Page 94 of Sully

But, God, I didn’t want to always give in to that panic anymore. Sully had been showing me how many good things are on the other side of that anxiety.

“Between me and you,” Fischer said, leaning a little closer, “your mind can’t tell the difference between fear and excitement. Just tell yourself you’re excited as fuck about it.”

Then, without another word, he made his way toward the ladder that led up under the net.

“You’re a badass who drove out of an active shooter scene,” Sully reminded me. “You got this.”

I really, really didn’t think I did.

But I was going to at least try.

If I had a panic attack and needed to be carried out of there by Fischer, so be it.

The ladder was fine.

Even climbing across the first, thick bridge was alright. It wasn’t until we got to the tire bridge that panic had my belly sloshing around.

Fischer, seeming to sense my hesitation, turned back halfway across the tires, standing there without even holding onto the rope railings.

“If it helps, you might be a small girl, but I’m pretty sure you can’t slip through the tire holes,” he said.

“That’s… not really helping,” I admitted, but a little laugh escaped me anyway.

“So, how’d you meet Sully?” he asked as I pressed a foot toward the first tire, feeling the way it made the whole bridge shift to the side under the weight.

I gripped the ropes until they burned into my palms. “I had a bomb strapped to my chest,” I said, putting more weight onto my foot, then pulling the other over as well. “He disarmed it.”

“Been a happily-ever-after since?” Fischer asked.

The whole bridge swayed hard enough for my belly to keep bottoming out. But when I looked up, I was already standing right in front of Fischer.

“Told you you could do it,” he said before turning and stepping onto the platform. “From here, we go across,” he said, grabbing the handlebar for the zipline. “Remember these from when you were a kid?”

“I don’t recall them being this long,” I admitted. I wasn’t sure I could even see the end. “Where does this go?”

Fischer coaxed me over until my hands grabbed.

“The surprise is half the fun,” he said. Then, as soon as I was holding it hard enough… he shoved me.

I didn’t even recognize the scream that escaped me then.

But the crazy thing was… Fischer was right.

The fear quickly morphed into excitement as the world whirred around me, as my belly kept dropping out as the line zipped faster and faster on the slight descent.

I was smiling by the time it suddenly dropped off, taking a nearly vertical fall that made it impossible to keep holding on.

The fall was inevitable.

As was the scream that escaped me.

But when I landed in the embrace of the thick safety rope, I was grinning up at the sky as my heart hammered in my chest and the blood raced through my veins.

“Badass, I told you,” Sully called from beneath me, making me roll over onto my stomach to look down at him.

“I don’t know if Fallon agreed to this yet,” I called down to him. “But you absolutely have to build this at the clubhouse.”

Fischer helped me back up out of the net, and we finished the course, leaving me feeling exhilarated, accomplished, and so freaking sore that each step back toward the front of the compound felt like a challenge.

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