Page 33 of Memories with Fire

I step onto the platform, releasing his hands to stand on my own two feet, holding onto nothing. With a deep breath, I switch clips and cables, officially conquering the first obstacle, even if it took goading from him.

I need to hate him. I have to. Keeping my heart safe needs to be number one.

But as I glance back to find him stepping onto the platform, I see the pride in his eyes.

Dangerous, dangerous territory.

CHAPTER 11

LUKE

A blood-curdling screamfills the air, goosebumps popping up on the flesh of my forearms, all the way up my arms, to the back of my neck. My stomach bottoms out, and I lurch forward, nearly leaping off the platform in an effort to reach Hailey, who just slipped halfway across the last obstacle.

She’s in no danger, but that doesn’t stop me from having to swallow her name before I yell it out, a surge of fear clanging through my gut. I know the harness will keep her safe, but the scream might do me in for life.

“You’re okay,” I call out in my calmest voice, taking a breath of my own.

Okay is relative at this point as she holds onto the safety line connecting her harness to the cable above. Even from here I can see the panic on her face, her eyes squeezed shut, shoulders curling in on themselves. The screaming has stopped, but I can practically hear her thoughts racing through a number of scenarios. Most of them probably ending with her death.

It’s been ten seconds since she fell, and quickly I clamber back towards her. This obstacle was the hardest of this course, and she was hesitant to do it, but after I showed her twice how to get across, she nodded and readied herself to try. Swinging planks hang in the air by two cables on either end, with no railing to hold onto. The idea is to move from one end of the plank to the other, and then step across to the next plank while it swings in the air. It was the first challenge that was both unsteady and lacking something firm to hold onto the entire way across.

“Luke,” she squeaks. If the terror wasn’t clear in her voice, it would be from the white of her knuckles as she grips the rope suspending her.

“I’m coming, Hailey. You’re okay,” I tell her, three planks across, two more to go before I reach her. Slow and steady. The last thing I want to do is freak her out further by slipping off as well.

“Everything good?” someone from down below calls.

Hailey is quick to yell, “No!”

I, on the other hand, nod at Nate. “We’re good.”

“No, we are not!” she screeches at me, and when I look back in her direction, she’s stiffened even more from where she hangs. She’s going to be sore as heck tomorrow.

Reaching the plank she slipped from, it’s clear how scared she is. Her chest rises and falls too quickly for her to be getting any good oxygen into her bloodstream, and her entire face is scrunched in an effort to keep her eyes closed.

“Open your eyes, Hailey.”

Vehemently, she shakes her head at me.

“I know you’re scared, but you’re safe. I promise. You can do this,” I say gently. With her eyes closed, I’m assessing exactly how to get her back on the plank once I get her to calm down. And how exactly I’m going to get her to calm down. “You’re brave. Nothing is going to happen to you. Remember, I checked your harness myself. You can trust it.”

“I can’t. I can’t do this,” she whispers, her voice trembling. “You know this is how my dad died. You know he fell. I can’t. I can’t do this.”

I’ve been so focused on her, and helping her through the course, that the thought of her father slipped my mind. There’s no way it would leave hers, though.

Taking a deep breath, I let it out quietly, easing myself off the plank to hang by my harness alongside Hailey. Not wanting to jostle the line too much and freak her out, I go slow. It has the desired effect when one of her eyes cracks open to see what’s going on, but then it’s closed tight again, and her body tenses as she grips the line harder.

“You can do this. You are doing it,” I whisper to her, reaching a hand out to run a finger from her knuckle up the length of her arm. “The harness has you. You’re trusting it.”

“I have no choice!”

Biting back a smile, I grip her elbow, now that she knows it’s me, and pull her towards me until she’s close enough I can wrap my legs around her, locking them beneath her butt. My arms come around her, gathering her close, and she doesn’t fight at all, even after I give her plenty of time to do so. Instead, she clutches my jacket, her helmet covered head pressing into my shoulder as her face comes in contact with my neck.

“You always have a choice,” I remind her, trying not to enjoy the warmth of her breath against my skin. “You could be kicking and screaming and clawing at the harness in a total panic, but instead you’re just chillin’ in a little panic.”

She snarls at me, “You’re not funny.”

“I’m a little funny.” This time I don’t hold my chuckle back. “Now tell me what you feel.”

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