“Maybe?” I raise my eyebrows at him because I’m just unsure.
He nods. “When we get a little closer, I’ll fake another call and let you two get on the Ferris wheel alone.”
I start to feel a little uncomfortable about this. I mean, I’m basically lying to Micah, and that doesn’t sit right with me. But we’re almost to the High Roller, and I kind of do want to go on it with Micah.
“All right.”
River winks at me. He stops walking and pulls out his phone. “Oh, hold on,” he says loud enough for Micah to stop and turn around. “My mom’s calling.”
He pretends to answer his phone. “Hi, Mom! What? Really? Right now?” He covers the phone and whispers to us, “Family emergency. I need to take this. You guys go ahead without me.”
I watch him walk a few steps away, talking into his phone, and I can’t help but smile. What a faker.
Micah shoves his hands into his pockets. “Another call? He’s sure popular today.”
I fidget with my ticket. “Looks like he might be a while.”
Micah frowns. “Should we wait for him?”
“No,” I say quickly. “I mean, if he’s handling family stuff…” I trail off and look at the High Roller. “He said to go ahead.”
We make our way through the short line, and soon, we’re settling into one of the pods. It’s spacious—big enough for about twenty people, but since it’s just the two of us, it feels almost too big. We’re surrounded by glass and can see all around us. The wheel starts moving so slowly I can barely tell we’re ascending.
“This is nice,” I say, moving to the windows. The Strip stretches out below us, all bright lights against the desert darkness. “River was right. You really can see everything.”
Micah joins me at the window, standing closer than he usually does. “It’s beautiful. Different from home.”
“Very different.” I glance at him sideways. “I always got the impression you wanted to make it big in the music industry and leave Willow Shade Island. At least, that’s what you said growing up. Is that still true?”
“I don’t know.” He’s quiet for a moment. “I thought I wanted more, but leaving home and going to school was so different from what I expected. Now I’m not sure I want to leave Willow Shade.” He looks at me. “There are people there I don’t want to leave.”
There’s something in his voice that makes me turn away from the view to really look at him. “What do you mean?”
He runs a hand through his hair and leans against the railing. “I don’t know. It’s just… after everything that happened, home has become this anchor, you know? The one constant thing. I didn’t even realize it until I left for school.”
We’re rising higher now, and the lights below us are getting smaller. I can feel the question forming before I even decide to ask it. “Everything that happened?”
Micah is quiet for a long moment. Then he sighs andlooks down at his hands. “The accident. When my parents died.”
My heart clenches. We’ve known each other for years, but he’s never really talked about that day. None of the Barrett brothers have, at least not with me. “It was a horrible day.”
“Yeah,” he says quietly. “It was.”
I sense he wants to say more, but he doesn’t speak up, so I wait and let him talk when he’s ready. Finally, he speaks.
“You know what the worst part is?” He looks at me, and his eyes are so full of pain it takes my breath away. “The last thing I said to my mom wasn’t ‘I love you’ or even ‘see you later.’ It was something awful.”
My throat closes, and I can barely breathe. “What did you say to her?”
“I can’t say it. It’s too terrible.”
I squeeze his arm. “You were just a kid. It couldn’t have been that bad.”
He looks down at the floor. “I said, ‘I hate you.’”
“Oh, Micah.” I move closer to him. Tears prick at my eyes because I know how much that must be killing him. He’s never opened up to me about that. “What happened?” I ask softly.
He stares out at the horizon for a while, not saying anything, his jaw working. Finally, he looks at me and lets out a breath.
