I reached out to take them, brimming with satisfaction, until the woman behind the counter slapped a hand over them.
“Sorry, ma’am, I’m going to need you to sign these releases first.”
Did I just get ma’amed? And, wait. Releasees again? For what?
“Should I be worried?” I half-joked, hesitating while Noah scrawled his name across the bottom like he was signing a birthday card.
I, however, took an extra few seconds to actually read the fine print, because someone in this situation should probably be aware of what exactly we were absolving this park of responsibility for “injury” and “death,” which was just great.
Noah, in the meantime, had reached for his wallet, only for the ticket agent to shake her head.
“She already paid.”
He blinked. “Seriously?”
I shrugged, entirely too pleased with myself. “Consider it payback for lunch.”
Noah huffed a laugh, but the furrow between his brows didn’t disappear. “It’s too much. And this was my idea…”
When I simply shook my head, refusing to budge, he sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
I smirked. “I know.”
As it turns out, paying for the tickets had made me feel a lot calmer about the whole thing. For the first time in a while, I’d taken control of something.
Noah gave me a half-amused, half-exasperated look, but he didn’t argue. Instead, he nodded toward the empty gondola queue. It was a reminder that we were arriving late in the day, just a few hours before the park was set to close.
When the attendant opened the door, gesturing for us to enter, we wasted no time climbing on. The door slid shut behind us with a click, and then, with a soft jolt, we lifted off the ground.
As the station gradually dropped away and receded into the distance, I couldn’t help but to be aware of every creak and clunk of the cable overhead, the sway of the cabin, the sheer drop beneath us.
Noah smirked. “You’re gripping that seat like it’s the only thing keeping us in the air.”
I uncurled my fingers from the edge of the bench immediately. “I’m fine.”
He lifted a brow. “You sure?”
I nodded jerkily. “Positive.”
Meanwhile, he looked way too relaxed. “That was sweet what you did for Babs,” he said.
“That was sweet, what you did for your mom.”
Noah rolled his lips together. “Well.” His looked like he wasn’t sure how much he wanted to say. “She’s been through a lot this year.”
Something about the way he said it—clipped, careful—made me hesitate.
I thought about that not-at-all-friendly look Mrs. Grady had sent me earlier. Maybe I had misread it. Gran always said that we couldn’t know what other people were going through…
“When I agreed to come on this trip,” I said as I watched the scenery pass by out the window, “I expected a bunch of tourist traps. But honestly, some of it has been pretty cool.” The view was pretty amazing.
“Even the snow?” he asked.
“Well…” I glanced down at my poor, precious sandals, which had dried but were stiffer than usual. At the same time, my mind flashed to the moment he’d lifted me onto his shoulder and then carried me from the bus to that visitor center. “Even the snow.”
“Yeah,” he said, and I could feel him staring at me. What was that look in his eyes? “You’re right. Some of this has been pretty cool.”
