Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Your hand seems more useful these days,” Jasper said, sprinkling flour on the counter in their kitchen.
“Yeah, feels better,” Ryan said, extending his fingers, then making a fist. “I’m not in much pain anymore, but it is annoying that I can’t move my arm.”
“How much longer are you in the sling?”
“Another couple weeks, sounds like.”
“Poor baby,” Jasper cooed, rubbing Ryan’s good arm. “You know, you never told me exactly what you were doing when you fell off the ladder. I only know you were at the park with Logan for some reason.”
It was a week before Christmas when it finally happened—Jasper noticed he never got the full story of what happened to Ryan’s arm.
Ryan had managed to avoid the topic for a couple of weeks, but he knew it would come out eventually.
And he did want credit for the carousel, but there was a cloud of uncertainty around it—concerns that Jasper would see it as an apology gift, which he’d made very clear he didn’t want, especially if it came at the expense of their time together.
Which it had. At least somewhat.
And okay, he could admit he’d done it to win Jasper back. But he’d also done it because he needed a distraction, and he had free time, and it was the right thing to do because Logan was going to destroy everything if he hadn’t stepped in.
Convincing Jasper of that may be hard, though.
“That fuckin’ guy,” Ryan huffed, shaking his head and trying to put the truth off just a minute longer. “Where did you find him?”
“Don’t change the subject. He’s done a great job since you guys started working together, hasn’t he? Last night he told me you’ve taught him a lot.”
Ryan huffed and punched the dough he was kneading with his good hand. “Okay. Didn’t realize you guys were buddies.”
“We’re not. I was asking about—wait, are you jealous?” Jasper ran his hands up the inside of Ryan’s shirt, stopping when his fingers hit the sling.
“I’m not jealous of Logan,” Ryan said, staring intently at Jasper. “At all.”
“Oh my God! You are! Were you showing off that day, or something? Climbing that big ladder to do something risky Logan couldn’t do?”
Ryan stopped kneading and turned to glare at Jasper. “I would never do something unsafe around a ladder. You know that.”
Jasper’s brow furrowed. “Huh. I guess you’re right.”
“Yeah.” Returning to the dough, he worked it under his palm, folding it over until Jasper spoke again.
“So what was it, then? You didn’t answer my question.”
Ryan worked another few seconds before realizing there wasn’t any point in pretending he hadn’t heard him or was confused by what he was asking. He wiped his hand on the rag hanging from his waistband.
“I wasn’t trying to impress Logan on the ladder.”
Jasper leaned against the counter. “We’ve covered that.”
Ryan cleared his throat. “Are you busy?”
Jasper looked from Ryan to his hands, tearing sprigs of rosemary off the branch he’d brought inside. He smirked. “I mean… a little.”
“Can you take a break?” Ryan asked, snapping a bit of rosemary off and tossing it in the bowl.
“I think I could be convinced, if there’s something in it for me.”
Ryan grinned. “There is. Get your coat.”
Jasper had driven this route about thirty thousand times in his life, so he knew where they were headed.
Knowing that didn’t help him understand why, exactly, they were there.
Last he’d seen, the park was looking great, and there was certainly no reason to go see it at eight in the evening in the middle of winter.
When they pulled into a parking spot, Ryan got out of the car, but Jasper stayed put. Ryan started talking as he walked towards the park, stopping when he noticed Jasper hadn’t moved.
“You coming?” Ryan asked.
Jasper crossed his arms. “You’re being very secretive. It’s making me nervous.”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about. You wanted to know what I was doing when I got hurt. I’m going to show you, I just think it deserves to be seen, not told.”
Jasper looked up at the park, hoping their destination would become immediately clear.
“I don’t like surprises,” Jasper said, catching up to Ryan’s long strides.
“I dunno if that’s true.”
“Well, I don’t like this surprise.”
“You will. Just trust me,” Ryan said, reaching his hand out. Jasper threaded their fingers together and let Ryan guide him, surrendering to his curiosity.
After Ryan pointed out a few things he and Logan had fixed since the last time Jasper was at the park, they headed towards the very far corner.
The carousel came into view through the trees as they walked, surprising him, because it had been a long time since it caught his attention for any reason other than misery and shame.
As much as he loved it, he preferred not to pay too much attention to it—the paint was chipped and the panels around the center were sun bleached, despite being in the middle of the woods.
Algae and moss grew in the grooves of the roof, impossible to clean easily because of its shape.
Worst of all, the carousel animals, the only part that still looked cared for, were juxtaposed against the rest of the ride, making its neglect even more obvious.
This time, something different caught his eye. But before he could get closer, a hand wrapped around Jasper’s face, covering his eyes. “Keep them closed.”
“Okay,” Jasper said. He squeezed his eyes shut, smiling as he felt Ryan breeze by him. He could feel Ryan’s energy, all restlessness and barely-contained excitement. It was infectious. “Hurry up, now I’m excited.”
There were sounds of a door closing and dry leaves rustling, then the smell of Ryan’s spearmint gum wafting by.
“Okay. You can look.”
Jasper opened his eyes and blinked a few times.
It took him a few seconds to make sense of what he was looking at.
Ryan was already twenty feet away, crouched with an extension cord in hand.
Then the string lights came alive, winding through the trees around the carousel, and everything in Jasper’s vision narrowed to where Ryan was clearly hoping he’d look.
The carousel he knew was gone. In its place was the carousel from his youth—clean, bright, and magical, just like it was when his uncle let him ride the Pegasus all alone.
Hundreds of soft, white lights wrapped the canopy in a warm glow, reflecting off polished mirrors.
The whole thing was freshly painted, returning it to its original playful glory.
The carved animals looked less like antiques, and more like a fairy tale come to life.
Even the work Jasper did to spruce them up every year or two didn’t manage half of it.
It looked exactly like it did in his memories.
They caught each other’s eyes and Ryan smiled briefly, then cursed under his breath. “I forgot something. One sec.”
Jasper stayed put, taking in the beauty before him.
A twinge of guilt tickled his throat from knowing Ryan had spent the last few months doing what amounted to putting lipstick on a pig—literally, if the wooden winged pig’s new makeup was his handiwork.
Beautiful on the outside, still broken on the inside.
Unless Ryan became a mechanical engineer in the last few months, there was no way he’d know how to approach a repair of this magnitude.
But he was still grateful for the effort—the improvements to the exterior were gorgeous.
“Ready?” Ryan yelled from somewhere Jasper couldn’t see.
“I guess so!”
The carousel let out a loud groan, then started to turn, catching Jasper off guard.
It moved slowly at first, eventually reaching a steady speed Jasper had forgotten it was capable of.
Its cheerful song played clearly, unbroken by the usual scrape and shudder of failing parts.
He stayed put, watching the animals make their full rotations, and the only catch Jasper felt was the tug in his chest as he looked towards Ryan.
He ran to the edge of the platform as the carousel continued spinning, hesitating for just a second before jumping, using the pole of the winged pig to pull himself up.
He moved between a couple horses and ducked as he passed under a dragon’s chin, trying to get to where Ryan was.
The inside of the platform was moving too quickly for him to safely jump down and he paused, rubbing his forehead and looking for a solution.
Ryan’s smiling face passed in front of him a few times, both of them laughing at the absurdity of the moment, until the carousel finally came to a stop.
He stepped down and entered the operator control room inside the center of the carousel. It was a mostly empty, closed space, with soft lighting pouring in from outside. It would have been romantic, but it was cramped and dusty, and Jasper really wanted to see Ryan’s face.
Grabbing Ryan’s good hand, Jasper stepped onto the platform, dragging him to the bench seat, newly decorated with mermaids and starfish.
“Mermaids?” Jasper said, smiling. His heart was racing, and he didn’t even know why.
Ryan shrugged. “The sea dragon was the only other water animal. I was trying to make it feel less alone.”
“This is what you were doing when you fell?”
“Hanging those lights,” Ryan said, pointing at the string lights around the trees.
Jasper grabbed his face, dropping kisses on his mouth and cheeks and nose until Ryan hauled him into his lap. When his hand wrapped around Jasper’s back and waist to pull their bodies together, Jasper melted into him, mumbling into his neck.
“This is unbelievable. I can’t believe you did all this. How? Did Logan help?”
“I will drop you off my lap.”
Jasper laughed. “This is amazing. And I recognize your work, I know it was you.”
“I did a lot of it, yeah. But I hired someone to fix the mechanics.”
“Ryan,” Jasper said, pulling back. “That must have cost a fortune.”
Ryan grinned. “Not for me.”