Page 23 of Extreme Romancing in Idaho

“I guess I’ll eat these if you don’t want them.” Selecting the cleanest carrot, I stuck it in my mouth and chomped down.

Mae whinnied and trotted toward me. When she reached me, I dropped the carrots on the ground and raced past her to the stable.

I closed the gate between us. “Ha! I got you.” I pointed my finger at her, but she only flicked one ear toward me while rummaging through the early spring grass for the carrots.

I cleaned the stable in peace and pulled out my list to see what was up next.

The chicken coop. Oh joy. Something I’d always wanted to do.

Chapter 8

Angie

Whathadpossessedmeto stray from my safe, boring life? I clung to the splintering, wooden telephone poll, unwilling to go any further. The green grass wavered beneath me in my tunnel vision, so I squeezed my eyes shut. I’d gotten myself into this.

I never dreamed the day would lead me here. After I woke up from my nap and worked for a half day on the farm, Remi insisted we come here to the ropes course at the community college. My list of things to do this spring season perpetually grew even though I worked hard every day to make it shrink. I didn’t have enough hours in the day to accomplish what I needed to, and yet I’d let Remi convince me to leave the farm and come here, to my worst nightmare.

Heights.

Remi’s idea for helping was to get me to do everything I’d lied about doing in my conversations with Dan. In effect, he was making an honest woman of me. I hated him for it.

Find your happy place, Angie.

I was on Papa’s lap driving the tractor for the first time, riding Mae through the grassy pasture on an imaginary tropical island with the sound of the waves in my ears, not the Idaho wind buffeting them with me suspended more than fifty feet above the ground. I gulped in air and tightened my grip on the metal posts they’d stuck into the side of the pole to use as a ladder.

I’d managed to finish planting the corn field today, tomorrow I’d cut the north hay field, have Remi check the gated pipe while it’d been flooding the peas—

“Angie, the fastest way down is up,” Remi called from underneath me.

“I hate up.” I glared at him from under my borrowed helmet.

He’d reserved the ropes course at the college for the two of us to use this afternoon and evening. We had three hours here, and I’d frozen on my first attempt. All I was supposed to do was climb up this pole, jump, and catch the trapeze bar suspended in the air above me. Remi had made it look easy, climbing without hesitation and leaping to successfully catch the trapeze. This was a child’s playground to him and Mount Everest to me.

“Remember our conversation in the car?” He kept his hands on the rope that supported me. The college kids let him take charge once we’d gotten here. I had no idea why. “The best way to keep up your charade is through experience. But I guess if you want to give up and tell Smoot everything, you can climb back down.”

Steely determination shot through my spine as I straightened and opened my eyes. I knew what he was doing, goading me further into my stubbornness along my path of self-destruction. I glared down at him as I lifted my hand off one peg and moved it to the next one. I followed the motion with my foot, my harness shifting with me every move I made. And the next thing I knew, I was standing on the tip of the wooden post no bigger than a dinner plate.

Waves of paralyzing tingles pulsed from the tips of my toes to my forehead, and with each pass, my body was doused in cold sweat. The whole course, tight wires, and dangling ropes lay before me, looking much more intimidating than it had from the grass. Peaks of rooftops were visible beyond the treetops. A stiff breeze, carrying the scent of grilled meat from the restaurants across the street, caught the rope tethered to my harness and caused the pole to sway. A short scream shot out of me.

“You’re okay. Now, all you have to do is jump.” Remi’s voice carried to me, but I didn’t look at him. The red-headed college kid said something to him; I didn’t hear it with my ears ringing.

“The air is thinner up here.” I gasped. One tip in any direction, and I’d fall.

Would the rope catch me? I could be the exception to the thousands of people who’d done this course safely. How could I trust the college kid had tied the knot properly? Perhaps I had a defective harness. Crazier things had happened.

“Would it help if I counted to three and you jump?” Remi asked.

“You start counting, and I’ll punch you once I find my way down!” I shouted at him.

His laughter floated to me and calmed some of my fear. Shoving my doubts to the back of my mind, I bent my legs and shoved off the pole. For a moment, the thrilling sensation of being weightless caught hold of me. Nothing pulled me down. Nothing could hurt me. Nothing touched me but the gentle caress of the early spring air and the warm rays of the evening sun.

In this one moment, I could do anything, conquer anything, but then gravity found me. My outstretched fingers barely grazed the metal bar before I swung toward the ground. The rope snapped against my harness, jolting my body back into the anxiety which had encased me before the leap.

I clenched my eyelids together and screamed as I swung back and forth, only stopping when my tennis shoes brushed the ground.

“You can open your eyes.” Remi’s voice next to my ear made me throw my eyes open and jolt upright.

My head connected what I guessed was his chin and sent him stumbling backward. I flipped around to face him. Shivers flowed along one side of my body, spilling over me like a warm liquid where his whisper still lingered. I covered my mouth with my gloved hand. “I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t sneak up on me like that.”

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