Chapter 148 The fair

Chapter 148 The fair
Skylar's POV

I spotted him near the entrance, standing a bit off to the side of the ticket booth, his hands shoved in his pockets, looking a little out of place among the noise and lights already spilling out from the fairgrounds behind him.

"You made it." I came up beside him.
He turned to me with that same easy, nervous smile crossing his face the second he saw me.
"Wouldn't miss it." He glanced past me toward the entrance, where the Ferris wheel lit up against the sky, music drifting out from near the games. "I haven't been to one of these since middle school."
"Seriously?" I grabbed his sleeve, already pulling him toward the entrance. "Okay, that's a crime…Come on."

We got our tickets and stepped inside, the noise swallowing us up immediately, the smell of fried dough and popcorn filled the air, kids running between stalls, a bell ringing over and over from one of the games.
"Where first?" he asked.
I scanned the row of booths, my eyes landing on the shooting gallery a few stalls down, rows of tin ducks moving slowly along a track. "There… I want to see if you're actually any good at anything besides books."

He paid for a round, I leaned against the counter, watching him line up the little rifle, his brow furrowed in concentration.
He missed the first three shots entirely.
"Okay," I said, biting back a laugh, "so noted. Not a marksman."
"In my defense, I've never held one of these before." He adjusted his grip, trying again. "My dad's not really the take-your-kid-to-the-fair type."

That caught me off guard, I felt something under the joke. "Why? Is he far away?"
"Naa, he's around. Just not really…Present." He fired again, missing wide, and didn't seem too bothered by it. "It's fine. I got used to doing stuff on my own pretty early."
"That's not really fine," I whispered.
"It's fine enough." He glanced at me, like he was deciding whether to say more, then just shrugged instead and lined up his last shot.

The final shot actually connected, one small duck tipping backward with a satisfied little clink.
“There..” He straightened, pleased with himself. "I demand my prize." He grinned.
The guy running the booth, clearly unimpressed by the one-out-of-five hit rate, gestured toward the lowest shelf of prizes. Elias scanned it for a second before pointing at something tucked in the corner. "Him," he pointed.

It was a small stuffed owl, one wing bigger than the other like it had been made by someone still learning to sew.
"Really?" I raised an eyebrow as the guy handed it over. "Out of everything up there, you picked the deformed owl.”
"He looked like he needed someone." He said, staring at it.

I laughed, taking it from him, turning it over in my hands. Up close it was even more crooked, one eye slightly higher than the other, giving it a permanently startled expression.
"I'm naming him," I decided. "Winston….Winston the owl. He's very dignified, despite his flaws."
Elias grinned, shaking his head. I tucked the owl into my bag, a warm feeling settling in my chest.

We wandered further in, past a few more game booths, past the smell of funnel cakes that made Elias insist we come back for one before we left. Eventually we ended up at the base of the Ferris wheel, its lights turning slowly against the darkening sky.
"We have to," I said, already heading for the line.
"Are you scared of heights?" He asked.
“No..” I paused. “Are you?"
"A little," he admitted, though he followed me into line anyway without any real hesitation, which I appreciated more than I probably should have.

We climbed into one of the swinging cars, the attendant clicking the safety bar into place and the wheel started its slow rotation, lifting us above the noise and lights below, the whole fair shrinking into a glowing, colorful blur beneath us.
"Okay," I said, leaning back against the seat as we climbed higher. "This wasn't a good idea."
He chuckled, looking out over the fairgrounds quietly. "Thanks for today…I mean it. I wasn't sure you'd actually want to do this again after the whole hallway thing."

"I told you," I said. "That's not something you needed to apologize for."
"I know but still." He glanced at me, something a little more open in his face than usual. "It's nice, being somewhere that isn't school. Somewhere nobody's really watching."

The wheel jerked to a sudden stop. We both looked around, the swaying car settling as the mechanical hum below cut off entirely, the whole ride frozen mid-rotation with us near the very top.
"Um." He peered over the edge, then back at me. "That's probably not supposed to happen."
"Probably not," I agreed, though I found myself more amused watching him assess the situation than alarmed.

"They'll get it running again soon," he said, settling back into his seat instead of panicking. "These things stall out all the time. It's usually just a reset."
"You sound very confident for someone who claimed to be scared of heights five minutes ago."
"I said I was a little scared." He shrugged, glancing out at the view instead of down at the ground far below us. "Might as well enjoy it while we're stuck up here."

The wheel jolted back to life a few minutes later, easing us slowly back down toward the ground.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, just readjusting to solid ground." I laughed a little at myself. "That's never happened to me before. Getting stuck like that."
"Kind of glad it did, honestly." He whispered. "Not the being stuck part. Just, I don't know. Made it feel like we actually talked instead of just doing the thing where you're at a fair and you just go from ride to ride without really saying anything."

"We talk normally too."
"I know. This just felt different." He shrugged, a little self-conscious about it now that he'd said it.

We wandered away from the main crowd without really discussing more, drifting toward the quieter edge of the fairgrounds where the noise of the games faded, the lights from the Ferris wheel still turning slowly behind us, casting long shadows across the grass.
"This was a really good night," I said, hugging Winston loosely against my chest.

"Yeah." Elias stopped walking, turning to face me fully. "It was."
"Skylar." He said carefully, like he was testing whether he actually had the nerve to finish whatever sentence came next.
"Yeah?"
He didn't finish it with words, he leaned in slowly, giving me every chance to step back if I wanted to but when I didn't, his mouth found mine. I kissed him back, my body pressing against his, I've been waiting to do that all night.

When we pulled apart, he was smiling, a little dazed like he couldn't quite believe it had actually happened.
"Okay," he said softly. "That was even better than the owl."
I laughed, resting my forehead against his shoulder for a second. For once, I didn't give a shit about Ryan. I was finally getting the attention that I deserved.

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Ryan's POV

That actually raises the stakes even further — it's not just Ryan repurposing generic security, it's specifically his father's people, meaning either Ryan has enough pull to redirect Christian's own security detail toward his personal obsession, or someone on that team is loyal to him personally over protocol. Both readings are unsettling in different ways.

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Ryan's POV

The message came through just after ten…Daniel, one of my father's men. He's been on the security team since before I could remember, more used to reporting break-ins and blind spots in perimeter cameras than anything like this.

Thought you'd want to see this.

A photo followed. I opened it without thinking, and everything in me went very still.