Page 65 of Love You Truly

“Old ladies, eh?”

“Wait, here’s where you turn out to have spent time working at the circus as a child or something. And now you’re going to climb the outer rungs of the damn thing to prove a point.” He stares up at the giant wheel, which has just stopped to let off passengers from one of its buckets.

“Nope. Never been on one. Not gonna climb it. No way.”

“But you’ll go?”

“I’ll go.”

He squeezes my hand again, and a ripple of warmth courses over my skin. I like making him happy.

Dash leads us through the turnstiles, and we hand over our tickets. A few minutes later, a couple wearing actual prom king and prom queen sashes exits the ride, and we climb into the open cart. The attendant shuts the door and latches it. A second later, we’re rising into the air.

Dash keeps his hand on top of mine on the bench between us, watching my face as we glide higher. I don’t freak out. I’m not sure who’s more surprised about it.

“You good?” He has the worried look of a dad about to take his hand off a toddler bike and hopes his kid doesn’t fall.

“I’m good.” I gaze out over Napa Valley and let out a long exhale. “More than good. It’s pretty awesome up here.”

We’re shielded from the midafternoon sun blazing relentlessly behind us in our little red bubble. The light casts a giant Ferris wheel shadow on the field beyond the carnival, and I watch it move as we do.

Settling his arm around my shoulders, Dash leans against the bench behind us. “You’ve really never been in one of these?”

“Never. I always thought it would go speeding into the sky and then drop in some sort of gravity plunge.”

Dash chuckles. “How is that possible? When you watch a Ferris wheel spin, it’s just doing gentle circles. There’s never any plunge.”

I shrug. “Don’t know what to tell you. I guess I just pictured it that way in my mind and never bothered to look up.”

“Ha. Sounds like the way a lot of people form opinions. Few of them are true. Not that it matters once people latch onto a thing.”

He looks out over Napa, where rolling hills of green are peppered with neat rows of grapevines. At this time of year, grapes hang beneath the upper tufts of leaves, but we can’t see them from here.

“You speaking from experience?” I ask, putting my hand on his knee.

His lips tip up, but I don’t get a full smile. He looks more thoughtful than happy despite the view.

“Maybe. Probably.”

I wait, but he doesn’t say anything more. We’re about a quarter of the way up, so the entire carnival spreads out below us, and even more greenery is visible in the distance. The wheel stops so people can exit and enter below. We move again and stop again.

Dash still hasn’t said a word, but I wait for one more stop before prodding him.

“Care to elaborate?”

He turns toward me again, and his lips are on mine before my brain has time to catch up. I realize he has no intention of elaborating. And a moment after that, I forget why I asked.

As the Ferris wheel sweeps us higher, I forget about the view. Dash’s lips roam across my cheek and down to my jaw, where he nips at the skin and soothes it with his tongue.

My entire body sighs against him as I find his lips again. And then his tongue. Searching. Swirling. Melting against each other until I’m shifting to get closer. To find more points of contact between us.

“Wait,” Dash says against my lips. “I have an idea. Stay right there.”

I start to explain that there’s not exactly a lot of room to go anywhere else, but then I realize what Dash has in mind as he moves to the floor of the small vessel that’s almost reached the top of the wheel.

There isn’t a lot of space in our round bubble of a Ferris wheel car, so he seems to change his mind, placing his large hands on my hips and shifting me to one end of the bench.

My eyes go wide partly because he’s managed to cram himself into the space at my feet, but mainly because of the cocky grin he gives me as he gently moves my knees apart.

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