Under the Boardwalk (9 page)

He turned away to run his hands over one of the horses. "Ouch," he muttered. He brought his finger up to his mouth. "There's a crack in the finish," he explained. "Some little kid could get cut on that. This place is falling apart." He noticed her eyes on him and turned away again.

"It's my fault," he said to the gray mare with chipped paint. "My grandparents, and then my parents, used to remodel the place regularly. They were always keeping up with the latest things, updating every winter for the next season. I've let the place go downhill." He ran a finger over the pony's mane.

Hallie leaned back against one of the brass poles, and watched him.

"Tom's right," he said after a while. "I've stayed away. The kids don't remember, but I can't help remembering."

"After dad and mom died the park was closed for a while," he said, half to himself. "I had the kids to deal with, and settling the estate, and then Jennifer went back to her family in Stockton."

"Jennifer?"

"My college girlfriend." He glanced quickly at her, then away again. "Oh, I don't blame her. I was impossible to live with in those days. My life had been turned around, and I felt I was being kept from—"

"Your mission in life?" She said it with a smile. "Being a doctor," she added, and he nodded.

"Yeah. My mom was a doctor—did Windy tell you that?"

Hallie shook her head.

"Well, anyway, it all got to be too much. I don't know, I just couldn't make myself come down here and look at the place. But one day a real estate agent came to me with an offer from a developer."

This was a different side of him than Hallie had seen before. He seemed lost, and vulnerable. "And you said no to the sale," she prompted when he didn't continue.

He smiled. "He was going to build an oceanfront housing development on the site, called 'Rancho Madrigal Estates' or some garbage like that."

He looked around. "I just couldn't see everything my family had worked for turned into a bunch of condos. So I called up Tom—he'd managed the place when my parents were alive—and asked him to come back and supervise the rebuilding."

"But you never came to look at it?"

"I couldn't," he said softly. "Cowardly, eh?" he added with a wan smile.

"I'm not one to talk about cowardice," she said bitterly.

He held out his hand to her. She took it, and in one effortless motion he lifted her up to stand on the platform beside him. "You look pretty brave to me," he murmured.

"Is this one of the new rides put in after the fire?" she asked, to change the subject. He nodded, and turned away again.

"Nowadays," he said, "all these rides are made in factories out of aluminum, fiberglass, plastic—but not back in the old days." The sweep of his hand took in the whole building. "The rides, the buildings, even the plank walkways underfoot—remember the old-style boardwalks?—everything was made of wood." He sighed. "When the fire started, it was over in minutes. The place went up like a torch."

Hallie saw sorrow in his eyes.

Instinctively, she put a hand up to cradle his cheek. Somehow, when he was so lost and vulnerable, she was able to reach out to him without being afraid. She noticed how the skin on his face was brown and toughened by years of working outdoors. Around his eyes were fine lines that on someone else she would assume were caused by too many years squinting in the wind and sun, but on Kyle could only be laugh-lines.
Wait a minute
, she thought.
What are you doing? You're as bad as David said you were. You're a romantic dreamer, getting carried away by a momentary attraction. What happened to your plans to be sensible? Get a grip on yourself!

She knew that little voice inside her was right, and pulled away from Kyle, but he grasped one of her hands.

With a little smile, he lifted her hand up to brush his lips against her scarred palm. She wanted to pull away, to hide the ugliness of her hand. But he held it in his, gently but firmly.

"Hallie," he murmured. He bent his head down to hers, and their lips touched. Hallie was shocked. This felt nothing like the way her ex-husband had kissed her—possessively claiming her mouth, taking more than she'd wanted to give. This was different. Kyle's lips barely brushed against hers, and yet she felt a tingling awareness of him—the touch of his mouth, the sound of his breathing, the warmth of his body so close.

In spite of herself, Hallie felt her mouth reach for his, wanting more than that light touch.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing up there?"

Kyle and Hallie both jumped. They turned around to see a man in a ride operator's uniform glaring at them.

"Whoops," Kyle said with a chuckle. He swung Hallie down to the floor, and stepped down after her.

"How did you get in here?" the man asked. He looked suspiciously at Kyle. "You look kinda familiar...."

"Sorry," Kyle said contritely. He winked at Hallie. "We're just in from Albuquerque for the week, you see"—

—"Albuquerque?" Hallie asked.

"Look, I don't care where you're from. This ride isn't open yet. You're going to have to wait outside."

"I told you the park was still closed, dear," Kyle said to Hallie with a shake of his head. "But you just couldn't wait, could you?"

"Uh, I'm sorry, honey," Hallie said as sheepishly as she could.

"She's always like this," Kyle confided to the ride operator. He steered Hallie toward the door. "I just can't keep her out of trouble."

"Albuquerque?" Hallie said when they were out of earshot.

"Best I could come up with on the spur of the moment. So, troublemaker, let's see if we can get you to the haunted house without any more incidents." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her out of the building into the foggy morning.

That little voice inside Hallie's head was still there, shouting to her that one kiss didn't mean anything, that she was getting carried away, that there was no place for Kyle Aidan Madrigal in her safe, practical plans for the future.

Hallie pulled away from Kyle and walked a few steps ahead of him down the promenade. Her heart gradually slowed its pounding in her chest, and she was able to put her temporary insanity behind her and pay attention to her surroundings.

They were alone as they walked along the promenade, except for a few employees busy in the various rides and concession booths nestled in the shadow of the roller coaster.

"See, everything under the roller coaster is original," Kyle pointed out. "The part we were in before," he pointed back toward the carousel, "that's all new and plastic. This is the part I remember from when I was a kid."

Hallie heard a roar overhead and instinctively ducked her head.

"Look up," Kyle said, and she did.

Right next to where they walked the roller coaster track dipped down to almost touch the roof of the building below it. The coaster whizzed by on the track, with a lone man in overalls sitting in front. The man waved to them, then the car climbed up the next hill to disappear once again into the fog, though they could still hear the click-click of the car on the tracks from somewhere high above them.

"That's Scotty," Kyle explained. "He's been here since I was a kid. Every morning he rides the coaster before it's open, and then all day, he and two other guys walk along the track, checking for loose boards."

"The ride's that dangerous?" She felt a shiver walking in its shadow, as if it would come crashing down on them at any moment.

"It's not dangerous at all, not as long as the maintenance guys do their jobs." He caught her skeptical expression. "Really, it's designed to look like it's going to fall down—that adds to the thrill."

"Some thrill." It looked rickety to her, like a giant tottering treehouse nailed together from scrap lumber by some manic kid.

He laughed. "We've never had any accidents here—wait, that's not true. There was a guy back in '73 who unbuckled the safety belt and climbed out of his seat to ride on the outside of the car."

"What happened to him?"

"I imagine it was a closed-casket funeral. Here we are." He stopped in front of a large gray building with a gabled roof. It looked like one of the colorful Victorian houses she'd glimpsed in the town, but dressed all in gray. Hallie saw cobwebs—ughh, and giant fuzzy spiders—hanging under the eaves. A small track with two-seater cars on it made a half-circle in front of the house, entering through one cobweb-covered opening and exiting on the far side.

Hallie stopped in front of a sign that read "Beware of Ghosts." She raised her eyebrows at Kyle.

Kyle shrugged. "Okay, so it's pretty cheesy." He smiled guilelessly. "I'm sure you could switch to the roller coaster if you'd rather." He handed her the vest and sun visor.

While she put them on, he waved to the employee working there, a young woman with hair an unbelievable burgundy color. She sat filing her nails on a stool at the entrance to the ride. He walked up to her and put out his hand. "Hi there, I'm Kyle Madrigal."

The woman jumped up. "Oh, Mr. Madrigal, oh." The nail file disappeared into a pocket, and she brushed off her vest.

"It's okay," he said. "It's not a surprise inspection. I'm just showing a friend around. This is Hallie Reed, a friend of Windy's—do you know my kid sister Windy?"

"I don't think so. I haven't been here that long." The woman rubbed her hands against her uniform. "I'm really not sure, Mr. Madrigal."

"It's okay. It's not a job requirement." Kyle flashed that trademark smile at the woman, and Hallie could see her visibly relax. "So, Ms.—?"

"Greer. Charlie—I mean Charlotte—Greer."

"Well, Charlie, do you mind if I show Hallie around the ride? She's going to be working with you today."

"Whatever you want, Mr. Madrigal—"

"—Kyle." He flashed the smile again, and Charlie smiled back tentatively.

"Okay, Kyle," Charlie said, sinking back onto her stool.

He sure knew how to turn on the charm. Hallie reminded herself that the charm he showed toward her wasn't any different, and that she needed to stop taking it personally. He was the richest guy in town, and used to the effect he had on people, she was sure.

Kyle put out his hand to Hallie. She put her hands in her pockets and followed him to one of the cars. "This is one of the original rides, so it's kind of lame," he explained. "It's mostly for kids." He put his lips close to her ear. "And for people who like to kiss in the dark...." he murmured.

"Come on. I'll show you," he said loudly.

He sat down in the car.

She stood outside the car with her arms folded.

"Okay, no more jokes," he said when he saw her expression.

She got in and sat next to him.

"Shall I start the ride, Mr. Madrigal—Kyle?" Charlie asked, grinning away at him.

"Sure," he said.

Charlie pushed a couple of buttons on a panel next to her stool. They could hear a faint buzz from somewhere inside. "You always buzz when you start the ride, to let the person working in the back know that a car is coming," Charlie explained.

"Is there somebody in there now?" Hallie asked.

"Oh, no," she said. "It'll just be you and me today. I'm just showing you how it works. Next you press the button to start the ride." Hallie felt the car move.

"Remember seeing King Kong in Tom's office?" Kyle asked as the doorway arched overhead and they were plunged into darkness. "His big brother's coming up, so don't be scared."

"Very funny,
Mister
Madrigal," Hallie said. "Jeez, I'm not a little girl."

She heard him chuckle next to her. "No, you're definitely a grown woman. I'm convinced of that."

King Kong made his grand entrance with a roar, bending the bars of his cage to "almost" reach into the car and grab them, and after that the displays went by rapidly: a medieval dungeon, a creepy axe murderer, aliens exiting a flying saucer and shooting green laser beams at them.

"The best seat in the house is behind that guy," Kyle shouted in her ear over the sound of the space battle. "Behind the little green alien on the left there's a good spot where you can see the whole back half of the ride."

"See? I can't see anything," Hallie yelled back.

"Your eyes adjust to the dark in a few minutes," he explained when they exited the ride and found themselves blinking at the morning light outside. "Then you can see everything. You can actually walk around in there without tripping on anything once you get used to it."

He hopped out as the car came to a stop, and Hallie followed. "I warned you it was really lame," he said. "This is one of the rides we really need to update. Once you spend a shift sitting back there you'll have every scream and axe murder memorized."

"Why does somebody have to sit back there?"

"You just need to make sure the kids stay in their seats and don't get out and start wrecking stuff. The little darlings spray painted the axe murderer with pink hearts last summer. They had to replace the original mannequin with a surfer from another exhibit. He's still wearing his board shorts under that suit they put on him."