“What happened?” Rainey asks when she and the rest of our group meet at the benches near the exit to the ride.
“I just need one more minute.” Rafe holds up a finger. He has his head between his knees.
“He looked at the goat,” I whisper. I also looked at the goat, but unlike Rafe, I didn’t have a problem with it. I loved every second of that ride.
“Should I call for a medic?” Poppy is pale and looks worried.
“I thought she saidnotto look at the goat?” Naomi asks confusedly.
“I did,” Poppy nods emphatically. “I most certainly saidnotto look at the goat if you are prone to motion sickness.”
“Just let me rest a moment here. I’ll be fine. Why don’t you guys go get Orly some Churros?” Rafe points out a cart selling treats.
“Can I try something?” I ask, kneeling in front of him. He nods, and I place a finger on either side of his neck, just behind his ears, and press.
“This should just take two minutes,” I say. “Want me to tell you a story while we wait?”
“How about I tell you one instead?” Rafe mumbles.
“Sure, go for it.” I shift my weight to the balls of my feet and apply steady, firm pressure to the pressure points on either side of his neck, just below the ears.
“There once was a very foolish man, who wanted to impress a very beautiful woman,” Rafe says. I feel him relax a bit, and he raises himself up slightly and sighs. “Thank you, I think that’s working. Where did you learn that?”
“I used to do it for my mom when she was going through chemo. She got the spins really bad.”
“Mmm,” Rafe says. He’s breathing more steadily.
“Are you going to finish that story?” I ask. I can smell the scent of the cinnamon sugar churros surfing on the gentle, Cali breeze.
“Well,” Rafe says, “this foolish man didn’t want the woman to know he’d never been on a roller coaster before, due to his tendency to suffer from vertigo.”
“Never?” I ask.
“Never.” He nods slightly and sits up a little straighter.
“Wow.” I marvel at this information. “But that doesn’t explain why you looked at the goat.”
“Well,youwere looking at the goat.” Rafe moves his head tentatively and straightens more. I have to scoot closer to keep up the pressure. I wobble, and he catches me by the shoulders, hunching forward toward me again.
“Don’t stop just yet. That’s magic, right there. Where were you when I had to do a scene on a zipline?”
“Making coffee at the diner, probably.” I smile sympathetically, waiting another thirty seconds to release the pressure. “Better now?”
Rafe turns his head slowly from side to side before glancing back to look me in the eye. “Wow. Completely better. Thank you.” He tugs at my shoulders, pulling me closer, and for a moment, I think he’s going to kiss me.
Then I get the uncanny feeling that we’re being filmed, and freeze.
“I think our cover may be blown here,” I say, peering over my shoulder.
“Ten o’clock,” Rafe nods in agreement.
Sure enough, there’s a girl over by the churro cart, just a few feet away from the rest of our party, holding her phone up like she’s taking a selfie. Except, I’m willing to bet she isn’t. She’s pretending poorly, and the phone is angled all wrong. It’s pointed at us.
“The damage is probably already done, you know.” Rafe is still staring intently at me.
I do wish he hadn’t put it that way.Damage.As if something’s been broken. But he’s right. Things have shifted. The rules have changed. And it’s getting harder and harder to pretend that’s not the case. Especially when I’m already pretending to be someone I’m not.
“There’s no going back,” I agree.
