Page 116 of When You Wish Upon a Wideout

“Stop,” he quieted her. Beau reached for her hand balled at her side, gently prying open her fingers and sliding it beneath his sweatshirt. “Do you feel that?”

Her cool fingers trembled against his warm skin, and Sienna nodded.

“It’s real. What I feel for you is real—how much Iloveyou.” Beau paused, tilting her chin up with his free hand. “What we have, what we have had our whole lives, might seem like a fairy tale. But fairy tales have hard chapters. There are villains and bad guys. There are guys who aren’t bad but who make thewrongdecisions. But do you know what those kinds of stories have too?”

Sienna waited for Beau to tell her.

“Happily ever afters.”

A small cry escaped Sienna’s mouth, and Beau hugged her to him. “Let’s get ours for real this time, okay?”

She nodded against him, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand.

“Chase the sun until we run into the moon, right? Wish list?”

“I said something like that, didn’t I?” Sienna’s eyes floated over to the balloon. “Big time wish list.”

Beau led them to the grassy field, where they checked in with the attendant, Jake, signed release forms, and went over all the rules. After, Jake unhooked the latch. “Ready if you are.”

Motioning for Sienna to step into the basket first, Beau followed, keeping his hand on the side.

“We’ll be up in a moment.”

Beau watched Sienna lean over, staring at the ground that was soon to be thousands of feet away. She turned his way and smiled, holding out her hand so he would come closer. Beau moved behind Sienna, pressing his chest to her back.

“Ready?”

Even though he had asked and she nodded her response enthusiastically, they both jumped when Jake opened the propane, Beau’s hold tightening on Sienna.

“Oh my god.”

Beau kept his gaze out as they sailed upward, closer to the light. But the fading night left a few twinkling stars that hadn’t lost their battle to the sun yet. Beau rested his chin on Sienna’s shoulder, kissing her cheek.

Forever, he wished.

“Can you believe this?” Sienna asked as they rose higher.

The excitement and wonder in her voice filled Beau to the brim with nostalgia and took him back to a simpler time of their childhood friendship, when it blossomed into something more as they tested the boundaries as teenagers until he and Sienna could no longer deny their feelings.

Beau leaned forward. “I can believe it.”

He dropped his head to her shoulder, looking out and watching the sun rise over the shaded valley, bringing brilliant light to the darkest dips. His body molded into Sienna’s, his hands resting on hers atop the gondola they floated in. But what made the moment real wasn’t the beauty of the changing light or the excitement and awe of being hundreds of feet up in the air. What grounded Beau in reality amid a magical, dreamy moment was Sienna—her warmth, her quick, excited breathing, the race of her pulse he could feel beneath his thumbs over her wrists.

There was nothing more real than that—the feel of the most important person along for the ride. For half his life, Beau had been so focused on achieving his brother’s dream in the clouds that he hadn’t realized how much he needed someone beside him on the ground while he pursued it.

“I guess we can’t chase the sun until the moon comes back out. That propane tank is smaller than I thought,” Beau said, and Sienna giggled.

Sienna nestled closer. “A minute up here is more than enough.”

“So, should I tell him to bring us down?”

“No!” she gasped, elbowing him.

Beau leaned closer. “Remember I told you about that lavender farm?” he asked before pointing. “It’s somewhere over there.”

“Don’t tell me you bought it and ruin this for me.”

Beau chuckled. “No. But it reminded me of something else I did get for you.”

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