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“You sure you’re not tired? If you’re tired, I should stay awake to make sure you don’t drift off and crash.”
“I’ve literally driven back and forth across the country dozens of times without stopping. This is nothing. I know better than to keep driving if my lids get heavy. I just pull over and do some jumping jacks on the side of the road until I wake up. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise. You can rest.”
Normally, I couldn’t sleep in cars because the control freak in me didn’t feel safe unless I remained on high alert, but for some reason, I trusted Ethan to keep me safe while I caught a few much-needed winks.
“You sure you’re okay?” I double-checked.
“Yep. Still got my caffeine, beef jerky, and cheese snacks from our last stop to sustain me. I’m a lean, mean driving machine. Get some sleep, Miss Ivy.”
I giggled at his nickname, then decided maybe I could rest my eyes for a little bit. I doubted I could truly trust him enough to fall asleep, but the headlights coming like a steady stream of piercing lasers were straining my eyes, and a little darkness sounded heavenly. I closed my eyes and listened to the quiet music on the radio.
When I opened my eyes, daylight streamed through the windows. “Whoa. Did I fall asleep? How long was I out for?”
“Well, good morning, sunshine.” Ethan looked over and smiled. “Three hours, give or take.”
“Three hours?” I sat upright. “I can’t sleep in cars, much less sleep forthree hoursin a car. Did you drug me?”
His warm laughter surrounded me as he shook his head. “First, I’m a would-be murderer, and now I’m guilty of drugging you because you fell asleep? Damn, girl. You really need to stop watching the news. It’s rotting your brain and making you paranoid.”
“You’re not wrong there,” I agreed. “Wow. I must have been really tired.”
And really trusted you.
As I looked around, I realized we weren’t on the interstate anymore. “Where are we?”
“Sandusky, Ohio. About five hours from Chicago.”
“We getting gas or something?”
Ethan grinned and paused, then finally answered with an unconvincing, “Yes.”
I furrowed my brow. “Why does that not feel like the full answer.”
“Wearegetting gas here ... after we do something else.”
“What else are we doing?”
He turned the car down another street, and my eyes widened when my gaze followed his. “We’re going on that.”
Rollercoasters and other crazy-looking giant contraptions overwhelmed the skyline in front of me. My eyes widened as I craned my neck to look at them all. “What are you talking about?”
He pulled into a giant parking lot. “I hope you got a good night’s sleep because you’re going to need it today. You and I are taking a little detour and going on some rides.”
I spun in my seat to face him. “What ... What are you even talking about? I amnotgoing on a rollercoaster!”
He grabbed a ticket from the parking machine. “Yes. You are. Last night you told me you had a fear of rollercoasters, and this morning while I was driving, I saw billboards for Cedar Point Amusement Park, which has some of the biggest and best rollercoasters in the world. I’ve always wanted to go here and haven’t yet. So, then I thought, this must be fate! When we thought our plane was crashing, you said, ‘I’ve barely even lived.’ And last night, you said that almost-crash really woke you up, and you wanted to push your boundaries and live a little more. Well, this is your chance to start! And I want to ride these rollercoasters. Two birds ... one stone. Boom.”
He held out his fist for me to bump it, but I just stared at him in disbelief.
“I can’t ride on a rollercoaster! Those things terrify me!”
“I know. You said as much last night when we were talking about how you haven’t lived much. Which is exactly why I’m proposing we do this right now.”
“No way. I can’t!”
“Did you or did you not, somewhere along the road between jamming out toLiving on a PrayerandTime for Me To Fly,tell me that when you thought the plane was crashing that you had serious regrets about not doing more crazy shit in your life?”
“Yes, but—”
