Oh. So this was someone from Michael’s life. Someone he’d talked about me to.
“Right,” I said, feeling Michael’s hand settle at the small of my back. “Sorry—my memory’s been unreliable lately.”
“Don’t apologize.” Her smile softened. “I just—it’s really good to see you both.” Her eyes dropped to the stuffed elephant in my arms, and something amused flickered across her face. “Winning carnival prizes, I see.”
“Well… Michael won it,” I said.
“That sounds exactly like something he’d do.” She laughed, and it sounded genuine. There was something kind in her eyes when she looked at me. Almost relieved, maybe. “Well, I won’t keep you. I’m here with a friend and her kids—they’re determined to make me ride something that spins.” She touched my arm briefly. “Take care of yourself.”
She walked away, disappearing into the crowd.
I turned to Michael. “Who was that?”
“Hannah Pierce. Family friend. Like she said.”
“She seemed to know about me.”
“I mentioned you to her once.” He steered me toward the ferris wheel. “Come on. There’s something I want to do.”
But I was still thinking about Hannah. About the way she’d looked at me—like she’d been expecting to meet me eventually. Like she knew something about Michael and me that I didn’t.
“Was she one of your exes?” I asked.
Michael’s hand tightened slightly on my back. “Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know. Something about the way she looked at you. And then at me. Like she was comparing notes or something.”
“The Pierce and Ashford families have known each other for years. Our parents are on several boards together.” He steered me toward the ferris wheel. “Come on. There’s something I want to do.”
He said it smoothly. Easily. Too easily. Like it was the complete truth—or like he needed it to sound that way.
But something about it nagged at me. “Michael?—”
“You’re afraid of heights,” he said, neatly steering the conversation away. “I remember you mentioning it once. About your grandmother’s plane.”
I looked at the ferris wheel. At the gondolas swinging gently as they climbed and descended. “I am.”
“We can skip it. Do something else.”
I thought about the woman who just walked away, how everyone seemed to know things about me I didn’t know about myself.
“No,” I said. “I want to do this with you.”
“You don’t have to prove anything.”
“I’m not proving anything. I’m choosing something.” I pulled him toward the line. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”
We climbed into a gondola and the safety bar came down. Immediately we lurched upward and my hands found the bar, gripping hard.
“Breathe,” Michael said.
“I’m breathing.”
“You’re holding your breath.”
He was right. I let the air out and tried to pull more in. Tried not to look down at how the ground was getting farther away with each rotation.
“Look at me instead,” Michael said quietly.
