“Come on.” We walk to a nearby stand, and he gets us two drinks.
I’m not worried about my father, because Carmen is standing nearby, keeping an eye out for me. Bless her for the good friend she is.
Blue shoves a hand in his pocket and glances around, and I realize maybe he doesn’t want his club brothers to see us together. He told me the other night that he’d been warned off me by his VP. There’d be trouble between his president and my father and no one in his club wants that. He’s risking a lot to be with me; even just standing here drinking a lemonade could get us in trouble.
I smile and decide to push his buttons. “So, when are you going to take me for a ride on your motorcycle?”
“You know I can’t do that, Luisa.”
“Can’t you? No one would need to know, would they? I bet women ride on the back of your bike all the time.”
“You’d be wrong. I don’t put any woman on the back of my bike.”
“You don’t?” I frown because that surprises me.
“That isn’t what this is, babe.”
“Fine. I don’t have anything to wear, anyway.”
His eyes sweep over the sundress I wear. “I like what you’re wearing just fine.”
A scream rends the air, and we glance to see some people pointing up at the top of the Ferris wheel, which is stopped.
I frown. “What are they pointing at?”
Blue gestures to a carny guy who is banging on some levers like they’re stuck or something. “Looks like the ride is jammed.” Blue glances to the top. “Look up there.”
I follow where he points and see a small boy climbing out of one of the swinging seats.
Gasps and shouts rend the crowd below, and Blue and I hustle closer with the growing throng.
“Can’t you do something?” a man asks the carny worker.
“The thing is jammed up.”
“The boy is going to fall,” a woman shrieks. “You have to get him down.”
“I ain’t climbin’ up there, lady. You crazy?”
Blue touches my shoulders. “Wait here.” And then he presses through the gathered mob and disappears.
Before I can find him again, someone points. “Look at that guy.”
I spot Blue climbing the metal framing like a pirate going to the top of the crow’s nest on the mast of a ship. He’s fast and sure-footed, but my heart lodges in my throat. If he makes one wrong move, one wrong step, he could fall to his death. I cover my mouth with my hand and suddenly Carmen is at my side.
I meet her gaze with my own terrified one, and she wraps an arm around me.
“He’ll be okay.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He’s almost at the top.”
“I can’t look.” The fear of losing him is overwhelming me.
“Luisa, he’s got him.”
I give in and glance up. Blue made it up to the boy in no time at all, but fear for his safety has all my nerve endings tingling.
