Page 74 of The Hometown Legend

And his stomach felt a little sour.

Well. It would be ridiculous of him to not use his arms and legs in light of all that.

With three feet left to go, he jumped down to the ground, his boots making satisfying contact with the dirt.

“That was dangerous,” she huffed.

“By the end of the week, you’re going to climb that.”

“Don’t set such lofty goals for me.”

“It’s not a lofty goal. You can do it before you go on your date.”

“You are drinking your bathwater.”

“I’m not.”

“You said yourself, you’re damaged up here.” She tapped her forehead once, then moved her hand away quickly, looking vaguely sheepish, but like she was testing out that level of teasing.

He smiled. “Yeah, but I think you’ll be fine. You can lift weights while you look at some of the other things that I bought.”

“Okay. So what am I going to do for you?”

“Nobody said you had to do anything for me.”

“But I should,” she insisted. “Because if I need help with my list, then you need help with...”

“Did I scowl today?”

She looked at him. “No.”

“You’re helping me.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

SHEWASTHANKFULshe’d had a heavy breakfast because she watched him work until well past one o’clock without stopping for even a snack.

He put in swinging platforms that hung from trees that you could go between like they were stepping stones.

He also fastened climbing handholds to a big board that he mounted to some trees.

There was a balance beam and a few other easy things for kids.

Or at least he claimed they were easy. She doubted she would be able to do any of these things.

Coordination was not her middle name.

But he seemed to think he was going to have her rope climbing by the end of the week.

Well, it would give her something to talk about on her date, anyway.

“Go ahead. Test out the balance beam.”

“No,” she said. “It’s fine. I mean, it’s very low to the ground.”

“Are you insulting my balance beam?”

No.She didn’t want to make a fool of herself on the world’s easiest-looking balance beam.

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