Chapter 9 — The Ferris Wheel Problem #4
"Do I look normal?" she asked.
"No."
"Good enough?"
"For a county fair emergency, maybe."
She wiped the corner of my mouth with her thumb. "You've got lipstick."
"You've got sex all over your face."
Her smile flashed, brief and filthy. "Yours."
Another text hit my phone.
Tatum: IM SCARED
That cut through everything.
Penny saw my face change. Her hand found mine, fingers locking hard. "Let’s go."
We came out from behind the tent too fast, both of us crooked and overheated and pretending the air around us didn't smell like sunscreen, dust, and what we had almost done. I could still feel her breast in my palm. Her ass under my hand. Her fingers around my cock.
And now Tatum was at the top of the Ferris wheel, scared enough to text instead of joke.
We ran.
***
The Ferris wheel had stopped with one car near the top, swaying lightly against a sky so bright it made the metal frame look white.
Tatum was in that car.
I knew before I could see her face. The copper flash of her hair.
One arm out, waving like she was trying to signal aircraft.
Then the wave stopped, and she gripped the safety bar with both hands, and my stomach tightened because Tatum Bell sitting still in a crisis was worse than Tatum Bell screaming through one.
Fair staff had the base surrounded. A man in a yellow vest talked into a radio. Another stood near the controls with both palms raised toward the cars, the universal gesture for stay where you're and please don't make this worse.
Danny was pacing by the railing with a funnel cake plate in one hand, making jokes too loudly because that was what Bell panic sounded like when it wore a dad costume.
"That's our girl," he called up. "Highest Trouble in the county. Maybe the state. We should get a plaque."
Laura stood beside him, one hand at her throat. "Tatum, honey, Luke's here."
Brody had his hands cupped around his mouth. "Potato, do not attempt flight."
Marley shouted over him, "TA-TA, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, WAVE WITH THE HAND THAT ISN'T RESPONSIBLE FOR SURVIVAL."
"Marley," Laura said.
"Helpful volume," Marley said.
The Rourkes had gathered a few feet back.
Declan looked controlled, which meant concerned in Rourke.
Celeste's sunglasses hid her eyes, but not the way her attention moved from the wheel to Penny's hand in mine.
Pierce saw it too. Saylor's phone was up for half a second before Celeste's head turned, and the phone vanished.
Penny stayed beside me. Her fingers were threaded through mine. Her mouth was too red. Her breathing wasn't as even as she wanted it to be.
No one said anything.
Everyone was looking up.
My phone rang.
FaceTime.
Tatum.
I answered before the first ring finished.
Her face filled the screen, pale under her freckles, blue eyes huge, smile trying hard and failing harder.
"Hi," she said.
"Hey, Trouble."
"I'm at the top of the Ferris wheel."
"I noticed."
"It's very high."
"It's."
"I don't love it."
"I know."
Her mouth trembled. She turned her head, then whipped her gaze back to the screen like looking away had been a mistake.
"It stopped. It just stopped, and the guy said they're working on it, and I know they're working on it, but it moved weird, and Marley is yelling, and Brody is being an idiot, and I can't get down. "
"Look at me."
Her eyes locked onto mine through the screen.
"Just me," I said.
"Just you."
"Good. You're not falling. You're not in danger. The staff are handling the ride. You're going to stay seated, hold the bar, breathe, and let me do the talking until you're bored of me."
"I'm never bored of you."
The words hit harder than they should have, soft and scared and true.
I lowered my voice. "Then you're in luck."
Penny's thumb moved over the back of my hand once. I could feel her watching me, still hot from the tent, now caught in this other thing, this older thing, this thing families had trusted for years without understanding what it was becoming.
"Tell me what you can see," I said.
"The whole fair."
"Good. Start there."
Tatum breathed in. It shook. She tried again. "I can see the ring toss. It's absolutely rigged from above. I can see Danny pacing. I can see Brody's stupid hat."
"It's worse from down here."
She gave a tiny laugh.
"What else?"
"Marley is yelling."
"That one was easy."
"Penny is with you." Her eyes flicked on the screen. "She looks pretty."
"She does."
Penny heard that. Her fingers tightened.
Tatum swallowed. "Are you staying there?"
"Where else would I be?"
"Don't say it like that unless you mean it."
I looked up at the stopped wheel, at the small shape of her car against the sky, and everything in me went still and certain.
"I mean it."
She nodded, and the fear eased a fraction.
The staff guy at the controls gave a thumbs-up to someone. The wheel groaned, shifted, then stopped again.
Tatum gasped.
"That's them working it," I said immediately. "Slow is good. Slow means controlled."
"I hate controlled."
"You hate not being the one controlling it."
"Yes," she said, and laughed again, a little steadier. "Thank you for understanding my brand."
"Your brand is loud, sticky, and currently ninety feet in the air."
"Don't say ninety."
"Currently very high in the air."
"Better."
We talked that way for ten minutes. Maybe twelve.
Time moved strangely under a stopped Ferris wheel.
I kept my voice steady and gave her things to look for.
The funnel cake stand. The dog near the parking lot.
The ridiculous inflatable alien prize Marley had decided was emotionally necessary.
Tatum's breathing slowed. Color crept back into her face.
By the time the wheel started moving in earnest, she was making jokes about suing the county for emotional damages and demanding that Brody's hat be entered as evidence.
The crowd made a relieved sound when her car began its slow descent.
Danny laughed too loudly.
Laura pressed both hands to her chest.
Penny's hand never left mine.
When Tatum's car reached the bottom and the staff opened the door, she didn't walk out.
She launched.
Straight at me.
I caught her because I had been catching Tatum for years, but this was different. Her arms locked around my neck. Her legs wrapped around my waist. Her face buried against my throat, and her whole body clamped to mine with a force that stole the air out of my lungs.
"Got you," I said into her hair.
"Don't put me down."
"I won't."
"Not yet."
"Not yet."
She shook once, hard, then held tighter. She smelled like sunscreen and sugar and fear, and under it all, warm Tatum. Alive. Pressed full against me. Her thighs were locked around my hips. Her chest moved against mine with every unsteady breath.
To everyone else, it was sweet.
I could hear it in Danny's relieved laugh. In Laura's soft, "Oh, honey." In Brody asking whether we needed a crowbar. In Marley announcing that Tatum had chosen her emotional support Whitaker and would not be accepting substitutes.
Trusted Luke.
Steady Luke.
Luke who always knew how to handle Trouble.
They weren't wrong.
They just didn't know what that meant anymore.
Penny stood close enough that her shoulder brushed my arm. She looked at Tatum wrapped around me, then at me, and there was no jealousy in her face. Only heat. Recognition. The ache of wanting her own turn and understanding why Tatum needed this one.
Tatum loosened one arm but didn't let her feet touch the ground. She looked at Danny and Laura over my shoulder, eyes still wet and smile shaky.
"I want to go to Luke's house."
Laura's expression softened. "You want to go home?"
"Luke's house," Tatum said, and her legs tightened around me when she said it. "I need to calm down, and he can do it. He knows how. I need his arms for a little while."
Danny looked at me. Warm. Trusting. Completely blind to the way my pulse was hammering with Tatum's body locked around mine and Penny's unfinished heat still burning beside me.
"That okay with you?" he asked.
"Of course."
Laura touched Tatum's back. "Text me when you get there."
"I'll."
Declan shook my hand like I had performed a civic duty.
Celeste smiled like she was already smoothing the story into something family-safe.
Pierce watched, saying nothing. Saylor's eyes moved between Penny's swollen mouth, Tatum's legs around my waist, and my face, and I made a mental note to never underestimate that woman.
Tatum finally slid down enough for her feet to touch the ground, but she kept one arm locked around my waist.
"Let's go," she said.
Penny moved to my other side. Her hand slipped into mine again, hidden by the angle of our bodies and the noise of the fair. The pressure of her fingers said later. The heat in her eyes said soon.
Tatum leaned into me as we started toward the parking lot, still shaky, still bright, still Trouble, and every step turned the old role into something new.
Caretaker.
Rescue.
Trusted family friend.
All the innocent words lined up like fence posts while Tatum's hip pressed mine and Penny's thumb traced the inside of my wrist and my phone buzzed with a text from Kiki.
Kiki: Dinner at your house? Shay says wine. I say food first.
Then Shay: bring Trouble home in one piece. preferably overheated.
I looked at Tatum tucked against my side, then at Penny walking close enough to belong there.
"Home?" Tatum asked, voice quieter now.
I opened the truck door.
"Home," I said.
The word landed in three different hearts, maybe more.
And none of us were innocent enough to pretend it meant only one thing.