by Pamela Bauer
Their conversation ended as Nick stepped up to the kiosk. As soon as he had purchased his tickets and moved away, Kika said to the saleswoman, “I want one of whatever it was he bought.”
To Kika’s dismay, she discovered her ride ticket was not for the carousel to the left of the kiosk, but the Ferris wheel to the right. Kika stared at the gigantic spinning wheel and felt a moment of panic.
Spinning motion she could handle, but heights were enough to cause her heart to palpitate and her palms to sweat. She debated whether the Fancy account was worth putting herself in a tiny gondola suspended from a giant wheel.
“Have your tickets ready,” the attendant announced as one by one the seats on the Ferris wheel emptied and a new set of passengers boarded. Kika saw the Miller family move toward the entrance. Taking a deep breath, she followed them.
Zachary and Patrick were the first ones on, shouting and waving to their father as they slowly moved up the giant wheel.
When it came time for Nick and Melody to board, the attendant looked at Kika and asked, “Are you alone?” When she nodded, he said, “Then you’re gonna have to ride with them.” He gestured for her to get in beside Nick and Melody.
Perfect, Kika thought. She couldn’t have planned it any better. Now all she needed to do was control her fear of heights and everything would be fine.
As she climbed in beside Nick, she forced herself to smile. When the safety bar was locked in place, Kika’s nerves twanged. With a jerk, the car began its ascent, gently swaying back and forth.
Kika knew the only way she could keep from panicking would be to avoid looking down. Instead of viewing the panorama spread out below them, she focused on little Melody, who was sitting in between the two adults looking very grown-up. Since they were the second-to-last passengers to get on, there was only one more jerky stop before the Ferris wheel began its rotational journey. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were high above the ground, Kika would have enjoyed the sensation created by the up-and-down motion. The July air was warm and humid, and the movement created a welcome breeze against her skin.
“Wheeeee...” Kika looked at the toddler, giving her a smile. “Isn’t this fun?”
In answer Melody turned her face into her father’s polo shirt. That prompted Nick to say, “Look, Melody. You can see Grandma’s house from here.” He stretched out his arm, but Kika’s eyes refused to follow.
The Ferris wheel had made only three orbits when there was a sudden jerk, followed by a screeching sound. Although the neon lights burned brightly, the cars came to a halt.
“What’s happening?” Kika asked Nick, her voice faltering with fear.
“It looks like we’ve stopped.”
“Well, I can see that. The question is why. No one’s getting on or off, are they?” Kika had to ask Nick that question, for there was no way she would look to the ground to see for herself.
“No.”
There was a collective buzz of commotion from the other Ferris wheel passengers. Kika could hear Zachary calling out to his father. “Yo, Dad. We’re over here.”
Kika saw Nick turn around in his seat to look across the giant wheel. “You and Patrick sit still, okay? Everything’s going to be all right.”
Kika heard a loud clang, then a sound like an engine grinding. The neon lights trimming the spokes of the ferris wheel went out.
“Everybody just stay where you are,” the attendant shouted up to them. “We’ve lost power but it’s only temporary. I’m sure everything will be working just fine in a few minutes.”
“Are we stuck up here?” Kika asked, trying not to panic at the thought.
“It probably won’t be for long,” Nick answered, settling back in the seat.
Kika closed her eyes, willing her mind to go blank. She visualized that she wasn’t halfway up a Ferris wheel, but sitting in her car with the windows wide open.
After several minutes had passed and there was still no life in the amusement ride, Zachary called out to his father, “Hey, Dad. Are we going to have to be rescued by firemen with ladders?”
So much for creative visualization, Kika thought. It was bad enough being suspended in the air, but the mere thought of having to climb down a ladder propped against the metal frame had her tightening her grip on the safety bar.
“I doubt that it will come to that.”
Nick’s words did little to reassure Kika. “Can’t you do something?” she pleaded.
“Like what?” Amusement sparkled in his eyes.
“I don’t know. You’re a mechanical engineer. You must be able to do something.”
“This isn’t the movies, Kika. I’m not going to climb out of this cage and do an Eddie Murphy number on the spokes,” he said dryly.
“I didn’t expect you to,” she snapped back.
“Good.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“You’re not going to lose it on me, are you?”
She opened her eyes and looked at him. “I don’t know. I don’t like heights,” she admitted, her palms growing moister by the minute.
“We’re only about twenty feet off the ground.”
“Twenty too many,” she grumbled.
“Nothing’s going to happen to you. There are safety features on this contraption.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want to be here.” She could feel her self-control slipping away.
“Well, it’s a little late to decide that.”
Panic threatened to turn her into a simpering idiot. “Ooh, what am I gonna do?”
He slipped his arm around her and gently pulled her closer to him and Melody. “You’re going to be okay,” he told her in a voice she suspected he usually reserved for his daughter.
Kika’s eyes met his. In them she saw comfort and something else, an emotion any woman would recognize in a man’s eyes. She shivered, not because she was stranded in the air but because his hand was moving ever so slowly across her shoulder, producing delightful little tremors inside her.
For several moments they stared at each other, neither one saying a word. It was Melody who broke the silence, making a sound that reminded both of them they weren’t alone.
Kika looked down at the toddler and saw that she was fingering the purple ribbon tied around the bear’s neck.
“Do you like my bear?” Kika pushed the stuffed animal closer to her.
For an answer, Melody put a finger in her mouth and shyly draped her arm across her eyes. The gesture didn’t deter Kika.
“Here. Why don’t you hold it?” she suggested, placing the bear on Melody’s lap.
For her efforts, Kika was rewarded with a smile. It was a grin that touched a place deep inside of her. Normally she felt ill at ease with children, but this little girl was an exception.
As the toddler hugged the plush white bear, Kika asked, “Do you like him?”
This time Melody’s response was a nod.
“Maybe you’d like to keep him,” Kika offered, which brought a disapproving look to Nick’s face.
“That’s not necessary,” he told her.
“I know it isn’t, but I’d like to give it to her if she wants it.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” Kika countered.
“I’m not changing my mind about the audition simply because you give my daughter a present,” Nick warned her.
Gone was the gentleness he had shown her only moments before. He removed his arm from the back of the seat, and Kika had no doubt that had there been room, he would have put even more distance between them.
“There are no strings attached to the gift, Mr. Miller,” she said stiffly.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
There was another jerk, and the Ferris wheel started up, went about six feet, then stopped again. This time the car Kika and Nick rode in came to a halt at the top. Kika’s eyes once more met Nick’s.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said throu
gh clenched teeth. It was then that Kika realized she had hold of his arm and was digging her fingernails into his flesh. When she looked at the little girl sitting calmly beside her, she felt ridiculous. Yet she couldn’t help it. She hated heights.
“I’m sorry,” she said, removing her fingers from his forearm. She shifted ever so cautiously, avoiding looking anywhere but at him.
He shrugged. “It’s okay.”
She clasped her hands together in her lap to still the trembling. Seeing her obvious uneasiness, he once again slid his arm around her. “You have to try to relax, Kika.”
“I am relaxed,” she lied.
He didn’t contradict her. “Good, because it looks like we’re going to be here for a while.”
“I’m fine,” she told him, and realized it was the truth. Having his arm around her made her feel safe. The warmth of his touch gave her a sense of trust. Nothing would happen as long as he was with her.
His gaze was intense as he said, “I believe you are.”
“I am. Just don’t rock this thing, okay?” she told him, forcing a smile she wasn’t feeling.
“I wouldn’t think of it.” He continued to stare at her until Melody fidgeted beside him. When she climbed onto his lap, he slid his right arm around her waist.
Being so close to Nick and his daughter brought a lump to Kika’s throat. When Melody gazed up at her father with innocent adoration in her green eyes, Kika’s chest tightened. She should have had a little girl of her own looking at her with the same innocence.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Nick asked gently.
Kika met his probing gaze. “Yeah. I think we should keep talking though.”
“All right. Tell me about your family.”
“There’s not much to tell. I live in Eagan, which is a suburb of the Twin Cities. As you can guess, my family is Italian. I have three older brothers, no sisters, a mom and a dad—you know, the usual.”
“Ever been married?”
She chuckled. “Uh-uh.”
“Why is that a funny question?”
“It’s not a funny question if you’re my parents.”
“But to you it is?”
“Let’s just say that if I put all the men I’ve dated in a room with you for twenty-four hours, you’d understand.”
“So you haven’t met Mr. Right?”
“If I have, he hasn’t given me any reason to believe he is,” she replied. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’m not looking for him.”
“What about your work? Do you like being a casting director?”
“You mean do I like bullying people into doing something they don’t want to do?”
He winced. “I didn’t say that.”
“No, but you’re thinking it. Actually, Nick, you’re going to find this hard to believe, but people usually try to persuade me that they’re right for a part.”
“Melody isn’t like most children, Kika.”
“No, she’s not,” Kika agreed, glancing down at the redheaded child. “There’s something special about her—I saw it that first time I watched Glenna’s video.”
“She looks like her mother.”
The tone of his voice made Kika wonder if he didn’t regret the fact that his daughter looked like his wife.
“Was she a redhead?”
“Actually, she was a brunette like Cece, but she had a definite hint of auburn in her hair. Annabelle said she had red curls as a child.”
“I always thought that hair color was a trait passed down on the paternal side of the family,” Kika remarked.
“There aren’t many redheaded Millers. I figure it must have been the combination of genes responsible for the kids.”
“They’re fortunate. Lots of people would love to have such a glorious color,” she said, admiring Melody’s soft ringlets.
“Women maybe, but Zach and Patrick get a little annoyed with the attention it draws. Neither one understands why they’re called redheads when they say their hair isn’t technically red.”
“They have a point,” she agreed. “I can tell you something. There’s a great demand in modeling for children with their coloring.”
The mention of her profession put the tension back in their conversation. After several moments of silence, she said, “You know, you and I have something in common.”
He raised one eyebrow. “And what would that be?”
“Neither one of us has been in Tyler very long.”
He looked at her curiously. “I’m surprised you’re here now. I thought you would have spent the holiday with your family.”
“I usually do, but this year I wanted to experience the Fourth of July celebration in a small town.”
“It’s rather low-key for someone who’s in the entertainment industry, isn’t it?”
“Refreshingly so,” she agreed, refusing to hear the hint of sarcasm in his tone. “There’s something about not having to lock your car doors every time you stop at a shop that renews your faith in humanity.”
“I know what you mean. I think it’s going to take me a while to get used to the idea that the boys can bike to the park by themselves. When you live in a big city you get so used to the threat of violence you forget that there are places like Tyler.”
“Is that why you moved here? So your children would have a safer place to live?”
“It was definitely a consideration,” he admitted, unsure whether he should tell her the true reason for the move. Did he want her to know that he was running away from the past with Beth? That he could no longer live in what she had called their own little piece of paradise?
“I would imagine it’s nice for them to be close to their grandmother, too.”
“And the rest of the Scanlons,” he said, enjoying the way she fit in the curve of his arm. It felt good to hold her. Too good, he thought as she clung to him in much the same way as Melody.
Protective instincts combined with another emotion to make him acutely aware of the fact that he held a very sexy woman in his arms.
“I like Cece. She was very sweet today when I fainted.”
The innocence in Kika’s tone was in direct contrast to the image she projected. Either she was refreshingly naive or else she was making a fool of him. Uncertainty put an edge to his words. “She certainly helped you make a quick recovery.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kika straightened and leaned away from him, apparently forgetting her fear of heights.
“It was rather convenient that you fainted where you did,” he said wryly.
Indignation caused her shoulders to stiffen. “Are you suggesting that I pretended to faint in order to get your attention?”
“Now why would I think a thing like that?” he asked with mock innocence.
“Yes, why would you?” she demanded.
“Maybe because you’ve been trying to get my attention ever since your attempt to hit on me at the airport failed.”
“My attempt to hit on you?”
He chuckled sarcastically. “Do you always pack your lacy undergarments at the top of your suitcase?”
“I can’t believe this! You think I was hitting on you?”
“Do you know what a white Corsica looks like?” he asked in a falsetto voice that mocked hers.
“I was being friendly.”
“And is that why you bought a ticket for the Ferris wheel when you have a fear of heights? Because you were being ‘friendly’?”
“Yes!” she declared vehemently.
Once more the Ferris wheel regained power, only to lose it after a few seconds. As the conveyance jerked to a halt, Kika pounded her hands on the metal safety bar. “When is it going to stop doing this?” she cried in frustration.
Melody let out a squeal as the bear slid off her lap. Nick grabbed it, but instead of giving it back to her, he shoved it at Kika. Melody whined in protest.
“I gave it to her.” Kika let the little girl have the bear. Melody clutched it to her bosom as if it were a beloved keepsak
e.
Once again the Ferris wheel began to move, and this time it continued its rotation. After only a couple of spins, the attendant began to unload passengers. When they were told to raise a hand if they wanted to be let off, both Nick’s and Kika’s arms shot up.
As Kika scrambled out of the seat, Nick noticed that the fear she’d held in check while they were stuck at the top was now pushing to the surface. She looked extremely fragile as she made her way to the exit. Immediately he regretted arguing with her. Just because she was sexy and he was attracted to her didn’t mean he had to act like such an idiot. Had he really accused her of trying to pick him up? Right now she looked as though she couldn’t get away from him fast enough.
The stuffed bear was nearly as big as Melody, which made movement for the two of them difficult. Nick lifted the toddler and the cumbersome toy animal into his arms and stumbled toward the exit. Had it not been for Zachary and Patrick still riding the Ferris wheel, he would have been tempted to follow Kika and apologize, but he needed to make sure his sons were safely on the ground first.
To his surprise, Kika stopped of her own accord. When Zachary called out to her, catching her attention, she waved up at the boys, who shouted with glee. Then she turned to Nick and said, “At least someone’s having fun.”
Nick felt a pang of guilt. She had done everything in her power not to let her fear get the better of her at the top of the Ferris wheel, yet he had acted like a jerk. And all because he was attracted to her. As he watched her move away, he saw one of the men from the softball teams walk up to her, put his arm around her shoulder and lead her toward the food concessions.
“There you are.” Annabelle’s voice sounded over Nick’s shoulder. “I’ve been looking for you and the boys. Where on earth did you get that thing?” she asked, looking at the white bear as if it were a postal patron wanting to buy a stamp at closing time.
Nick was saved from having to answer by the appearance of Zachary and Patrick, who came rushing out of the exit gate, boasting of their misadventure.
“Slow down and speak one at a time,” Annabelle commanded.
“It was so cool, Grandma.”
“We were stuck at the top!”