Each of the sixteen gondolas was painted in a different color from a pastel rainbow, but it had been a very long time since they’d been touched up, so the paint was chipped and faded from the sun. The logo for Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Sideshow had been painted on each of the doors, but it was almost unreadable now.
The wheel came to a stop again when we reached the top, as they unloaded and loaded passengers at the bottom. The gondola jerked a bit, and Gabe moved closer to me. His arm brushed up against mine, but he didn’t move it. His skin felt warm and tempting, the back of his hand resting against mine, but I didn’t take it.
Above us, the moon was fat and bright. It was warmer today than it’d been yesterday, though it had begun to cool since the sun had gone down. The humidity had stayed the same, and a white halo danced around the moon.
“It’s a full moon,” I said, mostly just to say something.
“Almost full,” Gabe corrected me. “Not quite, though.”
I tilted my head, looking at it harder, and realized he was right. An almost imperceptible sliver was missing from the side. The wheel moved back again, making the gondola sway slightly, and Gabe finally took my hand, sliding his fingers loosely through mine.
“My mom always said the full moon brings out the crazies,” I told him as the ride once again came to a stop.
“Yeah, my mom always said something similar,” he agreed, and there was a weariness in his words that made me look over at him. He stared down at our hands, a pensive expression on his face, his thumb rubbing gently on the back of my hand.
We’d reached the highest part of the Ferris wheel, and I looked out around us. Below us, the carnival was so far away, it looked almost magical. All the lights and colors and the soft sounds of the music all mixed together, and we weren’t close enough to see how faded and run-down everything had become, so it all seemed rather pretty.
“This is my favorite part,” I said.
Gabe lifted his head to look at me. “What?”
“Sitting at the top of the Ferris wheel when it’s paused like this. You can see everything, and the whole world seems so quiet and far away. It’s peaceful.”
“You spend a lot of time on Ferris wheels?” Gabe asked with an arched eyebrow.
I smiled demurely. “Not as much as I’d like.”
“You have dimples when you smile,” he said with a bemused grin of his own.
“Yeah, I know.” I wanted to stop smiling then, but of course, I couldn’t. The small indents in my cheeks whenever I smiled had been the source of teasing as a child, and now that I was older, they succeeded in making me look younger, like a darker-skinned Shirley Temple. “It’s kinda the bane of my existence.”
Gabe laughed. “Why? They’re adorable.”
“Mmm, yes, that’s what every teenage girl dreams of being called—adorable.”
“Sorry, I’ll correct myself, then. They’re sexy. Like crazy hot,” Gabe said with exaggerated sincerity. “I can barely contain myself when you smile.”
“Thanks,” I said, suppressing my laughter.
His smile fell away, and so did mine. The wicked glint lingered in his eyes—a permanent reminder that there was something about him I shouldn’t trust—but I could see something smoldering in them, something that I’m certain reflected in my own eyes, and my breath came out more slowly.
Gabe leaned in, kissing me on the mouth. He let go of my hand, and his arm slid around my waist. The ride jerked as it began to move again, swaying our gondola, but it didn’t make us break apart. If anything, it only made us more fervent, knowing that we only had a short time left on this ride, a short time left to feel the strength of his arm around me, the heat of his lips against mine.
It was when the ride stopped again, almost halfway back down, that he pulled away. To kiss me, he’d turned sideways on the bench, facing me, and his arm rested on the back of the gondola. I leaned against the side, smiling at him and trying to catch my breath.
He licked his lips, then took my hand again. As he entwined his fingers with mine, he looked down at our hands. For a few moments, neither of us said anything, content to let our bodies cool.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t see you again,” Gabe said finally.
“Me too,” I admitted.
I wanted to believe that I didn’t care. That making out with a guy, then leaving him behind when I moved on to a different city was fine with me. And maybe it was, most of the time.
But pretending I hadn’t felt a pang of regret and remorse as I’d snuck out of Gabe’s room this morning would be a lie.
Gabe looked up at me. “Are you glad you did?”
“Yeah, I am.” I smiled. “What about you?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’m leaning toward maybe,” he said with a smirk.
I laughed but he silenced me with another kiss. It wasn’t as intense as the first one, but that didn’t mean it didn’t taste just as sweet.
“Should we go again?” Gabe asked as we came nearer to the bottom. “We should go again. If I give the guy twenty dollars, do you think he’ll let us go around again without getting in line?”
“He’ll do it for ten,” I said. The guy running the ride would actually probably do it for even less than that, but if Gabe was that easy to part with his money, I didn’t want to stiff him on a tip.
Gabe dug in his pocket, and when he pulled out a ten-dollar bill, I was beginning to think that he might have a never-ending supply of cash in there. When we reached the end of the ride, Gabe offered him the money, and the guy gladly let us go again.