Page 35 of Memories with Fire

Her eyes meet mine, wide with surprise at my language, but it’s short lived before she nods and focuses on the task at hand. One step, two, and then she’s onto the next plank. Which is actually more log than plank, given its round shape.

I want to throw my fist in the air and let out another ‘whoop’ of pride, but I rein it in, not wanting to jinx her bravery as she maneuvers herself across the swinging logs.

“Atta girl, you’re doing great,” I call out as she keeps moving without any trouble.

This woman. The absolute determination in her as she carries herself from log to log, fills me with a pride I haven’t felt in years. Watching her conquer fears and take on challenges she never thought possible for herself made me feel alive ten years ago. Watching her thrive gave me a rush I could never replicate. And since then, I’ve done everything I possibly could to get the feeling back. Jumping out of planes, bungee jumping, rock climbing, surfing—anything to give me something that would come close to the feeling she gave me. Nothing worked.

Until this moment.

Whatever it is, because it can’t be adrenaline, it’s rushing through my veins now, for the first time since I left Santa Rosé all those years ago. It feeds a part of my soul that has felt empty for too long, giving me a piece of myself back.

And the closer she gets to the end, the more intense the feeling becomes, until it feels like I’m going to burst out of my whole body when she finally reaches the last log. When she jumps onto the platform and turns back to look at me, triumph sparkles in her eyes. Admiration radiates back to her from mine.

I waste no time hauling myself up onto the log closest to me, this time moving over the beams as quickly as I can, without the fear of scaring Hailey. When I reach her, she’s glowing.

“You swore,” she says, sounding astonished.

The accusation is so unexpected, I throw my head back and laugh, the sound hearty and full. “Yeah, well, sometimes the situation calls for it.”

Hailey grins at me, then looks over my shoulder at what she just accomplished. She’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen as she shines, her cheeks bright pink. “I did it.”

“You did. And no one can ever take that away from you.”

When she looks at me again, tears sparkle in her eyes. “I would have regretted not finishing it.”

I chuckle, patting her on the helmet before I sling an arm around her shoulder, turning her towards the one last thing she needs to accomplish to complete the whole course. “We’re not done yet. But this is the fun part. All you have to do is sit back in your harness and enjoy the ride down.”

Hailey looks at the zipline. “Solid ground? Yes, please. I might not even scream.”

“Oh, you’re going to scream,” I tell her with a laugh, reaching up to unclip her first line, clipping it to cable for the zipline. Once that clip is secure, I do her second one. “I’d bet on it.”

“Wait, I’m going first?” she asks, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “You’ve done everything first.”

I’ve touched her so many times up here in the trees. Taken liberties I probably shouldn’t have. Wouldn’t have if we’d been on the ground this whole time. My fingers itch to reach up and run my thumb along the delicate skin of her cheek, along that line of freckles. It’s probably my last chance to do so, knowing that up here in the trees has been like a different world, and back on the ground we go back to being…two people who spent a really phenomenal summer together a long time ago.

We’ve formed some sort of tentative bond up here, but I’m well aware how fragile it is. How easily it could be broken. We need to move forward, not backwards. I can’t live in the past, even if I want to. I can’t keep bringing things up or thinking that I know her now.

“I would never leave you up here alone, Freckles,” I say, allowing myself to use her nickname one last time since I won’t allow myself to touch her. “Besides, you’ve got friends down there waiting for you. No one is down there waiting for me.”

She looks down to the ground where Nate, Liam, Quinn, Brody, and Shawn all stand, waiting for us to come down. We might have been on the easiest course, but it took us the longest to get here. And I wouldn’t have changed a second of it, including the way tears again fill her eyes because all her friends are witnessing her conquer this moment.

“You’re right about a lot of things, Luke, but you’re wrong about one,” she says, bringing her attention back to me. “I’ll be down there waiting for you.”

Then she’s gone. She uses me to push herself off the platform, practically jumping into the air where her harness and the cable catch her, and then she’s soaring through the air towards the ground.

She screams all the way down.

I can’t tear my eyes away from her, my breath caught in my chest. The same feeling that filled me as she crossed the last obstacle is back, though it never fully vanished, only diminished. It runs into me like a freight train, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love it. That I didn’t want more of it. That I didn’t need it like a drug.

And though I need to leave the past up here on this platform, the second Hailey is free from the zipline at the bottom, I’m chasing the feeling all the way down.

The feeling that is Hailey.

CHAPTER 12

HAILEY

It’s beenover two weeks and I’m still feeling the effects of Tree Toppers. Not that I’ve gone on to do any death defying stunts, but there’s a pep in my step that wasn’t there before. It’s more than the confidence I gained by defeating the course, it’s like I discarded shackles and chains that were wound so tightly around me, I thought they were a part of me. I move more easily, I breathe lighter, and somehow, things don’t feel so scary.

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