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“I see,” he said slowly, and then he just…waited, his silence stretching between us with quiet patience that felt far too intentional. I could feel it pressing in, the expectation, the sense that he wasn’t going to move on until I did.
“It was as far away as I could get from Boston,” I finally whispered, focusing on the Ferris wheel ahead. “What about you?” I added quickly, before he could question me over what I’d just admitted.
“What about me?”
“Have you always lived here?” I knew he hadn’t, but I wanted to hear him say it. “Are you a born and bred cowboy?”
He almost smiled again. “For the most part.”
“Now who’s being vague?” I teased, glad to be off of me for a second.
He hummed, like that amused him. “The ranch has been in my family for generations. My great-granddad built it out of nothing but fence posts and stubbornness. We’ve kept it going ever since.”
We’d reached the base of the Ferris wheel now, the line surprisingly short. The big metal wheel creaked as it turned, the individual cars swaying gently as they loaded and unloaded people.
Closer up, it looked older. The paint was chipped in places, the metal dark with age. But the lights were bright, casting flickering color over the faces below.
“Come on,” he said suddenly.
I blinked. “What?”
He nodded toward the line. “Ride with me.”
My heart did something stupid in my chest. “The Ferris wheel?”
“No, the invisible roller coaster hovering above it,” he deadpanned. “Yes, the Ferris wheel.”
“I don’t know,” I hedged. “I have a…complex relationship with heights.”
“You scared?” His tone was teasing.
“A little.” Honesty slipped out before I could pretty it up.
His gaze skimmed over my face. “Come on. I’ll keep you safe.”
Sterling said it casually. But it landed heavy inside me, resonating with an ache I didn’t realize I’d been carrying since before I left Boston.
Nobody had kept me safe in a very long time.
I swallowed.
“Okay,” I said. “But if we die, I reserve the right to haunt you.”
He nodded solemnly. “Something tells me I wouldn’t mind that very much.”
A fault line moved through me then, a shift I felt in my pulse and nowhere else, as if the ground under us had tilted by a degree I wasn’t prepared for.
Because I almost believed him.
CHAPTER 17
SIENNA
We stepped into line. It moved quickly, the pimply kid manning the entrance barely glancing at anyone as he flipped the latch on each swinging seat.
The closer we got, the louder the creaks of the metal became. The whole wheel groaned in a way that suggested someone had begged the town council for maintenance money and been told to just “tighten a few screws.”
“I changed my mind,” I whispered when it was almost our turn. “I’m good down here. Ground level is underrated. It’s very solid. Very safe.”
