When we finally made it to the front of the line to board the ride, Alex sat next to me, giving me an awkward thumbs-up before white-knuckling the bar.
“You should’ve told me you were afraid of roller coasters,” I said.
He looked a little green around the gills as he nodded. “I’ll be okay once we get this one over with. I’m always just a little queasy at first.”
He hadn’t been joking. The first half of the ride, he’d clung to the bar with every ounce of strength he had, but the longer it went on, the more his terror seemed to disappear. By the time we reached the final drop, Alex had been brave enough to put one hand in the air with the rest of us, whooping loudly.
He was all smiles by the time we stepped off. “Let’s go on another one,” he suggested, reaching for my hand and pulling me along.
Bri and I let Alex and Micah choose the order of which rides we went on. We’d both been here enough as teens not to mind if we missed going on a few of them. At one point, Micah had stopped us when he saw a dart-throwing booth set up off to one side. Instead of normal targets, though, there were pumpkins of varying sizes stacked up as targets the competitors were supposed to hit to score points.
“Hey, Alex. Play me?”
The shift in Alex’s expression may have been too subtle for anyone else to notice, but it didn’t slip by me. The way his shoulders tensed and his jaw ticked. At first, I didn’t understand it, but then I realized it was because he didn’t have the $5 needed to play. Quickly, so the rest of the group wouldn’t make a big deal of it, I reached into my pocket to cover both his and Micah’s fees.
“Loser owes me,” I teased.
“What, like dinner?” Micah asked.
I laughed. “Sure, dinner,” I said, giving Alex a seductive wink that absolutely no one missed. It made everyone else laugh, but Alex’s smile didn’t quite meet his eyes. I hated how back and forth he was being. Laughing one minute, then uncomfortable and standoff-ish the next. I didn’t understand it.
While he and Micah played, Veronica went to one of the nearby food carts to grab herself a drink, giving Bri and me a few minutes alone.
“Okay, I have a confession to make,” Bri said.
“Oh no.”
Her laugh was not at all innocent. “I, um, didn’t really have this set up before I invited you guys. It was kind of a last-minute thing.”
“You really think I haven’t caught on to your impulsive shenanigans after all these years?” I said with a playful nudge. “It’s okay. But just so you know, if you wanted to get to know Alex, all you needed to do was invite us over.”
She giggled. “I know, but this just kinda… popped into my head, and I thought it sounded fun. I thought everyone liked these places.” She looked at Alex skeptically. “But maybe not. I hope he’s having fun.”
I wished I could say he was, but I honestly wasn’t sure. His mood had been all over the place today, and it was making him difficult to read. “Yeah, me too.”
Bri slid an arm around my waist for a hug. “I’m sorry for everything. You know how I am. I’m your sister. I worry about you.”
I hugged her back. “You don’t need to, though. At least not with him.”
Her eyes reflected the twinkling lights of the canopy nearby. “I know, Vaughn. I see it.”
We both looked at Alex when he groaned after one of his darts bounced off the pumpkin and hit the ground.
“You do?” I asked quietly.
“Yeah. I do. He’s a good guy, and I think he’s worth keeping around.”
A weight lifted from my shoulders, and I swallowed hard. “Thank you. I’m going to try.”
She dropped her arm and walked away when Alex started to make his way back to us. The prominent scowl on his face gave away his position in the contest.
“Sorry, hon. Maybe next time.”
He rolled his eyes. “I can usually throw darts just fine. But pumpkins are harder than they look.”
About an hour before the park was scheduled to close, Bri and I took everyone to our favorite sweet shop. It was the one place we always liked to end the night when we came here. The building was crowded when we walked in, which didn’t surprise me, since it had the best treats in the entire park, maybe even the city. The scent of rich caramel-covered apples had my mouth watering before we even made it to the line, and I was already craving some of their saltwater taffy.
Alex glanced at the display offering dozens upon dozens of sweet items. “Hey, I think I’ll pass.”
