The line to wait to get on the Ferris wheel is painfully slow. I guess everyone in Chicago decided to venture out the moment spring set in, desperate to get out of hibernation after a long winter. Jade and I only experienced a few short months of the blustery cold. I’m not sure she’ll be loving the snow as much next year as she did this year. She might have her roots in Chicago, but she’s a Cali girl at heart.

“Want to talk about Olive?” I ask, happy to steer the conversation clear of me and onto some of the baggage it seems Reed has been hiding.

He stares down at me, the sun lighting one side of his handsome face as it peeks out from behind a cloud. “No.”

The kids are in front of us, debating which Ice Age movie is better, paying us no attention.

I knock him with my shoulder. “You know my dirty past, give me some of yours.”

“I don’t know your past.”

“Sure, you do.” I look over at him like he’s crazy.

He shakes his head, the sun playing peekaboo with his face again. “I know you were married. I know you had Jade. I know you got divorced.”

I shrug. “That’s all there is to know.”

He leans forward, his eyes on the kids the entire time. “Bullshit,” he whispers and the hairs on my arms stand straight up.

“You know Pete. I’m sure you probably knew all the reasons we should’ve never gotten married before I stepped foot in that church.” I keep my voice low, so Jade won’t overhear.

The sun hides behind another cloud and it not only brings a chill to the air, but to Reed’s face.

He says nothing.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes.”

Not really into finding out exactly how much he knows, I focus my attention back on the kids, pointing and talking about how much we’re going to see. Reed stays behind us, lost in his own thoughts, not living in the moment like he usually is.

An eternity later our turn arrives, and we step into the Ferris wheel car. I drag Jade to my side by her sleeve and wrap my arm around her.

“I was going to sit with Henry,” she whines.

“This way you can both see out the same window.” She stares at Henry across from her and they smile at each other like I’m a genius.

I point out landmark buildings for them and they ask questions like how many people live in Chicago, what happens when you live above the clouds. It’s then I realize that in all the sightseeing we’ve done, I’ve never taken Jade to the Sears Tower.

Yeah, yeah, Willis Tower now, but never to a true Chicagoan.

“Can we go today?” Her eyes light up.

“Next weekend.” Her lips dip and she glances at Henry, the two of them sharing a look like parents are lame.

Reed’s busy on his phone, not even enjoying the ride or taking in the sights. Whatever, he’s not spoiling my day with Jade.

“It’s open, we can shoot over there after this,” Reed says without glancing up from his phone. I guess that’s what he was checking on his phone. Yet another way to hold me hostage.

“Yay!” Jade high fives Henry.

“Then you’ll miss all those other rides.” I point to the swing ride and few others down below us.

“They’ll be time after,” Reed says innocently. Too innocently.

I glare over at a smiling Reed again.

The kids swap seats with us, so they can see the lake and the boats. We talk about the lighthouse and what a lighthouse keeper does. I have to Google a few facts because I’m not the encyclopedia they believe me to be.

Finally, our time comes to a close and the ride stops so we climb out.

“The swings!” Henry says.

I hand them each their tickets and they run over to the ride. Stepping forward to join them in the waiting area, Reed tugs on the sleeve of my jacket.

“Hold up.”

I slow my walk.

“I’m sorry. It’s just...you’re right.” He runs his hand across the back of his neck, looking everywhere but at me.

My stomach bottoms out. What must he think of me?

“I figured.”

“I’m not proud of the fact I knew Pete wasn’t the man for you, but it’s not what you think.”

With my attention fixated on Jade and Henry, I stop at a stand to buy some water. “What is it then?”

Images of a naked stripper laying across a table and Pete plowing into her in the middle of his bachelor party come to my imagination. The embarrassment and shame of being cheated on might be the worst thing to come out of my divorce.

“I never saw him cheat,” Reed says emphatically.

I roll my eyes.

“Swear.” He pulls out his pinky finger.

My eyebrows shoot up. “I do the pinky swear thing with Jade, Reed. I’ll believe you if you say so. Not like it really matters anyway.”

The lie is that it does matter to me for some reason.

Seeming appeased, he hands a twenty over to the cashier and stuffs his hands in his pockets.

“I’ll get it,” I say, grabbing my wallet out of my purse.

“I already did.” He smiles that panty melting one that ignites every nerve in my body.

“So, you never saw him, but…”

He pushes the change into his pocket and we walk forward, I unscrew the cap to the water and down a sip.

“There was a night I had to tell him not to put me in a bad position.”

“He was flirting?” I guess.

I’m not surprised by it. I saw Pete flirt with my own eyes more than once. You’d think he thought I was blind.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it was anything more. They could have just been talking.”

“Pete interested in a woman’s thoughts on things?” I widen my eyes and a smile tips his lips. “Not likely.”

“You’ve got me there.” He pauses, and we watch the kids get on their swings, the attendant double checking their harnesses. “Henry looks like he’s going to throw up.”

Reed’s right. He’s pale and his eyes are darting between Jade and us as if he’s contemplating escape.

“Maybe he feels pressure to go on the ride because Jade wanted to?”

Reed hangs over the metal guardrail. Cupping his hands over his mouth, he yells, “You okay, bud?”

Henry nods, but there’s nothing convincing about it.

Reed steps off the rail and the swings moves back to me. “I’d watch out for flying vomit, just in case,” he says to me.

We sit down on a concrete stoop and watch the kids as the ride gains speed, waving when they pass by us.

“Victoria, there’s more than that.” Reed’s voice doesn’t hold its usual confidence.

I swivel in his direction.

“I didn’t understand what you saw in Pete. I wasn’t willing to kill the bro code, but if he would’ve crossed that line in front of me, I would have…but not because I’m a noble person.” He holds my gaze for a second before continuing. “I would’ve done it because I was being selfish.”

“Reed.” I place my hand on his knee. “Do not feel guilty for not telling me your suspicions. It’s not like the two of us were friends. I understand where your loyalties were.”

“Are you listening to me?” He runs a hand through his hair and I get the sense that he’s frustrated by me, which gets my back up.

“Spit out whatever you’re trying to say.”

Instead of growing more frustrated with my attitude, a smile teases the corners of his lips. “I liked you then and I like you now.”

My stomach flutters with his admission. I don’t know if he means he liked me as a person in the past or liked liked me, but it doesn’t matter. I wish I could wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him like I’ve wanted to for weeks, but things aren’t that simple. I’m not that simple.

“Reed. I like you, too.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

I eye him for a long time willing myself the courage to put it all out there. He sits patiently and waits until I finally take a deep breath and speak.

“I come with a lot of baggage and they aren’t filled with makeup, sexy heels, and lingerie. They’re overflowing with doubt, trust issues, and low self-esteem. I come with a carry-on in the form of a seven-year-old little girl who, yes, seems adorable and sweet for the few hours you’ve seen her, but there’s a more difficult side. I won’t even mention the oversized bag in the cargo hold that is my ex-husband.

“I don’t come with that new love glow. I don’t possess the belief that we kiss and live in bliss, happily ever after. I come jaded. My corners aren’t round and smooth, they’re sharp and jagged. So, as much as I like you, and believe me I am attracted to you, this thing between us can’t happen. I’m sorry.”

I turn my attention away from him and unscrew the cap of water, gulping down the cold liquid like it will help push down all the raw emotion rising within me.

We sit in silence for a few moments and I can’t believe he hasn’t fought me on this. Not that I want him to, but I expected some sort of comeback.

“You’re right, I dated Olive. It was off and on. Never really that serious. Her family is friends with my family.”

Not what I was expecting.

“We went to the same expensive private school. We hung around with the same entitled crowd. We each got an insanely expensive car when we turned sixteen. Both of our educations were off-the-charts expensive and paid in full when we graduated. We shopped at the same designer stores. Flew to the same vacation destinations. I thought she was what I wanted…or maybe I convinced myself I was what she wanted. I don’t know.”

His hands knot together and in all the times I’ve been around Reed, he’s never looked this intense, this nervous.

“She tried to stop me from being a Big Brother. Told me my time was too valuable to spend it playing house with someone else’s kid. I know her type. Even though we weren’t serious, she had our big mansion in North Shore picked out. Had our kid’s names decided and a Pinterest board of decorated bedrooms for them. She tried to mold me into someone I wasn’t. Someone I never wanted to be.”

The swings slows down, and I spot Jade, her hair windblown and chaotic. Henry’s actually smiling.

I could take a lesson from the kid. Some things are always scary starting out, but worth it in the end.

“I’m not going to convince you how wrong you are about everything you just said. I’m not going to sit here and counter each argument one-by-one—which for the record, the prosecutor in me very much wants to do.”

I chuckle, then stand, brushing the dirt off my ass. “Thank you.”

“What I’m going to do is prove it to you. See, Victoria”—he corners me between the cement wall and the metal gate while the kids wait patiently on the other side of the ride for the attendee to let them out— “I want a woman with goals. You want to get your degree. I’m behind you. You want a career and a family. I’m your equal in parenting responsibilities. You want to have a loving and supportive boyfriend. I’m him. This thing between us isn’t my imagination. There’s chemistry and energy bursting between us every time we’re together. But I refuse to push myself on you because I want you to come willingly, and I guarantee you will.”

“Mommy!” Jade’s loud voice has Reed stepping back, but his cocky smile says he means every word of what he said.

It’s all I can do to lock my knees and stay standing. “Did you have fun?” I ask when she jumps into my arms.

“So much fun! I’m starving.”

“Let’s go eat then.” Reed high fives Henry. “I’m so proud of you, bud. You conquered a fear.”

Henry beams but stays silent, per usual.

I watch Henry’s hand find its way into Reed’s, he glances over his shoulder to make sure Jade and I are following. A small pit forms in my stomach.

I can’t be wrong. In my experience, if it seems too good to be true—it is.