I’m not gonna lie, I felt mildly miffed. Did my grandmother just ditch me? She had been acting weird lately. Maybe she and Arthur’s aunt were going to have “girl talk” about Dr. Raymond and Dad and she didn’t want “the kids” around, but that didn’t mean she had to peel off with her new BFF.

Then again, that also meant Arthur and I were alone.

And a zing of excitement shot through my chest. Not that anything would be done about it. Still, I smiled inside.

For his part, Arthur appeared focused on continuing onward to see as much as possible.

He nodded to the light-strewn pathway. “Shall we? I want to check out the Ferris wheel, the carousel, and then the bridge.”

He ticked them off on his fingers with determination.

I gestured to the pathway with a wrist flourish.

As we walked, I noticed the other couples strolling together, cuddled and hand in hand. I wondered what it would’ve been like to be here on a date with Arthur. Other than the occasional sugar-fed child running away from their parents, the atmosphere was romantic. Whimsical. There was something about the multitude of colorful lights wrapped around the bases of all the trees along the pathways or interwoven through their branches that helped foster a fairy tale–like atmosphere.

Unfortunately, Arthur didn’t seem to be with me on this. But at least he appeared to be having a good time.

When we reached the carousel, there was a line of twenty people ahead of us.

I pointed to the towering mobile Ferris wheel, which was nearby and where the line was smaller. “Do you want to ride that first?”

Arthur glanced up at it.

“No.”

“Afterwards?”

“No.”

“I thought you wanted to see it.”

“ ‘See’ being the operative word. And I have. It’s quite impressive.”

The carousel started to slow down and the final bars of Peggy Lee’s “Christmas Carousel” played out, which meant it would soon be our turn to board.

“Are you afraid of heights?” I asked.

He unzipped the front of his jacket.

“It’s not fear. It’s respect.” He took out his wallet from his interior pocket. “For gravity.”

Before I realized what he was doing, he handed over a twenty to the guy controlling the carousel and held up two fingers.

“No, wait—” I said, reaching for my small purse hanging crossways over my chest.

Arthur held up a hand. “I’m making you endure yet another night of my company, the least I can do is not have you pay for it.”

Carousel Guy nodded at us and we went forward to the carousel itself, which was, of course, covered in lights forming a point high above. We had our choice of pastel-colored horses, a giraffe, zebra, possibly a dragon (never could figure it out), and two red benches that too closely resembled sleighs for my comfort level.

Funky horse it was.