Page 58 of Loud Unspoken Memories

“It’s nice to know you haven’t stopped eating your Wheaties. What do you weigh, three hundred pounds?”

Laughter bellows out of him. “One-ninety. But that still makes you a hero in my book. Now, come on. Let’s get you to solid ground.”

We climb down slowly, him staying behind me, caging me against the ladder with his body. I’m terrified, but at the same time, I’ve never felt so secure.

“Ten more feet,” he says. “Almost there.”

I feel myself start to fall apart with relief.

When his body moves away and he’s no longer surrounding me, I know we’ve reached the ground. As I go to step off the last rung, my head swirls in circles, my ears ring, and finally, I fall. I fall right into blackness.

Chapter Twenty-five

Dallas

I catch her and fall to the ground, bundling her in my arms, still in awe of what we just accomplished. Whatsheaccomplished.

Throwing my right glove off, I touch her cheek. It’s cold and wet with tears. Hair sticking out from under her wool cap is stuck to the side of her face. I swipe it away then rub my thumb across her lips.

“Marti?”

Her eyes flutter open as if waking from a dream.

“You’re okay,” I say “We did it.Youdid it.”

She blinks repeatedly, looking around. “What happened?”

Bex wags his tail and licks her face. He must like the salty taste of her tears. I push him back. “Easy, boy. Give her some room.” Marti makes no attempt to extricate herself from my arms, and I’m not in a hurry for her to leave them. “You fainted. My guess is, you had a ton of adrenaline going through you, but once we reached the ground, you let it go and succumbed to the fear.”

Her lips press together, and she cranes her neck to look at the tower. “What if that had happened up there?”

“It didn’t. You did exactly what you needed to.” I lean down. “Thanks for that,” I say, right before I kiss her.

Her lips are salty and sweet, but before I can really enjoy them, she surprises me by pushing away.

“What in the hell were you thinking?” Her eyes flood with tears. “What if you were alone out here?” She hits my chest over and over. “You can’t take risks like that. Dallas, oh my god, ifyou’d gotten stuck up there.” She hits me a few more times, then fists my coat, draws near and sobs into me.

I wrap my arms tightly around her and let her emotions play out. It’s only now that it sinks in what a colossal risk she took climbing the tower without any safety gear.

“I’m so sorry,” I say quietly and close to her ear. “I shouldn’t have made you do that. It was an idiotic idea. I should have told you to go back to my place and call for help.”

She looks up at me with red-rimmed eyes. “And leave you hanging upside down? You’d have passed out, or worse. Your face was already red. What if no one could get here? Or what if the cell signal still wasn’t working? What then? Ihadto do it.” She glances up again. I do too. The tower looks extra tall when you’re sitting at the base of it. “Holy shit, I can’t believe I did that.”

“You’re a badass, Martina Carver.” I narrow my eyes. “What’s your middle name?”

She hesitates, almost uneasily. “Why?”

I shrug. “I just thought the badass statement deserved the addition of a middle name.”

“It’s Alexandra,” she says with an almost imperceptible hitch.

“No shit?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Alexandra is my sister’s name. We call her Allie.”

“You have a sister?” She squints at me.

---