make me feel.
Jealous. Like an asshole, I was jealous.
The car rocked again and Poppy gasped, pulling my thoughts back into the cage. My free hand reached out and took one of hers off the bar.
She laced her fingers with mine and squeezed. “Keep distracting me.”
I grinned, amazed again at how well this woman had me figured out. “Did you go on rides as a kid?”
“No. This was always more of Finn’s thing.”
I didn’t remember much of Finn Alcott other than his hair, which was the same color as Poppy’s, and how he’d stepped up for his sister five years ago. After she’d texted him, he’d come to her house and taken over, making the difficult phone calls so she wouldn’t have to deliver the news of Jamie’s murder.
“How’s he doing?” I asked.
“He’s okay.” The car jerked and Poppy gripped my hand so hard my knuckles cracked. “Him and Molly are struggling to adjust to their divorce.”
I tried to adjust my hand and restore some blood flow, but she wasn’t having it so I just let her squeeze. “I didn’t realize they’d been married.”
“Yeah. They got divorced not too long ago.”
Below us, the carnival worker shouted something I couldn’t make out and the car started to rock.
“Last ride. Last ride. Last ride,” Poppy chanted.
“Just close your eyes. Two minutes, and this will all be over.”
She nodded and squeezed her eyes shut.
Then we rode The Zipper.
While Poppy kept her eyes closed the entire time, I kept mine open and on our linked hands. By the time the ride was over and our car stopped shaking, I’d memorized the feel of her delicate fingers laced with mine.
“Poppy.” Her eyes were still closed tight as our car stopped to unload first. “Poppy, I need my hand back so we can get out.”
Her eyes popped open and her entire frame relaxed. “We did it,” she breathed.
“You did it.”
“No. We did it.” Her eyes looked up to mine as she smiled. “I wouldn’t have done this without you, Cole.”
I leaned closer, not in a rush anymore to get out of this hot cage. Not with her eyes and hand holding mine. “I’m glad I—”
“Hey,” the ride operator snapped. “You guys gonna get out?”
Damn.
“Sorry.” Poppy wiggled her hand free and scrambled to unbuckle her seat belt.
I unbuckled too, stepping out onto the platform. My shirt was sticking to my back and I held on to the rail as I followed Poppy down the stairs to the dirt below.
“No matter what new rides they come up with, The Zipper always seems to ring my bell like no other.”
She laughed and looked up at the ride. “Me and you are done, Zipper! You win.”
When her smile came back to me, my heart jumped in a strange rhythm—almost like it skipped a beat. I’d never felt anything like it before.
“I could use
