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“I just don’t want to let you down.”
He leaned forward. “How would this be letting me down, exactly? It’s not like I created the course and your unwillingness to try it is personally insulting me.”
His little joke made her freeze before she chuckled. Nate hardly ever joked, so she needed a moment to bask in the warmth of it whenever he did. “I know that, but…”
“But what? We can find something else to do. Look.” He pointed up to the cargo-net-tunnel thing that was the first deathtrap—er, obstacle—of the course. “Everyone else is already gone. No one will care if you back out.”
That was true. Everyone else really was out of sight. So, why was he being so reassuring, so boyfriend-like when there was no one around to witness it?
“Stella, if you don’t want to do this, fine. If you do, also fine. Either way, I’ll be right there with you no matter what.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Is that so hard to believe?”
Her eyes burned, and not from the seasonal allergies she usually got this time of year. Though, she wished she could have blamed it on that. But honestly, what he’d said took her off guard. He’d really wanted to do this. And he could have done the course on his own. She would have waited for him. But he’d offered to stay with her instead. Something about having thatkind of support was so foreign to her. And for the first time in her overly articulated life, she couldn’t find the words to tell him how much that meant to her. So, she decided to let her actions do the talking.
“Come on,” she said as she grabbed his hand.
“Wait a second.” He stopped, the movement pulling her back closer to him. “What are you doing?”
“I think you mean, ‘What arewedoing?’”
“Stella, you don’t have to do this on my account.”
“I know,” she said, toeing her boot into the soil, leaving a tiny divot. “But you said you’d be there with me no matter what. Did you mean that?”
“You know I did.”
“Then I want you with me…up there.” The last word came out with a squeak the others didn’t have, so she cleared her throat, spread her feet in a power pose, and pointed to thecargo net of death. “There,” she said in a voice at least three octaves lower than her normal tone. So embarrassing, but she needed to psych herself up. Besides, the laugh that rolled from Nate’s chest? It was like she’d ripped the top off a bag of Nestle semi-sweet morsels and poured the whole thing in her mouth.
“Alright, then,” he said, tucking her under his arm. It felt so good she wondered if they could do the whole course like this.
When they got up to the stand, a man gave them helmets and put them each in a harness. The atomic wedgie she got was uncomfortable, but she didn’t complain—the bigger the wedgie, the better the protection, right?
“Okay, who’s first?” the man asked.
“I’ll go,” she blurted because the sooner she started, the sooner this would all be over, and she would be back on solid ground. She was just about to step out onto the rope when he grabbed her wrist.
“I’m here with you, Stella. Just remember that.”
Oh, there were a lot of things she was going to remember. The warmth of his hand on her skin and the softness of his thumb as it moved back and forth. His espresso-brown eyes, steadying her in a moment when she felt like a ship tossed around in the sea. These were all things she’d tuck in her memory box, ready for whenever she needed to think about something pleasant. Like now, when death stared her in the face across a wobbly rope course.
Before she could think twice about it, she stepped out onto the rope, her insides swooping and sloshing. “Don’t look down,” she mumbled to herself as she inched her way across. “And, bran muffin, please don’t come up.”
It took her about ten years to make it about halfway to the next stand. But she was there. And then she froze. Something about being between the two safe stops left her feeling a little woozy, until she heard clapping from behind her.
“You’re doing great, Stella!” Nate shouted over the sound of blood whooshing through her ears. He believed in her, which was the tiny boost she apparently needed to believe in herself a little. She was not going to choke on this rope.
She turned to face Nate, who inched his way across the rope like he’d done this a thousand times before. The Oglebay Park marketing team was missing a golden opportunity. Forget the Goldfish ad.Thiswas the money shot. A commercial with Nate gliding through the course with the grace of a gazelle and the muscles of a Norse god would have people lining up for miles. Though, probably just to watch him, not take part in the course itself. But who would have blamed them? This was quite a show.
“I’ll be there in a sec,” he said, snapping her from the trance his athletic prowess had put her under. He was probably rushing because he knew she was afraid of heights, and he wanted to get to her on the podium as quickly as possible. Little did he know, she hadn’t thought about falling to her death ever since hestepped onto the rope and began his audition forMagic Mike:Wilderness Edition. Not that he was half naked or anything. Though, his shirt had left little to the imagination where his upper body was concerned.
“Made it,” he said with a grunt as he stepped onto the small pedestal.
“That was impressive,” she said, watching the rise and fall of his chest, a sign he’d just exerted himself on the course. So then why was hers doing the same? Probably panic from the whole situation. She was in the clouds, after all.
The clouds.
