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But she’s right.
“Maneuver over, it’s within your reach, and then you’ll have enough footholds to pull yourself up. You can do this, Ter-Ter.”
A quick body scan, and I can tell that, despite my adrenaline shooting through the roof, I’m okay.
I follow her instructions, and moments later, I’m back on the ledge. A few people applaud above.
“We’re going to need a pull-up!” I call to Alli. “The pathway is too eroded to be safe.”
“I’ll set it up with Scotty!”
Ranger continues to bark, so I follow the sound to the spot where the young investor fell. He’s groaning, but at first glance, I can’t see anything serious.
“My knee,” he says. “I twisted it bad on the way down. No way I can put any weight on it. How am I ever going to get back up?”
“We’ll take care of that. Can you sit up on your own?”
His arms are cut up, but he manages to lift himself onto his elbows, a sign that he’s in relatively good shape.
Ranger moves behind him to prop up his back.
“Thank you, dog,” he says. “That helps.”
Alli sends down the hammock, and I know that she’s arranged the pully system with Scotty the way it should be. I’m suddenly so thankful for the weekends we’ve spent together doing the training in the mountains. She didn’t have to come, and she did. More often than she didn’t.
She’s one special girl.
The investor heads up in the hammock, with Ranger tracking up the side of the mountain as far as he can before an overhang to make sure the investor doesn’t bang into the rocks. Alli then sends the rope back down for me, and I climb, with Scotty and Alli helping me up the last few feet. Ranger has already wound his way up the compromised trail and is awaiting my arrival.
“Up you come,” Scotty says as he grabs one of my arms and Alli the other. They heave me up and over. I land on my side, pulling Alli down with me. She throws her arms around me and sobs quietly into my ear.
“I thought you were done. I thought that was it. I thought I was never going to see you again.”
Tears stream down her face, and in this moment there’s only her and me. I don’t know where the investors are. I don’t even care.
I wipe away her tears and feel her breath on my lips just before we kiss.
Alli – Friday
I could have lost him. Forever. That’s what I’m thinking about. Not the fact that his lips are on mine… but they are.
Now I’m thinking about it.
Ter-Ter and Alli-bear… kissing?
It doesn’t feel like a kiss, at least, not any kiss I’ve ever had before in my life. It feels like…
Love.
“Are you okay?” I ask with our lips barely a sliver apart.
“Yes. Are you?”
“I’m fine.”
Someone clears their throat, and we untangle ourselves from the mass we’d become on the ground. But standing up, alone, apart from him, it feels cold. I need to be next to him.
No fewer than eight people are staring at us, and I’ve completely lost the plot. What were we doing before the whole world turned upside down?
