“To be an Auclair in this town.” I shake my head and pass by the jealous line.
“The name pays for itself.” He winks. “I actually fixed his trailer last time they were in town.”
“Wait, let’s let Rhett hold the fish while we go on the ride,” I tell Winnie, but she shakes her head and clutches the inflated bag to her chest.
“Tanner wants to see the view too.”
Human Tanner laughs as Winnie sits on the side of the seat.
“Win, babe how about you sit in the middle?”
“No.” She shakes her head and kicks her feet. “I want to look down over the edge.”
“Then in that case you two don’t really need me—” I begin to back up, but Tanner doesn’t let go of my hand.
“It’s not that bad. I promise,” he says, and any hint of a joke is gone from his voice. “Trust me.”
“I trust you,” I tell him. “I just don’t trust a fifteen-year-old metal rolling contraption.”
“Hannah.” The seriousness in his voice pulls me right along to sit between them on this rickety and poorly padded seat.
Winnie is kicking her legs so hard that it rocks the bench, and Tanner has the audacity to smile.
“Oh, don’t even,” I grumble under my breath in his direction, only making him laugh.
“You’re safe. Do you know how many of these things are running at any given moment in this country during the summer? And what, like one out of the thousands got a little stuck one time and it was such a big deal it made the news?”
“Not helping.” I grip the lap bar as it’s lowered, my knuckles white.
“What I am saying, is that it’s so rare to have a problem on these that even when it so much as stops unexpectedly, it makes the news. You’re safe.”
“And you’re a maniac,” I say.
“A mini yak?” Winnie questions.
“Maniac,” Tanner and I say in unison.
“I mean that he’s crazy for liking heights.” I nudge her. “And you are too.”
“Oh, I don’t like them,” Tanner says.
I turn to him and the ride jerks into motion. “What?”
“Oh, I am terrified of heights.”
“Then why on earth are you on here with us?”
“For this view,” he says but he isn’t looking out.
He’s looking at me.
Tanner places his hand over mine that’s grasping the lap bar. I keep my eyes strictly on our hands as the ride jerks up again.
“Look,” he whispers.
“No.”
“I mean at Win.”
