Page 80 of Good Girls Don't Date Rock Stars (Rock Canyon, Idaho 2)

The ride started moving, and they spun around until Gemma felt her cheeks flattening. She tried not to look around too much, afraid she’d get sick and throw up, but when the ride ended, she felt okay.

“I want to go on the Ring of Fire next!” Charlie cried as he climbed down the stairs.

“I don’t know, Charlie,” she said, looking up at the giant loop roller coaster. Rides that stayed close to the ground didn’t worry her as much as the high ones, especially when they went upside down.

“Please, Mom?”

“I can go with him,” Travis offered, but when she looked up at him, he seemed to change his mind. “Actually, Charlie, let’s find something else. I think that ride makes your mom nervous.”

She was surprised that Charlie didn’t argue further as they walked down the midway. When Charlie spotted a photo booth, he yelled, “Let’s get our picture taken. Then I can add it to the scrapbook.”

Gemma remembered having climbed into one of them with Travis at the fair back in high school and held out her arm. “You first.”

Travis climbed onto the stool and she went in next, sitting so close she was practically on his lap, and Charlie sat in the middle, wrapping a skinny arm around each of their shoulders.

Travis put in the money and hollered, “Okay, funny faces!”

The flash went off, and Gemma offered, “Big smiles?”

They grinned at the camera, and Travis wiggled his eyebrows. “Kisses?”

Charlie made a gagging noise, and Gemma leaned closer to Travis so his lips could brush hers. After the flash went off, they had one more picture left, and they squeezed together, their cheeks pressed against one another’s.

Their pictures printed a few minutes later, and Gemma picked them up, laughing at their faces.

“Let me see!” Charlie pleaded, taking the pictures from Gemma. Charlie seemed to study them for a moment before nodding. “I knew it.”

“You knew what?” Travis asked.

Charlie handed the pictures back to Gemma, his crooked smile filled with pure joy. “That we’d look like a real family.”

TRAVIS HADN’T BEEN able to stop thinking about Charlie’s comment. He’d spent the last few hours chasing his son around while his wife laughed, and he agreed. They definitely felt like a family.

They met up with Charlie’s friend’s parents at around nine, and when Charlie had hugged first Gemma and then Travis before yelling good night as he took off after Evan, Travis shook his head.

“It’s amazing how much I love that kid,” he said, taking Gemma’s hand to lead her toward the exit.

“He is special,” she agreed, squeezing his hand tight. “I feel like he got the best of both of us.”

He kissed her temple and whispered, “You did a great job. You’re a wonderful mom.”

“And you are a wonderful father. Charlie adores you,” Gemma said.

As his eyes started to burn, he changed the subject. “So, technically, I was counting this as our second date, and I’m sorry that our third date is going to kind of bleed into this one.”

“What do you mean?” she asked as they reached his truck.

“Trust me. I think you’re going to love it.”

“TRAVIS CHARLES BOWERS, I am not getting on that thing!”

Travis tried to smother his grin as he said, “We’ll be perfectly safe, Gem.”

“Not if we crash in the wilderness. On the off chance we don’t die from that, we might get lucky enough to be eaten by wild animals.”

Travis looked between his irrational wife and the helicopter he’d hired to fly them into Stanley. When he’d told her to pack a bag with her swim suit that afternoon, she’d pestered him to tell her why, but he had wanted her to be surprised. He hadn’t bargained for her refusing to get on the damn copter.

“I mean it, Travis!” she yelled after him as he walked away from her to hand the pilot their bags and shook his head. He knew Gemma didn’t really like flying; she’d told him so when he’d asked why she’d driven to Vegas instead of hopping on a plane, but he hadn’t expected her to be quite so stubborn.

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