“Dork,” I finished, and she stuck her tongue out at me. “Fine. I’ll give it a go.”

I threw my balls while I watched her from the corner of my eye, studying her form as she bent and released. Part of me was imagining what it might be like to lean over her and feel her body move with every throw, but the other part was studying her form so I could replicate it and get some fucking tickets.

I would deny it with my dying breath, but how badly I wanted that pellet gun? It was unconscionable.

Maybe because she was right. It was a symbol of everything this day was about. Never in my life had I gotten to have an afternoon like this, the chance to be a kid without worries or responsibilities. Except, of course, now it was better. Because if I’d gotten to do this all those years ago, Emma wouldn’t have been beside me right now.

I managed to get the hang of Skee-Ball. Once we were done, she held up a fistful of tickets that shot out of the slot.

“Awesome,” she said, eyeing the little red stubs with narrowed eyes. “That has to be at least fifty. We’re on our way.”

After Skee-Ball, we played a few rounds of Connect Four and a few more games that sucked away my tokens until I had to ask Emma for more with a laugh.

“How many tickets do we have now?” I asked.

She glanced in her bucket. “I’d say about five hundred.”

“And what would that get us?” I asked.

“A consolation prize,” she said with a decisive shake of her head. “We didn’t come for that. We came for victory.”

I grinned, rolling my eyes at her. “Fine, what do we do next?” I’d never been so fucking out of my element, and if Emma weren’t so damn cute, I’d have called this entire thing off.

“I say we take a break and get our strength up with some good old-fashioned bumper cars.” She nodded toward a little rink in the corner of the room next to a massive Ferris wheel whose lights had only just come on.

“I’m game,” I said.

“When was the last time you even drove?”

“My car or my helicopter?” I countered.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Touché.”

The ride operator let us into the rink, and together we picked out our cars. For me, I picked a bright white car that reminded me of the Speed Racer cartoons I’d loved growing up. For Emma, a glittery pink car that would be fit for a princess . . . or a knock-off Barbie doll.

The timer ticked down and then, with a blare of music overhead, we began to move. I careened toward her, sure I was about to cause a head-on collision, just as she turned and narrowly missed my attack. I spun my wheel, ready to regroup, but not fast enough. She was backing up into me, hitting me with all the force of her back bumper and grinning like a maniac.

“I’ll get you for that,” I yelled.

“I’d like to see you try!”

I steered toward her again, following her around the course until my heart dropped into my stomach and the music slowed. The ride was over.

I’d never felt so much adrenaline, so much fun in my life. I wanted to ask her to go again, to maybe go for best two out of three, but she was climbing from her car, fixing her mussed hair and laughing.

“Okay, now that you got your butt handed to you, you ready to get some more tickets? That gun’s not gonna win itself.”

“Yup. Let’s go.” I nodded, then followed her back into the arcade toward a game where I had to throw baseballs to knock down the most haunting clowns I’d ever seen.

I couldn’t say how many games we played or for how long we were there, running from one booth to the next like our asses were on fire. Every moment felt limitless, and as we raced to see who could get more layups or throw more basketballs, I again caught myself looking at her from the corner of my eye, wondering about the sort of person, the sort of woman, who would do this for another person.

Especially for a bastard like me.

“Are you hungry?” she asked when she caught me staring.

My stomach growled, though I hadn’t realized I was hungry until she’d mentioned it. “Yeah, sure, let’s grab something.”

“The pizza here is amazing, according to Bethany.”

“Pizza it is,” I agreed, and we each got a slice before making our way to the Ferris wheel.

“Think they’ll let us take it on?” she asked, nodding toward the ride operator.

“Only one way to find out.” I hopped the gate, walked up the stairs, and called for the man’s attention.

With bleary eyes, he gazed back at me. “What?”

“I was just wondering if we might be able to eat our pizza on the ride?”

He shrugged. “All the same to me. Come on up.”

The carriages rolled to a stop and I spied one, bright pink and sparkly. “This one.” I ushered her inside.

“Never thought you were much for pink.” She grinned, then took a bite of her pizza.

“I can’t believe you like olives,” I said, grimacing at her slice.

“I can’t believe your palate isn’t refined enough to appreciate them,” she shot back, grinning. “Pepperoni is so common.”

“Don’t knock my pepperoni.”

“Then don’t knock my olives.”

I smiled at her. “Fine. I’ll try it. Here.”

We swapped slices and, holding my breath, I took a bite. Salty, oily brine filled my mouth, and it was all I could do to swallow.

Choking, I said, “Take it back. Christ, that’s foul.”

“See? What did I say. No appreciation.” She laughed.

That was where she was dead wrong. I’d been gifted Cartier watches from girlfriends in the past. A motorcycle one Christmas from my brothers. I’d even gotten a trip to Belize from a grateful client who wound up marrying one of the escorts.

But this?

This was the best gift anyone had ever given me, hands down, and there was nothing I wanted more than to stay in this moment, on top of this Ferris wheel with Emma, overlooking the one and only day I’d ever gotten to be a kid.

My heart squeezed inside my chest. As much as I wanted to force the feelings away, I couldn’t do it. This moment . . . this woman?

It was everything.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Emma

This was the way dates should be.

A guy and a girl, eating pizza on a Ferris wheel, just enjoying the night and not worrying about what the next day would bring.

I wished there were more times like these. Times when I could forget Gavin was some multi-millionaire CEO of an escort agency. This was when I liked him best.

I didn’t need the helicopters or the fancy wine tastings, as nice as they were. That was fantasy fun. More important to me were the nights with Netflix, watching Casablanca and enjoying the sweetness of each other’s company. The total and complete contentment I had when I was with Gavin.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to get him that dart gun, but as we exited the Ferris wheel and made our way back into the main arcade, I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, wondering if he’d notice if I tried to pay the guy off for the toy.

He would. Nothing around Gavin went unnoticed, so I suggested he head to the animatronic dinosaur game without me.

“You don’t want to shoot rabid dinosaurs?” he challenged.

I shook my head. “That game blows steam in your face, and it’s just a little too real for me.”

He laughed. “Chicken.”

“I’m not denying that. I have to use the bathroom, anyway. I’ll meet up with you.”

He hesitated for a moment, but then walked off. I studied his back for a long moment before heading in the opposite direction.

Tonight, I felt something I’d never felt before with Gavin. It wasn’t just an easy comfort that was usually so lacking around him. That was nice, of course, but it was something else . . . something that, if I was honest, shook me to my core.

When I looked at him, I knew that I didn’t want to be with anyone else in the world.

The feeling, the need was so all consuming that it scared me, but I knew what it was. I’d felt the strong grip before, and that time it had taken me down a path that almost undid me.

This was love. The strong, obsessive adoration of finding someone in the world I wanted to make happy. I would move heaven and earth to do it, and I practically had by renting out this arcade, but at the end of the day? As good as it felt?