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“I would’ve loved to see my son’s face,” Franky said.
“I tried to get them to recreate it, but Cole was too stunned to cooperate.”
Franky still had a smile on his lips as he brought his beer bottle to them. “I never got to thank you for being there for Cole,” he said.
“You act like I had a choice in the matter,” I said, lashing out. The atmosphere instantly shifted, moving from light to heavy. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m sorry… I—”
“Are you tired?” Franky asked.
“Ah…”Was I tired?I’d just fucked up a perfectly great moment, and in the middle of my apology he wanted to know if I was tired? “No, I’m not, but Franky—”
“Don’t apologize for going through your process, Leland. You once told me that you could handle me at my worst. Let me return the favor.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Now, come on. I want to take you somewhere.”
“And leave your precious water?” I asked.
Franky came behind me to grip the handles of my chair, leaning in to whisper as he moved us farther away from the sun setting over the river. “There’s more water to be found,” he said, making me equally curious and excited for our next stop.
***
“Coney Island?” I said, as I hopped out of the passenger seat and into my waiting chair. The seaside amusement park overlooked the Atlantic Ocean and was nestled within a residential area in the southern part of Brooklyn. There were roller coasters, bumper cars, carnival lights, and games. And the scents that assailed me from the many greasy food stalls made me forget we’d already eaten not too long ago.
“I can’t count how many times I’ve been here since they opened for the season,” Franky said as I followed him deeper into the park. “It’s the best at night. When the boardwalk is lit up and the beach is empty of everything except the sound of crashing waves.”
“Do you still come here? At night?” I added. Maybe this was where he’d been disappearing to. Maybe I’d been stressing myself out for nothing.
“No,” he said. “Not since before the accident.”
“Right,” I mumbled under my breath. I felt the switch in my mood coming on, but this was the first time in forever that I’d been so excited about something, and I didn’t want to ruin it with another outburst, so when Franky stopped to buy a spool of cotton candy and then offered me a piece, I stuffed my jealousy into a mental drawer to be dealt with later.
“What brings you all the way out here when you’ve got a perfectly toxic river closer to home?” I asked, which bought me a laugh from him.
“I think you know,” he said, stopping to gaze down at me.
I did know. It was the same reason I was beyond happy to be there with him now. “The Seattle state fair,” I said.
“This place reminds me of the day we became friends,” he said. “I come here and life suddenly feels simple. Easy. Like it was between us that day.” Franky shut his eyes, a shy smile tugging at his mouth, as if the images of that memorable day were floating around on the inside of his eyelids. Things were so simple then. We hardly knew each other, yet we’d faced a fear together, and that had somehow bonded us in a way.
The amusement park wasn’t overly crowded, but kids and teens whizzed by us as they raced to the next exhilarating ride and experience.
“So what do you do when you come here?” I asked, ripping off another chunk of his cotton candy, trying not to care that his lips were now adorably blue. “Besides thinking on the beach.”
“I get on that,” he said, pointing to the Ferris wheel straight ahead.
“The Ferris wheel?” I asked, my blood pumping faster at the idea. I hadn’t been on one since our day at the fair, and even though I wouldn’t say I was terrified of heights anymore, I still had a healthy respect for higher altitudes.
“Keeps me focused on my goal,” he said. “Keeps me focused onyou.”
“We almost shit our pants up there,” I said, my voice a bit breathy from his intensity.
“Care to do it again?” he asked, studying the wheel and then staring daringly down at me. He held his hand out to me when I stayed quiet with indecision, because things were less scary when holding hands, even if thatthingwas revisiting the era when my feelings for him began to unknowingly take shape.
“Shitting my pants has never sounded so good,” I said, closing my hand around his.
The ride operator was nice enough to keep an eye on my chair while we took a spin on the wheel. Franky and I sat across from each other as we climbed higher, the wind blowing our hair as we gripped the sides of the cart and smiled through our anxiety.
