I never wanted it.
Never thought I did, anyway.
My life has always been built for motion.Roads.Rooms I can leave.Women who know exactly what I am and don’t ask for permanence.Brotherhood without the softer edges.Freedom without accountability beyond the club.
It worked for me.Still does.
So why the hell does standing under the Freedom Falls gazebo with Lucy on one side and Quinn sticky with lemonade on the other feel like the most natural thing I’ve done in years?
Quinn spots the ferris wheel and gasps like she’s seen heaven.
“Please please please please?”
Lucy laughs.“That’s a lot of pleases.”
“It means I really mean it.”
I glance at the line.“We can do ferris wheel.”
Quinn throws both arms in the air.“Yes!”
Lucy looks at me.“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
We end up in one of the little metal cars, Quinn between us because she cannot decide whether to press against the side for a better view or crawl into Lucy’s lap from excitement.
When the wheel starts moving, she squeals loud enough to turn heads.
Lucy laughs again, one hand on Quinn’s knee, the other gripping the safety bar.
“You okay?”I ask quietly as the car lifts.
She glances at me.“I’m not afraid of heights.”
“Didn’t ask that.”
One corner of her mouth turns up.“I’m okay.”
The car reaches the top and pauses.From up here, Freedom Falls spreads out below us—church steeple, water tower, rows of little houses, the glitter of the Gulf farther off.Music floats up thin and distant.The whole town looks small enough to hold in your hand.
Quinn points at everything at once.
“There’s my school!And the ice cream shop!And Mama, look!”Lucy leans in closer to see what she’s pointing at, her shoulder brushing mine.That tiny contact hits like a live wire.I go still.She doesn’t pull away immediately.Neither do I.
And there, suspended over the whole damn town with a kid between us and a paper wristband cutting into my skin, I have the clearest, stupidest thought of my life.
I could do this.
Not the festival.
Not just the day.
This.Them.The thought lands so hard I almost feel the world shift under me.Lucy turns her head slightly and catches me looking at her.For one suspended second, everything else fades.Then Quinn bounces with another excited shout and the moment breaks.Maybe that’s for the best.
Maybe not.
The day slides on in a blur after that.Corn dogs.Fried Oreos.Quinn petting goats at the petting zoo after all, because apparently goat policy is flexible under festival law.A local band playing covers near sunset.Lucy buying a jar of homemade peach preserves from a vendor who calls her sweetheart and me son like she’s known us forever.
