Page 26 of His First Baby Rodeo

“Oh, definitely,” Mac said.

They approached the ride. El reached for her wallet to buy a ticket, but Mac waved her off. “I’ll get it.”

“No,” she said. “You won the puppy for me. Let me buy us our ride tickets.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” He grinned.

El pulled out a ten-dollar bill to pay for two rides. As she handed it over, she couldn’t help observing that the whole thing had just been made that much more date-like. And the way he’d smiled at her when she’d offered to buy his ticket… yeah, that had definitely kicked up a whole flock of butterflies in her stomach.

The Ferris wheel ground to a halt and the ride operator ushered them aboard. They took their seats, side by side, so close that their thighs were pressing together, and then they were up and away.

CHAPTER12

EL

As the Ferris wheel swept them upward and they left the ground behind, El felt as if her problems were falling away beneath her too. What did it matter, really, what Jeff thought about the fact that she was here with Mac?

Unfortunately, being alone with him at the top of the world like this only opened the door to a whole new set of problems.

Why on earth had she chosen to sit down so close to him? There was a whole foot of space on her other side, but she could hardly slide over now. She’d have had to stand up to do it, and the lap bar was holding her too securely in place. She glanced over at Mac to see whether he had left a similar space on his other side — whether he was sitting so close by choice, or whether she was the only one who had moved toward the center of their little seat. The perspective made it impossible to be sure.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Mac asked quietly.

She followed his gaze. He was looking out over the fairgrounds. From up here, it was all blurred lights and shadows. You couldn’t see the trash on the ground or hear the ringing of the carnival games. “It is,” she agreed.

“It’s enough to make me wish that the fair was in town year-round,” he confessed.

“You don’t really strike me as the type to spend a whole lot of time at a fair,” El said. “But then, what do I know? I didn’t think you were the type who would want to come to one tonight, either. I feel like I’m learning a lot about you.”

“Oh, I don’t know if I’d come or not,” he said. “It’s more about the possibility of it. Do you know what I mean? It’s about knowing it’s here, and that Icouldcome, if I wanted to.”

“I think I do know what you mean,” she murmured, wondering whether either one of them was really talking about the fair. She suspected not. There were a lot of things she thought seemed a lot more possible, in this moment, than they had in a long time. And like the fair, the moment they were in right now was going to end. The Ferris wheel would swoop back down to the ground and drop them back in the reality of their lives—

It came to a halt. They were sitting at the very top, completely isolated from the rest of the world.

“Letting more people on,” Mac murmured.

El looked down. It looked as if one of the passengers who was being brought on board was transitioning out of a wheelchair. “I think we might be here for a while,” she said.

“Good,” Mac said.

He didn’t elaborate, leaving El to wonder what he’d meant by that. Was he just saying he liked it when Ferris wheels stopped at the top like this?

Did he mean he liked it this time specifically, because it was withher?

She thought about edging closer to the side of the seat, trying to put a little more distance between them. But there was no way to move without calling attention to how close they had been in the first place, and anyway, she didn’t really want to. The places they were touching felt energized. Supercharged. It was like lightning was passing between them. She had no desire to put an end to that feeling.

The seat rocked gently back and forth in the wind.

“I think I know what Jeff’s problem is,” Mac said suddenly.

“Do you?” She wondered if that was possible. Could Jeff have talked to him about it too? She hadn’t seen the two of them go off together, but then, she supposed anything could have happened. Jeff could have texted him. Maybe Marilyn had even said something.

“He’s the one who suggested you coming here,” Mac said. “But now he’s feeling weird about it, isn’t he?”

“I think so,” El agreed.

She felt a twist in her gut at the admission. Talking about it like this felt like choosing a side, like saying her loyalty was to Mac rather than to Jeff.They’re not on opposite sides, she reminded herself. No one was asking her to pick one of them over the other. But even so…

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